Yala Shampo Cryosphere Hydrological and Ecological Observation Station

Yalashampo Cryosphere Hydro-Ecological Observatory is located in Yadui Township,Naidong District, Shannan City, Tibet. It is located at the source of theYalong River with geographic coordinates of N28°55'31" and E91°53'53". The Yalong River originates from the Yala Shampo Snow Mountainon the northern slope of the Himalayas, with modern glaciers widely developed,and is an important source of recharge for the middle reaches of the YarlungTsangpo River. The highest point is Yala shampo Snow Mountain, altitude of6635m, which belongs to the northern Himalaya's remaining branch, mostly forthe role of snow and ice of high mountains, summer ice area of about 10.1square kilometers, is a permanent snow glacier. In the area above 5000m abovesea level, there is sparse vegetation on the rock debris slope, which iscomposed of Phoenix hair chrysanthemum and Rhodiola; at about 4,500~5,000maltitude, there are small tarragon grass and round spike polygonum, pearl budpolygonum meadow, but the cover is low, generally 50-60%, the meadow layer isabout 10cm thick, the grass production is low.

Equippedwith several sets of ecological environment monitoring equipment, the Yalashampo Cryosphere HydroEcological Observatory can work with other nodes of theecological monitoring network of the autonomous region to complete multi dimensional ecological monitoring in the Tibet Autonomous Region, withmonitoring indexes including grass ecology, runoff, glacial permafrost hydroecology, etc. It can provide data and technical support for thescientific management of the ecological environment and the construction ofecological security barriers in the autonomous region. It can carry outall-round monitoring of the atmosphere, water environment, hydrology,ecological soil, changes in geological conditions, and meteorology, includingmulti-scale and all-round monitoring of temperature, precipitation, radiation,relative humidity, wind direction and speed, soil temperature, soil moisture,freeze changes, soil respiration, greenhouse gas emissions, and river runoff,etc.