Xilin Gol Station for Scientific Monitoring and Experiment on Rangeland Pests, China MOA
Xilin Gol Station for Scientific Monitoring and Experiment on Rangeland Pests, China MOA, known also as Station of Pest Investigation in Rangeland, Ministry of Agriculture, locates at the west suburb of Xilin Gol City, Inner Mongolia. The Station is about 6 km to the city and 7 km to the airport.
The area of the Station is about 40 ha. There are 240 m2 laboratories, 142 m2 farm machinery storage, 160 m2 meeting room, 2000 m2 lodging house for experts (50 rooms) and 300 m2 accessory quarters for research and living at the Station. Other facilities include more than 50 sets of routine experimental equipment, a set of automatic meteorological monitoring station, 15 sets of agricultural implement, 8 sets of training equipment. Optical network, TV, telephone, security monitoring equipment, etc., are also installed. The Station can provide lodging and board for more than 50 experts and 30 students simultaneously. At present, there are 15 resident scientists and more than 20 floating scientists working at the Station.
Regional representativeness
Xilin Gol Station for Scientific Monitoring and Experiment on Rangeland Pests locates in the typical northern rangeland in China. The occurrence of important insect pests, such as locusts, caterpillars, beetles, Loxostege sticticalis L, etc., is serious. The outcomes of researches can radiate to Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Hebei, Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang so that the results can be extended in wide geological regions and used as guidance to monitoring and warning and sustainable management of biological disasters in northern rangeland in China.
Function and effect
The Station orientates for long-term monitoring of rangeland pests and the control strategy, provides field experiment and research platform for pests control and related areas in agricultural and animal husbandry, gathers systematically long-term original basic data and establishes comprehensive database, including pest monitoring, weather, geographical information, etc., that adapts to the sustainable development of agricultural and animal husbandry in China. The Station will be established into a comprehensive base of experiment and demonstration that combines scientific research, achievement transformation and extension, technical service and training and public awareness and information dissemination. The outcome of the Station will provide macroscopical decision-making basis for the rangeland pest control and the sustainable utilization of rangeland in China.
Research Direction and the focuses
Research direction: The monitoring and warning of rangeland pests including rodents, insect pests, toxic weeds and pasture diseases and the control techniques.
Research focuses: Network monitoring of pests and intelligent decision support system; Mechanisms of causing disasters by pests; Systematic control and management technology for disasters and monitoring of pesticide resistance; Techniques for studying the spread routes of invasive alien species and the tracing and monitoring.
Operational mechanism
The Station implements the operational mechanism of Being Open, being United, circulating and competing and is open to all over the country. Related scientists from different places can use the facilities and equipment of the Station to carry out scientific research.
Goal of the Station
To build the Station into one with advanced techniques andspecific management, a top Station in China and connections with international institutions. The Station will become an IPM institution of rangeland pests that integrates investigation and monitoring, development of technology, academic exchange and training.
Achievement
Rodents: The physiological regulation mechanism of the outbreak of rangeland rodents by analyzing the impacts of mammal social behavior on population reproduction, the physiological immune mechanism of environmental factors that influence the fluctuation of population size and the action and mechanism of energy metallization and the balance in strategy of population reproduction. By combining the knowledge of ecology, physiology, genetics and epigenetics, we have gained considerable progress in the molecular regulation mechanism of the reproductive cycle of rangeland rodents and the synchronism of environmental factors. These results demonstrate the potential to expound the occurrence cycle of rangeland rodents and the forecasting.
Insect pests: We have clarified what are the main species of the insect pests and their distribution in typical rangeland in Inner Mongolia. The favorable area model for dominant species of locust was established and the areas zoned. The studied topics include the biological characteristics (feeding characteristics), the occurrence, the population structure and the dynamics and the impact of environmental factors (rainfalls, plantation, etc.) on rangeland locust populations. The migration route of Oedaleus asiaticus was clarified. The monitoring and warning and risk assessment models were established for main insect pests. Arepository for Metarrhizium spp. was established and different formulations, such as Metarrhizium oil miscible liquid, wettable powder and bait, were developed for control of rangeland locusts. Such, it forms a Metarrhizium based technical system for sustainable management of rangeland locusts.
At present, the scientists in the Station have published more than 50papers on rangeland plant protection, applied and/or obtained more than 20 patents, obtained 5 awardsfrom different authorities, got 1 appraisement for an achievement and obtained registration for 3 pesticide formulations. More than 1,000 technicians working in the areas of rangeland plant protection and herdsmen have been trained. The demonstrated and extended acreage of biological control was over 300,000 ha. The direct economic loss saved was over RMB 45,000,000.
Director of Station: Dr. Zhang Zehua
Tel.: 8610-82109585
Email:zhzhang@ippcaas.cn; lgbcc@263.net
