CAS scientists launch expedition to Amazon River
Chinese scientists left north China's Tianjin port city Monday for a month-long expedition in the Amazon River valley's tropical rainforest. This is the first time for Chinese scientists to thoroughly research the river valley, said Tao Baoxiang, team leader and senior engineer of the CAS Institute of Geographic Science and Natural Resources Research.
The team has 19 members, most come from CAS institutes focusing on animal research, hydrophilic biology and tropic plants.
The research team will spend eight days in each of the upper, middle and lower reaches of the river, and research projects will include the ecological environment, biological diversity and life of indigenous inhabitants, Tao said. They will also do a comparative study with the tropical forest in Xishuangbanna in southwest China's Yunnan Province.
"It has been my long-aspired dream," said Chen Guangwei, a teammember, "Amazon is a treasure of all humanity and to protect it from deteriorating needs more knowledge on it."
Chen's projects include research on geology, weather and natural energy.
Amazon, one of the world's longest rivers, has a valley area of5.8 million kilometers.(July 26 Xinhuanet)
