Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region has experienced a sustained warming and wetting trend over the past three decades, contributing to the expansion of lakes, wetlands and oases, according to findings from the region's third comprehensive scientific expedition.

The five-year expedition, launched in 2021, also identified 33 new species, recorded 130 species for the first time in China and confirmed substantial oil-rich coal resources in the Turpan-Hami Basin, the expedition's work group announced in Urumqi on Saturday.

Water resources were a key focus of the expedition in Xinjiang, an arid region far from the sea. The region is home to 24,202 glaciers covering a combined area of 23,629.28 square kilometers, with an estimated total volume of 1,608.94 cubic km.

Over the past three decades, average annual river runoff in Xinjiang has increased by about 10 billion cubic meters compared with the preceding 40 years. Lakes and wetlands have expanded by about one-third, while the region's oasis area has grown by 45,500 sq km. Meanwhile, areas at high risk of wind and sand disasters have shrunk by about 30 percent.

The expedition's findings indicate that water inflows from mountainous areas are likely to remain high, despite fluctuations, and continue trending upward over the next 20 to 40 years. Researchers cautioned, however, that rising temperatures could increase drought risks and the frequency of extreme heat and precipitation events, underscoring the need for stronger risk management.

The expedition also suggested that the current landscape of the Taklimakan Desert took shape about 300,000 years ago, roughly 400,000 years later than previously estimated.

Biodiversity was another major area of research. Xinjiang is home to 4,828 species of higher plants and 810 vertebrate species. Researchers identified six new plant species, 11 new animal species and 16 new microbial species. They also recorded 243 species new to Xinjiang, including 130 recorded in China for the first time.

In addition, researchers identified more than 300 elite genes associated with stress resistance, including those conferring drought and salt tolerance and disease resistance.

One notable finding concerns the desert moss Syntrichia caninervis, which is found in China's Gurbantunggut and Tengger deserts and the Mojave Desert in the United States. The moss can rapidly recover its photosynthetic and physiological activities after rehydration, even after losing 98 percent of its cellular water content.

It can also withstand temperatures as low as minus 196 C and resist gamma radiation, indicating its potential as a pioneer organism for extraterrestrial colonization, including on Mars. The finding was published in the academic journal The Innovation in July 2024.

The expedition also identified a nearly 1,000-km-long selenium-rich soil belt along the northern edge of the Tarim Basin, covering about 1.47 million hectares, along with 315 species of salt-tolerant plants across Xinjiang. They offer potential for the development of specialty agriculture.

In energy resources, the expedition confirmed proven oil-rich coal reserves of 77.5 billion metric tons in the Turpan-Hami Basin. The coal has an average tar yield of 12 percent. Processing 100 million tons of oil-rich coal is estimated to produce the equivalent of 34.5 million tons of oil and gas.

Beyond Xinjiang, the expedition examined the region's ecological links with Central Asia, where shared river systems and mountain ranges connect habitats across national borders.

The Tarim, Ili and Irtysh rivers, together with the Pamirs and the Tianshan and Altai mountains, form interconnected ecological systems spanning Xinjiang and Central Asia.

"To truly understand and protect Xinjiang's ecology, we must examine it from a holistic perspective," said Zhang Yuanming, deputy head of the expedition's work group and director of the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Zhang stressed the importance of cooperation with Central Asian counterparts. Habitat quality in the Chinese sections of the Ili and Irtysh river basins has remained stable, while conditions outside China have improved overall, he said.

The rising water level of Lake Balkhash in Kazakhstan also suggests that water resource use in the upstream sections of transboundary rivers has not adversely affected water resources, ecosystems and biodiversity downstream, Zhang said.

To support cross-border research, the expedition digitized and reorganized nearly 1.33 million plant specimens held in collections in Xinjiang and Central Asia. Researchers also investigated the distribution of wild apple populations across the Tianshan Mountains and studied flagship species in the Pamirs. The findings have helped inform plans for cross-border ecosystem conservation.

The team also participated in compiling a glacier atlas of Tajikistan, identifying 12,325 glaciers covering nearly 8,000 sq km. In Uzbekistan's Aral Sea Basin, researchers advanced China's approaches to saline-alkali land management and water-saving agricultural technologies.

Despite these advances, cross-border ecological governance faces challenges, said Xiao Wenjiao, director of the expedition's work group and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Diseases and pests, including locusts, can spread across national borders, while border fences can impede wildlife migration and gene flow, Xiao said. Cooperation is also complicated by restrictions on sensitive data and differences in conservation responsibilities and standards among countries.

"We need to balance data sharing with ecological security, adhering to a multinational joint framework, tiered and categorized data sharing and desensitizing data," Xiao said, calling for joint laboratories, scientific expeditions and collaborative conservation programs.

Initiated by the Ministry of Science and Technology in 2021, the expedition involved 46 academic institutions nationwide and deployed more than 6,400 person-times for field surveys across the Tarim, Ili and Irtysh river basins, the Turpan-Hami Basin and the northern slope economic belt of the Tianshan Mountains.

It was the third major scientific expedition to Xinjiang. The first, conducted from 1956 to 1960, assessed the region's natural resources, while the second, carried out in the late 1980s, laid the groundwork for resource development and the optimization of production layouts.

Zhang said significant ecological and environmental changes over the past three decades had made it increasingly urgent to reassess the capacity of natural resources and ecosystems to support economic and social development. (ChinaDaily)