Sustainable agricultural paradigm of mountain-oasis-ecotone-desert system in Inland Manasi River Basin, Xinjiang province, Northwest China

Abstract

Manasi River basin is located in the north foot of Tianshan Mountain, south edge of Zhunger Basin, central-north Xinjiang province, with typical arid features of northern China. As the pressure on water resources in Manasi river basin is mounting because of rapid economic development, its conservation becomes ever more important. Climate change is another major threat to the future of water resources of Manasi river basin. How the water resource changes in Manasi river basin caused by glacial ablation, will affect the typical mountain-basin terrestrial ecosystems and agricultural production in Manasi river basin? What can we cope with the ecological issues caused by glacial ablation? In this paper we show how the water-saving stratagem such as constructing reservoir in the mountainous region, building water pipes and generalizing water-saving technology in upper, middle and lower reaches can be used in combination with the potential of water-saving resources, and build up sustainable agricultural paradigm of mountain-oasis-ecotone-desert system to coping with the glacier retreat and ablation. The potential of water-saving in study area were calculated which presumed that if mountainous reservoirs and water pipes were built and water-saving technology were adopted, 3.46×108m3 irrigating water could be saved one year in these oases. The optimized eco-productive paradigm for mountain-basin system in Manasi river basin is proposed in desertification controlling, constructing artificial grassland in the oasis is the measure to protect vegetation in the downstream desert in Manasi river basin, and stopping grazing or forbidding grazing in the downstream of serious degradation in Manasi river basin. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.