Status And Causes Of Wetland Degradation Of Maqu County In Upriver Of The Yellow River And Its Protection Countermeasures

Wetland is praised as"kidney of the earth"and regarded as one of three main ecosystems,besides forest and ocean on the earth. Apart from offering human being food, materials and water resources, wetland has important environment regulating function and irreplaceable effects on maintaining regional ecological balance, conserving biodiversity and precious species, etc. Based on years of research and combined with local conditions in Maqu county, this thesis mainly expounded the functions, status, damages and causes of wetland degradation of Maqu county in the upriver of the Yellow River. The damages of wetland degradation in Maqu county mainly include rapidly decreasing of water conservation function, aggravating of soil erosion, sharply reducing of biodiversity, largely degrading of grassland, declining of climate regulating function, reducing the purifying function of environment pollution and increasing of ecological refugee. The causes of wetland degradation are double effects of natural factors and human activities factors. The natural factors mainly include climate warming, precipitation reducing, groundwater level declining and geological structure of soil; the human activities mainly include overgrazing, excessively digging, frequently occurring of rats and pests disaster and increasingly enlarging of grassland desertification area. Compared the two factors, the human activities factors are primary cause of degradation. In the light of the causes above, the thesis presented the protection countermeasures of Maqu wetland including raising the environment protecting consciousness of local people, reinforcing lawmaking of wetland, perfecting wetland policy and law, increasing financing investment, enhancing wetland science and technology research and application, developing wetland ecological tourism resources, truly fulfilling grassland contract system and strictly controlling grazing intensity. According to all the above, this thesis provided essential information for protection of wetland in Maqu county.