Puding Karst Ecosystem Research Station - China

The Puding Karst Ecosystem Research Station (PUKERS) is located in Shawan (262207N, 1054506E, 1158 m), which is 5 km north of Puding City in central Guizhou Province, southwestern China. The main station has an area of 11.2 ha. Laboratories, offices, accommodations, and meeting rooms occupy ca. 3000 m2. The PUKERS, as one of the only two monitoring and research stations of karst ecosystems of CERN, generally aims to provide long-term, permanent monitoring and investigation of karst ecosystems in 3D and comprehensive approaches. A technical standard of ecosystem monitoring for karst landscape will then be established. The structure, functions, patterns, and processes of karst ecosystems on the Guizhou Plateau will be revealed by long-term monitoring and control experiments of the material cycles and energy flows at different spatial and temple scales and under various perturbations by human activities. The mechanism of self-maintenance and its key driving forces of karst ecosystems under global change and human disturbances will be explored. Such research will be used to predict the successional trend, to establish the optimal management model, and to enhance ecological function of karst ecosystems. The karst biogeochemical cycles (long-term), the ecological restoration of rocky desertification land (short-term), and the dynamics of the karst carbon cycle and its management (short-term) are the three key research tasks based on long-term and short-term goals. 1. Karst biogeochemical cycles 2. Ecological restoration of rocky desertification land 3. Dynamics of karst carbon cycle and its management The monitoring network of the station is mainly set in the Houzhai River Watershed, a karst peak-depression landform in the central Guizhou Plateau with a total area of 82 km2: one primary site at Tianlongshan (evergreen and deciduous broadleaved mixed forest permanent plot) and four subsidiary sites (six human-disturbed plots at Chenqi, a clear cutting plot at Zhaojiatian, and an abandoned crop plot at Shawan). Another demonstration site is built in the Gaoyang River Watershed: one subsidiary site with nine vegetation restoration plots at Chenjiazhai. Various investigation plots and sites are widely distributed in these two watersheds and in other regions of the Guizhou Plateau.