The deeper you go into Maduo County, the more serious the desertification phenomenon is.

Shen Qi saw large and small sand pits, which were dry lakes.

"In the 60s, there were more than 4,000 lakes in Mado County, and today only a quarter remains. The fish are gone, the grass is gone, the gold has been snatched away, and all that remains are vast expanses of desert, ecological refugees, and national-level impoverished counties. "Shen Qi is very sad, human beings take resources from nature without restraint, and in the end it is human beings themselves who are punished.

"Not really. The driver sighed, and he showed regret: "Professor Shen, you see, the big pit on the left used to be a lake, the lake water is crystal clear, and a small net can catch more than 100 catties of fish." Naked carp is a special product of the source of the Yellow River, this kind of fish grows slowly, and a seven or eight catties of Yellow River naked carp will grow for more than ten or twenty years. Now there are almost no naked carp in the wild, and the ecological damage is too serious. ”

"Once the ecology of the headwaters of the Yellow River is out of balance, the damage to the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River will be even deeper. Shen Qi took a picture of the devastated desert and said, "Master Zhang, stop, I'll take a sample." ”

The car is parked on the side of the road, and there are no traffic police here and you can't see passing vehicles, so you don't have to worry too much about illegal parking or anything.

Shen Qi got out of the car to take samples, and the two graduate students helped.

Two graduate students from the School of Literature and History and the School of Physics of Yan University, one liberal arts and one science, volunteered to come to the western part of the motherland and became volunteer teachers.

Shen Qi used a portable microwave radiometer and a wind profile detector to detect and collect the temperature and humidity of this area, as well as the direction of the wind and the direction of the weft wind.

Two graduate students took soil and vegetation samples and packed them into sealed bags.

"Xiao Gan, Xiao Meng, you haven't arrived in Maduo County yet, you still have time to change your mind. Shen Qi said to the two graduate student volunteers.

"I've come here, and I didn't want to be a deserter. "Liberal arts student Xiao Gan is determined.

"Jinshan Yinshan is not as good as lucid waters and green mountains, and the vast world has a lot to do. Xiao Meng, a science student, expressed his strong determination to contribute to the construction of the western region.

These two graduate students consciously volunteered to teach, and used what they learned to do what they could in the places where the motherland needed them most.

Shen Qi nodded and said, "Okay, during the teaching period, if you encounter any problems or obstacles, you two can contact me directly." ”

In this era of entertainment to death and material supremacy, there are many outstanding young people who want to go to developed and developed countries, and intellectual young people who volunteer to come to poor areas are particularly valuable.

"That bush should be a spiny legume, Xiaomeng, sampling. Shen Qi pointed not far away.

“OK。 "Xiao Meng's major is astronomy, and sampling vegetation is not difficult for him.

Due to overgrazing, disorderly gold mining and Cordyceps mining, as well as natural factors such as global warming, large amounts of vegetation have been destroyed in this area, and grasslands have been severely degraded.

Man-made disasters and natural disasters have caused more than half of the county's land area to be covered by desert gravel land and bare land without vegetation in Maduo County.

As far as the eye can see, the earthy yellow of the desert is the main color of this once rich land.

The desert is dotted with green grass, and the average height of the grass does not exceed 5 cm.

In addition, the grass is mixed with spiny bean poisonous weeds, and it can be clearly judged that there is no way to graze here, no valuable human production activities can be carried out here, and the desolation is still spreading, and this place is no longer suitable for human survival.

Xiao Meng was collecting thorny legumes when an animal suddenly popped out of the burrow under the plant.

", there's an ambush!" Xiao Meng, who was caught off guard, was startled and almost handed over a flash.

The squatting grass is spherical in shape, a little smaller than a rabbit and a little larger than a vole.

The yin has no tail and has a pair of small ears that look like both rabbits and mice.

The animal stood upright on its feet, its eyes were spinning, and it didn't seem to have any offensive power, but it was a little cute.

After Shen Qi received the signal that his teammates were ambushed, he quickly supported Xiao Meng and captured the cute animal alive.

"Squeak!" the critters finally reacted, the bipedal humanoids that had intruded into their territory wanted to do something!

Shen Qi stunned the small animal with a punch and dislocated it to death.

"There is control and explosion, Professor Shen is so skilled!" Xiao Meng witnessed Professor Shen's amazing combat power, he looked at the little animal that had been executed and asked, "Is this guy a rabbit or a mouse?"

"This is a pika, a creature that is relatively close to rabbits, and it is active at high altitudes. Shen Qi samples pikas for scientific research purposes.

"Pikas aren't protected animals, are they?" asked Xiao Meng.

"This cute little animal is a pest in this area. Shen Qi looked around and saw that there were many caves in the land: "You see, those holes are all pika's burrows, they eat grass, cut grass roots, and have super reproductive ability, which has caused the already severely degraded grassland to make matters worse." The natural enemies of pikas are eagles, lynxes, leopards, and clouded leopards, but the natural enemies of pikas in this area have been hunted down by humans for more than ten years, mostly by poachers. ”

"The food chain is broken, the ecology is unbalanced, the pikas are proliferating, the grass is eaten up by them, the cattle and sheep are not eaten, and they threaten the living environment of human beings. "Xiao Meng hates poachers very much, poachers go crazy to hunt rare wild animals, and it is the local indigenous people of Maduo County who are punished by nature.

"If there is no buying and selling, there is no harm. Shen Qi patted Xiao Meng's shoulder, ready to continue his journey.

At this time, countless heads emerged from the caves in the surrounding land, large and small, gray and white, all of which were pikas.

The rabbit's head is crowded and dense.

A pika is a cute thing, but thousands of pikas are densely packed together, staring at the four humans with some unified and strange posture and eyes, which makes Shen Qi and the others numb.

Xiao Meng, who has a dense phobia, no longer feels that pikas are cute, he quickly ran into the car and slammed the car door shut: "Retreat, retreat, don't start a group with them!"

The driver started the car and drove along the highway in the direction of Maduo County.

Toot toot!

Drip, drip!

The driver, Master Zhang, hurriedly honked the horn of the car, and frightened the pika army who was about to start the group and fled in all directions.

It's still old Master Zhang's experience, the rats are the rats, how dare they really face up to humans.

Crunch!

Click!

During the drive, within 500 meters, Master Zhang's car ran over more than a dozen pikas.

The pikas, fleeing in a panic, couldn't tell the way, and they ran under the wheels to die.

"These pikas are very annoying, it can be said that they have formed a rat plague, just a Maduo County, the forage grass eaten by pikas and voles every year is equivalent to the amount of forage for all cattle and sheep in the county for three years. In Master Zhang's eyes, these rats and rabbits are pests.

drove a few hundred meters and crushed more than a dozen pikas, which shows that this area is indeed infested with rats.