Shapotou

Shapotou National Nature Reserve in Ningxia

synonym

Shapotou generally refers to Ningxia Shapotou National Nature Reserve

Shapotou: National AAAAA tourist attraction, national desert ecological nature reserve, global top 500 environmental protection units, national fitness 20 famous landscapes, special award for scientific and technological progress.

Shapotou is located in the southeast edge of Tengger Desert in the west of Zhongwei City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Starting from erdaoshagou in the East, the forest protection house in the south, toudaodun in the west, Tengger Desert in the north and the Yellow River in the south, it is about 38 km long and 5 km wide, with an altitude of 1300-1500 m, covering a total area of 4599.3 hectares, accounting for 3% of the total land area of Zhongwei city. It is one of the 20 key desertification control areas in China.

Shapotou is a place of desert, Yellow River, high mountain and oasis. It has the magnificent scenery in the northwest and the beautiful scenery in the south of the Yangtze River. There are the largest natural sand slide in China, the "first rope of the Yellow River in the world" across the Yellow River, the ancient waterwheel represented by the Yellow River culture, the oldest means of transport on the Yellow River, the sheepskin raft, and the rare mirage in the desert. You can ride a camel across the Tengger Desert, take an SUV to surf the sand sea, and enjoy the lonely smoke in the desert and the sunset in the long river within a short distance.

The main protected objects of Shapotou are natural desert landscape, natural desert vegetation, scientific research achievements in desertification control, wild animals, the ancient Great Wall of Ming Dynasty, Shapotou bell and other human landscapes and their natural complexes. At the 2018 Northwest China Tourism Marketing Conference and tourism equipment exhibition, he was shortlisted in the list of "100 wonders of Northwest China". At the 2018 China Yellow River Tourism Conference, it was rated as "50 scenes of China's Yellow River".

The best leisure tourism destination of China National Tourism in 2018.

Historical evolution

In September 1984, Shapotou Nature Reserve in Ningxia was established.

From 1986 to 1987, the first comprehensive survey of the nature reserve was carried out.

In April 1994, it was approved as a national nature reserve by the State Council.

geographical environment

position

Zhongwei city is located in the west end of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and the junction of Ningxia, Gansu and Mongolia. The coordinates of the jurisdiction are 104 ° 17 ′ - 105 ° 37 ′ E and 36 ° 59 ′ - 37 ° 43 ′ n. It is located at the head of Qiantao of the Yellow River, with Xiangshan in the south, Tengger Desert in the north and Yellow River alluvial plain in the middle. With a total land area of 4599.3 hectares, it is one of the 20 key desertification control areas in China.

Geology and geomorphology

The terrain of the nature reserve is high in the northwest and low in the southeast, which inclines from northwest to Southeast. The sand dunes are vertical and horizontal with ups and downs, covering the red sandstone, high floodplain terrace and alluvial plain of the second or third period. The desert in the reserve is formed by the forward accumulation of the Tengger Desert. The thickness of the sand layer is generally 20-30m, and the thickest is 50m. Most of them are ridge dune, crescent dune chain, crescent dune and grid crescent dune, which constitute a typical aeolian landform.

climate

The Nature Reserve belongs to temperate continental climate, and belongs to temperate arid climate in the national natural division. It is characterized by drought and less rain, strong evaporation, large temperature difference between cold and hot, sufficient light, strong wind and sand, long cold in winter, short hot in summer, late warm in spring, early cool in autumn and more meteorological disasters. The annual average solar radiation is 6.2 × 10 J / m, sunshine hours is 2776.72 hours, and the annual average temperature is 9.6 ℃. The lowest temperature in January is - 25.1 ℃. The maximum temperature in July is 38.1 ℃, and the annual range is 63.2 ℃. The accumulated temperature of ≥ 10 ℃ is 3017 ℃, and the average frost free period of ≥ 0 ℃ is 179 days. The annual average precipitation is 186.6 mm and the annual evaporation is 3000 mm. It is 16 times of the annual average precipitation, the dryness is 2.4, the annual sand blowing hours are more than 900 hours, the annual average wind speed is 2.8m/s, the sand blowing days are mostly from March to June, and the maximum wind force can reach level 8. Gales are often accompanied by sandstorms, with an annual average of 5-19 days. The wind direction is mostly northwest. The main disastrous weather includes drought, frost, gale, rainstorm, hail, hot and dry wind, low temperature and cold damage, etc.

hydrology

The surface water in the reserve mainly includes the Yellow River water, atmospheric precipitation runoff and spring lakes. The runoff of the Yellow River changes greatly in wet season and dry season, the natural gradient of water surface is about 1 / 1300, the flow velocity is 2.2-4.0 M / s in flood season, 1.7-3.0 M / s in normal season and 0.77-2.0 M / s in dry season. The average water depth is 1.8-8.7m in flood season, 1.7-5.2m in normal season and 1.6-3.7m in dry season. The average discharge is 1038m / s. Due to the control of the base structure, some closed inland lake basins were formed. Such inland lakes as alkali lake, Xiaohu lake, Gaodun lake, Machang lake and huangcaohu lake, with a total area of 721 hectares, are the habitats of various vertebrate groups in this area.

soil

The soil types in Shapotou nature reserve are relatively complex. There are six soil types, with a total area of 13262.6 hectares. The main soil type is aeolian sandy soil. In addition, there are calcareous soil, fluvo aquic soil, Neogene soil, irrigated and silted soil and saline soil. The area of aeolian sandy soil is 10610 hectares, accounting for about 80% of the total soil area of the reserve; the area of calcareous soil is 1127 hectares, accounting for 8.5% of the total soil area of the reserve; the area of fluvo aquic soil is 1326 hectares, accounting for 10% of the total soil area of the reserve; in addition, the total area of newly accumulated soil, irrigated and silted soil and saline soil is only 199.6 hectares, accounting for 1.5% of the total area of the reserve.

Regional scope

Shapotou National Nature Reserve starts from erdaoshagou south forest protection house in the East, ends at toudaodun in the west, and ends at Tengger Desert in the north. Shapotou section extends 1000-2000 meters to the north, extends 300-500 meters to the periphery of dingbeidun along the baseline of "Three North" Shelterbelt phase II project in the northeast, and borders Huanghe River in the south. It is about 38 km long from east to west and 5 km from north to south. Its geographical coordinates are 104 ° 49 ′ 25 ″～ 105 ° 09 ′ 24 ″ east longitude , 37 ° 25 ′ 58 ″ - 37 ° 37 ′ 24 ″. There are six administrative villages in the reserve, namely Shapotou village, Mingzhong village, Heilin village, Jiadao village, Mengjiawan village and Changshui village.

Protection target

The main protected objects of Shapotou National Nature Reserve are natural desert landscape, natural sand vegetation, scientific research achievements in desertification control, wildlife, the ancient Great Wall of Ming Dynasty, Shapotou bell and other human landscapes and their natural complexes.

plant resources

There are 14 species of gymnosperms in 8 genera of 4 families (including subspecies), 426 species of angiosperms in 220 genera of 75 families (including subspecies), and 440 species of seed plants in 228 genera of 79 families, accounting for 24.30% of seed plants in Ningxia. There are 176 species of cultivated plants and 264 species of wild plants, including 190 species of dicotyledons and 72 species of monocotyledons belonging to 41 genera and 12 families. The plants listed in the first and second level of national protection include gymnocarpus nudus, Ammopiptanthus mongolicus and Populus euphratica. The endemic plants in Alxa are Suaeda salsa, Sabina Platycladus and Artemisia annua. There are 63 species of resource plants with economic value, accounting for 14.32% of the seed plants in the reserve.

There are 114 species of wetland plants in the nature reserve, accounting for 25.91% of the wetland plants in the nature reserve. The aquatic plants in the reserve are divided into submerged plants, floating plants and emergent plants.

Submerged plant, the whole plant is submerged, which is a typical aquatic plant. Their roots degenerate or disappear, and their epidermis cells can absorb gas, nutrients and water directly; their chloroplasts are large and numerous, adapting to the weak light environment in water; asexual reproduction is more developed than sexual reproduction. The representative species of this kind of plants in the nature reserve are liriophyta, Sargassum, etc.

In floating plants, the leaves float on the water, stomata are distributed on the leaves, vascular bundles and mechanical tissues are underdeveloped, asexual reproduction speed is fast, and productivity is high. Representative species of the reserve include duckweed and Potamogeton.

Emergent plants, plant body out of the water, the body cell is large, ventilation and water performance is good. The representative plants in the reserve are cattail, etc.

The wetland vegetation in the nature reserve can be divided into 2 vegetation type groups, 3 vegetation types, 6 vegetation subtypes and 11 formations.

Animal resources

There are 194 species of vertebrates in the reserve, including 18 species of fish, 3 species of amphibians, 5 species of reptiles, 147 species of birds and 21 species of mammals. Fish accounted for 58.1% of the fish species in Ningxia, amphibians 50.0%, reptiles 27.8%, birds 51.9% and mammals 29.6%. There are 23 species listed in the list of national key protected wild animals, accounting for 11.9% of vertebrates in the reserve. Among them, there are 5 species of first-class protected animals: Black Stork, Golden Eagle, jade belt sea eagle, white tailed sea eagle and great bustard, and 18 species of second-class protected animals: grey crane, Demoiselle, white spoonbill, desert cat, lynx, gazelle, rock sheep, etc. There are 21 vertebrate species listed in cites appendix, accounting for 10.82% of the vertebrate species in the reserve. Among them, only one species is listed in Appendix I, and the rest are listed in Appendix II. There are 65 species of birds listed in the Sino Japanese agreement on the protection of migratory birds and their habitats and distributed in the reserve, accounting for 44.2% of the total number of birds in the reserve.

Wetlands are a variety of natural resources

Chinese PinYin : Sha Po Tou