Progress report of research on eco-environmental evolution, control and adjustment for arid land in Western China

Since we started the National Key Project of Fundamental Research (China), "The research on eco-environmental evolution, control and adjustment for arid land in Western China", four years ago we have made a number of important progresses. These progresses include many research fields: the palaeoclimate rebuilding and environmental change; the development process and driving forces of oases; the water-salt balance and main hydrology processes of oases; the oasis ecosystem's structure, ecological process and stability; the coupling mechanism of three major ecosystems of mountain, oasis, and desert; the ecological landscape patterns' evolution and its responses climate change; the ecological environmental effects of large industrial (construction) projects; the cause and spatial-temporal distribution of desertification; the establishment of experimental demonstration bases of ecological recovery and rebuilding; and adjustment and control of ecosystem and management models.