------Program code: NS-080825-03040 (what's this?)
Source: CCTV.com
08-25-2008 10:20
Having stored sufficient energy, the young inchworm will bury itself in the soil. It will spend the next ten months there in the darkness and cold, waiting for the next spring.
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The green has vanished from the land in the month in which the young inchworms were feeding. For some of the old trees, this may be their last spring.
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The drier the spring is, the more inchworms there will be. They are frantic in eating the leaves of the euphrates poplars. Without leaves, the poplar wood is less prone to evaporation and so retains more water.
A baby black stork will be born in twenty days. An adult stork is over one meter tall. So no animal here is bold enough to come into direct confrontation with it. The pair of storks have established their home at the edge of the desert, where the eggs and chicks will be undisturbed.
The stork pair take it in turns to go out looking for food.
The Tarim River has been shortened by a third due to the increase in the human population and the expansion of the area of arable land. Many tributaries and lakes have disappeared. The baby black storks feed on the small fish in the river. But downstream there is less and less water.
The flood season is at least two months away.
The drought is worsening.
The sands of the Taklamakan Desert are always first to respond to the wind.
The desert enters the harshest time of the year. No sooner has the growing season passed than the sandstorms arrive.
The constant wind flow brings a steady rise in temperature. With no leaves to breathe through, the tall tree with the single branch is being suffocated.
It must produce new leaves, if it is to get through the heat that will come. The trees that are not strong enough may never be able to grow crowns.
As the single-branch tree begins to bear leaves, the baby black storks peep out. Their first impression is of dust covering the sky.
The windy season in the Taklamakan Desert lasts five months.
Xinjiang, which makes up one sixth of the territory of China, is the world’s remotest inland region. Enclosed by high mountains and covered with desert, the territory of Xinjiang is just 2.1% wooded.
Warm wet air comes from the Atlantic Ocean 6,900km away, to the Altai Mountains. It brings 600mm of rain every year, which nourishes the largest Siberian Taiga forest in China. The Xinjiang larch is the major tree species here.
The silver birches also find a home in the valley.
The windward slope on the western side of the Tianshan Mountains receives the most rain in Xinjiang – as much as 1,000mm a year. Here, Tianshan spruces form the largest forest in Xinjiang.
But the humid air can’t pass the Tianshan Mountains.
The banks of the Tarim River are home to more than 60% of the world’s euphrates poplar population. It is the only tall tree in the Taklamakan Desert.
June is the growing season for the euphrates poplars. They need a huge amount of water to thrive.
The baby black storks can now stay at home on their own. They are still covered with white down. Their beaks and long legs will not turn red until they reach maturity. The twittering means they are feeling hungry.
Their parents take a long time to find food. The baby black storks are never fully fed.
The tall tree with the single branch and its companions survive the monsoon season safe and sound. However, the single-branch tree produces no leaves on its top. It is aging.
The green veil of summer conceals a potential crisis. Every leaf will consume a lot of water.
But the water will only get less and less before the floods arrive.
The evaporation capacity of the Tarim Basin is one hundred times greater than the rainfall. The source of life here is the annual flooding.
It's getting hotter. The temperature has reached 43℃.
The tall tree with the single branch loses a layer of bark during every drought. The thick bark is like a protective covering that keeps out the heat of the sun.
Editor:Yang
