On November 13, 24 staff members of the Kunming Comprehensive Survey Center of the China Geological Survey lost contact while conducting field operations in Ailao Mountain, Yunnan. As of the 22nd, the four people have been missing for 9 days, which is heartbreaking.
For many scientific researchers, field research is an important means to obtain first-hand research data. So, what dangers may be faced by field science? How to better prevent and deal with these dangers?
"China Science Daily " interviewed 4 scientists who had experience in field science. Their enthusiasm for scientific research allowed them to enter the rarely visited forests, snow-capped mountains and deserts. Although their majors are different, they have a common voice: "The field investigation cannot tolerate any carelessness."
The following is their story about their respective field scientific experiences -
bitten by a tick and met with King Cobra
Tan Yunhong (Deputy Director of the Comprehensive Protection Center of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Head of the Research Group of Plant Diversity and Protection of Research Group)
2016, the members of the Banna Botanical Garden scientific expedition team marched in the rainy forest in Myanmar. Photo provided by Tan Yunhong
I am doing plant diversity protection and have been conducting field science for more than 15 years. Since 2014, we have started working in the tropical rainforests in northern Myanmar. In 2016, Banna Botanical Garden officially established the Southeast Asian Biodiversity Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. I followed the team to visit twice a year. Now I spend more than half of my time in the wild every year.
When it comes to tropical rainforests, everyone must first think of it as a paradise for animals and plants. But for scientific expedition members, the risks are proportional to the abundance of research resources.
The rainy season in tropical rainforests is relatively long, and Myanmar is one of the highest rainfall areas in the world. Sometimes, we work in the forest for half a month and it rains every day. Due to the heavy rainfall in an instant, it is common for us to encounter landslides, rivers surge, and roads and bridges to destroy them every year.
In the rain forest, what really makes us feel creepy is the tick. It may carry forest encephalitis virus, which is fatal. Over the years, my teammates and I have been bitten by ticks too often, but fortunately, we have not experienced any serious symptoms.
But in July this year, when I returned to Lhasa from the southern Tibetan scientific expedition, I suddenly started to have a fever, my whole body felt chills, and I couldn't get up after falling down. I vaguely felt that the situation was not good, so I quickly returned to Kunming for treatment. At this time, it had been about 10 days since I started to develop the disease, and my rash began to appear on my body.
In Kunming, the doctor told me that the situation was critical and that all the blood test indicators were abnormal, and I suspected that I had acute blood disease. So, I was transferred to the infectious department.
At that time, an experienced doctor asked me if I had been bitten by insects, and I highly suspected that it was caused by ticks. Therefore, he immediately asked me to take two targeted antibiotics , tetracycline and doxycycline. But these two drugs can only be taken for one week. If they do not work, it means that the situation is very serious and a systemic examination and treatment are required. Four days later, I finally subsided my fever, but the drug treatment still showed serious liver side effects.
However, one of my former British colleagues was not so lucky. Since tick bites are very secretive, there are no special symptoms in the early stage. She was careless for a moment and missed the best treatment time. Later, she fell into a coma and became a vegetable, and she has not yet woken up.
In addition to ticks, it is common to encounter snakes in the wild. There are some highly toxic snake in the rain forest. If you are bitten, you will not be able to undergo treatment for more than two hours, you will have no chance of survival.
A two-climbing expert from the California Academy of Sciences in the United States was accidentally bitten by a poisonous snake during the grape science trial in northern Myanmar. However, because in the deep forest, no one could help him, he fell into a coma after two hours and finally died in a foreign land.
I myself also met the highly poisonous King Cobra, which was only one step away. Fortunately, I was very vigilant when walking and did not take the last step forward, otherwise I might have...
If we were in the domestic scientific examination, we might have the conditions to deal with the emergency.But like in the rainforest area in northern Myanmar, the villages there have been almost no development in the past hundred years, with inconvenient transportation and no medical facilities. Once they encounter violent diseases, they can only leave them to fate.
Our colleagues rarely talk about these topics, and our family is not very clear about our real working environment. Many new team members didn't dare to communicate with their families at the beginning, for fear that their families would disagree with them when they found out. There are also many young students who initially had great enthusiasm and interest, but after several field work, they could not bear such work pressure and risks and made other choices.
We cannot rely on monitoring equipment such as infrared cameras, but we rely on both legs to measure it. We also understand this major very well. I have also faced other choices. I can persevere because I really like it. I want me to give up, but I can't bear to leave it.
When I was young, I didn’t feel psychologically burdened with my teacher. Now I am leading the team myself, and I feel a heavy responsibility. Therefore, I also hope that for those who need to undertake higher risks, they can receive support from professional team doctors, and they can also conduct regular medical first aid knowledge training. In addition, whether some commercial insurance can be provided that can cover the risks of foreign scientific research is also a question worthy of attention.
almost fell off the cliff and occasionally encountered a corpse
Ma Ming (researcher at the Institute of Xinjiang Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
From October to November 2005, Ma Ming and his scientific research team conducted a scientific investigation on Tomur Peak in Tianshan (Ma Ming is the second from the right). Photo provided by Ma Ming
One year when I was doing a snow leopard survey, I went up a cliff alone. Because I was very tired after going up, I wanted to stop and rest for a while, so I leaned against the mountain and faced the cliff. Unexpectedly, a particularly strong wind suddenly blew from the side, and I couldn't stand it anymore and staggered forward.
The cliff is dozens of meters high, and if it falls, it will definitely be dead. I burst into cold sweat. To be honest, my legs were trembling, and I couldn't hold on from my psychology to physiology. After that, I was extremely careful and took a break to restore my muscles and then went down the mountain.
I was almost 50 years old at that time, and maybe I was a little careless. I didn’t expect that I would lose my energy, nor did I expect that such an evil wind would blow over. In the wild, many problems arise because they are careless at the beginning. Therefore, there is no need to be careless at all.
We have been conducting snow leopard surveys for about 10 years, and we have been to Tianshan , Altai Mountain, and Kunlun Mountain , with an altitude of about 3,000 meters. Because snow leopards, vultures and animals live in this high altitude area. We want to see where they prefer to walk, where they prey or rest. Just like the case of Sherlock Holmes, look for clues and find their marks, footprints, urine, feces, claws, etc.
In order to find more traces, the team will divide the work. Everyone is not in the same place: some are on both sides of the river, some are on ridges and valleys, and some are on or below cliffs...
It is often better to look for snow leopard footprints after the snow. As soon as it snowed, the traces left on the ground were relatively fresh. If it took a long time to stack the marks, you wouldn't know whether it was the same or many, so we usually used the post-snow survey method at that time. But on the other hand, the cliff behind the snow is not easy to climb, it is slippery and dangerous.
In the past field science trials, we encountered many dangers, such as at that time, we were all naked in rock climbing . In addition to that time, I also broke off water and food when I was traveling through the uninhabited land. When I climbed the poplar tree, I fell from a seven or eight-meter tree because the trunk broke. I was bitten by a mount (slim horse) and my back was bitten...
Occasionally we would also encounter corpses. Once I was resting in the valley in Kunlun Mountains when I suddenly found a body in the stone nest next to me. Judging from the teeth, we guessed that this person might have been caught in the flood after entering the ravine, and then blocked into a cave and starved to death.During the Lop Nur inspection, we occasionally encounter corpses, some of which may be lost, right? After so many years of field science research, I feel that life is really fragile. In a moment, a few seconds, you may die, that's it.
Later, when we climb the mountain, we will also find some professional mountaineering team members to do some outdoor training for us, including safety ropes, nails, shoes, etc. Now, most people do not conduct trace investigations, but use infrared cameras, satellite tracking, and molecular technology. This will be simpler and more accurate.
was dragged by a horse for more than ten meters, and hiked for three days and climbed the snow-capped mountains
Liu Bing ( Assistant Researcher at the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
In August 2009, when he was hiking along the Yarlung Zangbo River, Liu Bing took photos for his teammates. Photo provided by Liu Bing
The first time I took the long-term scientific examination was an experience when I went to Xinjiang in July 2007. That time, the Sino-Russian joint expedition team conducted a flora investigation in the Altai Mountains and collected plant specimens.
We want to go north from the northernmost part of Habahe County, Altay region, a place called Baihaba, and the car can only drive a short distance, so we start riding from a place called Narenxia Ranch and walk towards Nelson. I have to ride a horse for three days, and I ride on the horse's back for more than ten hours every day. I am very tired and my crotch is worn out after three days.
I had no experience in riding horses at that time. The guide taught me a few movements, for example, once the horse's belly is clamped with both legs, it will move forward; when the reins are pulled up, it will stop. I was a little scared when I rode my horse on the first day because we were walking on a mountain road and the horse was very high. Especially when I was downhill, I sat on the saddle, and I was always afraid of falling. Later, I got used to it a little better.
After that scientific expedition, I also rode a horse while inspecting Inner Mongolia and Yunnan. But I have never ridden a horse since 2014 because many roads have been repaired.
However, in the southwest region, although the road is better and better every year, some areas are occasionally washed away during the rainy season every summer.
In August 2009, we went to Motuo County, Tibet for inspection. Motuo County is the last county in China to open a road. As early as 1994, I went from to to Motuo County. The road was built once and drove a car in, and then the road was broken. It took more than ten years to break, and the car was kept in the county town and became a cultural relic. Because there is only one car in the entire county town.
When we went to inspect in 2009, the road there was once again built, so our car could drive in. After two days of investigation around the county town, we need to continue walking south and go to the direction of Beibeng Township. As a result, the car had just driven a few kilometers, and two veteran drivers with 30 years of driving experience didn't dare to drive it. They said, "We can't treat the lives of you scientific researchers as a joke. You should walk over, we can't drive it." The road is as wide as a car, with a cliff on the left and abyss of the Yarlung Zangbo River on the right.
There was no way, we walked 36 kilometers along the Yarlung Zangbo River, visited Beibeng Township for a few days, and then walked 36 kilometers back. When we drove back, we only drove 20 kilometers of 130 kilometers. As a result, it rained heavily, destroying the newly built road. We walked the remaining road for three more days. From an altitude of 1,000 meters, walk to the 4,300 meters snow-capped mountain pass, and then climb the mountain and walk to a 3,000 meters altitude. The middle of the way we encountered the simple accommodation that the road construction team lived in, so we stayed for one night.
It was already early September, and the mountains were about to be closed with heavy snow. After the mountains were closed with heavy snow, the county town was equivalent to being isolated from the world. At that time, the driver was driving but still couldn't get out. They said, "If the emergency repairs were not successful, we would have to spend the winter inside and we would have to get out until the snow melted in May of the following year." Fortunately, the road was repaired after only three days, and the driver drove over the mountain again and picked us up at the foot of the mountain there.
Of course, the roads have been well repaired now. There is also a tunnel inside Galongla Mountain , and now you can get in in winter.
emphasizes discipline over and over again, and dare not make any mistakes
Wang Genxu (researcher at Chengdu Institute of Mountains, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
In 2019, Wang Genxu's team measured the distribution of water on the icy layer on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Photo provided by Wang Genxu
In the wild, I mainly do some sample surveys and experiments in the source area of the Yellow River and the source area of the Yangtze River, and they are probably above 3,000 meters above sea level. But there was no particularly dangerous experience, my experience was dull.
There were some teams that used to engage in glaciers (research). Some people accidentally fell into ice holes, and some people accidentally fell into rivers, but our team has never encountered them. On the one hand, I may be lucky, but on the other hand, we really don’t dare to be careless.
When we are in the wild, we usually don’t go to some points alone. When crossing the glacier, my principle is that there must be a team of people, at least three or four people. Be especially careful in places with ice cracks and tie them together with security rope . Crossing rivers is also particularly dangerous. There are floods in summer, so in principle, you do not allow wading across the river, because the floods in the mountains will be very deep and urgent. We have never encountered large beasts, at most, we have encountered some wolf, fox, etc. Because we have many people, they hide from us when they see us. When there are many people, they are still afraid of people.
I won't let students do things that are too dangerous. Every time I go out for an outdoor inspection, I always emphasize discipline with everyone over and over again. One of the issues that should be paid special attention to in the wild is that there is absolutely no individualism allowed.
For example, he/she has finished the work points first, left first, went down the mountain and went on the bus, etc., etc. are absolutely not allowed. Everyone must go to work at the same time and finish work at the same time. After we go out, we must not make any mistakes. Even if we are injured, we should try to avoid them.
Source: China Science Daily Guangzhou Daily·New Flower City Editor: Zhang Ying
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