▲ On June 7th, experts from Hainan Academy of Marine and Fishery Sciences and the staff of Jiezhoudao Tourist Area were transplanting corals. Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Lizhen photo
▲ This is a marine life photographed in the waters of Fenjiezhou Island on May 26th. Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Guanyu photo
▲ This is the coral photographed in the waters of Fenjiezhou Island on June 8th. Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Lizhen photo
Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter Huang Zhen, Liu Jinhai and Yang Guanyu
Sanya, Hainan, West Island waters. The waves beat on the shore and the coconut groves danced.
Wearing a diving suit and holding tools, Wu Chuanliang stepped on the fine stones and broken sand at the seaside of West Island. With the help of his potential companions, he went to the deep sea step by step. After reaching the target point, he dived together.
At this time of the underwater, silent, Wu Chuanliang can only hear his breathing.
Too busy to care about the wonderful underwater world, he held a coral seedling the thickness of his index finger and carefully fixed it on the reef. Plant a tree today, and it will grow into a "coral sea" in the future.
"soil rice bowl"
Wu Chuanliang is the head of Sanya Coral Reef Ecological Research Institute. At the age of 32, he is a real post-90s generation. However, the perennial work at sea has made Wu Chuanliang’s skin rough and looks no longer young.
"Very old", the "post-90 s" laughed at himself.
Wu Chuanliang grew up in Haikou. Children who grew up by the sea are no strangers to the ocean and marine life, but the "binding" with the depth of coral reefs began by accident.
After graduating from college in 2014, Wu Chuanliang came to Sanya to look for development opportunities. Many recruiters learned that he studied aquaculture in college and suggested that he return to his main business and not waste what he had learned.
This led Wu Chuanliang to "hit a wall everywhere and couldn’t find a suitable job". When he was upset, he called his mother. "Mom said, I will come back if I can’t find a job, and my mother will support you." My mother’s words are still warm now.
Just as he hesitated to leave Sanya, a friend contacted him and said that he had the opportunity to work in Sanya Coral Reef National Nature Reserve in Hainan. Would you like to try it? After a try, Wu Chuanliang successfully passed the customs clearance, and then officially joined the reserve, starting an indissoluble bond with coral reefs.
Because he knew something about coral reefs when he was studying, and he came into contact with more and more relevant knowledge after working in the reserve, Wu Chuanliang’s understanding of coral reefs became deeper and deeper.
Engaged in coral reef research, Sanya has a natural geographical advantage. "Sanya is a particularly good area for coral research in Hainan Province," said Wu Chuanliang. Because he also likes scientific research, he established the protection and research of coral reefs as his lifelong pursuit shortly after joining the reserve.
During his work, Wu Chuanliang found that Hainan’s coral reef-related scientific research ability is relatively weak, especially for young researchers, whose jobs and research funds are relatively small. The most important thing is that many young researchers lack a platform to display their wisdom.
"At that time, I thought, why not build an institution or create a platform so that more young researchers can settle down and engage in research?" Wu Chuanliang said that he envisioned giving more support to young researchers through this platform, realizing talent gathering and building a research highland for coral reef research in Sanya.
Just do it. In 2017, Wu Chuanliang initiated the establishment of Sanya Coral Reef Ecological Research Institute, which is mainly engaged in coral breeding, transplantation, ecological restoration and ecological environment monitoring and investigation. He began to support the development of scientific research and protection of coral reefs in another capacity.
However, at first, the family did not support it. "My parents still want me to work in the reserve," Wu Chuanliang said.
"Worried about the pressure on children", talking about why he wanted Wu Chuanliang to stay in the reserve, his father Wu Shushang truthfully said that his educational level was not high and he felt that his children worked well in the reserve. Going out alone, the future is uncertain. "My parents may be really afraid that I will become an unemployed youth one day," Wu Chuanliang said.
It is unacceptable for many people to leave the "iron rice bowl" and pick up the "earth rice bowl". "But in the process of solving scientific research problems, I have gained happiness," Wu Chuanliang said. No matter whether my family can accept it or not, I still have to follow my inner thoughts and concentrate on scientific research while seeking the understanding of my family.
"A lot of our work is to be done in the sea. Every time we come back from the sea, besides being tanned, we still smell of the sea." In Wu Chuanliang’s view, it is not easy to engage in this kind of research work.
However, in his work, Wu Chuanliang not only reaped happiness, but also realized his ideal of doing a good job in coral reef research, and made one breakthrough after another in scientific research. He thought this "earth rice bowl" was worthwhile.
"afforestation"
Coral reefs are known as the "tropical rain forest" on the seabed. Coral reefs cover less than two thousandths of the seabed, but provide living environment for nearly 30% of marine species, which makes coral reefs one of the most diverse ecosystems on earth. China Nanhai has 2.57% of the coral reef resources in the world, ranking eighth in the world.
In Wu Chuanliang’s view, coral reef ecosystem is an important ecosystem to maintain marine biodiversity. Once it is destroyed, it means that marine life has lost its "home". In addition, fishery resources and tourism resources also depend on coral reef ecosystem to maintain.
For decades, coral reefs have declined globally because of the degradation of natural environment and man-made destruction. The natural restoration of coral reefs is long and difficult, and some even take hundreds of years, so artificial planting and restoration are imminent.
This process is somewhat similar to "afforestation" on land — — First, cultivate "seedlings", grow into young trees in the nursery, and then transplant them to the places where they are to be planted, Wu Chuanliang said.
Afforestation, whether on land or in the ocean, is of great significance to regulating climate change and maintaining the balance and stability of various ecosystems, but it is more difficult to "afforestation" in the ocean.
"The marine ecosystem is complex and the operation is quite difficult." Wu Chuanliang said that the surface of the sea seems calm, but in fact the undercurrent is turbulent, and the weather at sea is changeable, which brings many difficulties to the actual operation.
More importantly, different sea areas are affected by different environmental factors, the degree of human disturbance is different, and the health of existing ecosystems is also different, which requires the research team to "analyze specific problems" and design plans according to local conditions when implementing coral reef ecological restoration.
This also puts forward higher requirements for the work of the institute. It is necessary to repeatedly study and demonstrate each coral reef ecological restoration project and wait for the right weather to let the project "go to sea".
At the beginning of this year, the ecological restoration project implemented in the relevant sea areas of Yalong Bay in Sanya was independently studied and applied for patents by the Institute in combination with the sea conditions, and it was not put into the sea until the end according to the actual situation.
In view of the fragmentation of the original sediment environment in the relevant sea area of Yalong Bay, the research team found that the waves have a great influence on the basement, which can not form a stable basement, and coral larvae are difficult to attach. "So we applied a patent for artificial ecological reef newly applied by the Institute to increase the attachment basement of corals and help the ecological restoration of the sea area."
Based on a number of restoration cases and achievements in practice and theory, in 2021, the Institute integrated the advantages of the University of Connecticut, Hainan University and other domestic and foreign forces, and launched a scientific research project to screen and cultivate heat-resistant reef-building coral strains with the support of the key research and development plan of Hainan Province, with the goal of successfully cultivating a variety of heat-resistant corals and greatly improving their survival rate.
"This will greatly promote the diversity protection of coral reef ecosystems and biological resources in the South China Sea," said Wu Chuanliang. If the study is successful, it can meet the growing demand for ecological restoration with both quality and quantity.
"Youth Storm"
"We are a vibrant institution." When talking about the personnel composition of the institute, Wu Chuanliang immediately came to the spirit. The scientific research team includes various professionals such as coral classification and identification, coral reef ecological restoration, and marine engineering. Most of the researchers are "post-90 s".
"At the beginning, I was the only one in the scientific research team." Referring to the early days of the establishment of the institute, Wu Chuanliang laughed bitterly. There seemed to be no shortage of people, money and technology.
The hardest part is actually in the beginning Relying on their own enthusiasm and fighting spirit, after five years of development, the research team of the Institute has grown to 14 people now.
Ke Shaowen, who is in charge of project quality and implementation in the institute, officially joined the company in May 2019. "At that time, the institute just ushered in an important stage of development," said Ke Shaowen. At that time, the internal technical strength of the institute was weak and the operating funds were in short supply.
At the same time, for the first time, the Institute undertook major eco-environmental protection projects in Hainan, which were concerned by the Central Environmental Protection Inspector Group. Ke Shaowen still remembers that under the leadership of Wu Chuanliang, the team members concentrated on tackling key problems, on the one hand, solving internal problems, and on the other hand, studying the project situation. From the design, implementation and acceptance of technical schemes, the Institute delivered a satisfactory answer to the society.
In the past five years, this "youth storm" has achieved good results: "promoting protection through research", achieving ecological restoration of more than 50 hectares, obtaining nearly 10 patents, and establishing a joint training mechanism with many universities.
Every successful project is inseparable from the strength of the team and the support of all parties. "The lights of the research institute are always on late," said Wu Chuanliang, who has been able to persist until now because of the support of the reserve and his colleagues who worked hard together.
"During the development of the research institute, the reserve has given strong support to both the use of sea areas and scientific research work, and we have not looked at it with special respect because we are young," said Wu Chuanliang. In order to repay the reserve, we have also done our best to give back some scientific research support.
Since the institute was founded, fresh blood has been continuously added, and a lot of R&D work and front-line work need the team members to pay without regrets. "Be a good leader and leader, so that everyone can live and work in peace and contentment" is Wu Chuanliang’s commitment to team members.
In 2019, Wu Chuanliang began to relocate the Institute from Sanya City to Yazhouwan Science and Technology City. "When I first came here, it was still a wasteland," Wu Chuanliang said with emotion. Now Yazhouwan Science and Technology City is not what it used to be, and there are many tall buildings. "I really want to dedicate my youthful blood to this hot land."
"It is not easy for an institution like them without stable financial support to develop like this." breg, vice president and professor of Hainan University’s College of Oceanography, cooperated with the institute in 2019. "It takes a long time to burn money to do scientific research or technology research and development. People who have no feelings and perseverance can’t do this kind of thing well, and I hope they can do it better and better."
In June this year, Wu Chuanliang will marry his girlfriend. She is from the northeast and also works in Yazhouwan Science and Technology City. However, due to his work, Wu Chuanliang spent less time with him, and even chose wedding photos, which were also done in the car "cloud".
The lover will also complain to him, "I can’t make much money, and I’m busy every day, and I can’t stay at home." Wu Chuanliang can only find ways to appease, sometimes politely, and sometimes carefully prepare a small gift for my lover on a business trip.
Another calm day, Wu Chuanliang went out to sea again. Change into a diving suit, carry forty or fifty kilograms of equipment on your back, take good tools, plunge into the water, and soon disappear into the blue.
There, Wu Chuanliang’s hard-working "saplings" are pregnant with a colorful world, just waiting to become a forest.