Book excerpt: Since 1956 the author has been making extensive and detailed investigations of saline lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. On the basis of large amounts of reliable first-hand data and multidisciplinary analysis, the book deals with the temporal-spatial evolution of the plateau saline lakes and the prospects for inorganic salts and organic resources and their exploitation and protection, as well as the relationships between saline lakes and global changes. This book is the first English monograph on saline lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau - the `Roof of the World'. Compared with books about saline lakes in other areas of the world, this monograph is written in a multidisciplinary, comprehensive and systematic way. It may be used by graduate students, teachers, researchers, field geologists and engineers as a reference book in research, teaching, etc.