Established in 2007, the Ecological Evolution Group in the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Gardens aims to promote research and conservation of the Asian tropics within the Chinese Academy of Sciences and internationally. Through a combination of basic research, applied conservation, local outreach and student training, we hope to have a positive impact on the future condition and management of natural forests and the communities they sustain. We integrate experience across a wide range of scientific approaches and techniques from systematics and phylogenetics to remote sensing and genomic biology.
The conservation and management of tropical forest resources is probably the most complex of the life sciences as it strives to balance the interaction between global human socio-economic patterns and poorly understood ecological and evolutionary forces of megadiverse communities. We are working at this interface in many ways, from using remote sensing technology to develop detailed spatial strategies and broad geographic surveys of biomass and biodiversity, from phylogenetic studies of phenotypic trait evolution to genomic sequencing projects using the latest cutting-edge DNA sequencing platforms.
We’ve grown rapidly in the past two years and the scope of our work continues to expand. While the central themes of our work remain the same, our techniques and approaches seem to be as dynamic as the region in which we find ourselves!
Latest Updates
20 Dec 2011Dr. Cannon describes a new species of stone oak
A new species of stone oak (Lithocarpus pulongtauensis) has recently been published by the Annales Botanici Fennici. The species is named in honor of the recently gazetted protected area in the Kelabit Highlands, the Pulong Tau National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia. This species has been collected on the northern slopes of Mt. Kinabalu, where Dr. Cannon [...]
07 Dec 2011Rubber and pulp are a double threat to Hainan forests
Zhai Deli’s study of land use change in the Changhua watershed on the island of Hainan was recently published in the Journal of Environmental Management. The article is entitled “Rubber and pulp plantations represent a double threat to Hainan’s natural tropical forests” and the work was completed with the following co-authors: Charles H. Cannon, J.W. Ferry Slik, [...]
26 Oct 2011AFEC-X 2011 – our third year begins!
AFEC-X 2011 has started! On Oct 22, 25 participants from 12 countries (Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, USA, DPR Korea, and of course China) arrived in XTBG. Deputy Director of XTBG, Dr Li Qingjun, gave a welcome address and introduction to XTBG at the course opening. Participants will spend [...]
22 Oct 2011My wordle
A wordle (http://www.wordle.net/) of the titles and abstracts from most of my publications. Cool!
06 Sep 2011Melissa Wong, visiting student from Malaysia, publishes in BMC Genomics
Melissa Wong, a PhD student from the National University of Malaysia and co-advised by Prof. Cannon and Prof. Wickneswari Ratnam, joined the Ecological Evolution group in 2009 for several months to learn bioinformatic techniques for analyzing next-gen sequencing techniques. Ms. Wong conducted her study on the whole transcriptome sequence from two parental species of Acacia [...]
