Prof. Manuel T. Lerdau from the University of Virginia and Dr. Jeremy A. Miller from National Museum of Natural History of the Netherlands have been recently granted the CAS Visiting Professorship for Senior International Scientists (Visitng Professorship) and CAS Fellowship for Young International Scientists (Young Scientists Fellowship) respectively.

During his tenure, Prof. Manuel T. Lerdau will conduct joint research with the Ecological Evolution Group and Group for Plant Physiological Ecology. His research centers around fundamental questions of resource acquisition and allocation in plants and touches upon such topics as herbivory and tri-trophic interactions, atmospheric chemistry and air pollution, community and ecosystem impacts of biological invasions, and organismal controls over nutrient cycling. His work in 2011 will focus on volatile trace gas emissions by plants, particularly isoprene, as a mechanism for heat tolerance and thermal regulation.

As an expert on the systematics, behavior, and biodiversity of spiders, Dr. Jeremy A. Miller will cooperate with Dr. Charles Cannon’s lab to conduct biodiversity studies in China, Vietnam, and Laos across landscapes with different land-use histories and levels of disturbance.

“我们周围有哪些生物？”“只有橡胶或者香蕉人类可以生存吗？”“植物和我们人类有什么不同呢？”“树一直都是静止不动的吗？为什么？”“树为什么 可以一直长高，而人却不能呢？”活动一开始，Chuck教授带着学生们进入百花园一角，连续提出了很多有趣的问题，学生们争先恐后的回答，答案或正确、有 依据，或猜想、凭感觉，在一片欢声笑语中，Chuck教授再在学生们思考和回答的基础上给予科学引导。一路游园的过程中，只要学生对其中某些植物感兴 趣，Chuck教授便以该植物为主题，通过提问-讨论-回答-总结，从而告诉学生们：什么是植物的生活型，为什么会有外来入侵种，以及什么是生物多样性等。

随后，Chuck教授将这30余位中学生分成5个小组，各小组在规定时间内分别在不同的片区拾捡各种落叶、花、昆虫等，然后对这些生物进行分类、记 录并展示，小组自评后，Chuck教授再进行逐一点评，最终评出“物种最多样组”、“奇特味道最多样组”、“棕榈种类最多样组”、“昆虫种类最多样组”以 及“植物色彩最多样组”，并为各小组颁发纪念品。

活动即将结束时，Chuck教授总结说：“地球除了人类之外，还有如此丰富多彩的植物、昆虫、真菌、爬行动物等等，生物多样性其实就在我们身边。” 他鼓励学生们“应该共享这个具有多样性生物的地球，而决非去占有它。”

Lerdau教授毕业于美国哈佛大学（学士学位）和斯坦福大学（博士学位）。主要研究植物微量元素气体的排放，以及这些化合物和植物生理及群落生物多样性之间的相互作用。在他早期的研究中，他开发了许多用于分析这些化合物的技术和仪器，对于发现植物微量元素气体排放对植物生理的意义至关重要。在近期的研究中，他发现异戊二烯(isoprenes)，一种高度活性微量气体，在帮助植物减少短期高温和氧化造成的损害中起到关键作用。

Lerdau教授将与我园的Charles Cannon研究员领导的生态进化研究组和由曹坤芳研究员带领的植物生理研究组进行合作。

外国专家特聘研究员计划是中国科学院2009年推出并实施的引进海外优秀科技人才计划的重要组成部分之一，其宗旨是通过吸引外国优秀高级研究人员参与我院的研究项目，加强与国外国立科研机构、大学和企业研究人员的合作，充分利用国际智力资源，提升我院科技创新能力。

外国专家特聘研究员计划连续资助期限为2-12个月，资助金额为40-50万元/年。

Jeremy T. Miller博士是国际公认的蜘蛛分类、进化生物学和生物调查专家。他将通过中科院外籍青年科学家计划的资助与我园的Charles Cannon 研究员领导的生态进化研究组开展合作。Miller博士在与我园开展合作研究期间，将在几种不同的土地利用类型，如：从密集的单一种植区（如橡胶林）、不 同片段混合的景观，到自然的原始森林使用统计上严格的抽样技术，开展整个景观上的比较。Miller博士在设计和应用等调查技术方面是一位知名的国际先 驱，并已成功地完成了几个大型项目。Miller博士还将利用他的分类学专业知识，对蜘蛛生物多样性建立一个稳健的DNA条形码测试。此外，Miller 博士还将把调查期间收集到的样品和数据通过互动网站、高质量摄影和显微、以及易于理解的资源公之于众。

“外籍青年科学家计划”是“海外智力引进与人才国际交流培养计划”的重要组成部分，面向具有博士学位40岁以下的取得突出研究成果的外籍优秀青年科学家，资助期限为12个月，资助强度为15-25万元/年。

Scientific Coordinator: Candidates should have a Ph.D or equivalent experience in ecology or conservation biology or related field, and be familiar with the tropical Asian region. Previous experience teaching or participating in fieldcourses is a bonus.  Download announcement here.

Program Coordinator: Candidates should be proficient in Chinese and English, both written and spoken. Experience with webpage development and administration is an advantage. Download announcement here.

The Program for Field Studies in Tropical Asia runs a variety of courses aimed at young researchers, whose studies focus on the ecology and conservation of biodiversity the tropical Asia-Pacific region.  Visit the website: www.pfs-tropasia.org.

LIU Song, MSc student in the EcoEvo group, attended held at Tech Building of Yunnan University from 4-9 April, jointly held by Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG), Kunming Institute of Botany (KIB), Yunnan University (YU). 40 students attended the AEPEW, 6 from XTBG, over half from YU and the rest from KIB.

The workshop was given by Dr. Roy Turkington, from the University of British Columbia. He has performed ecological research for more than 30 years. Professor Roy Turkington is more than patient and funny. Lots of laughters during in the discussions and hilarious explanations of native English words, constantly crowded around with student’s experiments and questions even after lecture, Prof. Turkington proved his wonderful personality.

Each day consisted of morning lectures, followed by hot discussions in the afternoon. The main topics of this Workshop included: 1) plant ecology: aims and methods 2) population dynamics 3) life history variation 4) community structure 5) invasive species 6) biodiversity and coexistence.

Two students from the Ecological Evolution Group, XTBG, were invited to present their work at the Student Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS) held in Cambridge, UK during 23-25 March 2010, the biggest student- oriented conservation conference in the world.   The international meeting brought together 220 students from 63 countries and included 4 plenary talks, 33 students talks, 2 poster sessions, 6 workshops and many social events.

YI Zhuangfang, the first PhD student from the Dai minority, presented a talk in the session for economics and ecosystem services. This sesion is quite new in SCCS and has begun to draw more and more attention. Yi’s talk about whether eco-compensation in Xishuangbanna is a reasonable option to convert rubber plantations back into nature forest.  As she brings together perspectives from the local community, landscape ecology, and social science, Yi seems to be the most valuable person to provide some solutions. The audience provided strong feedback on her talk and generated a lot of interesting questions.

Fan Huan, a MSc student, presented a poster on using digital technology for rapid biodiversity assessment.  This project was one of the successful student projects from the Advanced Fieldcourse in Ecology and Conservation – Xishuangbanna (see www.afec-x.ecologicalevolution.org).  Fan also got a lot of interesting feedback from her peers about the project.  Ms. Fan is actually doing her Masters work on fig genomics and this poster is a small side project.

These two students will stay in the UK for a few more weeks on invited internship with Cambridge University (Ms. Yi) and Botanical Gardens Conservation International (Ms. Fan), also supported by SCCS.  They will carry out interesting projects with their hosts and surely bring back knowledge and new ideas for their own study. It is really a precious chance for graduate students to be involved in such an exciting programme.

He presented the plenary talk for the Phylogeny and Phylogeography Session on March 8, 2010 at the Legend Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

会后（2010年3月29号至4月28号）依庄防同学将在剑桥大学保护生态学组（University of Cambridge, Conservation Science Group）以及东安格利亚大学的全球环境的社会经济研究中心（University of East Anglia, The Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment）进行为期一个月的考察和实习。范欢同学将前往位于著名的英国皇家植物园丘园的BGCI（Botanical Gardens Conservation International植物园保护国际）进行考察和实习。

SCCS是由英国剑桥大学主办的唯一完全针对学生的关于保护生物学的国际会议(http://www.sccs-cam.org)，旨在帮助未来科学家相互学习和交流，并提供考察访问及合作研究机会为其今后的职业生涯提供宝贵经验。该会议每年接收来自全球的申请并从中筛选160个年轻且具有科研潜力的与会者，这160个与会者分别来自60多个国家。该会议在过去10年来已接待了来自106个国家和地区的1600名代表，是一年一度的国际保护生物学盛会。而会后的考察访问及合作研究机会更是从100多份与会者的申请中筛选出20个进行资助。我园首次有两名学生入选并获得实习机会及相关资助。

注：中国科学院研究生科技创新与社会实践资助专项社会实践类项目设立的目的是为了鼓励和引导科学院的研究生进行跨学科、跨地区的科学考察、访问研究及社会实践，促进理论联系实际，了解国情、院情，培养协作精神和创新意识，在实践中宣传科学知识、把握科学精神、掌握科学方法，切实提高研究生的科研能力与综合素质。其中社会实践类项目执行时间为一年，资助金额为一万元，项目执行完毕后2个月内，社会实践类项目获资助者须提交社会实践报告(5000字左右，含图片）和资助金支出情况报告。

Cannon 教授示范了如何切“火鸡”，并且还亲手给在场的每一位教授和同学切了美味的烤火鸡薄片。之后国际学校的孩子们以演唱活泼欢乐的圣诞歌曲 “Christmas Time Is Here” 拉开了晚会的帷幕；而后研究生会带来的“戏曲联唱”中的京剧，湖南花鼓戏和黄梅戏等让在场的听众们惊喜不断；从马来西亚来的 MelissaWong 穿着传统的马来服装给同学们表演的歌舞，让大家看到了马来西亚婀娜的女生。晚会最激动人心的环节就是拆礼物了，大家开开心心的拆开交换的礼物，结束了美好 的一个晚上。

Matthew Helmus博士等通过对受生物干扰（如物种入侵）、化学干扰（如酸化）、物理干扰（如控制水位线）三种干扰类型的18个湖泊和16个对照湖泊中浮游动物 的群落变化情况，发现无论哪种类型的干扰均会促使湖泊里浮游动物群落中近缘种普遍增加，物种的变化与群落内物种丰富度、均匀度及群体的数量无关；研究还发 现在酸性胁迫下湖泊中浮游动物群落变化最激烈；物种对特定干扰的敏感性具有系统发育学上的遗传性，与个体的大小无关，而且这种敏感性可以通过近缘种的行为 进行预测。因此，物种系统发育学的研究不失为一种用于研究和测量种群和群落对生态系统受到干扰的响应机制的有效手段。

Matthew Helmus 博士毕业于美国威斯康星大学，自2009年3月起在版纳植物园生态进化组做博士后研究，主要从事生态学、进化学及统计学的交叉研究，着重于进化过程中亲缘 关系相近的近缘种是否具有相似的生态变量的研究。同时结合新一代测序技术试图从基因组水平探知物种的进化关系，从而推测物种的入侵与灭绝。

2009年10月，中科院版纳植物园生态进化组成员参与了多项国际基因组学盛会，向世界介绍了中科院西双版纳热带植物园并着力推动热带树木基因组研究。

Cannon研究员与柯彩贤助理研究员参加了十月初在巴塞罗那举行的2009新一代测序技术大会(NGS2009)。会议旨在讨论如何应对新一代测序技术所带来的机遇与挑战。测序技术企业的代表们与学者们相互交流，并热烈讨论了这一新生领域的各类问题，特别是如何计算和处理由此项技术所产生的海量数据。Cannon研究员在会上发表了题为“Comparative Genomics of Tropical Evergreen Fagaceae”（壳斗科的比较基因组研究）的报告，着重介绍了该研究组在西双版纳热带植物园所进行的壳斗科基因组研究工作。柯彩贤助理研究员被邀请主持宏观基因组学分会。同时，两位专家还发表了题为“Using a ‘Framework Species’ Concept for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies in Comparative Genomic” 的学术墙报。

Cannon研究员与柯彩贤助理研究员还于十月中旬被邀参加了由中科院基因组所在北京举行的2009国际基因组学大会。Cannon研究员向与会者介绍了将在国际著名学术期刊 Molecular Ecology上正式发表的最新研究成果，Assembly- free comparative genomics: finding the needle in the haystack, 探讨了非组装比较基因组分析的可能性。该报告受到了广泛的好评，更有不少与会者提出了合作意向。

生态进化组博士后, Matthew Helmus博士于十月中旬在众多的报名者中脱颖而出，被选拔参加了在意大利博洛尼亚举行的基因组学在生态与保护生物学中的应用培训课程。该培训班的内容包括基因芯片数据的分析，第二代基因组测序技术，SNP芯片分析，以及DNA条形码。Helmus博士在课上也向大家介绍了西双版纳热带植物园和生态进化组的热带基因组研究。多位来自欧美国家的培训班的学员和老师都对版纳植物园的科研工作有了进一步的认识。 ]]> http://www.ecologicalevolution.org/2010/03/%e7%89%88%e7%ba%b3%e6%a4%8d%e7%89%a9%e5%9b%ad%e7%94%9f%e6%80%81%e8%bf%9b%e5%8c%96%e7%bb%84%e7%a7%af%e6%9e%81%e6%8e%a8%e5%8a%a8%e7%83%ad%e5%b8%a6%e6%a0%91%e6%9c%a8%e5%9f%ba%e5%9b%a0%e7%bb%84%e7%a0%94/feed/ 0 http://www.ecologicalevolution.org/2009/10/xtbg-scientists-attended-the-next-generation-sequencing-conference-ngs-2009-barcelona-spain/ http://www.ecologicalevolution.org/2009/10/xtbg-scientists-attended-the-next-generation-sequencing-conference-ngs-2009-barcelona-spain/#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:33:53 +0000 chuck http://www.ecologicalevolution.org/?p=1251 Chuck Cannon and Chai-Shian Kua attended the Conference Of Next Gen Sequencing 2009 (1st-3rd, Oct ) at the  historical Casa Convalescencia of Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau,  Barcelona. This conference, with the aim to address challenges and oppurtunities presented by Next Gen Sequencing technology, has brought technological representatives and researchers together to interact and discuss various topics in this emerging field, especially the computational and statistical challenges in processing and anlayzing the massive amount of data.

Chuck Cannon presented a talk,  “Comparative Genomics of Tropical Evergreen Fagaceae”, which introduced and highlighted the genomics research on tropical forest trees of the Ecological Evolution Group at XTBG. Chai-Shian Kua was invited to chair the Metagenomic Session. They also co-presented a poster entitled “Using a ‘Framework Species’ Concept for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies in Comparative Genomics“.

The final symposium for the Advanced Fieldcourse in Ecology and Conservation in the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Gardens was held on August 6, 2009.  Ten student groups presented their independent research projects, demonstrating a lot of hard work and improvement.  Many of them tackled new topics and concepts, developed their own analyses and interpretations.  They obviously made a great deal of progress and overcame a lot of challenges in four short weeks.  They are to be congratulated for their success!!!

Read the “Addicted to Rubber” article here.