Academic report

 Field visit to Yunyong Forest Farm

From 3 to 15 April, Prof. Robin Lee Chazdon from Department of Ecology and Evolutional Biology, University of Connecticut, U.S. and an internationally-renowned expert in forest regeneration, was invited to visit Research Institute of Tropical Forestry and Jianfengling state-level forest ecological station for academic exchanges for two weeks.

Prof. Robin Lee Chazdon made a presentation titled “Twenty years of research on forest regeneration in Costa Rica: dynamics of population, plots, and ecosystems”, in which she elaborated on composition of vegetation communities in forest evolution, rules of changes in functions and their response to droughts, and analyzed adaptation of nitrogen-fixing plants to environmental changes.

In Jianfengling, Hainan, Prof. Robin Lee Chazdon climbed to the summit, 1412m tall. She visited the landscape and restoration effects of tropical rainforests, and long-term fixed sample areas, and learnt vegetation features and rules of changes at different elevations. Prof. Robin Lee Chazdon spoke highly of the research results of the forest regeneration and biodiversity of Jianfengling Ecological Station. She also discussed with local staff on approaches to naturally regenerate secondary forests more effectively.

Prof. Robin Lee Chazdon also paid a field visit to Yunyong Forest Farm-one of China's earliest, and Guangdong's first Ecological non-commercial forest farm and China forest experience base-located in Gaoming, Foshan City, Guangdong Province together with Wang Xizhi, chief column editor of China Green Times, and Su Murong, Director of Yunyong Forest Farm, Foshan, Guangdong. Prof. Robin Lee Chazdon appraised the successful transformation of Yunyong Ecological non-commercial forest farm and the achievements made.

Prof. Robin Lee Chazdon's research areas include ecology and regeneration of tropical and temperate forests. Her current research program includes regeneration and restoration of tropical forests, life history and functional traits of tropical tree species, landscape effects on forest regeneration, and ecosystem services in restored and regenerating forests. She published more than 100 articles on journals such as Science, Ecology letters, Ecology. She just published a book on forest regeneration, Second Chance: Tropical forest regeneration in an age of deforestation. She is the member of editorial board of several international journals, including Tree Physiology, Oecologia and American Journal of Botany. (Chen Jie, Research Institute of Tropical Forestry)