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Chinese National Ecosystem Research Network
Introduction

Location: Stations--Forest Stations--Ding Hushan

Introduction to Dinghushan Forest Ecosystem Research Station (DFERS), Chinese Academy of Sciences

1. Name of the station Dinghushan Forest Ecosystem Research Station (DFERS in short), Chinese Academy of Sciences

2. Natural Environment DFERS, sometimes also called Dinghushan Biosphere Reserve is located in the mid-part of Guangdong Province in South China, northeastern suburb of Zhaoqing city, about 84 km away from Guangzhou, with the geographical location of 112?02393^112?32413E and 23?92213^23?12303N. It occupies 1133 hm2, covered mostly by hills and valleys. The altitude of the station ranges nearly from 100 to 700 m above sea level, with the highest of 1000.3 m at Jilongshan. This area has a typical monsoon climate, with the annual average precipitation of 1927 mm, nearly 70%of which occurs from April to September. The annual mean temperature is 21.4 , with the lowest of -0.2 in January, and the highest of 38 in July. The mean relative humidity is 80%. The soil in DFERS is composed mainly of lateritic red earth and mountain yellow-brown earth in vertical distribution. The lateritic red earth occurs in hilly land below an altitude of 300 m; and is also distributed in hills and low mountains at an altitude of 300 to 900 m above sea level; the mountain yellow-brown earth occurs partially on the tops of hills overlying. Because of its particular geographic location and ideal weather condition, DFERS has various vegetation types and is abundant in biological diversity. Vegetations can be divided into pine forest, mixed pine and broad-leaved forest and monsoon evergreen broadleaved forest along the horizontal level, and river-bank forest, ravine rain forest, Lowland evergreen broad-leaved forest, Montane evergreen broad-leaved forest, Shrub-grasslands along the increasing vertical gradient. The seminatural forests include evergreen broad-leaved forest, coniferous and broad-leaved forest. The artificial forests are coniferous forest, eucalyptus stands, bamboo forest. There are 1843 higher plants species and 390 planting species documented. Among the higher plants, there are 267 families and 877 genera

3. The objectives of our research Our overall goal is to strengthen our understanding of the structures, succession dynamics of these forest ecosystems as well as their functions and services in mass and energy flow, gas exchange and nutrient cycling, interactions among these processes, as a basis for advancing our ability to describe the role of these forests in regional and global scales and solving problems in conservation of biodiversity and environmental resources, ecological rehabilitation and reconstruction, as well as the management and utilization of forest resources.

4. The assignment of research Based on the development of ecology and the processes of different forest types in forest succession in DFERS, and the need of biodiversity conservation and ecological environment protection, to meet the needs of the rapid economic development in Guangdong province, our research activities are as the follows: (1) studying the function and processes of forest ecosystems; (2) understanding the interaction of forest ecosystem with the change of climate; (3) improving our knowledge on functions of these forests in ecological services; and (4) finding out the control mechanisms of forest ecosystems in mass and energy flow, water and heat exchange. There are four research groups in DFERS: meteorology and hydrology group, soil and nutrient group, eco physiology group, and energy and matter flow group.

5 Database: We collect data on the basis of the CERN standardship. Integrated by historical and current data documented in Dinghushan, the database can be categorized into 7 types: animal, microorganism, vegetation, hydrology, soil, meteorology, and forest management. The database hold the capacity of 2G in total, and can be reached through www.scib.ac.cn/dhs. Data that are currently collecting include parameters or contents required by the CERN C pools and flux, micrometerological monitoring data and tree growth parameters.

6. Faculty          

Name                      Professional post            E-mail                  Telephone             Fax

Guoyi Zhou                  Professor           gyzhou@scib.ac.cn       020-85231708     020-85232615 Changlian Peng             Professor           pengchl@scib.ac.cn     020-85232940     020-85232615 Jiangming Mo               Professor            mojm@scib.ac.cn        0758-2621187      0758-2623242 Zhongliang Huang         Professor           huangzl@scib.ac.cn     0758-2621169      020-85232615 Deqiang Zhang     Associate Prof.         zhangdeq@scib.ac.cn     020-85232615      020-85232615 Dazhi Wen           Associate Prof.         dzwen@scib.ac.cn         020-85232615       020-85232615 Junhua Yan          Associate Prof.          jhyan@scib.ac.cn        020-85232720       020-85232615 Qianmei Zhang      Assistant Prof.           qm-z@scib.ac.cn         020-85232615      020-85232615 Xuejun Ouyang      Assistant Prof.         ouyangxj@sina.com       0758-2624429       0758-2623242 Yunting Fang         Assistant Prof.          fangyt@scib.ac.cn     0758-2624429       0758-2623242 Shizhong Liu                  Assistant           lsz@scib.ac.cn          020-85232615       020-85232615 Guoliang Xu                   Assistant          Xugl75@sina.com           0758-2624429       0758-2623242 Guowei Chu                   Assistant          alex_chu@163.net          020-85232615      020-85232615 Guizhu Lin                      Assistant                                             020-85232940     020-85232615 Ze Meng                        Assistant        mengzdhs@sina.com            0758-2621556      020-85232615

Copyright @ 2006 Chinese National Ecosystem Research Network