Location: Stations--Forest Stations--Xishuangbanna

1. Name of Experiment Station: Xishuangbanna Tropical Rainforest Ecosystem Station

2. History of the Station Xishuangbanna Tropical Rainforest Ecosystem Station (XTRES) was originated from Yunnan Tropical Forest Bio-geographical Community Station (founded in 1958) and Department of Experimental Plant Community Research, Kunming Institute of Botany, CAS (founded in 1959). In 1964, the two departments were integrated into a research station, attached to Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (from 1974-1986 to be known as independent Yunnan Institute of Tropical Botany, CAS). When Yunnan Institute of Tropical Botany, CAS, was restructured in 1986, Department of Experimental Plant Community Research of Yunnan Institute of Tropical Botany, CAS combined with Ecological Research Department, Kunming Branch, CAS, to construct Kunming Institute of Ecology, CAS. XTRES belongs to Kunming Institute of Ecology, CAS. In 1992, XTRES became a field station of CERN. In October, 1996, Kunming Institute of Ecology combined with Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Kunming Institute of Botany, CAS, to establish new Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, CAS, and XTRES became a research department of the Garden. In 1999, the knowledge innovation base of Southwest China Biological Resources and Biodiversity Conservation Research was initiated and XTRES became an essential constituent providing experiment-supporting systems for the base. In 2001, the Station became a key national field scientific observation and experiment site.

3. Natural Conditions XTRES is located at Hulu Island in Menglun Town, Mengla County, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture. The island is surrounded by a river in 3 sides and has picturesque landscape and it is also the location of the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, CAS. Geographically,, it lies between 101?52E, 21?12N with an elevation of 570 m. .It is in the region of tropical rain forests and monsoon forests of the northern margin of the tropical Southeast Asia. The zonal vegetation types distributed in the area are tropical seasonal rainforest and monsoon forest owing to the monsoon climate of the northern tropics, the zonal soil types are lateritic soil and red lateritic soil; The study site of the Station is a small basin surrounded by low mountains and hills, with a number of streams. Annual average temperature is 21 5 , and mean maximum temperature is 25 5 in June and mean minimum temperature is 14 8 in January. The total temperature accumulation above 10 is 7,860 on an annual average, it is frost free all the year round. There are obvious dry and wet seasons, mean annual rainfall is 1,557mm about 87% of which occurs from May to October , whilethe period from November to April is the dry season with only 202mm of rainfall ,accounting for 13% of the annual rainfall. Xishuangbanna, located on the northern fringe of tropical Southeast Asia, has high temperature, adequate rainfall and other favorable natural conditions. This makes it possible that the most typical and bio-diversified tropical and monsoon forests with complicated communities develop in the area. On a land of no more than 1/500 of the total area of China, about 1/6 of plant species (5,000) of China are found here, many of which are endemic and rare species and some are living fossils of ancient plant species and wild species of cultivated plants. To date, as many as 52 species have been listed as key protected national rare and endangered species, taking up 15% of all the protected species in China. More than 1,000 plants found in the area enjoy direct economic potentials. Besides, the wild animal species there take up more than 1/4 of the total in China, certain species are only found in China and some being remnant of ancient species. The area is the meeting place of Himalayan flora, East Asia flora and Indo-Malaya flora. These features, together with its diversified landscape patterns and ancient geological formation, bring about rich wild animal and plant species and make the area most typical tropical rainforest with the richest biodiversity and complex communities. On the other hand, Xishuangbanna lies right on the transitional eco-region from tropical region to subtropical region. An eco-transitional region is an interface of different ecosystems and a critical region of different environmental conditions, thus it is unbalanced in nature and sees sudden changes of the elements to guarantee balance of environment. For these reasons, the area is vulnerable, unstable and sensitive to environmental changes and extra interferences. In addition, eco-transitional region is an area frequently seeing the changes and of different environment elements and it also shows non-linear relationship between biological resources and environment. Special changes of habitats often prompt the formation of endemic and marginal species. Its zonal characteristics is remolded with transitional, inland and marginal features. Xishuangbanna region is of great importance in studying tropical rainforest ecosystems in the light of rapid global environmental changes. Its transitional, inland and marginal features will clearly reflect the impact of global environmental changes on the vulnerable Ecotone. XTRES is the only experiment station featuring diversified habitats, biodiversity and transitional, inland and marginal characteristics. Over the years, it has carried out comprehensive positioning observations and researches covering the inter-relationships between plants, wild animals, microorganism, soil, hydrology and climate in the tropical forests.

4. Long-term objectives The researches are mainly targeted at tropical rainforest ecosystems, focusing long term comprehensive monitoring on its structure, function, dynamics and ecological process and conservation biology. The research projects also explore the mechanism and technologies to restore degraded ecosystems and seek approaches to establish optimized man-made tropical plant communities of multi-layers and multi-species with high productivity and ecological benefits. The overall aims of these projects are to elucidate the principles of structure, function and dynamic changes of tropical rainforest ecosystem and to reveal the relationships between different components of tropical rainforests and environment and consequently, seek sustainable ways to develop and protect and to balance ecological and economic benefits in tropical China, and to provide scientific evidence concerning the protection and development of habitats and biological resources, degraded ecosystems restoration and sustainable development.

5. Priorities As the only field station conducting monitor and research of tropical rainforest ecosystem in China, XTRES will follow the overall objectives of CERN and adopt the operation models of observation, research, demonstrating and training high quality staff and focus the researches on tropical rainforest ecosystem. It is committed to conducting long-term comprehensive monitoring on plants, wild animals, microorganism, soil, hydrology and climate of the tropical rainforest ecosystems as well as studies on comprehensive monitoring of structure, function, dynamics and ecological process of tropical rainforest ecosystem, and on conservation biology; establishing man-made tropical forest communities of multi-layer and multi species with high productivity and ecologically-beneficial according to the relative ecological principles and characteristics of rich-biodiversity; XTRES carry out related ecological pilot researches to serve the tropical region, explore the mechanism and technology to restore degraded tropical mountain ecosystem and develop an optimized models for agriculture production and vegetation restoration in the tropical region; train qualified research staff for the station; provide sustainable and systematic data for ecological researches and global environment changes and contribute to the degraded mountain ecosystem restoration and sustainable development of biological resources.

6. Existing Observation Facilities and Equipment XTRES was established in 1958. Over the last decades, with the support of CAS and Ministry of Science and Technology and different sections of the Garden, and the devotions and commitment of several generations of researchers, the Station now has comprehensive field observation sites and facilities. Over the years, the station has established a 30ha permanent observation plot at the core area of the nature reserve within 8 km from the station proper and some permanent observation plots have been set up in man-made tropical forest and secondary tropical forest to study the dynamics of communities. Besides, the station has also established the following research facilities in the plots: 3 hydrological and climate observation sites, 5 gauge weirs to monitor water flow in the watershed (2 in seasonal forests, 1 in secondary tropical forest, 1 in man-made tropical forest, 1 in farmland), 10 observation sites to monitor surface runoff (2 in seasonal rainforest, 3 in secondary tropical forest, 3 in man-made tropical forest, 2 in farmland), 3 sets of devices to monitor rainfall penetrating canopy and 5 sets of devices to measure stem flow, 3 observation towers to monitor microclimate in different gradient of forest ecosystems (the tower is 70 m high in seasonal rainforest with 14 working platforms installed; the tower in man-made tropical forest is 30 m high and 5 working platforms are installed; the tower in the secondary tropical forest is 55 high and 10 working platforms, microclimate auto-recording observation systems were installed in each tower). In addition, automatic climate recording devices and a regular climate monitoring site had been established in the station proper (established in 1959 and has been working for 43 years). During the 8th and 9th five-year plan periods, XTRES used self-raised funds and World Bank loan to purchase ultraviolet spectrophotometer and atomic spectrophotometer, portable photosynthesis system (3 sets), leaf surface area meter, plant growth boxes, neutron moisture analyzer, air vent meter, infrared actinography, canopy analyzer, GPS, waterflow analyzer of plants, annual ring analyzer of tree, 2 P3-computers, 2 P4-computers and graphic designer, scanner, graphic analyzer and other advanced devices. The station also makes efforts to improve the field observation sites and facilities and instruments to pave a solid ground to carry out tropical ecosystem observation and research.

7. Database In the last decades, XTRES has obtained a lot of data on dynamic changes of environment and vegetation types. The existing data ranges from biology, soil, hydrology and climate to research and social economic data. 7.1 Biological Database 7.1.1 Database on plant communities (including tropical seasonal rain forest, lime mountain monsoon rain forest over limestone, mountain rain forest, broadleaved evergreen forest and different plantations and secondary forest). 7.1.2 Database on biota of different plant communities (including tropical seasonal rain forest, man-made forest and secondary forest) 7.1.3 Database on net primary productivity of different plant communities. (including tropical seasonal rain forest, man-made forests and secondary forest) 7.1.4 Database on litterfall (including tropical seasonal rain forest, tropical monsoon forest over limestone, and different man-made forests and secondary forest). 7.1.5 Database on the element contents of different organs of dominant species (including tropical seasonal rain forest, man-made forest and secondary forest) 7.1.6 Database on the moisture contents of different organs of dominant species (including tropical seasonal rain forest, man-made forest and secondary forest) 7.1.7 Database on heat value of different organs of dominant species (including tropical seasonal rain forest, man-made forest and secondary forest) 7.1.8 Database of microorganism in soil (including tropical seasonal rain forest, man-made forest and secondary forest) 7.1.9 Database of wildlife species in soil (including tropical seasonal rain forest, man-made forest and secondary forest) 7.1.10 Database of bird communities (including tropical seasonal rain forest, man-made forest and secondary forest) 7.1.11 Database of insect communities (including tropical seasonal rain forest, man-made forest and secondary forest) 7.2 Database on Soil 7.2.1 Database of physical features of major soil types in the experiment sites of the station. 7.2.2 Database of chemical features of major soil types in the experiment sites of the station. 7.2.3 Database of soil element contents of different vegetation types (including tropical monsoon rain forests, monsoon rain forest over limestone, plantations and secondary forest communities) 7.2.4 Database of soil moisture of different vegetation types. (including tropical monsoon rain forests, monsoon rain forest over limestone, plantations and secondary forest communities) 7.3 Database on Hydrology 7.3.1 Database on water flow in the watershed of different vegetation types (including tropical seasonal rain forest, man-made forest, secondary forest and farmlands) . 7.3.2 Database on rainfall penetrating the canopies of different vegetation types (including tropical seasonal rain forest, man-made forest and secondary forest) 7.3.3 Database on stem flow of different vegetation types (including tropical seasonal rainforest, man-made forest and secondary forest) 7.3.4 Database on surface runoff of different vegetation types (including tropical seasonal rainforest, man-made forest and secondary forest) 7.3.5 Database on element contents in the watershed of different vegetation types (including tropical seasonal rain forest, man-made forest, secondary forest and farmlands) 7.3.6 Database on element contents in the rainfall penetrating canopies of different vegetation types (including tropical seasonal rainforest, man-made forest and secondary forest) 7.3.7 Database on element contents in stem flow of different vegetation types (including tropical seasonal rainforest, man-made forest and secondary forest) 7.3.8 Database on element contents in the surface runoff of different vegetation types (including tropical seasonal rainforest, man-made forest and secondary forest) 7.4 Database on Meteorology 7.4.1 Meteorological database of regular observation in the station proper. (since 1959) 7.4.2 Meteorological database of automatic observation in the station proper. (since 1998) 7.4.3 Meteorological database Xishuangbanna Prefecture (since 1959) 7.4.4 Database of Automatic Observation on Forest Micro-climate (including tropical seasonal rain forest, man-made forest and secondary forest). 7.5 Database on Research Projects (Including data of all the research projects) 7.6 Database on Socio- Economic Statistics 1994 ~ 2000

8. Staff Members: With the development and construction and support of CERN in the last decades, XTRES not only has relatively advanced infrastructure and technological systems, but also has trained and cultivated a stable and qualified monitoring and research faculty, which is, from time to time, reinforced by junior and intermediate monitoring and research technicians and assistants who provide the needed experiment technical support. To date, each section of the Station is headed by personnel with strong academic background and this lays a solid foundation for the creativity and development of the station. (information of the staff is detailed in the following table)

Name Sex Academic title Specialty E-mail Telephone E-mail Cao Min M Professor Forest eology Caom @xtbg.ac.cn 0871-5160998 0871-5160916 Zhang Yiping M Professor Ecological climate yipingzh@xtbg.ac.cn 0871-5160904 0871-5160916 Tang Jianwei M Associate Professor Forest ecology tangjw@xtbg.org.cn 0691-8715080 0691-8715070 Gan Jianmin M Senior Engineer Soil Ecology gjm@xtbg.org.cn 0691-8715080 0691-8715070 Liu Wenjie M Assistant Professor Climate and Hydrology lwj@xtbg.org.cn 0691-8715080 0691-8715070 Li Hongmei F Engineer Data management lihm@xtbg.org.cn 0691-8715080 0691-8715070 Fu Yun F Senior Engineer Chemical analysis fuyun@xtbg.ac.cn 0871-5145648 0871-5160916 Ma Youxin M Professor Landscape ecology mayx@xtbg.org.cn 0871-5155974 0871-5160916 Yang Darong M Professor Inter-specific coevolution yangdr@xtbg.org.cn 0871-5127180 0871-5160916 Liu Wenyao M Professor Forest ecology liuwy@xtbg.org.cn 0871-5160910 0871-5160916 Wang Zhijun M Professor Birds ecology wangzj@xtbg.org.cn 0871-5123683 0871-5160916 Song Qishi M Associate Professor Inter-specific coevolution songqs@xtbg.org.cn 0871-5160902 0871-5160916 Sha Liqing M Associate Professor Soil and plant nutrition shalq@xtbg.org.cn 0871-5112637 0871-5160916 Zheng Zheng M Associate Professor Plant ecology ZhengZ@xtbg.org.cn 0871-5149746 0871-5160916 Yang Xiaodong M Associate Professor Soil animal ecology yangxd@xtbg.org.cn 0871-5160900 0871-5160916 Tang Yong M Assistant Professor Plant ecology tangy@xtbg.org.cn 0871-5149746 0871-5160916 Guo Huijun M Professor Agro-ecoloogy hjguo@xtbg.org.cn 0691-8716422 0871-5160916 Hu Huabin M Assistant Professor Socio-forestry huhb@xtbg.ac.cn 0871-5144433 0871-5160916 Shen Youxin M Assistant Professor Restoration Ecology shenyx@xtbg.org.cn 0871-5160910 0871-5160916