On 7-8 October 2017, the annual Seminar to summarize the advancement for the project that supported by CAS Pilot Project and hosted by the Institute of Soil Science(ISS) CAS was held in IAE. The vice director of IAE, Prof FANG Yunting, the chief scientist of the project, Prof HAN Xingguo from the Institute of Botany CAS, the principal Investigators Prof CHU Haiyan from ISS, Prof WANG Guanghua from Institute of Northeast Geography and Agro-Ecology CAS, Prof YANG Yunfeng from Qinghua University, Prof JIANG Yong and Prof ZHANG Huiwen from IAE and the director of Office of Science and Technology, IAE ZHUO Junchen were present. About 30 workers for the project attended. The seminar was conducted by Prof CHU Haiyan.

Prof FANG Yuntingmade welcome speech. Prof CHU Haiyan introduced the whole situation of the project, including

Implementation plan, task assignment and paper publications. Prof YANG Yunfeng, SHI Yu, LIU Junjie, GUO Zhibin, YAO Qin reported their annual advancement of their task, respectively.

The specialists commented the task implementation and made concrete suggestions and requirement. Prof HAN Xingguo expressed desire that all the group members support each other, strengthen cooperation, put the information together and search the real value. He suggested also that carefully use the concept of niche, objectively measure the data, get more possible background value of soil. As to organic fertilizer, the fertilizer composition and microbe composition should be clearly described separately and clearly so as to make the explanation clearer. Some speculated results should be experimentally tested carefully. The major workers for the task groups discussed the method for data analyses like microbe net analysis, the definition of core species and the work directions in the future.

The meeting summarized the 2017 annual work, made clear the plan next year and set foundations for smooth implementation of the project in the future.