At the invitation of the Ecological Stoichiometry Research Group of IAE, CAS, Dr. LIU Yanjie and Dr. ZHANG Hongxiang, two research scientists from the Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology (NIGA) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), visited the Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE) for academic exchanges. On May 20th, the two visiting experts had discussions with scientists and graduate students of the Ecological Stoichiometry Group on their research projects, and made two wonderful academic talks. Almost 30 people, including several senior scientists (JIANG Yong, WANG Zhengwen, LV Xiaotong, WANG Xugao, HAO Guangyou, etc) and graduate students of IAE, attended the talks.

Dr. LIU Yanjie, researcher (senior research scientist), gave a talk entitled 'Plant invasion under global changes’, in which he presented the mechanisms controlling the responses of plant phenotypic plasticity to environmental changes, elucidated the mechanisms of plant invasion, and explained how plants interact under global changes. Dr. ZHANG Hongxiang, associate researcher (= research scientist), gave a talk on ‘Seed functional traits and plant adaptation’. She studied the seed traits of grassland plants and explored the physiological and ecological responses of the early growth stage of plants to environmental factors and global climate change. She is currently involved in the collection of plant seeds and propagules, the update of seed trait database, and providing technical support for plant evolution ecology research.

The two talks aroused the interest of researchers and graduate students who attended the academic meeting. After the talks, Dr. LIU and ZHANG had in-depth exchanges with participants on some scientific topics and research methods that they were all interested in. This scientific exchange has deepened the students' knowledge in relevant areas and has widened their research horizons.