In order to better realize resource sharing, platform sharing and wisdom sharing within the institute, to train high-caliber scientific talents and to promote the output of big achievements, with the support of leaders of the Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, more than 10 scientists from seven research groups of IAE (including Stable Isotope Ecology, Eco-climatology, Forest Boundary Ecology, Biogeochemistry, Ecological Stoichiometry, Landscape Process and etc.) established a featured innovation team and launched the kick-off meeting of their project “the response and adaptation of forests to global changes and the application of stable isotope technology” on the morning of June 5, 2019. The meeting was presided over by the team's chief researcher, FANG Yunting. All attendees discussed the future researches and development direction of the big team. ZHUO Junchen, the secretary of the Discipline Committee of IAE attended and spoke at the meeting.

ZHUO outlined the original intention and operational mechanism of the featured innovation team. FANG made a more detailed statement on the background, framework, research objectives and tasks of the entire team. The main purpose of forming the team is to reveal the effects of global changes such as global warming, nitrogen deposition and variations in precipitation on Northeast China's forests’ carbon and nitrogen cycles and other ecosystem processes, particularly emphasizing the use of stable isotope techniques in manipulation experimental studies and on-site investigations along natural gradients, FANG said. The other team members later talked about their own ideas involving specific research contents and cooperative relationships with others in the big team. All team members agreed to communicate timely and cooperate well with each other (e.g., sharing the research resources) to jointly promote the research output of the team, deeply understand the carbon, nitrogen and water cycles in forested areas in northeast China and to predict the changes in regional forest services and functions in the scenarios of global changes.