Commemoration of 60th Anniversary of Huitong Forest Ecosystem Research Station and Academic Symposium on Forest Ecosystem Services Held in Huitong

Release Time:2020-11-25 Big Small

From November 7 to 10, 2020, the symposium on "Synergy Mechanisms of Forest Ecosystem Supply Service and Regulation Service" and the 60th anniversary commemoration of the establishment of the Huitong Forest Ecosystem Research Station of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as Huitong Station) was held in Huitong, Hunan Province. The event was co-organised by the Forest Ecology Branch of the Chinese Society of Forestry and the Professional Committee of Restoration Ecology of the Chinese Society of Ecology, and hosted by Huitong Station. Nearly 300 experts, scholars and postgraduates from more than 80 universities and research institutes across China attended the commemoration. The participants included Fu Bojie, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guo Zhiwei, former deputy director of the Department of Basic Research, Ministry of Science and Technology, Liu Shirong, president of the Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF), Xiao Wenfa, vice president of CAF, Chen Xingliang, vice chairman and secretary-general of the Chinese Society of Forestry, ZHU jiaojun, director of the Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE), CAS, as well as Fang Yunting and Zhuo Junchen, deputy directors of IAE. The conference was presided over by Fang Yunting. 

Before the start of the commemoration, the participants watched a specially made film which reviewed the history of Huitong Station in the past 60 years. The film recorded four generations of scientistsoutstanding contributions to China's fast-growing, high-yield forest trials and demonstrations, their efforts on the study of subtropical forest plantation structure optimization, long-term productivity maintenance mechanisms and forest ecosystem service functions. The film presented and praised the "migratory bird spirit" of scientists who travelled back and forth annually between North and South China and devote themselves to scientific research. 

At the opening ceremony, Zhu Jiaojun delivered a welcome speech on behalf of IAE. He expressed his gratitude to people who worked hard for the construction and development of the station. He said that Huitong Station is an important field research platform of IAE. He hoped that Huitong Station could pay more attention to the innovation goals of IAE in the future, focus on the discipline direction of the station, improve scientific support capabilities, produce more scientific outcomes, make more contributions for IAE's development, and offer better scientific and technological support for the national ecological security and facilitate the regional ecological civilization construction. Guo Zhiwei said that Huitong Station is one of the earliest forest ecosystem research stations established in China. The spirit of older generations of scientists who worked hard here has been well inherited. Several generations of scientists' persistence and hard work made Huitong Station continue to grow and develop. In recent years, the station has expanded its discipline directions, focusing on the strategic needs of the national ecological security, and has carried out a series of high-level research on soil organic carbon stability, ecological service function, and their synergy and trade-offs in subtropical forest ecosystems. "All these researches have made important progress, which is gratifying," he said. He expressed his hope that the academic development of the station will be closely integrated with frontiers of relevant disciplines and the development of local economy, strengthen cooperation and exchanges with other research stations located in the same region, and make greater contributions to the construction of national ecological civilization. 

Fu Bojie fully affirmed the arduous development process and brilliant achievements made at Huitong station. He said that, in the early days, Huitong Station made an important contribution to China's fast-growing, high-yield forest trials and demonstrations. Through the continuous efforts of several generations of scientists working at the station, three major mechanisms related to the decline of Chinese fir forests was revealed, and the Chinese fir & broad-leaved trees mixed forest mode that has high-productivity and good ecological functions was screened out, which successfully solved the major scientific problems that have hindered the sustainable management of Chinese fir timber forests. He said that Huitong Station has clearly defined its direction for future development and has made a good progress in studying synergy mechanisms of forest ecosystem supply service and regulation service. He encouraged researchers at Huitong station to provide more and better scientific and technological support for national ecological security and facilitate the construction of regional ecological civilization. Subsequently, Prof. Chen Xingliang, vice chairman and secretary-general of the Chinese Society of Forestry, Yang Linhua, deputy mayor of Huaihua City, and Yang Lingli, vice chairman of the Huaihua Municipal Political Consultative Conference and secretary of the Party Committee of Huitong County, delivered speeches and sent their congratulations and good wishes to Huitong Station. 

Afterwards, a symposium entitled "Synergy Mechanisms of Forest Ecosystem Supply Service and Regulation Service" was held. The symposium was presided over by Prof. Xiao Wenfa. Fu Bojie's talk was about the "Development Trends and Directions in Ecology & Environment Science." In his talk, FU outlined the origin and development process of sustainable development, clearly put forward the future themes of Earth Science research plan, and said that sustainable development is the golden key to solve global problems, the resources and environmental science is the basic and supporting discipline of sustainable development, and the research on sustainable development is the historical task of Ecology and Environmental Science. Prof. Li Yide of the Chinese Academy of Forestry gave a talk on "Natural Recovery and Regulation Mechanism of Rare Species in Tropical Rainforests and the Enlightenment for Practical Applicability." Prof. Wang Silong's talk was about "Degradation Mechanisms and Recovery Paths of Subtropical Forest Long-term Productivity." In his talk, Prof. Wang systematically sorted out the researches conducted at Huitong Station over the past 60 years, focusing on addressing forest plantation decline, the approaches of mixing coniferous and broad-leaved trees, soil organic carbon dynamics, and long-term productivity maintenance. Professor Wen Yuanguang of Guangxi University, Professor Liu Qijing of Beijing Forestry University, Prof. Wang Xiaoke of the Ecological Environment Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Prof. Xu Qing of the Chinese Academy of Forestry, and Professor Huang Zhiqun of Fujian Normal University delivered keynote talks as well. In addition, other 43 scholars and 22 postgraduate students gave talks at the symposium. After the symposium, the participants, accompanied by Wang Silong, inspected the Shuipingxi campus and the Moshao Forest Farm, laboratories, the large-scale forest plot, and ecological monitoring facilities of the station. 

This symposium gathered many well-known experts and scholars in the field of forest ecology and soil ecology in China, which has played a positive role in strengthening forest ecological research, promoting academic exchanges and cultivating young scholars, and will mark an important milestone in the history of Huitong Station.