News

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  Grassland Degradation Reshapes the Relationship between Biodiversity and Ecosystem Multifunctionality

  A research team led by Prof. YANG Yuanhe from the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IBCAS), has revealed how grassland degradation alters the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality across the Tibetan alpine grasslands. The findings, published in Nature Plants, provide the first large-scale field evidence that grassland degradation fundamentally shifts the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality- shifting it from plant-dominated to increasingly soil microbes mediated.

  Nov 10, 2025
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  Abrupt Permafrost Thaw Accelerates Soil Phosphorus Cycling, Potentially Offsetting Carbon Release

  Permafrost thaw can stimulate the release of soil carbon, triggering a positive carbon-climate feedback that may be mediated by changes in soil phosphorus (P) availability. A research team led by Prof. YANG Yuanhe from the Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IBCAS), reports that abrupt permafrost thaw accelerates soil P cycling, with potential consequences for plant primary productivity and carbon sequestration in permafrost ecosystems.

  Oct 18, 2025
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  IBCAS Organized Side Event at the 5th World Congress of Biosphere Reserves

  On September 24, the side event "the Application and Innovation of Networked Monitoring Systems in the Management of Natural Protected Areas" of the 5th World Congress of Biosphere Reserves was held in Hangzhou. Organized by the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IBCAS) and the Biodiversity Committee of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and co-organized by the Institute of Zoology of CAS and the International Society of Zoological Sciences, the meeting brought together nearly 100 participants from seven countries, including Indonesia, Kenya, and Brazil.

  Sep 29, 2025
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  Chinese Scientists Unveils Worldwide Trait Coordination and Climate Trade-Offs in Grassland Plants

  Plant functional traits and their interrelationships are critical in shaping the evolutionary and adaptive trajectories of plant species, as well as their responses to environmental changes. Grassland ecosystems serve as a natural laboratory for exploring plant trait coordination, given their high biodiversity, environmental heterogeneity and intricate species interactions. However, the patterns of trait covariation across grasslands—the largest terrestrial ecosystems globally—and their environmental dependencies remain poorly understood

  Sep 28, 2025
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  Delegation from the Training Programme on Sustainable Development of World Mountain Biosphere Reserves Visited IBCAS

  On 20 September, a 28-member delegation from the "Training Programme on Sustainable Development of World Mountain Biosphere Reserves" visited the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IBCAS). Deputy Director-General Prof. YANG Wenqiang welcomed the delegation. Prof. Yang briefed the visitors on IBCAS history and research portfolios, after which the delegation toured the institute's History Museum, the Plant Science Data Center, and the Conservatories as well as the National Botanical Garden. Discussions focused on plant-diversity research and the ex-situ conservation of endangered species.

  Sep 23, 2025
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  Chinese Scientists Reveal the Evolution of Desert Vegetation at Lop Nur

  A new study has revealed an alternation between temperate shrubby desert and temperate semi-shrubby/dwarf semi-shrubby desert from Latest Pleistocene to mid-Holocene (~23.3–7.2 cal kyr BP) at Lop Nur, a well-known example of environmental change in arid Central Asia. The finding was published recenlty in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.

  Sep 12, 2025
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  Researchers Discover How Forest Biodiversity Increases Productivity via Complementary Use of Canopy Space by Tree Species

  A new study published in PNAS shows that tree diversity consistently promotes aboveground biomass through fostering greater canopy structural complexity (CSC). Species complementarity is the main driver, with its positive effects strengthening over time

  Oct 03, 2025
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  Researchers Reveal Molecular Assembly and Efficient Light Harvesting of Largest Eukaryotic Photosystem Complex

  On September 11, Science featured the work of Chinese researchers on its cover. A team co-led by Prof. WANG Wenda and Prof. TIAN Lijin from the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with collaborators, reports the first three-dimensional structure of the photosystem I–fucoxanthin–chlorophyll a/c-binding protein supercomplex (PSI-FCPI) from a coccolithophore. The study reveals how this giant photosynthetic machine can expand its light-harvesting cross-section by 3–4 fold while still maintaining over 95% energy conversion efficiency.

  Sep 12, 2025
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  Decadal Warming Depletes Topsoil Nitrogen Stocks in Permafrost Ecosystems

  A research team led by Prof. YANG Yuanhe from the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IBCAS), in collaboration with partners, highlights that the vulnerability of soil nitrogen (N) stocks with prolonged warming in a Tibetan permafrost ecosystem.

  Sep 09, 2025
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  Chinese Scientists Reveal Hidden Extinction Crisis in Native Flora

  A team led by Dr. SHEN Guozhen from the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with domestic and international collaborators, has revealed a "hidden extinction crisis" in China's flora over the past four decades. The study, published in One Earth on 3 September, integrates satellite-derived land-cover data (1980-2018) with species-composition models to quantify, for the first time at a national scale, how habitat loss reshapes extinction risk for entire plant communities.

  Sep 01, 2025