Research Facilities

Laboratory of Vegetation & Environmental Change

Dec 23, 2025
The  Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change (LVEC) was developed  from the Open Laboratory for Quantitative Vegetation Ecology, Chinese  Academy of Sciences (CAS), and Center for Plant Ecology, Institute of  Botany, CAS. The current director of the Academic Committee is Academician  Fang Jingyun and the director of the laboratory is Prof. Yang Yuanhe.
The  main research areas of LVEC include vegetation patterns and maintenance,  biodiversity and ecological conservation, response and adaptation to  global change, biogeochemical cycle, and eco-prataculture and sustainability.
The  LVEC is composed of 15 research groups, a sub-center for biology, Chinese  Ecosystem Research Network (CERN), 4 field ecological stations funded  by Ministry of Science & Technology (MoST), 4 field ecological stations  belonging to CERN, and an analytical and testing center. There are more  than 200 instruments with the total value about 50 million yuan.
Currently  there are 94 academic staff in LVEC, among whom, 6 were supported by  the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, 9 were supported  by the Excellent Young Scientists Fund. Currently, there are about 260  postdoctoral researchers and graduate students in the LVEC.
At  present, the staff in LVEC conduct more than 100 projects including  National Key Research and Development Projects, NSFC Key Program projects,  the Science Fund for Excellent Research Groups project, National Science  Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars projects, Excellent Young Scientists  Fund projects, Strategic Priority Research Programs of CAS and International  Cooperation Programs. Since 2021, the LVEC staff have published more  than 1100 research papers in international journals including Science,  PNAS, Nature Climate Change, Nature Plants, Nature  Geoscience, Nature Ecology & Evolution, Nature Communications,  Science Advances, National Science Review, Ecology Letters  and Global Change Biology.
The  LVEC has established collaborations with universities and institutions  in more than 20 countries including USA, Germany, Canada, Japan, Switzerland,  France, Netherlands etc. The LVEC has become one of internationally  recognized organizations in the research field of grassland ecology,  bio-diversity and global change ecology.


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