E-mail: keylab@xtbg.ac.cn 

Website: http://keylab.xtbg.ac.cn or http://210.72.95.133 

The CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology (TFE), formerly known as Open Laboratory of Tropical Rainforest Ecosystem Research and Management, was established in 2008. TFE is engaged in basic research in tropical and subtropical forest ecology and is directly affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). TFE will be an integrated world-class-level research platform on tropical and subtropical forest ecology, and will help both to enhance ecology research in China and bring up a number of senior specialized personnel on tropical ecology in Southeast Asia. It will contribute scientifically to sound research on tropical biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. 

TFE's overall development objective is "for the national strategic needs, aiming at the international forefront of tropical forest ecology, to carry out basic research on forest ecology in tropical and subtropical areas in China, making it a well-known institute in China and abroad for scientific research, technological innovation and personnel training ". 

There are 84 permanent staff in the TFE in 2019, with 19 professors and 24 associate professors. Generally, visiting scholars or post-doctors are about 20. Meanwhile, master or doctor candidates are about 140 in TFE. 

There are 16 research groups in TFE. They are: 

Forest Ecology Group, Restoration Ecology Group, Plant Ecophysiology Group, Soil Ecology Group, Community Assembly and Species Coexistence Group, Forest Canopy Ecology Group, Ecology & Evolution Of Plant-Animal Interaction, Coevolution Group, Chemical Ecology Group, Plant Evolutionary Ecology Research Group, Biogeography and Ecology Group, Global Change Research Group, Palaeoecology Research Group, Ecohydrology Research Group, Tree Ring and Environmental Change Group, Biological Invasion Ecology Group.  

There are 3 field stations in TFE. They are: 

National Forest Ecosystem Research Station at Xishuangbanna 

National Forest Ecosystem Research Station at Ailaoshan 

Yuanjiang Savanna Ecosystem Research Station 

The number of articles published in SCI journal is about 90 each year. 

Visits & communication: 

There were nearly 380 foreign guests or visiting scholars from more than 20 countries to participate in international meetings, training, joint research or academic exchanges; meanwhile, for researchers, there were more than 50 trips to the United States, Britain and more than 10 countries and regions to attend international conferences, studies or training.