Researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) and their collaborators sought to examine how biotic factors (including forest structure attributes, community-weighted mean of traits, and functional diversity) and abiotic factors (such as topography and soil properties) affect the aboveground biomass at two spatial scales (i.e., 20 m × 20 m and 50 m × 50 m) in a tropical seasonal rainforest in southwestern China.

Prof. ZHU Hua of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) recently addresssed the issue of origin and evolution of biota in Hainan Island, China. Through comparative studies of biotic groups, geological structures and palaeomagnetism, it is suggested that Hainan Island was connected to Vietnam and Guangxi during the Eocene, and subsequently moved southeastward to its current position.

Researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) and Chengdu University of Technology recently discovered many late Paleocene palm leaf fossils from Lazi County, southern Tibetan Plateau. This discovery provides new and compelling evidence that the Kohistan-Ladakh Island Arc (KLIA) served as a key series of steppingstones for the dispersal of palms from the India Plate to southern Tibet.

Researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) and their collaborators systematically assessed the changes in the diversity patterns of 110 threatened timber tree species in China under the background of climate change and the effectiveness of existing protected areas (PAs).

Researchers from Xishuangbannna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) and the University of California, San Diego showed that the fear response of honeybees to predators was mediated by dopamine, and this response not only increased the alertness of honeybees but also affected their cognitive abilities.

Using tree-ring width data of Pinus latteri from three sites in southern Laos, researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) developed a new regional composite chronology and reconstructed the hydroclimatic variability during 1885–2019. They showed that tree-ring widths of Pinus latteri in southern Laos were an effective tool for studying long-term hydroclimatic variability in the region.

Researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) and their collaborators investigated the water transport characteristics of mistletoes and their host plants under different drought environments. They tried to discern the adaptive strategies of mistletoes and their hosts along a gradient of aridity index (proxy of diverse water and temperature conditions), focusing on xylem traits related to plant hydraulic functions.

Researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) and their collaborators explored the challenges of rapid urbanization in achieving ecosystem services (ESs) satisfaction and equity. Through an in-depth analysis of the impact of urbanization process (taking Guangdong as an example) on the supply–demand relationships of ecosystem services, they revealed the mechanisms by which various key factors affected the region’s ecological services.

Researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) recently investigated the interactions between root-zone microorganisms and plant root exudates. They proposed the aerial root mucilage probiotics system as a novel model for identifying the crucial interactions between functional metabolites and the probiotic microbiome.