Researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences showed that co-invasion had a synergistic effect, fundamentally altering the assembly processes and interactions within soil fungal ecosystems.

An international team of researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and their collaborators revealed that contemporary climate and environment, not deep biogeographic history, are the primary drivers of local-scale tree diversity. Despite major differences in geological history, climate evolution, and species pool composition among continents, their tree diversity responds to environmental factors in a highly consistent manner.

Researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and their collaborators assessed the individual impacts of temperature or VPD on vegetation productivity across China. Their work represented a first attempt to distinguish the relative contributions of temperature and VPD to vegetation productivity at a regional scale.

Researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences investigated the intraspecific genome size variation and its role in ecological adaptation in the hexaploid plant Rorippa indica (R. indica). Their findings indicated that plants can adapt to tropical environments by significantly enlarging their genomes.

Researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences showed that restoring tropical forests on former rubber plantation lands effectively mitigates carbon and nutrient limitations for soil microorganisms. Both natural regeneration and restoration planting facilitate positive shifts in soil microbial activity, alleviate microbial nutrient constraints, and promote a more balanced nutrient-acquisition strategy.

Researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) and Kunming Institute of Botany (KIB) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences reconstructed the phylogenetic tree of the Apocynaceae family. They sought to resolve the long-standing uncertainties in the classification and evolutionary history of this ecologically and economically important plant family.

Researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences revealed that evolutionary history has a stronger influence on birds than on plants, and on seed-dispersal networks compared to pollination networks.

Researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and their collaborators utilized airborne environmental DNA (airborne eDNA) technology to demonstrate how fruit resources directly shape the distribution of fruit-eating animals (frugivores) in a tropical rainforest. It provided the first direct evidence that the fine-scale distribution of frugivores, including birds and mammals, is dynamically shaped by the availability of fruit resources, particularly from small-fruited trees.

During a field expedition in southern Myanmar in August 2024, researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences identified an unknown plant belonging to the genus Argostemma, a group of small succulent herbs in the Rubiaceae family. After careful morphological studies, the researchers confirmed that the specimen represents a species new to science.

Researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and their collaborators have introduced a new framework that integrates biophysical processes with the “source-flow-sink” theory. This approach enables the tracking of spatial flows of both economic benefits and ecosystem services across regional, district, and grid scales during urban growth.