Disturbance ecology

Disturbance is ubiquitous in terrestrial ecosystems, and drives fundamental processes as long as it is at natural levels. Anthropocentric disturbance is increasingly becoming prominent in the present era of Anthropocene. Natural disturbance regime is also changing due to climate change. It is thus important, from both basic and applied perspectives, to understand the causes and consequences of disturbance. 

Ecosystem management

Ecosystem management is one of the major approaches in modern resource management, which aims to conserve biological diversity while meeting the social, economic, political and cultural needs of current and future generations. More　and more focuses are now given to management approaches founded on natural processes. In this regard, ecosystem management plays critical roles in coping with uncertainty and helping build resilience for both society and ecosystems.

Community assembly

There is a growing level of concerns and demands for safeguarding biodiversity. These concerns primarily derive from substantial declines in biodiversity at various spatial, temporal and biological scales. To date, there is still limited knowledge on how biodiversity is organized and changing under changing environments. Theoretical understandings of the community assembly processes can potentially help to conserve biodiversity at the local scale in the era of global change.

Biodiversity-ecosystem functioning

Currently, there is a growing body of scientific evidence indicating that biodiversity is not merely a response variable to environmental changes but also a predictor of various ecosystem functions and services, which are essential for sustaining human well-being. The knowledge of the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning is still not fully integrated but becoming to play a critical role in informing policy at multiple legislative scales. Biodiversity issues are thus no longer just "concerns" but rather " demands" for the sake of humanity.