ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE The Nu-Salween river system provides a vast laboratory Sweeping synergy for studying trans-border in ecological ecological security. research Located in China’s most biodiverse province, YUNNAN UNIVERSITY boasts a wide range of basic and translational research initiatives. The black-and-white snub-nosed monkey is an endangered species endemic to southwest China. Unique wildlife and how ancestral species rapidly palaeoecological treasures diversified into a multitude of make Yunnan a perfect site new forms. Their studies into for the School of Ecology and evolutionary palaeobiology, as Environmental Science (SEES), a well as the palaeoecological part of Yunnan University. Since origin of modern marine 1937, it has been the launching ecosystems, were recognized by pad for budding ecologists multiple State Natural Science and international scholars in Awards in China. developing frontier research. At the end of the Permian From profiling newly period some 252 million years discovered species, to mapping ago, the largest mass extinction international ecosystems, they event ever killed off 81% of have dug deep into the past to marine animals and 75% of land The discovery in 2016 of the Mesozoic mammal Anebodon luoi was led by the Centre for Vertebrate Evolutionary Biology. guide research and conservation vertebrates. Zhuo Feng has led strategies. a team at the Institute of Deep Time Terrestrial Ecology to bring SPEARHEADING RESEARCH first-hand findings unearthed coastal area. Their finding of mammal with a distinctive LRGR topography, including conservation base for migratory 50 major hydropower and river studies since the early 1990s. ACROSS SPACE AND TIME from southwest China. Their the abrupt disappearance of the dentition, which gives clues on the corridor and barrier effects fish across borders, in addition transport projects. Conservation As the laboratory director, he About 52 km southwest of systematic taxonomic studies Cathaysia flora sheds new light the evolution of marsupial and of the mountain ranges. Their to new conservation and legal strategies range from the early has led research into root- Yunnan’s provincial capital, of fossil plant groups and the on how land plants responded to placental mammals. systematic modelling and enforcement strategies across identification and assessment knot nematodes (RKNs), Kunming, the Maotianshan reconstruction of interspecies the end-Permian mass extinction. Just as comprehensive numerical simulation identified borders with Laos and Myanmar. of ecological risks, to striking a a parasite of plants which Shales at Chengjiang county is co-evolution have painted SEES scientists at the Centre are SEES’s national research unique eco-geographical effects Within China, they have created better balance between tributary causes huge economic losses. home to scattered fossil sites a comprehensive picture of for Vertebrate Evolutionary projects into trans-border on monsoon circulation, which the first monitoring centre for protection and mainstream While traditional chemical of the early Cambrian era from palaeoecosystems in the region. Biology have also been working ecological security, from pest affects the redistribution of rain the effects of tributary dam development. nematicides fail to account 518 million years ago. This Their 2020 study, based to help paint a bigger picture. control and disaster prevention, and hydrothermal patterns. demolition on habitat and for the complex interactions significant assemblage of the on a thorough examination of Apart from reporting on new to mapping water resources LRGR also features a resource restoration for fish. RETHINKING BIOCONTROL between introduced biocontrol early Cambrian organisms, more than 30,000 fossil plant dinosaur findings, they are in the region’s 18 shared river UNESCO-listed world heritage They have also supported the AND BIODIVERSITY agents and the agricultural known as the Chengjiang biota, specimens from 20 geological recognized for highlighting systems with neighbouring site, the Three Parallel Rivers construction of 12 national Two SEES professors at the State ecosystems, they also pose was discovered in 1984 by sections, demonstrated a highly the biodiversity of mammals countries. Supported by the of Yunnan Protected Areas. aquatic germplasm reserves in Key Laboratory for Conservation potential environmental and Xianguang Hou, who led a team diversified rainforest ecosystem through time, Neogene- Institute of International Rivers This 1.7 million-hectare region southwest China, and dedicated and Utilization of Bio-Resources, health problems. at Yunnan Key Laboratory for of the Cathaysia flora before era climate changes and and Eco-security, they focus contains the upper reaches of fish reserves in the lower section Keqin Zhang and Li Yu, have Zhang focuses on control Palaeobiology (YKLP). the extinction. As one of the mammalian evolutionary on the Longitudinal Range- the Yangtze River, as well as of Lancang River, targeting 106 developed new strategies for agents based on microbes which In addition to surveys of four principle late Paleozoic responses, and the origin and Gorge Region (LRGR), resulting two cross-border river systems: fish species. biocontrol and biodiversity feed on RKNs. They contain fossil biotas across southwest floras, the Cathaysia flora evolution of key characteristics from the longitudinal towering Nu-Salween, and Lancang- Another research goal conservation. several nematophagous fungi China, they have produced collapsed and was replaced by for mammals. An example is mountains and deep valleys Mekong, which is known as the for SEES has been reducing Biocontrol, or the eco- to reduce their population new theories surrounding the nearly mono-specific seed their 2016 fossil discovery of across southwest China. Data world’s second-most biodiverse ecological impact of friendly use of natural predators density or disease impact. adaptive radiation during the fern vegetation on upland and Anebodon luoi, a new genus collected from their observation region for fish species. SEES infrastructure, ranging from to reduce invasive species, Their screening technique and Cambrian explosion, revealing herbaceous lycopsids in the and species of Mesozoic points offer a new view of has helped establish Asia’s first dam construction to more than has been central to Zhang’s identification of a number of Advertiser retains sole responsibility for content Advertiser retains sole responsibility for content ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE Keqin Zhang’s team developed biocontrol agents against root-knot nematodes for crops, including Panax notoginseng, a traditional Chinese medicine. fungal strains, have achieved are co-leaders of the study group The research group led by and R. strykeri). They uncovered an increase in nematicidal ‘Evolution and Conservation Zhang and Li traced the origin the genetic mechanism efficiencies. Such success can of Animal Genetic Resource of Tibetan mastiffs, suggesting underlying their high-altitude be attributed to their improved Diversity in Southwest China’. that they are an ancient breed adaptation. understanding of fungistasis, or Their animal conservation derived probably from east Asia, Their 2020 genomic study the capacity of soils to inhibit research has benefited national and originally domesticated highlighted another critically the germination and growth of and provincial governments, from the Chinese native dogs endangered animal, pangolin, soil-borne fungi in the presence offering a scientific guide of the plains. In addition, they which has been frequently of optimal abiotic conditions. for the protection and use identified specific functional poached and trafficked They have identified factors in of genetic resources. Their genes and genotypes associated worldwide. Apart from looking the soil causing fungistasis for transdisciplinary advances with high-altitude adaptation of at how environmental and the biocontrol microbes, and in evolutionary biology, such the Tibetan mastiff. They also human factors led to their the reduction of fungistatic as functional genetics and assessed the genetic diversity population decline, the paper effects. Separate investigations comparative genomics, have and evolutionary convergence shows the resulting increase also revealed that temporal contributed to diverse findings for several domesticated in their inbreeding and genetic variations for microbiome from identifying genetic highland animals, promoting the load, with mutations in genes around the roots in the soil were factors that endanger rare conservation and utilization of linked to cancer and cholesterol partly responsible for biocontrol wild animals, to discerning the germplasm resources. homeostasis, further decreasing effectiveness. the molecular mechanisms Yu’s investigations into their adaptive potential. When there is a underlying genetic diversity, adaptation strategies also This study revealed the microbial imbalance in the and evolutionary convergence extended to the endangered types of illegally traded soil environment, certain for the domestication of Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys, pangolins, and outlined nematodes become dominant highland animals. which made the cover of Nature previously unrecognized genetic in the environment. Zhang Such study subjects include Genetics in August 2016. They populations that should be has also improved the the Tibetan mastiff, which have performed the de novo protected as evolutionarily germination and growth of