From April 19 to 21, the 1st Asian Grassland Conference co-organized by the Eurasia Steppe Association, a sub-association of International Association of Vegetation Science, was successfully held online. The theme of the conference is the ecological environment of Asian grassland and its protection. And the discussion at the conference is regarding the protection of grassland biodiversity, the improvement of function and service of ecological system, the impact of climate changes and adaptation to them and the sustainable development of grassland and pastoral areas.
IMU is one of the organizers of the conference and its Division of International Cooperation and Exchange has done a lot for the success of the conference. Feng Gang, Zhang Jinghui, Wang Xinyu, Shang Chenyu, Liang Maowei， Han Penguin， Shi Chunjun and Li Fengshi gave their academic reports at the conference. 7 postgraduate students including Wang Yanan exchanged their ideas through short video reports and wall newspapers. Li Fengshi won the Award for Excellent Reports of Young Scholars and Wang Yanan the Award for Excellent Wall Newspapers. Prof. Li Yonghong involved in the organization and chairing of the conference. Wu Jianguo, professor of the State University of Arizona of the U.S. and director of the Academic Board of the Key Laboratory of Ecology and Resource Use of the Mongolian Plateau, Ministry of Education, introduced the Journal of Landscape Ecology and his published articles about the ecological environment of Asian steppe at the special forum on international scientific journals. At the virtual conference venue, there is a special exhibition hall to give a general introduction to IMU and the university’s research about ecological situation of steppe.
Altogether 248 grassland researchers from 21 Asian countries and 10 European countries registered to attend the conference. The discussions and exchanges were conducted through 3 conference reports, 45 sub-conference reports and 67 short video reports. The domestic conference attendees are from Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research of Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS), Institute of Zoology of CAS, Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences(CAAS) , Institute of Grassland Research of CAAS, Lanzhou University, Gansu Agricultural University, Qinghai University, Yangzhou University, Taiyuan Normal University and Inner Mongolia University. In addition, four special symposiums were held on the sideline of the conference on the typology of Asian grassland, the construction of database of European grassland, writing of academic articles for international academic journals and establishment of Asian branch of International Association of Vegetation Science. This conference has strengthened the exchanges among the grassland researchers and those devoting to the grassland protection and set a solid foundation for the further exchanges and cooperation on grassland research.
Logo of the entrance of the virtual conference venue for the 1st Asian Grassland Conference
An Introduction to IMU at the virtual exhibition hall of the conference
An introduction to the grassland research of IMU at the virtual exhibition hall of the conference
