现代生态学研究中的重点和热点论题

1. Molecular and evolutionary ecology

1) Genetic consequences of climatic and environmental changes

2) Ecological adaptation and speciation – the effect of ecological factors on genotype and

phenotype

3) Ecological genomics

4) Phylogeography – use DNA markers to study processes and patterns of geographical

variation

5) Relationship of genetic diversity to species diversity and community stability

6) Life history evolution – functional groups, life-history trade-offs, implications to species

coexistence, sex allocation

7) Phenotypic plasticity

2. Ecophysiology

8) Physiological adaptation and responses to extreme environments / in stressed

environments

9) Physiological responses and adaptation to global change

10) Scaling of ecophysiological processes (including allometric scaling)

11) Resource allocation, plant defense, and reproductive strategies (closely related to

chemical ecology)

3. Population Ecology

12) Population dynamics in heterogeneous environments (including metapopulation

dynamics and metapopulation genetics)

13) Role of dispersal in population dynamics and distribution

14) Causes and mechanisms of population regulation

15) Survival of small populations (demographic, genetic, and environmental stochasticities,

as well as disasters)

16) Population ecology of clonal organisms17) Interface between population and ecosystem ecology

2

4. Community Ecology

18) Maintenance mechanisms of species diversity

19) Neutral theory and species-area relationship

20) Food web structure and trophic interactions

21) Community phenological responses to environmental changes (in relation to global

change, urbanization, etc.)

22) Community organization and dynamics

23) Species interactions

24) Relationship between local and regional patterns/processes

5. Ecosystem Ecology

25) Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning

26) Ecosystem responses and feedbacks to global changes (e.g., climate change and land use

change; emphasizing multiple stressors/factors)

27) Ecosystem responses to local and regional-scale disturbances (including natural and

anthropogenic disturbances, such as fires, grazing, nutrient enrichment, pest outbreaks,

flooding, hydrological alterations)

28) Ecological stoichiometry and elemental interactions

6. Landscape Ecology

29) Relationship between spatial pattern and ecological processes (particularly population

and ecosystem processes)

30) Land use and land cover change and its ecological consequences (including urbanization,

urban/wilderness interface, etc.)

31) Disturbance and patch dynamics

32) Landscape fragmentation and its effects on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning

33) Scaling – transferring information across space, time, and organizational levels

34) Ecosystem/landscape management

35) Integration between ecology and landscape planning, design, andarchitecture

36) Transdisciplinary studies of landscape sustainability

7. Global Change and Ecological Responses

37) Global C, N, and hydrological cycles

38) Human dimensions in global change (land use and land cover, decision/policy making,

socioeconomic processes, human-induced disturbances, etc.)

39) Field manipulative ecosystem experiments (soil warming, FACE, etc.)

40) Multiple-scale monitoring/observing systems

41) Thresholds, nonlinearity, and uncertainty in global change research

8. Biological Invasions

42) Invasion mechanisms, processes, and prediction

43) Methods, management, and policy for controlling and eradicating biological invasion

44) Transcontinental exchange of species

45) Impacts of biological invasion

3

9. Conservation Biology (Pattern, dynamics, mechanisms, and conservation of biodiversity)

46) Spatial pattern, mechanisms, and conservation strategy of biodiversity

47) Biodiversity and global change

48) Impacts of major geological events on biodiversity

49) Mechanisms and conservation strategies of threatened species

50) Role of biodiversity in ecological restoration and rehabilitation

51) Monitoring and information systems of biodiversity

10. Restoration ecology

52) Assembly rules and restored ecosystem organization

53) Spatial heterogeneity and restored ecosystem development

54) Environmental stochasticity and ecological restoration design and evaluation

55) Thresholds and nonlinearity in ecosystem degradation and restoration

56) Development and study of reference ecosystems (along a gradient of disturbance for a

specific ecosystem type)

57) Whole-ecosystem experimental studies of ecological restoration

11. Ecosystem Services and Valuation

58) Processes and underlying mechanisms that generate ecosystem services59) Quantification and identification of ecosystem services

60) Spatial variability and dynamics of ecosystem services

61) Relationship of ecosystem services to human activities and welfare

62) Valuation methodologies and approaches

13. Other topics of special concern

63) Methodology, field design, and statistical analysis of large-scale ecological experiments

(some methodologies do exist, but their applications have rarely used or misused)

) Database networking and sharing

65) Long-term ecological monitoring and research

66) Outbreaks of epidemic and infectious species

67) Impacts of grand engineering projects (hydroelectric dams, etc.) on biodiversity

68) Ecological risk assessment

69) Tree of life – Molecular phylogenetics