The Viera y Clavijo Botanical Garden of Gran Canaria, took an active part recently through its Director, Dr Juli Caujapé, on the International Conference on Conservation Biology of tropical and subtropical plants held on Hainan Island, China. The conference, which included theoretical and practical sessions as well as field visits to different parts of the island, was organized by Dr. Ming-Xun Ren, Professor at Hainan University.
GreenTank contacted Professor Reng, who in the following interview will share the conclusions from the forum as well as general aspects about research in China. He will also talk us through similarities between the islands of China and other archipelagoes such as the Canary Islands.
-Please tell us a brief cv about your career
-I was born at 7th January 1976. My research interest includes plant reproductive ecology & molecular biogeography of tropical and island plants. I got my Ph.D. Degree in 2004 from Beijing Normal University, China. Then I worked as a two-year postdoc in Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. I worked in Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences for six years (2006-2012) and became Research Associate from 2008, mainly studying on pollination biology and molecular ecology. In 2012-2013, I am a postdoc reearcher in Botanic Institute of Barcelona (Spain) to study the plant taxonamy and evolution and continued my postdoc in University of Naples ‘Federico II’, Italy, in 2013-2014. From 2014, I worked in Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Forestry, Hainan University, China as full professor. During my career, I got four grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, two grants from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and one grant from Hainan University. I published 12 papers in SCI-Journals including Annals of Botany, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, Plant Systematics and Evolution, PloS ONE, International Journal of Plant Sciences, Acta Oecologica, Aquatic Botany etc. and 10 papers in Chinese journals.
-What were the objectives of the international conference held in the island of Hainan in 2015?
-The 1st International Conference on Tropical Plant, co-organized by Hainan University of China (HNU) and Florida International University of USA (FIU), was held in May of 2015 in Hainan University. The conference was sponsored to enhance our uderstanding and conservation strategy of tropical plants and their ecosystems. As we know, the tropicl regions, especially for the Southeast Asia, which is largely consisted with islands, is highly fragmented and experienced severe exploration due to local quick economic development. The conservation and collection of plant resources need collaboration worldwide, so the Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Forestry of HNU and the International Center for Tropical Plants of FIU sponsored the conference and invited scientists from Southeast Asia, USA, Spain, Australia, and China to share our current knowledge and to discuss future collorations in researches and conservations.
-Who were the participants of the event
Totaly more than 100 participants of the conference, including ten foreign scientists, e.g. Prof. Christopher Baraloto (director of the International Center for Tropical Plants, FIU), Dr. Hong Liu and Dr. Jennifer H. Richards (Center for Tropical Plant Conservation, Florida International University, USA), Prof. Alfonso Susanna (director of the Botanical Institute of Barcelona, Spain), Dr. Jordi Lopez-Pujol and Prof. Roser Vilatersana (Botanical Institute of Barcelona), Dr. Andrew N. Gillison (Center for Biodiversity Management, Yungaburra, Queensland, Australia), Dr. Yam Tim Wing (Singapore Botanical Garden), Mr. Gang Lu (Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, Hong Kong), etc. More than 20 outstanding chinese scientists participate the conference, including Prof. Da-Yong Zhang (Beijing Normal University), Prof. Jian-Quan Liu (Sichuan University), Prof. Yan Liu (Guangxi Institute of Botany), Prof. Hua Zhu (Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, CAS), Prof. Run-Guo Zang (Chinese Academy of Forestry), Dr. Yu-Peng Geng (Yunnan University) etc.
-What were the main conclusions of this meeting?
-First, The conference recognized the tropical regions all over the world are highly fragmented, especially for the biodiversity on island and penisula in Southeast Asia and archipelago in Atlantic Ocean.
Onethe conclusion was to establish a Conservation Union for Tropical Plants and Ecosystem via organizing international scientists and NGOs to share information on biodiversity situations and to formulate integrated conservation strategies in biodiversity hotspots of tropical regions.
-In your opinion, What are the main lines of research in which you and your team work in the margins of this congress?
-The studies in my team involves both field and laboratory works. In the lab, we largely use molecular techniques including DNA markers and sequences to study the genetics, evolutionary history, and phylogeography of several typical tropical plants such as Gesneriaceae, Malpighiaceae and Orchidaceae.
In the field, we focus on population biology and pollination ecology of the target species, which is much needed for effective conservation. We also study the speciation mechanism and in situ conservation of the island-endemic species of Gesneriaceae and Orchidaceae, using three species as examples. In the recent five year, our team are supported by eight grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China and Hainan University, with grant amount reaches 7 million CNY (~ 1 million Euros).
Our team collaborate with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chiang Mai University (Thailand) and Sriwijaya University (Indonesia) for studies on Asia’s tropical plants, and collaborate with Botanical Institute of Barcelona and Canary Botanical Garden (Spain) and Tokyo University (Japan) for studies on island plants and plant conservations.
-What are the main environmental challenges of Hainan Island?
-The tourism. The Hainan Island is planned to constructed as ‘International Tourism Island’ with ‘whole-scale Tourism’ by the Chinese goverment at about five year ago. Many mountains and bays are changed to build hotels and resorts. Serious ecological destruction is already caused by the increasing number of tourists.
There are also some minning sites and iron factories near mountains, which possess great environmental challenges to the island biodiversity. In the future, it will getting more severe since the Island is still in developing in both human population and tourism economy.
-These challenges, think they are found in other islands of the world as the Canary Islands?
-Yes. Especially for the tropical islands and the islands as tourist destination including Canary Island. The biggest diference is that Hainan Island is much bigger than most other islands, with an area about 34 thousand km2.
-Have you found some other connections that would stand out between the Canaries and Hainan?
-Both are very near to the mainland and both have high mountains. Another important connection between Canaries and Hainan is that the tourism is periodic and mostly occur in spring and winter. Unfortunately this time is the season for tropical plant growth. So the two islands encounter the common problem that how to protect the local endangered species and ecosystems with growing tourism.
-Is the research adequately supported in China? Are sufficient resources allocated?
-China has spent alot of money in scientific researches. But the tropical area and island are very limited in the country, so the supports from the cental government are much less than studies on the mainland China. The local government of Hainan Island is hard to support the basic researches and biological conservation because of underdevelopment. Now the situation is getting better and sufficient resources including grants, botanists and local NGOs are carried out in the island and the nearby tropical regions in the mainland China.
-What were the objectives of the recent international course held in the island of Hainan?
-The recent international course ‘Biodiversity of tropical and island plants’ was held in the november of 2016, with the topic theme named ‘island plants and their conservation’. This course is aimed to teach postgraduates and share knowledge with international scientists with research frontiers in tropical botany and conservation biology, especially for island-endemic plants and natural forests. The course consisted of three-day classroom teaching and two-day field trainings.
-Who were the participants of the event?
-Seven outstanding scientist: Prof. Frank A. La Sorte (USA), Prof. Juli Caujapé-Castells (Spain), Prof. Seiji Ishibashi (Japan), Dr. Jin-Long Zhang (Hong Kong), Prof. Jiang-Yun Gao (Yunnan University, China), Prof. Wan-Jin Liao (Beijing Normal University, China), Prof. Ming-Xun Ren (Hainan University, China). Young scholar: about 10 from Hainan University and Hainan Normal University. And students: six Ph.D students, 20 postgraduates, and six undergraduates.
