The doctoral thesis entitled “Disentangling Mechanisms Underlying Tree Species Coexistence: Integrating Phylogenetic and Functional Dimensions” by Dr. YANG Jie of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) has been enlisted in the 2016 Provincial Excellent Dissertations of Yunnan. The rating of her dissertation is superior.
   During her studies for a Ph.D degree, Dr. Yang Jie and her teachers applied individual species area relationship (ISAR) and individual phylogenetic area relationship (IPAR) approaches to study the relative importance of niche or neutral processes as drivers of species coexistence across scales within nine forest dynamics plots (FDPs). The study mainly resulted in the importance of post evolutionary history in dictating the ecological interactions; abiotic determination is more important at larger scales while biotic determination is more important on smaller scales within community. Moreover, there is strong filtering of lineages and combinations of  functional trait states by environment.
   The award honored 32 doctors who recently received their academic degrees in universities and research institutions based in Yunnan. Among them, 8 dissertations were rated as superior by the Education Department of Yunnan Province and Yunnan Academic Degrees Committee.

Selected publications of Dr. Yang Jjie are as following:

1.      Bartlett, M. K.; Zhang, Y.; Yang, J.; Drought tolerance as a driver of tropical forest assembly: resolving spatial signatures for multiple processes. ECOLOGY  2016, 97(2):503-514. 

2.      Yang, Jie; Swenson, Nathan G.; Zhang, Guocheng; Local-scale Partitioning of Functional and Phylogenetic Beta Diversity in a Tropical Tree Assemblage. SCIENTIFIC REPORTS 2015, 5:12731

　     3.    Yang J, Zhang GC, Ci XQ, Swenson NG, Cao M, Sha LQ, Li J, Baskin CC, Slik JWF, Lin LX: Functional and phylogenetic assembly in a Chinese tropical tree community across size classes, spatial scales and habitats. Funct Ecol 2014, 28(2):520-529. 

　　 4.     Yang J, Ci XQ, Lu MM, Zhang GC, Cao M, Li J, Lin LX: Functional traits of tree species with phylogenetic signal co-vary with environmental niches in two large forest dynamics plots. J Plant Ecol 2014, 7(2):115-125. 

　　5.    Lasky JR, Yang J, Zhang GC, Cao M, Tang Y, Keitt TH: The role of functional traits and individual variation in the co-occurrence of Ficus species. Ecology 2014, 95(4):978-990. 

　　6    Yang J, Swenson NG, Cao M, Chuyong GB, Ewango CEN, Howe R, Kenfack D, Thomas D, Wolf A, Lin LX: A Phylogenetic Perspective on the Individual Species-Area Relationship in Temperate and Tropical Tree Communities. PLoS One 2013, 8(5). 

　　7.      Li R, Yang J, Yang JB, Dao ZL: Isolation and Characterization of 21 Microsatellite Loci in Cardiocrinum giganteum var. yunnanense (Liliaceae), an Important Economic Plant in China. Int J Mol Sci 2012, 13(2):1437-1443. 

　　8.      Li R, Yang J, Dao ZL: Meconopsis xiangchengensis (Papaveraceae), a New Species from Sichuan, China. Novon 2012, 22(2):180-182. 

Yang Jie does field work