After attending the GCP workshop and ATBC 2006 hosted by XTBG, Prof. John Grace, head of Institute of Atmospheric and Environmental Science, University of Edinburgh, the United Kingdom, paid a visit to the Garden during 22-25 July. He made field tours to Xishuangbanna field station conducting monitor and research of tropical rainforest ecosystem and the national nature reserve in Mengla.

Prof. John Grace gave a positive comment on the monitoring and research work on atmosphere fluxes in Xishuangbanna tropical rainforest and put forward some useful suggestions. He introduced the relationship between ecosystem exchanges and solar radiation under different radiations. He said further and deeper studies should be conducted on carbon sinks of tropical forest and hoped to cooperate with XTBG.

 Prof. John Grace’s main interests are in the role of forests in the global carbon cycle. He has published a lot of peer-reviewed academic papers and monographs.

  Prof. Zhang Yiping and Assoc. Prof. Sha Liqing of XTBG, and Dr. Liang Naishen of National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan, accompanied his field tours.

 For more information about Prof. John Grace, please see:

http://ctcd.group.shef.ac.uk/grace.html