RESEARCHES
Our long-term ecosystem researches focus on following questions:
HOW FOG INFLUENCES ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS?
Taiwan is the country that owns the highest proportion of montaine clould forest in its tropical territory*. As a representative ecosystem receiving high fog influence, we initiated the Chi-Lan Mountain (CLM) site in 2002 and have conducted long-term research programs on biogeochemistry and carbon budget. The core scientific question is how and to which extent fog affects the ecosystem structure and functions of this Chamaecyparis obtusa var. formosana forest.
HOW ECOSYSTEM RESILIENCE CHANGES WITH LAND-USE CHANGE?
The Da-Nong-Da-Fu (DNDF) lowland afforestation area in eastern Taiwan is a rural landscape with its matrix being extensively changed from natural forest (before 1920) to sugarcane crops (1920 to 2000) to plantation (since 2002) during the past century. Have any state variables of the ecosystem been driven to pass the tipping points by these anthropogenic disturbances of land-use change? We explore this question through the modelling approach. Some important ecosystem processes like the net ecosystem exchange of CO2 are explored under a protocol of FLUXNET tower site.