23 JUL 2025 (WED) 16:30-17:30

GEOG HKU
Jul 15
2 min read

Geography Distinguished Seminars Series

Vegetation Restoration in the Earth's Critical Zone and Ecologically Vulnerable Areas

Date: 23 JUL 2025 (Wednesday)

Time: 16:30-17:30 (HKT)

Mode: Hybrid

Venue: CLL, Department of Geography, 10/F, The Jockey Club Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU

Via Zoom: Zoom link will be provided upon successful registration

Registration link: https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?guest=Y&ueid=102193

Abstract:

Vegetation productivity underpins ecosystem services. Temperature change can only explain 46% of the variation in global ecosystem productivity. The underground components (soil and rocks), as the direct source of water and nutrients for plants, account for more than half of the variation in productivity and form the foundation of ecosystem stability. Research on the Earth's critical zone, which extends from vegetation canopy to rocks and groundwater, enables a more comprehensive understanding of the stable and effective supply of water and nutrients from underground components. This presentation, from the perspective of the Earth's critical zone, elaborates on how rocks and soil in karst areas and semi-arid regions affect vegetation productivity through ecological drought, as well as the different adaptive mechanisms of forest and grassland vegetation. On this basis, the report attempts to further address the following practical questions: Can afforestation and greening in karst areas be sustained? What is the remaining potential for afforestation in the forest-grassland ecotone of semiarid regions?

Professor Hongyan LIU

Deputy Director of the Institute of Ecology and Boya Distinguished Professor, Peking University, Beijing, China

Professor Hongyan Liu is Deputy Director of the Institute of Ecology and a Boya Distinguished Professor at Peking University. He was granted by the National Outstanding Youth Fund, and also leads the "Vegetation Restoration, Carbon Sequestration and Water Consumption" innovation team of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. He engages in research on vegetation ecology and phytogeography, focusing on vegetation patterns, dynamics, and ecological adaptation mechanisms in the extreme environments such as permafrost, karst and dryland. He has so far published over 270 academic papers in journals such as Nature Communications and Global Change Biology. His research achievement "Climate change and vegetation response in ecologically vulnerable areas of northern China" won the second prize of the Ministry of Education's Natural Science Award. He was also listed as one of the "Top 1000 Most Influential Scientists in the Field of Climate Change" and "Top 2% of Global Scientists". He serves as Vice Chairman of the Ecological Society of China and Director of the Biogeography Professional Committee of the Geographical Society of China.