YNU team's research achievement among national top 10 list

A research team from the College of Ecology and Environment at Yunnan University (YNU) recently had their work selected for China's Top 10 Scientific Advances in Nitrogen Cycle in 2023. The team, led by Cheng Xiaoli, a professor of the College of Ecology and Environment at YNU, had their work on Trans-dimension Analysis of Soil Nitrogen Transformation Mechanism in Mountain Ecosystems acknowledged for its achievements.

During the study, Cheng's team collaborated with scholars in China and abroad. They received support from domestic institutes such as Yunnan University, the Institute of Earth Environment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. International support came from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Aarhus University, University of Exeter, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Cornell University.

Cheng's team focused on mountain ecosystems and made a series of accomplishments in 2023 by integrating field research, data assimilation, model simulation, and other research methods.

Firstly, the achievements revealed the seasonal pattern, elevation effect, afforestation effect, and microbial and enzyme mechanism of soil nitrogen conversion in the Yulong Snow Mountain region. This provided a reference for this region's nitrogen budget and resource protection.

Secondly, the team was the first to discover the climate ecological niche of ammonia-oxidizing microorganisms and their intrinsic regulation after exploring the biological and abiotic driving mechanisms of soil nitrogen conversion on a global scale. This provided a new theoretical basis and data support for nitrogen cycle research.

The achievements have been published in journals such as Global Change Biology, Functional Ecology, Forest Ecology and Management, and Chemosphere, contributing to the advancement of mountain ecological engineering planning and sustainable development.

China's Top 10 Scientific Advances in Nitrogen Cycle is open to official publications or authorized patents completed in China by citizens, enterprises, and institutions of the People's Republic of China.