Theory and classification of mass extinction causationOA

Theory regarding the causation of mass extinctions is in need of systematization, which is the focus of this contribution. Every mass extinction has both an ultimate cause, i.e. the trigger that leads to various climato-environmental changes, and one or more proximate cause(s), i.e. the specific climato-environmental changes that result in elevated biotic mortality. With regard to ultimate causes, strong cases can be made that bolide(i.e. meteor) impacts, large igneous province(LIP) eruptions an...     

Analysis of ancient mass extinction recoveries in marine environments: generating strategies for managing outcomes of the current mass extinctionOA

<正>The defining feature of a mass extinction and its associated recovery is the global amount of extinction that occurred[1]. However, there is finer-scale detail to the story, as seen in the ongoing modern mass extinction(the sixth mass extinction), which exhibits variable effects among marine ecosystems and environments, and hence geographic areas [1].     

Late Ordovician Mass Extinction: Earth,fire and iceOA

The Late Ordovician Mass Extinction was the earliest of the ‘big’ five extinction events and the earliest to affect the trajectory of metazoan life. Two phases have been identified near the start of the Hirnantian period and in the middle. It was a massive taxonomic extinction, a weak phylogenetic extinction and a relatively benign ecological extinction. A rapid cooling, triggering a major ice age that reduced the temperature of surface waters, prompted a drop in sea level of some 100 m and intr...     

Glacial expansion of cold-tolerant species in low latitudes: megafossil evidence and species distribution modellingOA

<正>The Pleistocene was a time of repeated glaciations that severely affected the land biota over large areas of Eurasia and North America. Drastic climatic fluctuations during the Pleistocene drove largescale extinctions, migrations and diversification in plant and animal populations.These dramatic processes had a strong impact on the distribution of modern flora and fauna.     

Global weirding at mass extinction horizonsOA

<正>A strong motivation for studying mass extinctions is understanding how current climatic and biodiversity crises will affect creatures living on land such as ourselves. Perhaps the question is: how bad can it get? In that case, terrestrial Permian-Triassic mass extinctions are an irresistible worst-case scenario [1].     

The Lopingian Series of China and End-Permian Mass Extinction

The end-Permian mass extinction is the greatest bioevent in the geological history, which wiped out nearly 95％ of the marine species and 75％ of the terrestrial species,followed by a biological winter for more than five million years.The cause and the process of the end-Permian mass extinction remain an unsolved mystery in earth science and one of the most difficult and interesting scientific problems.     

USTC Develops the First Quantum Memory that Records Orbital Angular Momentum of a Single Photon

<正>Scientists from the CAS Key Laboratory of Quantum Information based at the University of Science and Technology of China(USTC)in Hefei have achieved significant progresses in developing highdimensional quantum memory.Under the leadership of Prof.GUO Guangcan and Prof.SHI Baosen,they achieved the storage and release of a single photon with a spatial     

The great catastrophe: causes of the Permo-Triassic marine mass extinctionOA

The marine losses during the Permo-Triassic mass extinction were the worst ever experienced. All groups were badly affected, especially amongst the benthos(e.g. brachiopods, corals, bryozoans, foraminifers,ostracods). Planktonic populations underwent a fundamental change with eukaryotic algae being replaced by nitrogen-fixing bacteria, green-sulphur bacteria, sulphate-reducing bacteria and prasinophytes. Detailed studies of boundary sections, especially those in South China, have resolved the cr...     

CAS Invites International Panel to Evaluate Its Institute

Prof. Richard Lane from Division ofEarth Sciences, National ScienceFoundation, US; and Prof. RogerSummons from MIT EAPS, US.During the two-day stay at theinstitute, the panel made a comprehen-sive assessment on the performance ofthe institute from 2000 to 2003 accord-ing to international standards, provid-ing recommendations for further de-velopment of the institute.The experts listened to reportsfrom the director and five research-ers of the institute and made exami-nations on such …     

Mathematician Prof. ZHANG Ping Awarded for Several Studies on Equations from Fluid and Quantum Mechanics

Prof. ZHANG Ping with the CAS Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science and Prof. JIANG Song with the Beijing Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics are awarded a Second-Prize from the 2011 State Natural Science Award for their contributions to the field of partial differential equations from mathematical physics. Applying analytic tools of weak convergence method and micro-local analysis, they systematically studied several partial differential equation problems from fluid and quantum mechanics.     

Cooperation Catalyses

<正>"I held an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow position at Fritz-Haber Institute of the Max-Planck-Society(MPG)from 1989,hosted by Prof.Gerhard Ertl,where I began my career in surface chemistry and catalysis.With my return to China in 1995,a generous present of laboratory instruments from Prof.Robert Schl?gl greatly help my research activity in China.Following the MOU signed by the     

Exploring the real causes of the end-Permian mass extinction

<正>Of the‘big ive’mass extinction events in the Earth’s history[1],the end-Permian extinction was the largest.Over the past30 years,the end-Permian extinction hasatracted a lot of atention with many causes being suggested for the mass extinction.Suggestions have included asteroid impact,Siberia volcanism eruption,     

Learn from Each Other in Friendship and Trust ——An Interview with Prof. Herbert Jackle, Vice President of MPG

On Jan 23 rd , 2013, Prof. Dr. Herbert J ckle, Vice- President of the Max Planck Society (MPG) and a world- renowned expert in molecular developmental biology, was honoured with the CAS Award for International Scientific Cooperation of 2012 due to his devotion to the cooperation between CAS and MPG. He shared the Award together with Prof. C. N. R. Rao from India and Prof. G. A. Zherebtsov from Russia. Prof. J ckle has endeavoured to integrate a Max Planck model of management with the scientific research system of CAS in his catalytic efforts to establish and operate the CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology (PICB) in Shanghai. In an interview with BCAS reporter SONG Jianlan, he is invited to recall his experiences in cooperation with CAS and share with us his thoughts. Early involvement: Munich of September 2004 saw Prof. J ckle in an MPG-CAS talk aimed at setting up a "Max Planck Institute" beyond territories of Germany, which is now known as the CAS- MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology (PICB).     

Sino-German Workshop on S＆T Evaluation Held in Beijing

With the support from theBeijing-based Sino-German Center for Re-search Promotion, a Sino-Germanworkshop entitled Innovation andManagement: S&T Indicators Methods and Practice was held fromOct. 12 to 14 in Beijing.Co-chaired by Prof. MuRongping from the CAS Institute ofPolicy and Management and Prof.Stefan Hornbostel from the Institutefor Sociology of DortmundUniversity, the meeting was attendedby more than 50 scholars from suchinstitutions as the German ResearchFoundation, Germa…     

International IP Protection and Challenges Facing China

(Continued from the previous issue) IV.Development of international intellectual property protection and challenges and opportunities facing China (1)We should see the negative side of the enhanced in- tellectual property protection in the globalisation;more im- portantly,we should also see the important role of the"pro- tection"in the construction of an innovative nation. Why did the intellectual property right not have any obvi- ous impact on our foreign exchange in the past and why does it become a focal point of dispute between China and other nations?This is mainly due to two factors:1)the glob- alisation and the fundamental change in the pattern of the     

New head of Academy of Opto-electronics

Prof. XIANGLI Bin has been appointed the director-general of the Academy of Opto-electronics (AOE), a high-tech research institution under CAS. Graduated from the Department of Precision Mechanics and Instrument, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 1990, Prof. Xiangli received his PhD from the Xi’an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics (XIOPM) of CAS in 1995. He used to serve as the director-general of XIOPM, the director-general of the Bureau of High-tech Research and Developm...     

Functional mesoporous materials in clean energy: an interview with Dongyuan Zhao

<正>National Science Review invited Prof. Dongyuan Zhao of Fudan University for an interview focusing on his team’s renowned research on functional mesoporous materials and energy-related applications. Prof. Zhao is a professor of chemistry and materials science, and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He received his PhD in chemistry from Jilin University in 1990. He has since focused his research on the synthesis and structure of porous materials and molecular sieves.     

Setting Up an Objective and Ef ective Evaluation System at CAS——An interview with Prof. WANG Xiaofan,winner of the 2013 CAS Award for International Science and Technology Cooperation

<正>WANG Xiaofan,a distinguished researcher in pharmacology and cancer biology from the School of Medicine,Duke University,was conferred the CAS Award for International Science and Technology Cooperation on January 9,2014.Prof.WANG was recognized for his"key advisory role"in promoting the academy’s ST reform,by organizing international peer-based evaluation for more than a dozen CAS institutes in the field of life sciences,to help establish a scientific,balanced and effective research evaluation system.During a phone interview with BCAS reporter XIN Ling in May,Prof.WANG pointed out that international evaluation proved to be a good place to start,but CAS still faces challenges in making the best of such evaluation to push forward its overall reform.     

Mechanisms of carbon, nitrogen and water changes during restoration and succession in tropical and subtropical forest ecosystems

With the objective of finding answers to some fundamental problems in ecology and forestry, Prof. ZHOU Guoyi and his colleagues from the CAS South China Botanical Garden set out to clarify whether the oldgrowth forests are actually carbon sinks; how the forest ecosystems, either successional or rehabilitative, react to the nitrogen deposition scenarios and whether there are different reactions working as mechanisms between the mature and immature forest ecosystems. Moreover, together with the studies on the cycling of carbon, nitrogen and water, they conducted a systematic analysis to understand the mass flow, ecosystem service function and their changes against the background of the global change. Through long-term field observation in more than 50 sites of typical ecosystems and extensive investigation, the scientists have achieved a series of remarkable research results and received a 2nd prize of the National Natural Science Award in 2007.     

WU Zhengyi： A walking dictionary of Chinese flora

Prof. WU Zhengyi （Wu Cheng-yih, C.Y. Wu）, a CAS Member and Emeritus Director-general of the Kunming Institute of Botany, is the founder of the Chinese school of floristic geography. Born in Jiangxi in 1916 and graduating from Tsinghua University, Prof. Wu has made major contributions to plant taxonomy and phylogeny, floristic geography, and the utilization of plant resources in China and around the world. He is recognized as a leading scholar of the country＇s botanic community.