ECOLOGY OF SHARING

By Wang Hairong

W hen the Luosuo River， the largest tributary of the Lancang River， takes an almost round-about turn in Mengla County of Yunnan Province， it encircles a piece of land blanketed with trees and meadows. On that land lies the largest tropical botanic garden in China that is home to more than 13，000 species of flora.

In a building hidden among the trees is the office of Kyle Warwick Tomlinson， who currently serves as deputy head of the Center for Integrative Conservation at Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden （XTBG）. The Irish native from South Africa has devoted the past years to research on savanna ecosystems and the impact of forest fragmentation in Yunnan and Southeast Asia at large.

Tomlinson arrived in China in 2008， after completing a postdoctoral program at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. At the time， he hadnt considered China as a focus for his research， as he knew little about the country and even less about the relationship between its ecology and his own research. However， after being forwarded the same job advertisement by three different colleagues who had each visited XTBG in the past， he contacted its Center for Integrative Conservation and was invited to visit and interview in person. A visit to XTBG and its surrounding Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture changed his mind about China as a research destination.“Without a physical visit to the location， I probably would not have considered coming here，” he told Beijing Review. “At the interview I got to see the institute， its facilities， meet researchers and students there， and see how happy they were and how well they lived. XTBG seemed fabulous！”

Exploring Yunnan

During his years in Yunnan， Tomlinson has traveled widely， sampling the diversity of grassland ecosystems throughout the province. “My research interests mainly focus on open ecosystems such as pure grasslands， savannas and shrublands. These are ecosystems that dont have closed tree canopies like forests，” he said. “They occupy most of the [worlds] terrestrial surface and account for many thousands of species.”

Most people visualize savannas as vast， open， grassy landscapes with sparsely scattered trees， which are common in areas of the African continent that receive less than 700 mm of rainfall per year.“There have been widespread misconceptions about Asian savannas，” Tomlinson said. “They are mostly considered to be secondary vegetation created by human disturbance during the Holocene [that began 11，700 years ago].”