Wang Yongjian

Wang Yongjian, professor. Mainly engaged in plant population ecology, invasion ecology and forest ecology. Biological invasion, and biotic and abiotic environment change are the most important components of global change. The internal mechanism of environmental change on plant population invasion is affected by the bottom-Up and Top-Down effects under the inter-specific relationship within food webs in ecosystem. Based on multi-species comparison of phylogenetically invasive and native/non-invasive species in China, I focus on Invasive ecology and population ecology: 1) the role of biotic and abiotic environment interactions (such as multiple global change factors, interspecific interaction among trophic level (herbivory, pollination networks) in food webs) in alien species invasion; 2) the relationship between plant traits of alien invasive species and long-term response of ecosystems under global change (Ecosytems functions, Plant-animal interactions).

We want to discuss the complex relationship under abiotic environment change, inter-specific interaction of food webs and plant invasion and its effect mechanism on population dynamics. We conducted multi-species field experiment of the response of growth and reproduction of populations of typical invasive and coexisting native plants and the inter-specific relationship within food webs under resource change (water and nutrient), a long-term field tracking experiment of the response of population dynamics and genetic variation in dominant invasive plants, and mesocosm and microcosm experiments of inter-specific relationship (The role of predator-herbivore-plant interactions in plant invasion, effects of different trophic levels and competition, the role of herbivore -plant-soil biological interactions in plant invasion) under resource change regulating within food webs, based on analysis of the secondary metabolism and comparative transcriptome, soil microbial composition and diversity, genetic diversity and genetic variation. Finally, we aim to clarify the effects of resource change-mediated inter-specific interactions within food webs on invasion of alien plant populations, which can further improve and expand the theory of plant population ecology and invasion ecology, and provide the basis for invasion monitoring and degraded ecosystem restoration under global change.

[1] 2004-2009 PhD in Ecology, Southwest University, China
[2] 2000-2004 B.S. in Biological science, Shaanxi Normal University, China

[1] 2019-present Professor, Huazhong Agricultural University, China
[2] 2016-2017 Visiting Scholar, University of Fribourg, Switzerland (Müller-Schärer Heinz)
[3] 2013-2016 Postdoctoral Fellow, Beijing Forestry University, China (Fei-Hai Yu)
[4] 2009-2011 Research Associate, Huazhong Agricultural University

1. Wang YJ, Liu YY, Chen D, Du DL, Müller-Schärer H & Yu FH* (2023) Clonal functional traits favor the invasive success of alien plants into native communities. Ecological Applications, DOI: 10.1002/eap.2756
2. Wang YJ, Müller-Schärer H, van Kleunen M, Cai AM, Zhang P, Yan R, Dong BC, Yu FH* (2017) Invasive alien plants benefit more from clonal integration in heterogeneous environments than natives. New Phytologist, 216: 1072–1078. DOI: 10.1111/nph.14820 (ESI Hot Paper).
3. Wang YJ, Chen D, Yan R, Yu FH*, van Kleunen M (2019) Invasive alien clonal plants are competitively superior over co-occurring native clonal plants. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, 40: 125484. DOI: 10.1016/j.ppees.2019.125484
4. Shi XP#, Bai YF#, Song P, Liu YY, Zhang ZW, Zheng B, Jiang CQ*, Wang YJ * (2021) Clonal integration and phosphorus management under light heterogeneity facilitate the growth and diversity of understory vegetation and soil fungal communities. Science of the Total Environment, 767, 144322. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144322
5. Zhao CY#, Liu YY#, Shi XP, Wang YJ* (2020) Effects of soil nutrient variability and competitor identify on growth and co-existence among invasive alien and native clonal plants. Environmental Pollution, 261: 113894. DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2019.113894
6. Liu YY, Sun Y, Müller-Schärer H, Yan R, Zhou ZX, Wang YJ* & Yu FH (2019) Do invasive alien plants differ from non-invasives in dominance and nitrogen uptake in response to variation of abiotic and biotic environments under global anthropogenic change? Science of the Total Environment, 672, 634-642. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.024
7. Chen D#, Ali A#, Lin CG, Yong XH, Niu XH, Cai AM, Dong BC, Zhou ZX, Wang YJ * & Yu FH (2019) A multi-species comparison of selective placement patterns of ramets in invasive alien and native clonal plants to light, soil nutrient and water heterogeneity. Science of the Total Environment, 657, 1568-1577. DOI: 10.1016/ j.scitotenv.2018.12.099