Welcome to the 31st IUBS General Assembly and Conference on ...

is setup <strong>to</strong> illustrate <strong>the</strong> relationship among <strong>the</strong>m firstly.
Then <strong>the</strong> extension <strong>the</strong>ory is introduced in<strong>to</strong> extension
information entropy descriptions of product quality <strong>and</strong>
process control efficiency of D.huoshanense. And <strong>the</strong>
<strong>the</strong>ory <strong>and</strong> methods of mapping contribution degree,
relational analysis <strong>and</strong> priority calculation of <strong>the</strong> inverse
problem of ma<strong>the</strong>matical physics between product quality
<strong>and</strong> process control efficiency are put forward. Finally,
<strong>the</strong>se methods are applied in extension mapping analysis
of D.huoshanense quality, <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> analysis results show
<strong>the</strong> relationships between <strong>the</strong> product quality <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>
process control characteristic parameters can be
commendably discovered. This research is of great
significance for quality planning, control efficiency,
pharmacology quality <strong>and</strong> clinical treatment.
Responses of rice crops <strong>to</strong> elevated
tropospheric ozone: recent findings from
Chinese rice FACE studies
Yunxia WANG
Yangzhou University, 48 East Wenhui Road, Yangzhou 225009,
China. Email: yxwang@yzu.edu.cn
Global atmospheric changes as a result of human
activities will significantly alter many elements of <strong>the</strong>
future crop production environment. One of <strong>the</strong>se
changes is <strong>the</strong> rapid increase in tropospheric ozone
concentration, which is currently considered as <strong>the</strong> most
important air pollutant due <strong>to</strong> its prevalence, phy<strong>to</strong><strong>to</strong>xicity
<strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> significant damages <strong>to</strong> agricultural crops, forest
tree <strong>and</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r natural vegetation. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is
<strong>the</strong> most important food crop in <strong>the</strong> world, providing
nutrition for more than half of <strong>the</strong> world’s population.
Current assessments of <strong>the</strong> ozone effects on rice are
based on studies conducted in chambers such as growth
cabinets, glasshouse or open‐<strong>to</strong>p chambers. The
environmental conditions such as temperature, sunlight,
humidity in chambers are different from that in open field,
<strong>and</strong> hence <strong>the</strong>re is uncertainty over how well <strong>the</strong> results
obtained from chambers represent <strong>the</strong> real ozone effects
on rice under natural field conditions. Compared with
chamber studies, free‐air ozone concentration
enrichment (ozone‐FACE) experiment, conducted in fully
open‐air field condition, represents <strong>the</strong> best simulations
for future atmospheric environment. The Chinese rice
ozone‐FACE, located at Yangzhou, China, is <strong>the</strong> first
FACE study in <strong>the</strong> world <strong>to</strong> investigate <strong>the</strong> response <strong>and</strong>
adaptation of rice crops <strong>to</strong> elevated ozone concentration
that will occur over <strong>the</strong> first half of this century. Based
on <strong>the</strong> description of operation features of <strong>the</strong> Chinese
rice FACE facility, this report will mainly focus on <strong>the</strong>
effects of free‐air ozone concentration enrichment on
<strong>the</strong> pho<strong>to</strong>syn<strong>the</strong>sis, growth, yield, quality <strong>and</strong> lodging
resistance of rice crops. In addition, similarities <strong>and</strong>
differences between findings obtained by FACE <strong>and</strong>
enclosure methodologies will be compared. Finally,
fur<strong>the</strong>r research priorities in this field will be discussed.
Retrospective on <strong>the</strong> iCCB program: how it
came <strong>to</strong> be <strong>and</strong> why
Mikael FORTELIUS
Department of Geosciences <strong>and</strong> Geography, University of
Helsinki, Helsinki, Finl<strong>and</strong>. Email: mikael.fortelius@helsinki.fi
The <strong>IUBS</strong> program on Integrative Climate Change
Biology arose from <strong>the</strong> chance meeting at <strong>the</strong> 2003
<strong>General</strong> <strong>Assembly</strong> in Cairo, Egypt, of Chris<strong>to</strong>ph
Scheidegger, Nils Chr. Stenseth <strong>and</strong> Mikael Fortelius.
When discussing <strong>the</strong> state of underst<strong>and</strong>ing of <strong>the</strong>
relationship between climate change <strong>and</strong> evolution at
<strong>the</strong> different scales of observation that each of us
represented, we became convinced that an integrative
initiative was timely <strong>and</strong> that it would fit well under <strong>the</strong>
<strong>IUBS</strong> umbrella. The program was officially approved at
<strong>the</strong> 2006 GA in Washing<strong>to</strong>n, DC, USA, <strong>and</strong> renewed at
<strong>the</strong> 2009 GA in Cape Town, South Africa, where it was
joined by <strong>the</strong> sister initiative Human Consequences of
Climate Change. Much has happened since 2003, <strong>and</strong>
<strong>the</strong> biological community is now much more aware of
<strong>the</strong> biotic interactions that attend evolution under
climate change than was <strong>the</strong> case when <strong>the</strong> program
was founded. The role of <strong>the</strong> iCCB is changing as some of
<strong>the</strong> original goals have become almost mainstream
science but <strong>the</strong> core ideas remain distinctive <strong>and</strong> sound.
In particular, <strong>the</strong> integrative potential of trait‐based
ecometrics is still far from fully realized, <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> role of
<strong>the</strong> iCCB as an integra<strong>to</strong>r across scales <strong>and</strong> approaches
remains highly relevant.
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