群落生态与保护研究组隶属于中国科学院西双版热带植物园综合保护中心，现任组长为Kyle W. Tomlinson研究员。本组通过多种研究手段（包括群落多样 性分析、遥感（GIS）、分子技术和野外考察等）研究跨环境梯度的物种群落组成、群落功能多样性，以及不同影响因子（土地利用变化、气候变化等）在群落和种群层面上的影响。 

亚洲热带地区是发展变化最快的热带地区之一，曾经连绵不断的热带森林现如今变得支离破碎，大片退化，生态系统承受着巨大的压力。本组立足于亚洲热带森林系统，致力于了解生态系统环境变化规律，为保持和恢复提供理论依据。同时我们还在全球范围内开展了跨环境梯度功能性状多样性的基础研究，以加深在自然资源限制和食草动物影响下植物性状选择的变化。

Community Ecology and Conservation group is part of the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, a research institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. 

In the Community Ecology and Conservation  Group, our core research focuses on species community composition and functional diversity across environmental gradients. We also research how communities and populations are evolving subject to land-use change and climate change, in order to understand their implications for the conservation of plant communities and species. We do this with the help of community diversity analyses,  remote sensing (GIS), molecular techniques and experimental methods.

Most of our research is centred on tropical Asia, one of the fastest developing and changing tropical regions in the world. Its once continuous tropical forests are now fragmented and mostly degraded.  These changes have put enormous pressures on tropical Asia’s natural ecosystems.  Our groups aim is to study these changes and try to find ways to maintain or restore the functions of tropical Asia’s natural ecosystems.

We also contribute to basic research through the study of functional trait diversity across environmental gradients at the global scale. These analyses contribute to general understanding of trait selection under resource limitation and herbivory.

A caterpillar in the Rainforest of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden