The first online seminar of MU-CAU Joint Center for water, plants and the environment was successfully kicked off at 8:00 AM, March 3rd, 2021, BJT (6:00PM, March 2nd, CST).
The seminar started with greetings from Professor Robert E. Sharp, director of the Interdisciplinary Plant Group of the University of Missouri. Then, Professor Christopher Daubert, Vice President of the University of Missouri, and Professor Taisheng Du, Vice President of China Agricultural University, delivered the opening addresses respectively. Professor Christopher Daubert reviewed the close scientific cooperation between the Center for Agricultural Water Research of China Agricultural University and the College of Agriculture Food & Natural Resources of the University of Missouri over these years, and highly valued the outstanding results of academic and cultural exchanges. Meanwhile, he expressed his happy recollections for the trip to China two years ago. Professor Taisheng Du hoped to reduce the actual impact of the epidemic on international academic and cultural exchanges through this series of online seminars, and was full of expectations for further scientific cooperation. What’ more, it was of great importance to continue to promote cooperation between both parties in scientific research, teaching and culture, as well as develop green and efficient agricultural water use in U.S. and China.
Associate Professor Jeffrey Wood from the University of Missouri and Professor Jun Niu from China Agricultural University gave their talk about Ecosystem-scale Drought Response and Recovery Dynamics, and Agricultural Water Productivity: Modelling and Regulation, respectively. Professor Jeffrey Wood has explored the ecosystem response to drought and its dynamic changes from multiple perspectives such as rainfall, evapotranspiration, heat flux, and stomatal conductance. It was shown that considering the lack of atmospheric and soil water at the same time was of great significance for understanding dynamic drought of plants and ecosystem. Professor Jun Niu used the improved SWAT, VIC and G-AquaCrop model that considered the impact of CO2 concentration to simulate the mechanism of agricultural water productivity involved in the agricultural production of the Hexi Corridor, combined with regional production practices, so as to provide reliable strategies in the process of achieving green and efficient water-saving agriculture. Faculty members and graduate students from both China and the United States had enthusiastic discussions.
Academician Shaozhong Kang, director of Center for Agriculture Water Research in China gave a closing remarks for the opening seminar. He thanked the presidents of both sides for their support of the seminars, and hoped that online academic seminars could promote scientific research exchanges during the period of epidemic, further promoting common basic scientific research and cooperation on agricultural water issues in different regions.
It is reported that Center for Agriculture Water Research of China Agricultural University and the College of Agriculture Food & Natural Resources, University of Missouri Columbia, one of the top 100 universities in the United States, have a long-term scientific cooperation for many years. In November 2019, they formally established a comprehensive cooperative relationship, with the founding of the MU-CAU Joint Center for water, plants and the environment. The online seminar series was aimed at enhancing academic communication with each other, stimulating innovative thinking, creating a lively discussion atmosphere, and improving the comprehensive level of young scholars, thereby gradually developing a cooperation that combines the advantages of both schools' disciplines in water-agriculture-environment.
The topic of the online academic seminar was the green and sustainable development of regional agricultural ecology, which aimed to discuss the changes and scientific responses of efficient agricultural water use as well as the sustainable development of the ecological environment in different regions, on the basis of multiple changing environmental perspectives under the influence of climate change and human activities. The seminar was co-chaired by Professor Jun Niu from China Agricultural University and Associate Professor Jeffrey Wood from the University of Missouri. Center members, Ping Guo, Xiaomin Mao, Xingfa Huang, Ling Tong, Sufen Wang, Sien Li, Xinmei Hao, Risheng Ding, Fei Tian, Xiaolin Wang, Yunwu Xiong, Liu Liu, Xi Chen, Yu Fang, Hongna Lu, Xiaojuan Li et. al, from Center for Agriculture Water Research in China, Felix Fritschi, Melvin Oliver, Noel Aloysius, Alba Argerich, Heike Bucking, Victoria Bryan et. al, from the University of Missouri, as well as more than 80 postgraduates jointly participated in the seminar. A total of eight spring 2021 online seminars will be held in the following two months.
