Introduction to the National Forestry and Grassland Functional Grass Engineering and Technology Research Centre for Cold-Region
The National Forestry and Grassland Functional Grass Engineering and Technology Research Center for Cold-Region, officially approved by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA) in April 2024, was established at Northeast Forestry University (NEFU).
The Centre closely monitors the primary national strategic needs in forestry and grassland development. By leveraging the unique forestry and grassland resource advantages of Northeast China, it focuses on addressing issues related to independent intellectual property rights in the cold grass seed industry and the systematization of the industrial chain. It promotes the transformation of research outcomes from cold-region forestry and grassland resources, playing a vital role in maintaining the ecological balance of the northern cold region, fostering the sustainable development of the grass industry in the northern cold area, and ensuring the country's environmental and food security.
The Centre’s supporting unit, Northeast Forestry University, is a university directly under the Ministry of Education and a "double first-class" construction university jointly built by the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the State Forestry and Grassland Administration. It is a multidisciplinary institution with coordinated development, focusing on forestry as its core strength and forestry engineering as its distinctive feature. For many years, the university has significantly contributed to research on forest and grass resources and ecological restoration in the cold region of Northeast China. The Centre, supported by 16 participating units, including scientific research institutes, enterprises, and public institutions, brings together top experts in the grass industry. It has a solid foundation in preliminary scientific research and supporting facilities. The Centre aims to integrate the scientific and technological strength of the grass industry from around the world, enhance technological innovation capabilities, improve the efficiency of industrial transformation of achievements, and deepen the green development partnership of the "Belt and Road" Initiative among China, Russia, Japan, Mongolia, Korea, and other countries, focusing on the protection and utilization of forest and grass resources in cold regions.
The Centre tackles the issues of insufficient protection, utilization, and innovation of understory grass resources in Northeast China and those in the Songnen Plain and wetland areas. To this end, the Centre has established a research team and a scientific research transformation platform. These initiatives concentrate on developing and utilizing forest and grass resources, with a core focus on functional grasses. The platform emphasizes the selection and breeding of new varieties, the protection and restoration of degraded forest and grass ecosystems, and the research and development of a forest and grass germplasm resources database. At the same time, the Centre promotes the research and development (R&D) and transformation of grass products, supporting the advancement of new technologies, products, and equipment for forest and grass products in cold regions. These efforts align with the strategy of revitalizing Northeast China and address the uneven development of the grass industry structure in the cold areas.
In the future, the center will further develop new technologies for the restoration and productivity enhancement of degraded saline-alkali grasslands. It will also advance the industrial development and utilization of functional forage products, increase the presentation of achievements in the formulation of industry standards, the transformation of patents, and theoretical and technological innovation in the breeding of stress-resistant new varieties. Additionally, it will complete the scientific census of cold-region forage resources, promote the transformation and implementation of technological innovations, and facilitate the conversion of scientific and technological achievements to serve society better.
Heilongjiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Cold-Region Garden Plant Germplasm Resources Development and Landscape Ecological Restoration
(I) Basic Laboratory Information
The Key Laboratory of Development of Germplasm Resources of Landscape Plants and Landscape Ecological Restoration in Cold Regions of Heilongjiang Province, which is under the supervision of the Science and Technology Department of Heilongjiang Province, is located in Northeast Forestry University, No. 26, Hexing Road, Xiangfang District, Harbin City, and gathers a group of scientific and technological talents leading the development of the discipline of Landscape Architecture, and has made remarkable scientific and technological achievements through dedicated efforts over the past half-century. It has platforms such as Garden Plants Research Laboratory, Germplasm Resources Research Laboratory, Ecological Planning and Ecological Restoration Research Laboratory, Landscape Design Center, Functional Turf Research Center, and Landscape Architecture Engineering Research Laboratory. The building area of the site is 1,650 square meters, the area of research facilities is 1,100 square meters, and the total number of laboratory instruments and equipment exceeds 200 units.
The laboratory is managed by the School of Landscape Architecture, Northeast Forestry University, with one laboratory director, one director of the academic committee(external), and one administrative coordinator. It utilizes the discipline's relevant laboratories and the postdoctoral research station to conduct research. The development of laboratory management system is carried out in accordance with the relevant regulations of the university laboratories, and at the same time, the laboratory-related system is improved based on the characteristics of the laboratory work, and the management of the personnel entering the laboratory is conducted through project-based management.
The laboratory has 42 permanent staff members, including 12 senior researchers, 16 associate researchers, and 30 PhD holders. The laboratory includes one recipient of the Ministry of Education's "New Century Millions of Talents Project" and seven members of national academic organizations, such as the State Council Academic Degree Committee’s Landscape Architecture Discipline Review Group. The laboratory incorporates external experts with rich practical experience into the research team, including two part-time PhD supervisors and 27 part-time master's supervisors. Meanwhile, Prof. Gail Hansen (University of Florida, USA), Dr. Gilles Vincent (Montreal Botanical Garden, Canada), and Prof. Luo Hong (Cornell University, USA) collaborate with the laboratory on plant landscape design, molecular breeding of ornamental plant resistance, and plant ecological restoration.
(II) Main Research Direction
In the direction of garden plant application, combining with the demand of greening in cold-region and the advantages of unique flower resources, focusing on germplasm resources collection, conservation, introduction and domestication, breeding and application research, aiming at improving the ornamental traits of cold-region plants, genetic improvement of essential flowers such as groundcover chrysanthemums, iris, and lilies, etc., and researching genetic principles and regulation mechanism, while focusing on the theory and technology of plant landscaping, functional plant selection and evaluation.
In the direction of collection and development of garden plant germplasm resources, to improve the ornamental quality of garden plants, we take ornamental plant resources as the object to study the genetic principles and regulatory mechanism of their ornamental traits, the methods of collecting, preserving and utilizing the germplasm resources, the classification and characteristics of the germplasm resources, the introduction and domestication processes, the breeding and promotion of elite cultivars, and to conduct genetic improvement of key plant resources and cultivation new varieties to realize the innovation and industrialized production of the germplasm resources. Innovation of resources and industrialized production.
In the field of Adverse Physiology and Molecular Breeding of Landscape Plants, we focus on studying resistance mechanism of landscape plants, taking cold-adapted ornamental plants and energy herbs from northern regions as the target, and investigating the potential mechanism of resistance (salinity, cold, drought stress and heavy metal stress) and response mechanism. By utilizing physiological approaches combined with transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic technologies to carry out original research, we have pioneered the clarification of cotyledons’ physiological functions during the early seedling establishment and renewed the conventional understanding that cotyledons are only limited to storage and sustenance.
In the direction of landscape ecological planning and ecological restoration, we conduct in-depth research on monitoring, assessment and ecological restoration technologies for resource cities in cold regions, to ensure the health and safety of human habitation and ecological environment, and based on vegetation characteristics and the current plant application status in cities in cold regions in the northern cold-region cities, our research focuses on the theory of landscape ecological planning, urban ecological evaluation and ecological restoration of vegetation, with the main body of plant configuration and landscaping. On a regional scale, we investigate ecological patterns and evolution, ecological environment monitoring and evaluation in resource cities, and ecological restoration techniques.
(Ⅲ) Domestic and foreign collaborators, provincial collaborators, and industry-university-research combinations
1. Collaboration with foreign organizations
The laboratory has established a long-term scientific collaboration with Prof. Maria Ignatieva from the University of Western Australia School of Design.
2. Domestic Collaboration
The laboratory has maintained productive cooperation and communication with many universities, research institutions, and academic organizations, such as the Chinese Academy of Forestry, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chongqing University, Beijing Forestry University, East China Normal University, and the College of Forestry at Northeast Forestry University. We have also cooperated with international and domestically recognized companies such as Boulder Greenze, China Construction Bureau, Ruili Education, Desert East, Yisen Ecology, Guangzhou Shanshui Bide Design Company Limited, Heilongjiang Jiamao Landscape Construction Company Limited, and Shenzhen Beilinyuan Landscape and Architecture Planning and Design Institute Company Limited. These collaborations help optimize the laboratory's academic environment through "openness, mobility, association and competition". Additionally, the laboratory engages with domestic collaborators through mutual personnel assignment, platform sharing, academic seminars, and other cooperative mechanisms to foster productive working relationships.
3. Provincial collaborators
The laboratory maintains a six-party cooperation agreement with Heilongjiang Urban Planning Survey and Design Research Institute, the Urban Planning and Design Research Institute of Harbin Institute of Technology, the Second Institute of Geographic Information Mapping of the Ministry of Natural Resources, the School of Architecture of Harbin Institute of Technology and School of Public Administration and Law of Northeast Agricultural University. This partnership enhances students' practical innovation ability and accelerates the cultivation of innovative talents urgently needed for land space planning and urban-rural development in Northeast China.
Provincial Experimental Teaching Demonstration Centre for Landscape Architecture
Established in 1986, the Heilongjiang Provincial Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center was officially recognized as a "Higher Education Institutions Provincial Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center" in 2008. The center currently occupies a 2,638.9-square-meter laboratory space equipped with 1,478 units of advanced instruments valued at approximately 20.62 million yuan. Key equipment includes photosynthesis measuring systems, inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometers, atomic absorption spectrometers, etc., all open for shared use by internal and external users. The center's professional team comprises six full-time laboratory managers (2 with associate senior professional titles and 4 with intermediate titles) and 10 specialized instructors.
The demonstration center organizes and implements experimental teaching for undergraduate and postgraduate programs within the College of Landscape Architecture. Adhering to a practice-oriented educational philosophy, it fully executes the “Three-Whole Education” collaborative innovation strategy. Through modular restructuring, the center has developed a multi-tier experimental teaching system that integrates “Basic Skills - Comprehensive Applications - Innovation Development.” This system features a “fundamental-comprehensive-innovative” modular framework to cultivate applied and innovative talents.
Upholding the university motto of "Unity, Diligence, Self-improvement, Advantages Utilization, and Excellence Pursuit" from Northeast Forestry University, the center is committed to building a world-class forestry institution with distinctive Chinese features. Rooted in Northeast China, it emphasizes the characteristics of cold northern regions while focusing on student development. Aligned with national and regional economic/social development trends, the center actively contributes to landscape architecture construction and related industries. By integrating into globalization processes, it aims to become a provincial-level teaching demonstration center renowned for its strong talent cultivation resources, leading innovation capabilities, distinct cross-cultural design features, and significant regional/national influence.