Biodiv Sci ›› 2002, Vol. 10 ›› Issue (2): 238-242.  DOI: 10.17520/biods.2002032

• 论文 • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Advances in biocomplexity studies

WANG Li, NAN Peng, ZHANG Xiao-Yan, ZHONG Yang*   

  1. 1 Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering,and Institute of Biodiversity Science,Fudan University,Shanghai 200433
    2 South China Institute of Botany,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Guangzhou 510065
    3 Wuhan Institute of Botany,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Wuhan 430074
  • Received:2001-07-16 Revised:2002-03-25 Online:2002-05-20 Published:2002-05-20

Abstract: Biocomplexity, or biological complexity, is a new domain proposed by Rita Colwell and her colleagues for better understanding of the interactions among components of complex life systems and dynamic characteristics and evolutionary mechanism of the systems' complexity. Although the concept and definition of biocomplexity remain controversial, various research projects relevant to this field have been undertaken with funding from US National Science Foundation (NSF), and a new trend in international collaborative efforts to study life on Earth has been formed. In this paper, different opinions on the concept of biocomplexity and the relati   
onship between biodiversity and biocomplexity studies are introduced briefly. Several projects regarding ecosystems and genomes are also presented to illustrate the main characteristics of biocomplexity studies.

Key words: exotic species, Cabomba caroliniana, distribution range, coexistence of plants, fresh water type, invasive route