On November 28th, Professor Liang Yongchao from Zhejiang University was invited by the School of Life Sciences of our university to conduct academic exchanges and deliver an academic report titled “The Role of Silicon in Environment-friendly and Sustainable Agricultural Development”.
Silicon is beneficial to plants and essential for the healthy growth of silicon- loving crops such as rice and sugarcane. In his report, Professor Liang introduced that silicon has a significant effect on improving plant resistance to non-biotic (salt damage, aluminum toxicity, heavy metal stress, high temperature, drought, etc.) and biotic stress (plant diseases and insect pests), thereby increasing crop yield and quality. The importance of silicon fertilizer in regulating global climate change was highlighted in the carbon fixation effect of phytoliths and the role of silicon in reducing greenhouse gas (methane, nitrous oxide) emissions in soil. High silicon plants are mostly in low latitude areas, while low silicon plants in high latitude regions; High silicon plants mostly originated during warmer periods in history, while low silicon plants during cooler periods, indicating a close correlation between global terrestrial plant silicification and annual average temperature. Teachers and graduate students from the School of Life Sciences attended the meeting and engaged in lively discussions with the expert.
Expert Profile:
Liang Yongchao, Qiushi Distinguished Professor of the College of Environmental & Resource Sciences at Zhejiang University, doctoral supervisor, Yangtze Scholars Program Professor of the Ministry of Education, Humboldt Research Fellow, Fellow of the International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM).
Since 2016, Liang has been the director of the Key Laboratory of Environment Remediation and Ecological Health under the Ministry of Education, and the deputy director of the Academic (Professor) Committee of the College of Environmental & Resource Sciences at Zhejiang University. He has been engaged in long-term research on plant stress nutrition biology, microbial molecular ecology of soil quality evolution, environment remediation, and agricultural product safety.
Having completed over 30 national key research and development programs, 973 Project, National Support Plan, national foundation projects, and other projects, Liang has received 5 provincial and ministerial awards for Scientific and Technological Progress, and authorized 8 National Invention Patents. Over 200 papers have been published, including 178 papers in such SCI journals as Nature Communications, Plant Physiology, New Phytologist, Soil Biology and Biochemistry. So far, these papers have been cited by SCI for more than 11,900 times, with the h-index of 61. He has published one English monograph titled Silicon in Agriculture by Springer Press.
From 2014 to 2022, Liang has been listed in Highly Cited Chinese Researchers by Elsevier. Since 2020, he has been included in the Top Plant Science and Agronomy Scientists in China. He has also been selected as World’s Top 2% Scientists released by Stanford University and Elsevier for 2019-2023 (Single-year impact) and career-long impact, among which he ranked the second for 2021-2023 in agronomy.
