Professor Chris Justice, Dr. Guoqing Sun, 3 PhD students - Tatiana Loboda, Kelley O’Neal, and Inbal Becker-Reshef , and FRA, Lydia Prentiss- attended the joint regional Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI)/Land Cover Land Use Change (LCLUC) science meeting on dry land processes in Urumqi, China during September 16 –21, 2007.

PhD Student Kelley O’Neal is harnessing the driving forces of ecosystem change in Urumqi dry lands

Dry lands of Central Asia are water-limited ecosystems and are particularly sensitive to environmental change. The meeting, hosted by the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG), was attended by representatives from China, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Russia, Germany, and the United States. The agenda was focused on identifying the data needs for operational monitoring and scientific research and prioritizing future research objectives in the light of the observed and predicted global climate change.

PhD Students Kelley O’Neal and Tatiana Loboda with a Chinese relative of Testudo