Liu, Hong Graduate Faculty

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biography

  • Dr Hong Liu is a tenured Professor in the Department of Earth and Environment, Florida International University (FIU). She is a conservation ecologist whose research focuses on generating insights that can guide conservation and management efforts for endangered plant species. Her current research addresses important environmental issues such as the impact of global changes on rare orchid populations as well as the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of heavily exploited plant species. She has first authored or co-authored over 80 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters mostly published in top journals such as Conservation Biology and Biological Conservation.
    Dr Liu’s research on wild orchid conservation has served to support various biodiversity conservation initiatives internationally. She led the organisation of the first three Guangxi International Orchid Symposium, China, in 2009, 2010, and 2012, which promoted and facilitated dialogues among nature reserve managers, biodiversity researchers and policymakers. In particular, the inaugural symposium successfully drew the attention of several key Chinese national biodiversity conservation officials to a remote yet important orchid-rich area and expedited the establishment of a national nature reserve – the Guangxi Yachang Orchid National Nature Preserve. Together with colleagues, her research on the wild orchid trade in China, both online and offline, generated important quantitative data for the region. She was able to apply her research on the wild orchid trade to the Red List assessment of Chinese orchids, pointing out the significant underestimation of the threats to Chinese orchids from unregulated trade. She has also contributed to the critical revision process of the List of National Key Protected Wild Plants of China, a list similar to the US Federal Endangered Species. She has served as a member of the IUCN SSC Orchid Specialist Group since 2010 and the wild orchid trade subgroup since 2016, under the IUCN umbrella.

research interests

  • Sustainable use of species of high socioeconomic values; conservation biology; restoration of threatened plants; ecology of epiphytic plants; invasive species biology; invasive mutualism; population viability analysis; and plant-animal interactions

selected scholarly works & creative activities

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full name

  • Hong Liu

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