On the evening of March 11, the Department of Earth System Science (DESS) hosted its inaugural "AI for Ecology" academic salon in Room 1003 of the Ziqiang Science and Technology Building. The event, themed "Generative Artificial Intelligence Accelerates Ecological Research," attracted over 20 faculty members and students from the department. Doctoral candidate Zhou Xuanhong of the DESS was the keynote speaker.

The report investigates cutting-edge applications of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) technology in ecological studies. Zhou Xuanhong methodically outlined the developmental trajectory of GAI in ecology, introducing its current application across ecological research scales spanning individuals, populations, landscapes, ecosystems, and global systems. The analysis highlights GAI’s significant potential to advance data processing efficiency, enhance ecological pattern identification, and refine predictive modeling accuracy. Through case studies, Zhou further demonstrated GAI’s practical implementations in biological studies: synthesizing data for rare species, uncovering previously undetected ecological patterns, automating extraction and integration of knowledge from scientific literature, generating testable scientific hypotheses, and modeling of complex ecosystem dynamics.

The audience had a heated discussion on GAI-driven ecological pattern discovery and the application of large language model in scientific hypothesis and discovery, exploring the application potential and future development trend of artificial intelligence in the field of ecology.

Zhou Xuanhong (first from left) talks with Prof. Yu Le (first from right) of DESS

Prof. Yang Jun (first from right) of DESS participates in the discussion

Group photo of faculty and students attending the salon

The AI for Ecology Academic Salon was jointly sponsored by Urban Ecology Research Group, Sustainable Land System (LANDS) Research Group, Vegetation Simulation and Theoretical Ecology Research Group and Climate Risk and Biogeochemistry Research Group of Tsinghua DESS, aiming at sharing AI application in ecological research and exchanging AI application experience in their respective research. The salon will be held on an irregular basis, creating an ongoing platform accessible to all Tsinghua faculty and students with shared interests in this interdisciplinary field. For those wishing to receive updates, contribute to discussions, or propose future presentation topics, please reach out via email to sunzl23@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn.