故地重游总有一番感慨，从堪培拉回来还带了一丝兴奋。

因为CSIRO的Ray Leuning要退休了，王应平与张橹为此举办了一个学术研讨会。6月25－26日，有幸参加了这个研讨会。

从悉尼到堪培拉乘飞机仅40多分钟，但是为了赶上上午九点的会议，我7点20的飞机，计划8点多到。这样5点半就得起床了。机场周一的早上非常繁忙，到堪培拉尽是上班的，联邦政府的官员多安家在悉尼，工作在堪培拉。没有一个空位。澳人没脾气有礼貌，上飞机那个慢啊。机舱里前面的人放行李，后面的就在那里等。等到都坐好，晚点了。

下飞机也是一样，大家都想走，却一排一排地下，轮到自己才去开箱取行李。出去以后等打车的人流又是很长的队伍。下了飞机我们遇到五个人都是来开会的，一起打一个大车，九点半才到。会议事前考虑我们会晚就推迟到十点。

说说会议吧。参加会议的人都是让我先闻其名，后见其人的。Ray Leuning, John Finnigan, Michael Raupach, 还有从美国Duke和USGS请来两位专家。就拿Finnigan, Raupach来说，20年前我在上海植物生理所做博士后的时候，王天铎先生就拿出他们在澳洲植物生理学杂志上的论文讨论，这个文章非常有意思，直到现在仍在给我启发和激励。这篇文章的题目就是“多层模型合理但不准确，大叶模型有用但不合理：讨论”。（多年以后地理所一个回国的专家，翻译此文单独署上自己的大名，发表在地理研究上。因为是翻译，还不引用此文。后来王天铎先生很气愤，讲原文与翻译的论文一起寄给时任所长黄秉维先生。但是也不了了之。这是陈年往事了。）会议给我的印象是，这是一个纯学术性的会议，大家谈论了非常前沿的科学问题。没有人讲经费，讲项目组织，甚至没有人愿意讨论这个问题。第二，国外的这种学术会议很平等。如Raupach是科学院院士，他的报告也可以放在后面，博士后在他前面也无所谓。第二是牛人不牛。从USGS来的专家，看上去就是普普通通的人。听他说话也是没有脾气。就是唠叨他离婚了，大孩子有一个稳定的工作，担心小的现在很难找到工作。次日到张橹的办公室，他说我们请来的两个人都是潜心做学问的。USGS这个人没有发表多少论文，总共60多篇吧，引用却达到4000多次。USGS非常爱才，多年前请他加盟，但是他不愿意离开费城边上的一个小镇。就这样USGS单独为他成立只有一个人的分部，他可以在这里（可能是一个大学）继续工作，但是由USGS发工资，成果属于USGS。我问他USGS有多少人，他竟然一无所知。

会议提出一个问题，在过去30年澳洲拥有Farquhar，Leuning等光合作用和生理生态等创见，未来30年的前景如何？我感觉，无论我们的项目投入多大，事实上我们对生态过程的认识很少突破那几篇经典的论文。所以追求卓越是科学家的唯一目标。

我问Leuning是否有兴趣到中国讲学，每年1－2个月。他表示这一年内不能成行，可能要到新南威尔士大学做客座。他的养老金足够好，只需要人家提供住宿条件就可以了。

下面是会议日程，从博士后到院士，每个人都没有头衔呢！

Program

CSIRO Office of the Chief Executive Cutting Edge Science Symposia

Water and carbon coupling at regional scales: key issues and a new approach

Monday/Tuesday, 25/26 June 2012

Discovery Centre, CSIRO Black Mountain, Canberra

Day 1: Monday 25 June

10:00 – 10:30 Conference opening Chair: Helen Cleugh (CSIRO)

10:00 –10:10 Aims of the conference, housekeeping Helen Cleugh (CSIRO)

10:10 – 10:20 A view from the DCCEE on climate change science and the role of carbon & water exchanges.Anthony Swirepik (DCCEE)

Session 1:

10:20 – 12:00 Water and carbon coupling: science and policy issues

Chair: Helen Cleugh

10:30 –11:00 The economics of leaf-gas exchange in a fluctuating environment and their up-scaling to the canopy-level using turbulent transport theories.

Gaby Katul (Duke University)

11:00 – 11:30 Advancing representation of terrestrial physics to support water-carbon coupling in GFDL's Earth system models. Chris Milly (GFDL)

11:30 – 12:00 Three decades of evolution in our understanding of canopy turbulence. John Finnigan (CSIRO)

12:00 – 12:30 Carbon planting and water policies – real or perceived conflicts?

Ian Prosser (CSIRO)

12:30 – 13:30 Lunch at Discovery CentreSession 2:

13:30 – 17:00 Observed water and carbon fluxes Chair: Lu Zhang (CSIRO)

13:30 – 13:50 Linking measured CO2 exchange by sugarcane crops and biomass production. Tom Denmead (CSIRO)

13:50 – 14:10 Savannah patterns of energy and carbon integrated across the landscape. Jason Beringer (Monash Uni)

14:10 – 14:30 Carbon and water fluxes in a tropical lowland rainforest in Far North Queensland. Mike Liddell (James Cook Uni)

14:30 – 14:50 Patterns of carbon and water fluxes of arid zone Mulga in Australia: sources, sinks and their responses to precipitation pulses. Derek Eamus (Uni Tech Sydney)

14:50 – 15:10 Responses of carbon and water exchanges of an Eucalyptus forest to prolonged dry and wet periods. Eva van Gorsel (CSIRO)

15:10 – 15:30 A reassessment of rooting depth dynamics and their influence on catchment water fluxes. Randall Donohue (CSIRO)

15:30 – 15:50 Vegetation impact on mean annual catchment evapotranspiration: a global non-paired catchment perspective. Murray Peel (Melbourne Uni)

15:50 – 16:10 Afternoon Tea at Discovery Centre

16:10 – 16:50 Break out session (into two groups) Facilitators: David Post (CSIRO) / Belinda Medlyn (Macquarie Uni)

17:00 – 17:30 Group report

17.30 – 18:30 Pre-dinner drinks. Pye Lab, Black Mountain, CSIRO

19:30 Conference Dinner @ Chairman and Yip 108 Bunda Street, City ACT 2601

Day 2: Tuesday 26 June

Session 3:

09:00 – 12:00 Modelling and synthesis Chair: Ian Prosser

09:00 – 09:30 Thirty years of progress and future prospects in micrometeorology and ecophysiology from leaf to global scales Ray Leuning (CSIRO)

09:30 – 09:50 Interpreting 30 years of vegetation dynamics in Budyko's hydroclimatic framework. Tim McVicar (CSIRO)

09:50 – 10:10 Optimal stomatal conductance under rising CO2 Belinda Medlyn (Macquarie University)

10:10 – 10:30 The hydrological responses of vegetated catchments to elevated CO2: Results of a simulation study Lei Cheng (CSIRO)

10:30 – 10:50 Morning Tea at Discovery Centre

10:50 – 11:10 An analytical perspective on the coupled carbonclimate-human system

Michael Raupach (CSIRO)

11:10 – 11:30 Improving hydrological process simulations using remote sensing vegetation data in bushfire impacted catchments. Yongqiang Zhang (CSIRO)

11:30 – 11:50 Can biomass carbon capture threaten our water resources? Albert van Dijk (ANU)

11:50 – 12:10 Inferring the unobservable: synthesising data and models to diagnose ecosystem processes of water and carbon exchange. Damian Barrett (CSIRO)

12:10 – 12:30 Carbon and water observations reduce uncertainty in Australia’s terrestrial carbon balance. Vanessa Haverd (CSIRO)

12:30 – 13:30 Lunch at Discovery Centre

Session 4:

13:30 – 14:15 New directions Chair: John Finnigan

13:30 – 14:00 A perspective on plant function for carbon cycle and land surface modelling. Colin Prentice (Macquarie Uni)

14:00 – 14:20 Challenges to representing plant adaptation at regional scales. Roddy Dewar (ANU)

14:20 – 14:40 Constraining global GPP using water fluxes: the power of coupling. Yingping Wang (CSIRO)

14:40 – 15:00 Towards defining processes and thresholds of forest mortality: observations from leaf to regional scale. Tony O’Grady (CSIRO)

15:00 – 15:30 Afternoon Tea at Discovery Centre

15:30 – 16:15 Group discussion Helen Cleugh (CSIRO)

16:15 – 16:45 Wrap up

17:00 Depart for the airport