"What determines large-scale patterns of species richness remains one of the oldest unresolved questions in biology. A plethora of hypotheses have been proposed to explain such patterns, most of which focus on the effects of contemporary processes and environment, especially those associated with climate. A current challenge for ecologists is to link the effect of such contemporary factors with factors associated with the evolutionary history of a region and its species.By combining novel methods in macroecology with species distribution modeling in an integrated framework, I will explore the geographical patterns in species richness and associated phylogenetic structures using high-quality data of plant distributions and phylogenetic information. Additionally, I will determine the threats to plant biodiversity caused by global change in climate. Based on the identification of hotspots of evolutionary history and global changes, I will evaluate the efficiency of the nature reserve network in China.My research will focus on eastern Asia using information on 11,405 species of woody plants. This large biogeographical region contains steep spatial variation in diversity and climate, making it immensely suitable for testing hypotheses proposed to explain species richness patterns. It is a region that has yet to be rigorously investigated using high quality data. Thus, knowledge from this project will compliment the many related studies based on European and North American data, thereby facilitating a more global overview on these issue.I will be supervised by Prof. Carsten Rahbek, a leading scientist of macroecology and global change ecology, and hosted by the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, a Center of Excellence at the Univ. of Copenhagen, Denmark. The proposed project, PDIVCHINA, will substantially improve my scientific competencies by providing multidisciplinary knowledge and advanced training for complementary scientific skills."