During his visit, Zhao pointed out that a complete aquatic biological big data is needed to establish water ecological health assessment methods and conserve biodiversity, and the important speeches made by President XI Jinping must be further implemented, as well as his thought on ecological civilization be practiced in water resources and water ecosystem protection.    

Biological indicators and ecological methods should be used by the researchers to solve scientific problems, balancing macro-strategic positioning with micro-problem-oriented thinking, added Zhao.    

As part of its mission, the institute needs to develop the center into a leading platform for aquatic biological big data in Hubei, and even in China, as well as providing support for major national needs such as water ecological health assessment, water ecological protection and restoration, and biodiversity conservation, according to Zhao.    

As the director general of the Center’s co-construction unit, Hubei Department of Ecology and Environment, HE Kaiwen hoped that the Department would work closely with the institute to maximize their respective advantages, strengthen joint research, deepen personnel exchanges, and facilitate the integration and sharing of data.    

Later, Zhao and Prof. GUI Jianfang from IHB jointly launched the aquatic eDNA database website.