China Ecological Forum (CEF), a comprehensive academic forum on ecology in China, aims to disseminate new knowledge, exchange new ideas, and present new research findings by holding academic activities including lectures, thematic workshops, high-level seminars, and focal forums. Since its launch in 2005, CEF has held 100 lecture series, 12 large academic seminars, six thematic workshops, and two high-level symposia and forums, having brought together more than 300 well-known experts with half of them from foreign research institutions. As a result, CEF has become an important platform for ecological academic exchange both in China and internationally. Seen from the themes of these lectures, climate change and adaptation, ecosystem assessment and management, and ecosystem service are all hot issues in ecological research. Based on the CEF seminars, five volumes of serial publications on China Ecological Forum have been published since 2009, which cover the main research fields and key scientific issues and reflect the scientific frontiers of contemporary ecological research. By analyzing the themes of lectures and seminars of CEF, this paper explored the change on hot issues in ecological research in recent years, providing references and suggestions for future Chinese ecosystem research.