Current research projects Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Climatic and Environmental Change. ORNL, 2024-2028 (Co-I, PIs: Paul Hanson and Daniel Ricciuto, Oak Ridge National Laboratory)TECO modeling, data assimilation, and ecological forecasting at Sevilleta (SEV) LTER site. NSF, 2018-2024 (Co-PI, PI: Jennifer Rudgers, University of New Mexico)Constraining the continental-scale terrestrial carbon cycle using NEON data. NSF, 2020-2024 (PI: Jingfeng Xiao, University of New Hampshire)USDA Climate Smart Commodities NYS Connects: Climate Smart Farms and Forests Project. NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets, 2023-2028 (PI) Empirical measurements and model representation of hydraulic redistribution as a control on function of semiarid woody ecosystems. DOE, 2022-2025 (PI: William Pockman, University of New Mexico)

About

Find out what this lab does

Our research program is designed to advance predictive understanding of ecosystem ecology and biogeochemistry under the global environmental change via data-model integration. Major issues we are addressing include (1) how global change alters structure and functions of terrestrial ecosystems, (2) how terrestrial ecosystems feedback to regulate climate change, and 3) how ecosystem processes can be effectively manipulated to offer nature-based solutions to mitigate climate change.

We have been using diverse approaches to our research, including global change experiments, observation, data synthesis, process-based modeling, data-model fusion, knowledge-guided artificial intelligence (AI), and theoretical analysis.

Our current research is focused on 1) developing and using knowledge-guided AI tools to discover new mechanisms underlying terrestrial ecosystem dynamics from big data; 2) identifying carbon dioxide removal (CDR) strategies that effectively lengthen carbon residence time (or permanence); 3) developing measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) methods to evaluate CDR practices; and 4) integrating data from various global change experiments coherently with models according to biogeochemical and ecological principles.

News/Events

Lab news and upcoming events

Dr. Luo's Comments in a NewScientist Article on the recent PNAS paper "Asymmetric winter warming reduces microbial carbon use efficiency and growth more than symmetric year-round warming in alpine soils" (Download this article)

Cornell's news about Dr. Luo's co-author Nature paper "Terrestrial photosynthesis inferred from plant carbonyl sulfide uptake" published on October 16, 2024

7th Training Course (Virtual) on New Advances in Land Carbon Cycle Modeling, June 3-14, 2024

Nature paper "Microbial carbon use efficiency promotes global soil carbon storage" is online on May 24, 2023

Release data assimilation algorithm for "Methods for estimating temperature sensitivity of soil organic matter based on incubation data: A comparative evaluation".

The 1st version of the protocol for model intercomparison on terrestrial biogeochemistry has been released.

Work

Most recent publications

  • Jiameng Lai, Linda M. J. Kooijmans, Wu Sun, Danica Lombardozzi, J. Elliott Campbell, Lianhong Gu, Yiqi Luo, Le Kuai & Ying Sun. 2024. Terrestrial photosynthesis inferred from plant carbonyl sulfide uptake. Nature, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08050-3. [Download]
  • Shuli Niu, Weinan Chen, Lìyǐn L Liáng, Carlos A Sierra, Jianyang Xia, Song Wang, Mary Heskel, Kaizad F Patel, Ben Bond-Lamberty, Jinsong Wang, Gabriel Yvon-Durocher, Miko UF Kirschbaum, Owen K Atkin, Yuanyuan Huang, Guirui Yu, Yiqi Luo. 2024. Temperature responses of ecosystem respiration. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, 5: 559-571. [Download]
  • Feng Tao, Benjamin Z. Houlton, Yuanyuan Huang, Ying-Ping Wang, Stefano Manzoni, Bernhard Ahrens, Umakant Mishra, Lifen Jiang, Xiaomeng Huang, Yiqi Luo. 2024. Convergence in simulating global soil organic carbon by structurally different models after data assimilation. Glob Change Biol., 30: e17297. [Download]