I am a broadly trained ecologist interested in understanding how terrestrial ecosystems are functioning in the context of global change. Specifically, my research program seeks to understand the causes and consequences of biodiversity change at scales spanning from individual organisms to the entire biosphere. In pursuit of these goals, I develop data-model synthesis frameworks that integrate satellite remote sensing, airborne LiDAR and hyperspectral imaging, field sampling, and ecological monitoring networks with Bayesian hierarchical models. A key area of my work involves quantifying the regeneration potentials of global forests and their fundamental roles in food web dynamics, including seed production and seedling recruits, and determining how they respond to climate, habitat, species traits, and the consumers that rely on them. Additionally, I develop novel approaches to characterize habitats using satellite and airborne remote sensing, and then use statistical models to predict how these habitats modulate the impacts of climate change on biodiversity.

I worked as a postdoc with Dr. Jim Clark and Dr. Jennifer Swenson at the Nicholas School of Environment at Duke University. For my doctoral research, I worked with Drs. Conghe Song, Jim Clark, Erika Wise, Diego Riveros-Iregui, and Allen Hurlbert to understand how vegetation phenology is influenced by climate change, extreme weather events, and urbanization.

Xiaolu is interested in the interactions between plant phenology, terrestrial ecosystems, and the climate system. She uses a combination of ground observations, remote sensing records, statistical models, and Earth system models to (1) characterize the biodiversity-phenology-climate relationship and how it influences ecosystem structure and reproduction; (2) assess phenology variability and improve phenology modeling in Earth system models; and (3) investigate phenology impacts on land-atmosphere interactions. She worked with Dr. Toby R. Ault for her postdoctoral and dissertation research work.

Hanshi is a Ph.D. student in the Intercollege Graduate Degree Program (IGDP) in Ecology. Her research interests focus on understanding the effects of climate and habitat change on vegetation phenology across broad biogeogragraphic scales. She is also interested in quantifying the subsequent impact of phenology changes on terrestrial ecosystem functions and services. She worked with Dr. Weiqiang Chen and Dr. Hua Cai at the Institute of Urban Environment at Chinese Academy of Sciences from 2021 to 2023 before joining Penn State.

Yu Wei is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management. She is interested in understanding biodiversity changes using combined LiDAR and hyperspectral remote sensing. Her research projects seeks to apply deep learning and other advanced computing models to understand structural and spectral diversity of forest ecosystem under global change. She has a very strong background in remote sensing and worked with Dr. Mi Wang at the State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying Mapping and Remote Sensing (LIESMARS) at Wuhan University.

Fin is an undergraduate research assistant/technician in the lab. His main role is working on a new seed dispersal project and small unmanned aircraft operations for imagery and LIDAR data creation along with processing and analyzing that data.