Based on the collaborative works with the colleagues in the School of Natural Resources (Jingjing Liang and Mo Zhou) and the Department of Biology at WVU, the long-term effects of changes in climate and fire regime on forest structure were identified by developing an integrated Climate-Sensitive Matrix framework [Ma et al., 2016 Ecological Modelling]. We projected that under future climate change the central hardwood forests of the U.S. will undergo a major shift in forest community structure from the present to the year 2100. I also contributed as a co-author to a collaborative study on positive biodiversity-productivity relationship [Liang et al., 2016 Science]. Our research shows that the ongoing species loss in global forests could substantially reduce forest productivity, thereby reducing the absorption of carbon dioxide by forests from the atmosphere. Therefore, conserving forest biodiversity might be one of the key actions to mitigate, or at least limit, climate change.

Publications

Ma, W., J. Liang, J. R. Cumming, E. Lee, A. B. Welsh, J. V. Watson, and M. Zhou (2016), Fundamental shifts of Central Hardwood Forests under Climate Change, Ecological Modelling, 332, 28-41. [Link]

Liang, J., et al. (E. Lee as one of the co-authors) (2016), Positive biodiversity–productivity relationship predominant in global forests, Science 354, aaf8957, doi: 10.1126/science.aaf8957. [Link]