Introduction

Yao Zhang is an assistant professor at College of Urban and Environment Science, Peking University. His research focuses on understand vegetation responses and feedbacks to global climate change using advance remote sensing technique, field observations and process models, with a particular interest in droughts and dryland dynamics. He has published more than 100 papers in Nature Climate Change, Nature Ecology&Evolution, Global Change Biology, Remote Sensing of Environment, etc. and serves as editorial board member for China Science Earth Science andJournal of Remote Sensing.

Education

Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, USA, 2014 – 2017

M.S. in Forest Management, College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, China, 2011 – 2014

B.S. in Geographic Information Science, Department of Oceanographic and Geographic Sciences, Nanjing University, China, 2007 – 2011

Professional Experience

2021-05 to present, Assistant Professor, Peking University, Beijing, China.

2019-08– 2021-04, Postdoctoral Research Scholar

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, USA/University of California, Berkeley, USA

2017-12– 2019-07, Postdoctoral Research Scientist

Earth and Environmental Engineering, Columbia University, New York, USA

Research AreasandInterests

Drought and disturbances

Global carbon cycle and modelling

Solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence

Water use efficiency and carbon water coupling

Land atmosphere interactions

Awardsand Honors

2024Key R&D program of PRC (~$200,000)

2024General program of NSFC (~$70,000)

2022Key program of NSFC (~$90,000)

2022Excellent Young Scientists Fund Program(Overseas)of NSFC (~$300,000)

2021Excellence in Reviewing JGR-Biogeosciences

2017South Central Climate Science Center Travel Grant, South Central Climate Science Center ($1,000)

2017George L. and Cleo Cross Graduate Student Endowed Scholarship, Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma ($2,000)

2015Robberson Travel Grant, Graduate College, University of Oklahoma ($1,000)

Selected Publications

34. Li, J., Zhang, Y.*, Ciais, P., Zhang, H., Wang, Z.*, Tang, H., Piao, S., Observational constraint reveals enhanced response of future compound events to cumulative carbon emissions. Nature (Accepted)

33. Li, J., Zhang, Y.*, Bevacqua, E., Jiang, S., Yuan, X., Qiu, J., Wang, Z., Zscheischler, J., Zhou, S., Wang, K., Piao, S.*, Warming and vegetation greening drive recent surge in flash drought. Science Advanceshttps://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aea8452

32. Zhang, H., Zhang, Y.*, Miralles, D., Tai, X., Koppa, A., Yang, H., Sitch, S., O’Sullivan, M., (2026) Increase in plant reliance on past precipitation associated with greening and drying. Nature Ecology & Evolutionhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-026-02997-4

31. Qiu, J., Zhang, Y.*, Cai, M., Keenan, T.F., Zhang, H., Gentine, P., Luo, X., Cattry, M., Zhou, S., Piao, S., (2025)Large contribution of antecedent climate to ecosystem productivity anomalies during extreme events. Nature Geoscience, 19, 25–32, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01856-4

30. Deng, Y., Zhang, Y.*, (2025) The response of ecosystem marginal water use efficiency to soil drying. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 374, 110800,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2025.110800

29. Cai, M., Zhang, Y.*, Qiu, J., (2025) Estimating ecosystem resilience from noisy observational data. Global Change Biology, 31, e70370 https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.70370

28. Yang, T., Gong, H., Zhang, Y.*, (2025) Higher sensitivity of L-band vegetation optical depth to foliage than total aboveground biomass. Geophysical Research Letters 52, e2025GL115437. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GL115437

27. Liu, Y., Zhang, Y.*, Peñuelas, P., Kannenberg, S.A., Gong, H., Yuan, W., Wu, C., Zhou, S., Piao, S., (2025) Drought legacies delay spring green up in northern ecosystems. Nature Climate Change. 15, 444–451, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02273-6

26. Cai, M., Zhang, Y.*, Guan, X., Qiu, J., (2025) An adaptive spatiotemporal tensor reconstruction method for GIMMS-3g+ NDVI. Remote Sensing of Environment. 316, 114511, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2024.114511

25. Li, J., Zhang, Y.*, Bevacqua, E., Zscheischler, J., Keenan, T.F., Lian, X., Zhou, S., Zhang, H., He, M., Piao, S., (2024) Future increase in compound soil drought-heat extremes exacerbated by vegetation greening. Nature Communications. 15, 10875, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55175-0

24. Lang, W., Zhang, Y.*, Li, X., Meng, F., Liu, Q., Wang, K., Xu, H., Chen, A., Peñuelas, J., Janssens, I, Piao, S.*, (2024) Phenological divergence between plants and animals under climate change. Nature Ecology & Evolution. 9, 261–272, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02597-0

23. Tan, S., Zhang, Y.*, Qi, J., Su, Y., Ma, Q. & Qiu, J.,Exploring the Potential of GEDI in Characterizing Tree Height Composition based on Advanced Radiative Transfer Model SimulationsJournal of Remote Sensing. https://doi.org/10.34133/remotesensing.0132

22. Zhang, Y.*, Cai, M., Xiao, X., Yang, X., Migliavacca, M., Basara, J., Zhou, S., &Deng, Y. (2024)Immediate and lagged vegetation responses to dry spells revealed by continuous solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence observations at a tall grass prairie.Remote Sensing of Environment. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2024.114080

21. Zhang, Q., Zhang, G.*, Zhang, Y.*, Xiao, X., You, N., Li, Z., Tang, H., Yang, T., Di, Y., Dong, J.*, (2023)Coupling GEDI LiDAR and optical satellite for revealing large-scale maize lodging in Northeastern China. Earth Future.https://doi.org/10.1029/2023EF003590

20. Zhang, Y.*&Peñuelas, J.*, (2023)Combining solar induced chlorophyll fluorescence and optical vegetation indices to better understand plant phenological responses to global change. Journal of Remote Sensinghttps://doi.org/10.34133/remotesensing.0085

19. Zhou, S.*, Yu, B., Lintner, B.R., Findell, K.&Zhang, Y.*, (2023)Projected increase in global runoff dominated by land surface changes. Nature Climate Change.13, 442–449 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01659-8

18. Zhang, Y.*,Fang, J., Smith, W.K., Wang, X., Gentine, P., Scott, R.L., Migliavacca, M., Jeong, S., Litvak, M.& Zhou, S. (2023) Satellite solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence tracks physiological drought stress developmentduring 2020 southwest US drought.Global Change Biology. 29, 3395-3408, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16683

Media: highlighted byScience

17. Hong, S., Zhang, Y., Yao, Y., Meng, F., Zhao, Q.&Zhang, Y.*,(2022) Contrasting temperature effects on the velocity of early- versus late-stage vegetation green-up in the Northern Hemisphere. Global Change Biology. 28, 6961-6972 https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16414

16. Zhang, Y.*, Gentine, P., Luo, X., Xu, L., Liu, Y., Zhou, S., Michalak, A.M., Sun, W., Fisher, J.B., Piao, S.L. & Keenan, T.F.*, (2022)Increased sensitivity of dryland vegetation greenness to precipitation due to rising atmospheric CO2. Nature Communications. 13, 4875. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32631-3

Web of Science Highly Cited (1% in Geoscience) (May/June, 2023)

15. Zhang, Y.*, Keenan, T.F.* & Zhou, S.(2021) Exacerbated drought impact on global ecosystem due to structural overshoot. Nature Ecology & Evolution. 5, 1490–1498. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01551-8

14 Zhang, Y.*, Commane, R., Zhou, S., Williams, A.P.& Gentine, P. (2020) Light limitation regulates the response of autumn terrestrial carbon uptake to warming. Nature Climate Change. 10, 739-743, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0806-0

Media: Columbia Engineering, Science Daily, Phys.org, EurekAlert!

13. Zhang, Y.*, Parazoo, N., Williams, A.P., Zhou, S.&Gentine, P.* (2020) Large and projected strengthening moisture limitation on end-of-season photosynthesis. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.117 (17) 9216-9222. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1914436117

Media: Columbia Engineering, Science Daily, Phys.org, EurekAlert!

12. Zhang, Y.*, Zhou, S., Gentine, P., & Xiao, X. (2019)Can vegetation optical depth reflect changes in leaf water potential during soil moisture dry-down events?Remote Sensing of Environment. 234, 111451. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2019.111451

11. Zhang, Y.*,Joiner, J., Alemohammad, H., Zhou, S.& Gentine, P.(2018) A global spatially contiguous solar-induced fluorescence (CSIF) dataset using neural networks. Biogeosciences. 15, 5779-5800, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-5779-2018

10. Zhang, Y.*, Xiao, X.*, Wolf, S., Wu, J., Wu, X., Gioli., B., Wohlfahrt, G.,Cescatti, A., van der Tol, C., Zhou, S., Gough, C., Gentine, P., Zhang, Y., Steinbrecher, R., & Ardö, J. (2018) Spatio-temporal convergence of maximum daily light-use efficiency based on radiation absorption bycanopy chlorophyll.Geophysical Research Letters. 45(8), 3508-3519. https://doi.org/10.1029/2017GL076354

9. Zhang, Y.*, Joiner, J., Gentine, P., & Zhou, S. (2018) Reduced solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence from GOME-2 during Amazon drought caused by dataset artifacts.Global Change Biology. 24(6), 2229–2230.https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14134

8. Zhang, Y.*, Xiao, X.*, Zhang, Y., Wolf, S., Zhou, S., Joiner, J., Guanter, L., Verma, M., Sun, Y., Yang, X., Paul-Limoges, E., Gough, C., Wohlfahrt, G., Gioli, B., van der Tol, C., Yann, N., Lund, M., & Agnes de Grandcourt. (2018) On the relationship between sub-daily instantaneous and daily total gross primary production: implications for interpreting satellite-based SIF retrievals. Remote Sensing of Environment. 205, 276-289 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2017.12.009

7. Zhang, Y.*, Xiao, X.*, Wu, X., Zhou, S., Zhang, G., Qin, Y., & Dong, J. (2017). A global moderate resolution dataset of gross primary production of vegetation for 2000-2016. Scientific Data. 4, 170165, https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.165

Web of Science Highly Cited (1% in Geoscience) (May/June, 2020)

6. Zhang, Y.*, Xiao, X.*, Guanter, L., Zhou, S., Ciais, P., Joiner, J., Sitch, S., Wu, X.C., Nabel, J., Dong, J.W., Kato, E., Jain, A.K., Wiltshire, A., & Stocker, B.D. (2016). Precipitation and carbon-water coupling jointly control the interannual variability of global land gross primary production. Scientific Reports, 6,39748. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep39748

5. Zhang, Y., Xiao, X.*, Jin, C., Dong, J., Zhou, S., Wagle, P., Joiner, J., Guanter, L., Zhang, Y., Zhang, G., Qin, Y., Wang, J., & Moore, B. (2016). Consistency between sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence and gross primary production of vegetation in North America. Remote Sensing of Environment, 183, 154-169https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2016.05.015

Web of Science Highly Cited (1% in Geoscience) (May/June, 2020)

4. Zhang, Y., Xiao, X.*, Zhou, S., Ciais, P., McCarthy, H., & Luo, Y. (2016). Canopy and physiological controls of GPP during drought and heat wave. Geophysical Research Letters, 43(7), 3325-3333https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL068501

3. Zhang, Y., Peng, C.H., Li, W.Z.*, Tian, L.X., Zhu, Q.Q., Chen, H., Fang, X.Q., Zhang, G.L., Liu, G.M., Mu, X.M., Li, Z.B., Li, S.Q., Yang, Y.Z., Wang, J., & Xiao, X.M. (2016). Multiple afforestation programs accelerate the greenness in the 'Three North' region of China from 1982 to 2013. Ecological Indicators, 61, 404-412https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2015.09.041

2. Zhang, Y., Li, W.*, Zhu, Q., Chen, H., Fang, X., Zhang, T., Zhao, P., & Peng, C.* (2015). Monitoring the impact of aerosol contamination on the drought-induced decline of gross primary productivity. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 36, 30-40https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2014.11.006

1. Zhang, Y., Peng, C., Li, W.*, Fang, X., Zhang, T., Zhu, Q., Chen, H., & Zhao, P. (2013). Monitoring and estimating drought-induced impacts on forest structure, growth, function, and ecosystem services using remote-sensing data: recent progress and future challenges. Environmental Reviews, 21(2), 103-115https://doi.org/10.1139/er-2013-0006