Biography
I completed my Ph.D. work at the University of Arizona, mainly investigating water storage changes and underlying mechanisms arising from climate variations, human interventions, and local topography over drylands. Subsequently, during my postdoctoral training at Harvard University, I extended my research interest to predicting water–carbon dynamics of forest ecosystems under future climate change by applying data assimilation and terrestrial biosphere modeling. Prior to joining FSU in 2024, I was a faculty member at the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom).
Currently, I am interested in examining responses of terrestrial ecosystems to climate change, elevated atmospheric CO2, and disturbance events (e.g. fires, droughts). My research focuses on integrating field observations, remote sensing data, and process–based models to quantify and predict ecosystem water, energy, carbon fluxes, productivity, and demography.
Education
- Ph.D. in Hydrometeorology – University of Arizona (2021)
- M.S. in Earth Science (Geophysics Specialization) – University of Waterloo (2016)
- B.S. in Earth Science (Geology Specialization) – University of Waterloo (2014)
- B.S. in Earth Science (Geology Specialization) – China University of Petroleum (2014)
Selected Publications
- Chang, LL & Niu, GY 2023, ‘The Impacts of Interannual Climate Variability on the Declining Trend in Terrestrial Water Storage over the Tigris–Euphrates River Basin‘, Journal of Hydrometeorology, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 549–560. https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM–D–22–0026.1
- Yuan, R, Chang, LL & Niu, G 2021, ‘Annual variations of T/ET in a semi–arid region: Implications of plant water use strategies‘, Journal of Hydrology, vol. 603, 126884. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2021.126884
- Niu, GY, Fang, YH, Chang, LL, Jin, J, Yuan, H & Zeng, X 2020, ‘Enhancing the Noah–MP Ecosystem Response to Droughts With an Explicit Representation of Plant Water Storage Supplied by Dynamic Root Water Uptake‘, Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, vol. 12, no. 11,
e2020MS002062. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020MS002062 - Chang, LL, Yuan, R, Gupta, HV, Winter, CL & Niu, GY 2020, ‘Why Is the Terrestrial Water Storage in Dryland Regions Declining? A Perspective Based on Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Satellite Observations and Noah Land Surface Model With Multiparameterization Schemes Model
Simulations‘, Water Resources Research, vol. 56, no. 11, e2020WR027102. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020WR027102 - Yuan, RQ, Chang, LL, Gupta, H & Niu, GY 2019, ‘Climatic forcing for recent significant terrestrial drying and wetting‘, Advances in Water Resources, vol. 133, 103425. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2019.103425
- Chang, LL, Dwivedi, R, Knowles, JF, Fang, YH, Niu, GY, Pelletier, JD, Rasmussen, C, Durcik, M, Barron–Gafford, GA & Meixner, T 2018, ‘Why Do Large–Scale Land Surface Models Produce a Low Ratio of Transpiration to Evapotranspiration?‘, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, vol. 123,
no. 17, pp. 9109–9130. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JD029159
