Research

In the GEM lab, we are interested in the patterns and mechanisms of ecosystem dynamics under global environmental change. We study the ecophysiology of terrestrial plants and their role in the Earth system, using novel remote sensing tools and computational modeling.

Lab Publications

2021

Leaf surface water, not plant water stress, drives diurnal variation in tropical forest canopy water content

Xiangtao Xu, Alexandra G. Konings, Marcos Longo, Andrew Feldman, Liang Xu, Sassan Saatchi, Donghai Wu, Jin Wu, Paul Moorcroft

New Phytologist · 01 Jun 2021

Recovery: Fast and Slow—Vegetation Response During the 2012–2016 California Drought

Xi Yang, Xiangtao Xu, Atticus Stovall, Min Chen, Jung‐Eun Lee

Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences · 01 Apr 2021

Remote Sensing Tree mortality

Unraveling the relative role of light and water competition between lianas and trees in tropical forests: A vegetation model analysis

Félicien Meunier, Hans Verbeeck, Betsy Cowdery, Stefan A. Schnitzer, Chris M. Smith‐Martin, Jennifer S. Powers, Xiangtao Xu, Martijn Slot, Hannes P. T. De Deurwaerder, Matteo Detto, Damien Bonal, Marcos Longo, Louis S. Santiago, Michael Dietze

Journal of Ecology · 03 Mar 2021

ED2 Tropical ecology

Monitoring tree-crown scale autumn leaf phenology in a temperate forest with an integration of PlanetScope and drone remote sensing observations

Shengbiao Wu, Jing Wang, Zhengbing Yan, Guangqin Song, Yang Chen, Qin Ma, Meifeng Deng, Yuntao Wu, Yingyi Zhao, Zhengfei Guo, Zuoqiang Yuan, Guanhua Dai, Xiangtao Xu, Xi Yang, Yanjun Su, Lingli Liu, Jin Wu

ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing · 15 Jan 2021

Phenology Remote sensing

Trait-Based Modeling of Terrestrial Ecosystems: Advances and Challenges Under Global Change

Xiangtao Xu, Anna T. Trugman

Current Climate Change Reports · 12 Jan 2021

Review

2020

Accelerated terrestrial ecosystem carbon turnover and its drivers

Donghai Wu, Shilong Piao, Dan Zhu, Xuhui Wang, Philippe Ciais, Ana Bastos, Xiangtao Xu, Wenfang Xu

Global Change Biology · 30 Aug 2020

Carbon turnover

Optimal leaf life strategies determine V _c,max dynamic during ontogeny

Matteo Detto, Xiangtao Xu

New Phytologist · 22 Jun 2020

Phenology Optimality principles

A catastrophic tropical drought kills hydraulically vulnerable tree species

Jennifer S. Powers, German Vargas G., Timothy J. Brodribb, Naomi B. Schwartz, Daniel Pérez‐Aviles, Chris M. Smith‐Martin, Justin M. Becknell, Filippo Aureli, Roger Blanco, Erick Calderón‐Morales, Julio C. Calvo‐Alvarado, Ana Julieta Calvo‐Obando, María Marta Chavarría, Dorian Carvajal‐Vanegas, César D. Jiménez‐Rodríguez, Evin Murillo Chacon, Colleen M. Schaffner, Leland K. Werden, Xiangtao Xu, David Medvigy

Global Change Biology · 23 Mar 2020

Tropical ecology Tree mortality

Allometric scaling laws linking biomass and rooting depth vary across ontogeny and functional groups in tropical dry forest lianas and trees

Chris M. Smith‐Martin, Xiangtao Xu, David Medvigy, Stefan A. Schnitzer, Jennifer S. Powers

New Phytologist · 24 Jan 2020

Tropical ecology Allometry Root ED2