In the vast cosmos of shifting climates, adaptation emerges as our celestial compass, guiding us towards sustainable futures.
Ph.D. Candidate @UBCForestry, fueled by Tongli Wang's Niche Lab.
I'm a forest ecologist, focused on forest adaptation under climate change. My work? Assessing impacts, creating adaptive strategies, and using niche modeling to predict changes. Being trained in data science, I apply statistics and machine learning to build interdisciplinary models. The objective is simple - understand the impact of climate change on forest ecosystems and trees, identify conservation priorities, and finding home for forests in the future.
The Importance of Data Accuracy: As the cliché goes in data science, 'garbage in, garbage out', the accuracy of climate data is crucial for building effective ecological models that include climate. High-quality climate data sharpens the accuracy of climatic niche models (CNMs), species distribution models (SDMs), and ecological niche models (ENMs), enhancing the reliability of their predictions of climate change impact. In contrast, inaccurate data can lead to significant modeling errors, potentially resulting in flawed or even inversed adaptation or conservation strategies.
Case Studies and Evidence: Given this context, I evaluate the prediction accuracy of ClimateAP, a high-resolution dataset developed specifically for the Asia-Pacific region, and compare it against the globally used WorldClim dataset. This comparison aims to determine which dataset provides the more reliable foundation for ecological modeling in the Asia-Pacific region, ensuring that adaptation, conservation strategies and forest management plans are based on the best available data.
The urgency of climate change is magnified by extreme weather events and ecosystem shifts, with changes in climatic niches of up to 77% reported. Ecosystem classification is key for effective conservation and forest management, reducing the need for frequent site visits and enabling the development of tailored strategies. This study investigates the link between climate, soil, and forest ecosystems, forecasting future habitats and possible new ecosystems under diverse climate scenarios. The results aim to inform effective biodiversity conservation in the face of accelerating climate change.
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Presence data downloaded from GBIF in April 2022
Xu, W., Jiang, J., Lin, H. Y., Chen, T. Y., Zhang, S., & Wang, T. (2023). Assessment of the impact of climate change on endangered conifer tree species by considering climate and soil dual suitability and interspecific competition. Science of The Total Environment, 877, 162722.
Wang, T., Xu, Q., Zhang, B., Gao, D., Zhang, Y., Ren, R., & Jiang, J. (2022). Effects of understory removal and thinning on water uptake patterns in Pinus massoniana Lamb. plantations: evidence from stable isotope analysis. Forest Ecology and Management, 503, 119755.
Zhang, Y., Zhang, B., Xu, Q., Gao, D., Xu, W., Ren, R., Jiang, J., & Wang, S. (2022). The effects of plant and soil characteristics on partitioning different rainfalls to soil in a subtropical Chinese fir forest ecosystem. Forests, 13(1), 123.
Zhang, B., Xu, Q., Gao, D., Wang, T., Sui, M., Huang, J., Gu. B., Liu, F., & Jiang, J. (2021). Soil capacity of intercepting different rainfalls across subtropical plantation: Distinct effects of plant and soil properties. Science of The Total Environment, 784, 147120.
Zhang, B., Jiang, J., Xu, Q., Gao, D., Zuo, H., & Ren, R. (2021). Disentangling the Effects of Tree and Soil Properties on the Water Uptake of a Waterlogging Tolerant Tree in the Yangtze River Delta, China. Forests, 12(11), 1547.
Zhang, B., Xu, Q., Gao, D., Jiang, C., Liu, F., Jiang, J., & Wang, T. (2020). Altered water uptake patterns of Populus deltoides in mixed riparian forest stands. Science of the Total Environment, 706, 135956.
Yao HH, Crump RT, Charbonneau C, Khan A, Barton C, Brotherhood H, Jiang J, Carlson KV, Baverstock RJ. (2020). Baseline patient reported outcomes data shows high prevalence of overactive bladder, sexual dysfunction, depression and anxiety in Canadian men with newly diagnosed localized prostate cancer. Translational Andrology and Urology, 9(5), 2046-2053. doi: 10.21037/tau-20-689. PMID: 33209668; PMCID: PMC7658156.
Zhang, B., Xu, Q., Gao, D., Jiang, C., Liu, F., Jiang, J., & Ma, Y. (2019). Higher soil capacity of intercepting heavy rainfall in mixed stands than in pure stands in riparian forests. Science of The Total Environment, 658, 1514-1522.