Zhe Ren

Zhe Ren is currently employed as a postdoctoral scientist within the Young lab, where his primary focus lies in exploring the interactions within herbicide modes of action and applying statistical tools to enhance weed management strategies. He earned his PhD degree in plant biology under the mentorship of Dr. David J. Gibson at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, IL. During his doctoral studies, Zhe focused on integrated weed management in agroecosystems in the U.S. while also delving into the application of ecological principles to restoration across the North American Tallgrass Prairie. Prior to this, he attained his MSc degree in botany from the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, where his research investigated the spatial analysis of community dynamics. Zhe possesses a fervent enthusiasm for combining ecological principles with weed science. Furthermore, he takes joy in sharing his knowledge as an instructor of record for introductory biostatistics courses.

Selected Publications

Ren, Z., Gibson, D. J., Gage, K. L., Young, B. G., Owen, M. D., Matthews, J. L., ... & Wilson, R. G., 2023. Functional composition of soil seedbank revealed weed trait gradients between hardiness zones in glyphosate-resistant cropping systems in the United States. Pest Manag. Sci. https://doi.org/10.1002/ps.7875

Ren, Z., Gibson, D.J., Baer, S.G., Johnson, L. and Wilson, L.E., 2023. The role of dominant prairie species ecotypes on plant diversity patterns of restored grasslands across a rainfall gradient in the US Great Plains. Appl. Veg. Sci. e12725. https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12725

Ren, Z., Peng, H. and Liu, Z.W., 2016. The rapid climate change-caused dichotomy on subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest in Yunnan: Reduction in habitat diversity and increase in species diversity. Plant Divers., 38(3), pp.142-148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pld.2016.04.003

Ren, Z., Chen, L. and Peng, H., 2016. Orophea yunnanensis should be listed as a plant species with extremely small population. Biodivers. Sci., 24, pp.358-359. https://doi.org/10.17520/biods.2016064

Palomino, F.P.E., Ren, Z., Gibson, D.J., … & Walters, S.A., 2024. Uncontrolled fire has effects on plant phylogenetic and functional diversity of an Altiplano grasslands of Puno, Peru. Am. J. Bot. (in review)

Gibson, D.J., Barfknecht, D.F., Ren, Z., … & Johnson, L.C., 2024. Dependency of diversity-productivity relationships on ecotypes of the dominant species across a precipitation gradient. Oecologia (in review)