FACAI Publications

Recent Publications

  1. Mo, L., Zohner, C. M., Reich, P. B., Liang, J., De Miguel, S., Nabuurs, G., Renner, S. S., Araza, A., Herold, M., Mirzagholi, L., Ma, H., Averill, C., Phillips, O. L., Gamarra, J. G., Hordijk, I., Routh, D., Abegg, M., Adou Yao, Y. C., Alberti, G., . . . Crowther, T. W. (2023). Integrated global assessment of the natural forest carbon potential. Nature, 624(7990), 92-101. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06723-z
  2. F. Luo, et al., "Artificial Intelligence for Climate Smart Forestry: A Forward Looking Vision," in 2023 IEEE 5th International Conference on Cognitive Machine Intelligence (CogMI), Atlanta, GA, USA, 2023 pp. 1-10.  https://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/CogMI58952.2023.00011
  3. Ma, H., Crowther, T. W., Mo, L., Maynard, D. S., Renner, S. S., Zou, Y., Liang, J., Nabuurs, G., Reich, P. B., Niinemets, Ü., Abegg, M., Adou Yao, Y. C., Alberti, G., Almeyda Zambrano, A. M., Alvarado, B. V., Alves, L. F., Ammer, C., Arroyo, L., Avitabile, V., . . . Zohner, C. M. (2023). The global biogeography of tree leaf form and habit. Nature Plants, 9(11), 1795-1809. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-023-01543-5
  4. Delavaux, C. S., Crowther, T. W., Zohner, C. M., Robmann, N. M., Lauber, T., Kuebbing, S., Liang, J., Nabuurs, G., Reich, P. B., Abegg, M., Adou Yao, Y. C., Alberti, G., Almeyda Zambrano, A. M., Alvarado, B. V., Alves, L. F., Ammer, C., Arroyo, L., Avitabile, V., Aymard, G. A., . . . Maynard, D. S. (2023). Native diversity buffers against severity of non-native tree invasions. Nature, 621(7980), 773-781. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06440-7
  5. Abbasi, A. O., Tang, X., Harris, N. L., Goldman, E. D., Gamarra, J. G., Herold, M., Kim, H. S., Luo, W., Silva, C. A., Tchebakova, N. M., Mitra, A., Finegold, Y., Jahanshahi, M. R., Alvarez, C. I., Kim, T. K., Ryu, D., & Liang, J. (2023). Spatial database of planted forests in East Asia. Scientific Data, 10(1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02383-w
  6. Ram K Adhikari, Neelam C Poudyal, Thomas O Ochuodho, Rajan Parajuli, Omkar Joshi, Sayeed R Mehmood, John F Munsell, Gaurav Dhungel, William Thomas, Ellen Crocker, Mo Zhou, Understanding Forest Landowner Attitudes, Perceived Risk, and Response to Emerald Ash Borer in Kentucky, Journal of Forestry, Volume 121, Issue 2, March 2023, Pages 157–167, https://doi.org/10.1093/jofore/fvac040
  7. Ram K Adhikari, Neelam C Poudyal, Thomas O Ochuodho, Rajan Parajuli, Omkar Joshi, Sayeed R Mehmood, John F Munsell, Gaurav Dhungel, William Thomas, Ellen Crocker, Mo Zhou, Predictors of Landowners’ Intention to Manage Emerald Ash Borer in Kentucky, Forest Science, Volume 69, Issue 4, August 2023, Pages 452–462, https://doi.org/10.1093/forsci/fxad008

  1. Cazzolla Gatti, R., Reich, P. B., Gamarra, J. G., Crowther, T., Hui, C., Morera, A., Bastin, J., Nabuurs, G., Svenning, J., M., J., Merow, C., Enquist, B., Kamenetsky, M., Lee, J., Zhu, J., Fang, J., Jacobs, D. F., Pijanowski, B., Banerjee, A., . . . Liang, J. (2022). The number of tree species on Earth. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(6), e2115329119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2115329119
  2. Santoro, M., Cartus, O., Wegmüller, U., Besnard, S., Carvalhais, N., Araza, A., Herold, M., Liang, J., Cavlovic, J., & Engdahl, M. E. (2022). Global estimation of above-ground biomass from spaceborne C-band scatterometer observations aided by LiDAR metrics of vegetation structure. Remote Sensing of Environment, 279, 113114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2022.113114
  3. Liang, J., Gamarra, J. G., Picard, N., Zhou, M., Pijanowski, B., Jacobs, D. F., Reich, P. B., Crowther, T. W., Nabuurs, G., Fang, J., Woodall, C. W., Svenning, J., Jucker, T., Bastin, J., Wiser, S. K., Slik, F., Hérault, B., Alberti, G., Keppel, G., . . . Hui, C. (2022). Co-limitation towards lower latitudes shapes global forest diversity gradients. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 6(10), 1423-1437. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01831-x
  4. Leite, R. V., Silva, C. A., Broadbent, E. N., Amaral, C. H. D., Liesenberg, V., Almeida, D. R. A. D., Mohan, M., Godinho, S., Cardil, A., Hamamura, C., Faria, B. L. D., Brancalion, P. H., Hirsch, A., Marcatti, G. E., Dalla Corte, A. P., Zambrano, A. M. A., Costa, M. B. T. D., Matricardi, E. A. T., Silva, A. L. D., . . . Klauberg, C. (2022). Large scale multi-layer fuel load characterization in tropical savanna using GEDI spaceborne lidar data. Remote Sensing of Environment, 268, 112764. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112764
  5. Ebrahimi, A., Abbasi, A. O., Liang, J., & Jacobs, D. F. (2022). Spatiotemporal trends of black walnut forest stocking under climate change. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 5, 970379. https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2022.970379
  6. Zhou, M. Dual Discounting in Renewable Resource Planning under Risk. Environmental Management 69, 353–366 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-021-01549-9
  7. Liang, J., Hui, C., Gamarra, J. G., Picard, N., Zhou, M., Pijanowski, B. C., & Jacobs, D. F. (2022, December). Mapping Global Tree Species Diversity in the Anthropocene. In Fall Meeting 2022. AGU.

Previous Publications 


  1. Morera, A., Martínez de Aragón, J., Bonet, J. A., Liang, J., & de-Miguel, S. (2021). Performance of statistical and machine learning-based methods for predicting biogeographical patterns of fungal productivity in forest ecosystems. Forest Ecosystems, 8(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40663-021-00297-w
  2. Picard, N., Mortier, F., Ploton, P., Liang, J., Derroire, G., Bastin, J.-F., Ayyappan, N., Bénédet, F., Boyemba Bosela, F., Clark, C. J., Crowther, T. W., Engone Obiang, N. L., Forni, É., Harris, D., Ngomanda, A., Poulsen, J. R., Sonké, B., Couteron, P., & Gourlet-Fleury, S. (2021). Using Model Analysis to Unveil Hidden Patterns in Tropical Forest Structures. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.599200
  3. Braghiere, R. K., Fisher, J. B., Fisher, R. A., Shi, M., Steidinger, B. S., Sulman, B. N., Soudzilovskaia, N. A., Yang, X., Liang, J., Peay, K. G., Crowther, T. W., & Phillips, R. P. (2021). Mycorrhizal Distributions Impact Global Patterns of Carbon and Nutrient Cycling. Geophysical Research Letters, 48(19). https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL094514
  4. Santoro, M., Cartus, O., Carvalhais, N., Rozendaal, D. M. ., Avitabile, V., Araza, A., de Bruin, S., Herold, M., Quegan, S., Roíguez-Veiga, P., Balzter, H., Carreiras, J., Schepaschenko, D., Korets, M., Shimada, M., Itoh, T., Moreno Martínez, Á., Cavlovic, J., Cazzolla Gatti, R., … Willcock, S. (2021). The global forest above-ground biomass pool for 2010 estimated from high-resolution satellite observations. Earth System Science Data, 13(8), 3927–3950. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3927-2021
  5. da Costa, M. B. T., Silva, C. A., Broadbent, E. N., Leite, R. V., Mohan, M., Liesenberg, V., Stoddart, J., do Amaral, C. H., de Almeida, D. R. A., da Silva, A. L., Ré Y. Goya, L. R., Cordeiro, V. A., Rex, F., Hirsch, A., Marcatti, G. E., Cardil, A., de Mendonça, B. A. F., Hamamura, C., Corte, A. P. D., … Klauberg, C. (2021). Beyond trees: Mapping total aboveground biomass density in the Brazilian savanna using high-density UAV-lidar data. Forest Ecology and Management, 491, 119155–. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2021.119155
  6. Wang, Y., Ma, W., Farlee, L. D., Jackson, E. A., Shao, G., Ochuodho, T., Liang, J., & Zhou, M. (2021). Assessing the Benefits and Economic Feasibility of Stand Improvement for Central Hardwood Forests. Forest Science, 67(3), 297–311. https://doi.org/10.1093/forsci/fxaa057
  7. Luo, W., Zhang, C., Zhao, X., Liang, J., & Tanentzap, A. (2021). Understanding patterns and potential drivers of forest diversity in northeastern China using machine‐learning algorithms. Journal of Vegetation Science, 32(2). https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.13022
  8. Hao, M., Gadow, K., Alavi, S. J., Álvarez‐González, J. G., Baluarte‐Vásquez, J. R., Corral‐Rivas, J., Hui, G., Korol, M., Kumar, R., Liang, J., Meyer, P., Remadevi, O. K., Kakkar, R., Liu, W., Zhao, X., Zhang, C., & Feilhauer, H. (2021). A classification of woody communities based on biological dissimilarity. Applied Vegetation Science, 24(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12565

  1. Liang, J., and J. G. P. Gamarra. 2020. The importance of sharing global forest data in a world of crises. Scientific Data 7:424.
  2. Luo, W.†, H. S. Kim, X. Zhao, D. Ryu, I. Jung, H. Cho, N. Harris, S. Ghosh, C. Zhang, and J. Liang. 2020. New forest biomass carbon stock estimates in Northeast Asia based on multisource data. Global Change Biology doi: 10.1111/gcb.15376.
  3. Adrián, C., d.-M. Sergio*, S. Carlos Alberto, B. R. Peter, E. C. David, H. S. B. Pedro, C. V. Alexander, G. P. G. Javier, Z. Mo, C. P. Bryan, H. Cang, W. C. Thomas, H. Bruno, P. Daniel, S.-E. Christian, B. Eben, M. A. Z. Angelica, P. Nicolas, E. O. C. A. Luiz, B. Jean-Francois, R. Devin, H. Johan van den, L. P. Pablo, and J. Liang. 2020. Recent deforestation drove the spike in Amazonian fires. Environmental Research Letters (accepted).
  4. Buongiorno, J. and Zhou, M.*, 2020. Consequences of discount rate selection for financial and ecological expectation and risk in forest management. Journal of Forest Economics 35: 1 – 17
  5. Zhang, X., Haviarova, E. and Zhou, M.*, 2020. A welfare analysis of China’s tariffs on US hardwood products. Forest Policy and Economics, 113, p.102085.
  6. Wang, Y., Ma, W., Farlee, L., Jackson, L., Shao, G., Ochuodho, T., J. Liang, and Zhou, M. A spatiotemporal analysis on the economic benefits of hardwood management in Indiana. Forest Science (accepted).
  7. Brancalion, P. H. S., E. N. Broadbent, S. de-Miguel, A. Cardil, M. R. Rosa, C. T. Almeida, D. R. A. Almeida, S. Chakravarty, M. Zhou, J. G. P. Gamarra, J. Liang, R. Crouzeilles, B. Hérault, L. E. O. C. Aragão, C. A. Silva, and A. M. Almeyda-Zambrano. 2020. Emerging threats linking tropical deforestation and the COVID-19 pandemic. Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation doi: 10.1016/j.pecon.2020.09.006.
  8. Zohner, C. M., L. Mo, S. S. Renner, J.-C. Svenning, Y. Vitasse, B. M. Benito, A. Ordonez, F. Baumgarten, J.-F. Bastin, V. Sebald, P. B. Reich, J. Liang, G.-J. Nabuurs, S. de-Miguel, G. Alberti, C. Antón-Fernández, R. Balazy, U.-B. Brändli, H. Y. H. Chen, C. Chisholm, E. Cienciala, S. Dayanandan, T. M. Fayle, L. Frizzera, D. Gianelle, A. M. Jagodzinski, B. Jaroszewicz, T. Jucker, S. Kepfer-Rojas, M. L. Khan, H. S. Kim, H. Korjus, V. K. Johannsen, D. Laarmann, M. Lang, T. Zawila-Niedzwiecki, P. A. Niklaus, A. Paquette, H. Pretzsch, P. Saikia, P. Schall, V. Šebeň, M. Svoboda, E. Tikhonova, H. Viana, C. Zhang, X. Zhao, and T. W. Crowther. 2020. Late-spring frost risk between 1959 and 2017 decreased in North America but increased in Europe and Asia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117:12192-12200.
  9. Marshall, A. R., P. J. Platts, R. L. Chazdon, H. Seki, M. J. Campbell, O. L. Phillips, R. E. Gereau, R. Marchant, J. Liang, and J. Herbohn. 2020. Conceptualising the global forest response to liana proliferation. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change 3:35.
  10. W Ma†, G. Lin, and J. Liang*. 2020. Estimating dynamics of central hardwood forests using random forests. Ecological Modelling 419-1:108947.
  11. Tang, X., X. Pei, N. Lei, X. Luo, L. Liu, L. Shi, G. Chen, and J. Liang. 2020. Global patterns of soil autotrophic respiration and its relation to climate, soil and vegetation characteristics. Geoderma 369:114339.

  1. Steidinger, B.S., Crowther, T.W., Liang, J., Van Nuland, M.E., Werner, G.D., Reich, P.B., Nabuurs, G., de-Miguel, S., Zhou, M., Picard, N. and Herault, B., 2019. Climatic controls of decomposition drive the global biogeography of forest-tree symbioses. Nature, 569(7756), p.404.
  2. Zhou, M*. and Buongiorno, J., 2019. Optimal forest management under financial risk aversion with discounted Markov decision process models. Canadian Journal of Forest Research (in press).
    https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2018-0532
  3. W Luo†, J. Liang, R. Cazzolla Gatti†, X. Zhao, and C. Zhang. 2019. Parameterization of biodiversity–productivity relationship and its scale dependency using georeferenced tree-level data. Journal of Ecology 107(3): 1106-1119.
  4. Gatti, R.C., Liang, J., Velichevskaya, A. and Zhou, M., 2019. Sustainable palm oil may not be so sustainable. Science of The Total Environment, 652, pp.48-51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.10.222
  5. Gatti, R.C., Callaghan, T., Velichevskaya, A., Dudko, A., Fabbio, L., Battipaglia, G. and Liang, J., 2019. Accelerating upward treeline shift in the Altai Mountains under last-century climate change. Scientific reports, 9(1), p.7678.
  6. Ma, W., Zhou, X., Liang, J. and Zhou M*. Coastal Alaska forests under climate change: what to expect. Forest Ecology and Management (in press)

  1. Ma, W. and Zhou, M., 2018. Assessments of management impacts on central hardwood forests under climate and fire uncertainty. Forest Science 64(1): 57 – 73.
  2. L Zeller†, Liang, J. and Pretzsch, H., 2018. Tree species richness enhances stand productivity while stand structure can have opposite effects, based on forest inventory data from Germany and the United States of America. Forest Ecosystems, 5(1), p.4.
  3. Paquette, A., A. Hector, B. Castagneyrol, M. Vanhellemont, J. Koricheva, M. Scherer-Lorenzen, K. Verheyen, L. Abdala-Roberts, H. Auge, N. Barsoum, J. Bauhus, C. Baum, H. Bruelheide, B. Castagneyrol, J. Cavender-Bares, N. Eisenhauer, O. Ferlian, G. Ganade, D. Godbold, D. Gravel, J. Hall, A. Hector, R. Hobbs, D. Hoelscher, K. B. Hulvey, M. Huxham, H. Jactel, J. Koricheva, H. Kreft, J. Liang, S. Mereu, C. Messier, R. Montgomery, B. Muys, C. Nock, A. Paquette, J. Parker, W. Parker, V. Parra-Tabla, M. P. Perring, Q. Ponette, C. Potvin, P. B. Reich, B. Rewald, H. Sandén, M. Scherer-Lorenzen, A. Smith, R. Standish, M. Vanhellemont, K. Verheyen, M. Weih, M. Wollni, D. C. Zemp, and TreeDivNet. 2018. A million and more trees for science. Nature ecology & evolution 2:763-766.

  1. Zhou, M., 2017. Valuing environmental amenities through inverse optimization: Theory and case study. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 83: 217– 230.
  2. Buongiorno, J. and Zhou, M., 2017. Multicriteria forest decision making under risk with goal-programming Markov Decision Process models. Forest Science, 63(5): 474-484.
  3. Buongiorno, J., Zhou, M. and Johnston, C., 2017. Risk aversion and risk seeking in multi-criteria forest management: A MDP approach. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 47: 800 – 807.
  4. Dahle, G., Carpenter, A., DeVallance, D. and Zhou, M., 2017. Does modulus of elasticity vary due to dormancy and temperature? Arboriculture & Urban Forestry, 43(2): 49 – 54.
  5. Lee, J; Gangnon, R; Zhu, J; Liang, J. 2017. Uncertainty of a detected spatial cluster in 1D: quantification and visualization. Stat 6 (1), 345-359
  6. Fu, L., Lei, X., Hu, Z., Zeng, W., Tang, S., Marshall, P., Cao, L., Song, X., Yu, L. and Liang, J., 2017. Integrating regional climate change into allometric equations for estimating tree aboveground biomass of Masson pine in China. Annals of Forest Science, 74(2), p.42.
  7. Zhang, C., Y. Cheng, H. He, L. Gao, J. Liang, and X. Zhao. 2017. Structural drivers of biomass dynamics in two temperate forests in China. Ecosphere 8(3):e01752. 10.1002/ecs2.1752
  8. Fan C, Tan L, Zhang P, Liang J, Zhang C, Wang J, Zhao X, von Gadow K. 2017. Determinants of mortality in a mixed broad-leaved Korean pine forest in northeastern China. Eur J For Res:1-13. doi:10.1007/s10342-017-1045-4

  1. Liang, J., T. W. Crowther, N. Picard, S. Wiser, M. Zhou, G. Alberti, E.-D. Schulze, A. D. McGuire, F. Bozzato, H. Pretzsch, S. de-Miguel, A. Paquette, B. Hérault, M. Scherer-Lorenzen, C. B. Barrett, H. B. Glick, G. M. Hengeveld, G.-J. Nabuurs, S. Pfautsch, H. Viana, A. C. Vibrans, C. Ammer, P. Schall, D. Verbyla, N. Tchebakova, M. Fischer, J. V. Watson, H. Y. H. Chen, X. Lei, M.-J. Schelhaas, H. Lu, D. Gianelle, E. I. Parfenova, C. Salas, E. Lee, B. Lee, H. S. Kim, H. Bruelheide, D. A. Coomes, D. Piotto, T. Sunderland, B. Schmid, S. Gourlet-Fleury, B. Sonké, R. Tavani, J. Zhu, S. Brandl, J. Vayreda, F. Kitahara, E. B. Searle, V. J. Neldner, M. R. Ngugi, C. Baraloto, L. Frizzera, R. Bałazy, J. Oleksyn, T. Zawiła-Niedźwiecki, O. Bouriaud, F. Bussotti, L. Finér, B. Jaroszewicz, T. Jucker, F. Valladares, A. M. Jagodzinski, P. L. Peri, C. Gonmadje, W. Marthy, T. O’Brien, E. H. Martin, A. R. Marshall, F. Rovero, R. Bitariho, P. A. Niklaus, P. Alvarez-Loayza, N. Chamuya, R. Valencia, F. Mortier, V. Wortel, N. L. Engone-Obiang, L. V. Ferreira, D. E. Odeke, R. M. Vasquez, S. L. Lewis, and P. B. Reich. 2016. Positive biodiversity-productivity relationship predominant in global forests. Science 354. DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf8957
  2. Liang, J., Watson, James V.†, Mo, Zhou, Lei, Xiangdong. 2016. Effects of productivity on biodiversity in forest ecosystems across the United States and China. Conservation Biology 30:308-317 (DOI: 10.1111/cobi.12636).
  3. Barrett, C. B., M. Zhou, P. B. Reich, T. W. Crowther, and J. Liang. 2016. Forest value: More than commercial—Response. Science 354:1541-1542.
  4. W Ma, Liang, J., JR Cumming, E. Lee, A. B. Welsh, J. V. Watson, and M. Zhou. 2016. Fundamental shifts of central hardwood forests under climate change. Ecological Modelling 332:28-41.
  5. A. Hovi, J. Liang, L. Korhonen, H. Kobayashi, M. Rautiainen. 2016. Quantifying the missing link between forest albedo and productivity in the boreal zone. Biogeosciences 13,1-16.

  1. Liang, J., Zhou, Mo, Tobin, Patrick C., Reich, Peter, McGuire, A. David. 2015 Biodiversity influences plant productivity through Niche-Efficiency. PNAS 112(18):5738-5743.
  2. JV Watson, Liang, J. Tobin, Patrick C., Lei, Xiangdong, Rentch, James S., Artis, Catherine E. 2015. Large-scale Forest Inventories of the United States and China Reveals Positive Effects of Biodiversity on Productivity. Forest Ecosystems 2: 22.
  3. Lee, E., He, Y., Zhou, M., Liang, J. 2015. Potential Causal Effects of Recent Vegetation Changes on Summer Rainfall in the Sahel. Physical Geography.  DOI: 10.1080/02723646.2015.1120139.
  4. Zhou, M. 2015. Adapting forest management to climate policy uncertainty: A conceptual framework. Forest Policy and Economics 59, 66-74.
  5. Buongiorno, J. and Zhou, M., 2015. Adaptive economics and ecological forest management under risk. Forest Ecosystems 2:4 doi:10.1186/s40663-015-0030-y