Liangzhi Chen

PHOREAU v1.0: a new process-based model to predict forest functioning, from tree ecophysiology to forest dynamics and biogeography Abstract. Climate change impacts forest functioning and dynamics, but large uncertainties remain regarding the interactions between species composition, demographic processes and environmental drivers...

📣So happy to share the PhorEau model, combining models of forest dynamics, plant water relations, and process-based SDM = linking ecophysiology, ecology & biogeography 🌳📈💻
gmd.copernicus.org/articles/18/...
➡️ from Tanguy Postic's PhD, with many perspectives to simulate forests under CC

#MultiyearDroughts, it is nice to see studies with distinct designs and used data converge to similar results — "25-30%" seems to be a key range, in this study about the measured reduction of primary production in grassland and in our previous study with kNDVI www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... .

Our new article in Nature Plants, led by César Leblanc, introduces Pl@ntBERT, an AI model inspired by language models like ChatGPT, but trained on > 1M vegetation plots from the EVA database.
Article: doi.org/10.1038/s414...
Demo: huggingface.co/spaces/Cesar...
GitHub: github.com/cesar-leblan...

In #drylands, plants don’t grow randomly — they self-organize into disordered hyperuniform patterns that help them use water wisely & endure extreme aridity. A beautiful hidden logic of nature, revealed in a new @pnas.org study doi.org/10.1073/pnas... including #Maestrelab alumni

The Swiss forest 🌳remains functioning! Same location, mushroom was found in 2023, but not 2024……this year’s return is rewarding 🍄‍🟫

Hydroclimatic Rebound Drives Extreme Fire in California's Non‐Forested Ecosystems

🔗 buff.ly/gbnsdzd

Global distribution of forest landscapes covered by airborne LiDAR

Only a pre-print for now, but after 4 years of hard work I couldn't resist sharing this!

The Global Canopy Atlas: analysis-ready maps of 3D structure for the world's woody ecosystems

📜: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Huge team effort led by the brilliant Fabian Fischer!

Climate rather than overgrazing explains most rangeland primary productivity change in Mongolia Rangelands are Earth’s dominant land type, supporting the livelihoods of more than 2 billion people. Concerns about rangeland degradation typically focus on overgrazing. But climate change may be a gr...

Climate rather than overgrazing explains most rangeland primary productivity change in Mongolia | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

An art gallery of science? And why does this make sense?

An art gallery of science?

What would your art gallery of ecology look like.....?

open.substack.com/pub/matthias...

boldly interesting - climate change actively alters human behaviours, its impact is just everywhere

Climate skeptics have long been obsessed with corrections to temperature records for changes in measurement techniques and instruments over time.

But it turns out that if we just used the raw data we'd see more warming. My latest at The Climate Brink: www.theclimatebrink....

Local Adaptation Drives Leaf Thermoregulation in Tropical Rainforest Trees We tested whether tropical rainforest trees adjust their leaf traits and resulting leaf temperatures across their distributions within the Australian Wet Tropics. Using field measurements from across...

Can tropical rainforest trees keep their cool? Now out in @globalchangebio.bsky.social we explored whether intraspecific variation in leaf energy balance was a result of adaptation to local climate.
doi.org/10.1111/gcb....

Distal to proximal: a continuum of drivers shaping tree growth and carbon partitioning The relationship between tree carbon (C) assimilation and growth is central to understanding tree functioning and forecasting forest C sequestration, yet remains unresolved. The long-standing debate ...

🌳 New Tansley Insight!
What really limits tree growth—carbon source or sink? 🤔
I argue it’s not either/or but a distal → proximal continuum: from photosynthesis to transport and cell division, drivers act together to shape C allocation & growth 🌱🌍
🔗 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.70516

Good news for a change: Background mortality in unmanaged forests of Europe has not increased over past decades. Great work from the European Forest Reserve Initiative EuFoRIa, out in @journalofecology.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/1365...

We’re filling the atmosphere with CO2 like a bathtub with water. Most of it stays for millennia.
That is why the cumulative emissions (the total amount, as pictured here) and not yearly emissions determine the amount of #globalwarming.

Revisiting the cry-for-help hypothesis in plant–microbe interactions The ‘cry-for-help hypothesis’ (CHH) is broadly used to study how root exudate modulation under stress influences recruitment of beneficial microbes in the rhizosphere. Here, we explored common misconceptions and limitations of the CHH and advocate for the reassessment of this prevalent hypothesis to unfold the ecological complexities of plant–microbe interactions.

Revisiting the cry-for-help hypothesis in plant–microbe interactions #plantscience

Numerical models outperform AI weather forecasts of record-breaking extremes Artificial intelligence (AI)-based models are revolutionizing weather forecasting and have surpassed leading numerical weather prediction systems on various benchmark tasks. However, their ability to ...

Numerical weather prediction models (ECMWF IFS) still outperform AI weather models in forecasting record-breaking hot and cold extremes and unseen wind extremes

Preprint
arxiv.org/abs/2508.15724

with Zhongwei Zhang @erichfischer.bsky.social @zscheischlerjak.bsky.social and Sebastian Engelke

A Causal Inference Framework for Climate Change Attribution in Ecology Accurately attributing ecological shifts to climate change remains a significant challenge. Here, we present an accessible causal inference framework designed for climate change attribution in observ...

Really excited to share our new paper on #causalinference & #climatechange attribution out in #EcologyLetters today!

Are you asking "how much" or "if" climate change has impacted your system, then this paper is for you!

🧪🌏🌐🍁🌺🌱🌿
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Interactive Effects of Warming and Competition Do Not Limit the Adaptive Plastic Response to Drought in Populations of a Mediterranean Plant

🔗 buff.ly/mm1MHhn
@iicg-urjc.bsky.social @marinirm.bsky.social @smatesanz.bsky.social @marioblancosanchez.bsky.social @biodiversosurjc.bsky.social

Climatic disequilibrium modulates canopy service across abiotic stress gradients

🌍 Climatic disequilibrium modulates canopy service depending on abiotic stress. Facilitation increases under harsher conditions, supporting the Stress Gradient Hypothesis when stressors act together🧪👇

Reconsidering space-for-time substitution in climate change ecology - Nature Climate Change Ecologists often leverage patterns observed across spatial climate gradients to predict the impacts of climate change (space-for-time substitution). We highlight evidence that this can be misleading n...

New paper out on the dangers of using patterns across spatial climate gradients to predict what will happen with changing climate. That includes species distribution modeling. Space-for-time substitution can be misleading in sign, not just the magnitude of effects.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

There’s a new acid in our rain — should we be worried? Scientists and regulators are divided over the threat posed by rising levels of a chemical called TFA.

A feature in Nature reports on the rising levels of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) in rainwater and the debate about the threat it poses. 🧪

Inconsistent short-term effects of enhanced structural complexity on soil microbial properties across German forests Structural and biotic homogenization can result from forestry practices lacking promotion of canopy gaps and deadwood. This can lead to biodiversity l…

New paper out! 📃 Enhanced structural complexity in forests has limited effects on #soil abiotic properties, but #microbial activity and biomass respond site-specifically. Soil moisture and understory growth link to microbial functions. 💧🧫🌳🍁
Read it here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

not VIFs specifically, but I recently posted this list of papers I like about "why you shouldn't worry about multicollinearity so much": github.com/idworkin/McM...

More automated biodiversity surveying: full set-ups of moth detector, audio detectors for birds, bats and insects (eg grasshoppers), and auto pan trap for flying insects. The latter avoids killing insects in standard pan traps. Detection, counting & identification is automated & standardised.

This species-specific study and another latest out global analyses www.nature.com/articles/s41... converge to the same conclusion: enhanced tree/forest growth by the global warming cannot offset the negative impacts causes by disturbances, such as droughts.

Seasonal stabilization effects slowed the greening of the Northern Hemisphere over the last two decades - Nature Communications Rising CO₂ and warming enhance vegetation greening, but drought, heat stress, and resource limits constrain this trend. Here, the authors show that within a year, increased early- and peak- season gre...

Happy to share our new #NatureComms paper, "Seasonal stabilization effects slowed the greening of the Northern Hemisphere over the last two decades" led by @uarizona.bsky.social PhD Candidate Wen Zhang w/ @trevorkeenan.bsky.social and others www.nature.com/articles/s41...

PhD candidate in species abundances modelling - Project Description Understanding species abundance patterns is essential to addressing fundamental questions in macroecology and biogeography, specifically about […]

We’re hiring! Join us at maraujo lab as a #PhD candidate to model species abundances using cutting-edge ecological and statistical tools. Based at @mncn-csic.bsky.social @mncn-bgcg.bsky.social and @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social.
🔗 www.maraujolab.eu/2025/07/04/p...
#SpeciesDistributionModels

Canopy Composition Outperforms Macroenvironment in Explaining European Forest Understory Composition Aim Diversity patterns in forest understories have traditionally been studied using macroclimatic variables. However, microenvironmental conditions below forest canopies are likely more relevant, th.....

Tree species composition 🌳🌲🌳🌲 of the upper canopy layers (including the shrub layer) matters more than macro-environmental conditions to model plant biodiversity in the understory 🌱🌿☘️🍀 Canopy species composition as a surrogate to capture microclimate processes ⬇️

🧪🌐🍁🌍

shorturl.at/ST5AR

Bolivian forest: comparing Sentinel-2 and Biomass Bolivian forest: comparing Sentinel-2 and Biomass

A truly amazing leap forward for the whole ecology - cannot wait to explore more. @esa.int
ESA - Bolivian forest: comparing Sentinel-2 and Biomass www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...