Dr. Jia Yang

EPSCoR Research Focus: 
Terrestrial Water & Carbon Dynamics
Assistant Professor
Department of Natural Resource Ecology & Management
Oklahoma State University
Spacer: 
Please leave this field as it is.
Education: 
Ph.D. | Forest Ecology | Auburn University, Auburn, IL | 2015
B.S. | Agricultural Meteorology | China Agricultural University, Beijing, China | 2007
Research Interests: 

Dr. Jia Yang, assistant professor in the Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management at Oklahoma State University, is a member of the OK NSF EPSCoR Track-1 RII Award titled Socially Sustainable Solutions for Water, Carbon, and Infrastructure Resilience in Oklahoma. The $20 million EPSCoR research project is a social science-led, multi-disciplinary collaboration among social, physical, biological, engineering, and computational scientists. More than thirty researchers from across the state are working together on the project, which began July 1, 2020.

Dr. Yang's research interests include ecological modeling; fire ecology; impacts of climate change and disturbances on land ecosystems; natural resource conservation; GIS and remote sensing applications in natural resources.

Dr. Yang's work in the area of fire and ecosystem modeling directly supports the OK NSF EPSCoR project via Focus Area 2: Terrestrial Water & Carbon Dynamics (TWCD). The TWCD focus area is central to the wicked problems facing Oklahoma because of conflicting policy narratives that shape concerns about carbon management and risks associated with landscape management practices (e.g., wildfire risks). At the same time, linkages across the TWCD and other focus areas provide opportunities to engage key stakeholder groups in discussions addressing both problem definition and potentially sustainable solution sets. Land use/carbon cycle issues play this crucial role because of the interactions among terrestrial ecosystems and carbon and water cycling, which are in turn integral components of the other impact domains addressed in this research project.

Learn more about the OK NSF EPSCoR research project.

Key Publications: 
  • Ouyang, Y., Jin, W., Leininger, T., Feng, G., Yang, J. (2021) “Impacts of afforestation on groundwater resource: A case study for Upper Yazoo River watershed, Mississippi, USA” Hydrological Sciences Journal, 66(3).

  • Liu, Y., Liu, Y., Fu, J., Yang, C., Dong, X., Tian, H., Tao, B., Yang, J., Wang, Y., Zou, Y., and Ke, Z. (2021) Projection of future wildfire emissions in the western United States under climate change: contributions from changes in wildfire, fuel loading, and fuel moisture, International Journal of Wildland Fire. https://doi.org/10.1071/WF20190.
  • Hale, C. Granger, J., Paulson, A., Ramirez-Reyes, C., Ma, Q., Yang, J. (2021) “Modeling Habitat Suitability for Stewartia ovata Across the Southeastern United States” Castanea 86 (2).
  • Shi, H., Tian, H., Yang, J., Pan, S., Fu, B., Lange, S., Reyer, C. (2021) “Terrestrial biodiversity threatened by increasing global aridity velocity under high level warming”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(36).
  • Shi, H., Tian, H., Pan, N., Reyer, C.P., Ciais, P., Chang, J., Forrest, M., Frieler, K., Fu, B., Gädeke, A., Hickler, T., Ito, A., Ostberg, S., Pan, S., Stevanovic, M., Yang, J. (2021). Saturation of global terrestrial carbon sink under a high warming scenario. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 35(10), p.e2020GB006800.
  • Pan, L., Xia, H., Yang, J., Niu, W., Wang, R., Song, H., Guo, Y., Qin, Y. (2021) “Mapping cropping intensity in Huaihe basin using phenology algorithm, all Sentinel-2 and Landsat images in Google Earth Engine” International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 102.
  • Xu, R., Tian, H., Pan, N., Thompson, R.L., Canadell, J.G., Davidson, E.A., Nevison, C., Winiwarter, W., Shi, H., Pan, S., Chang, J., Ciais, P., Dangal, S.R.S., Ito, A., Jackson, R.B., Joos, F., Laurerwald, R., Lienert, S., Maavara, T., Millet, D.B., Raymond, P.A., Regnier, P., Tubiello, F.N., Vuichard, N., Wells, K.C., Wilson, C., Yang, J., Yao, Y., Zaehle, S., and Zhou, F. (2021). Magnitude and uncertainty of nitrous oxide emissions from North America based on bottom‐up and top‐down approaches: Informing future research and national inventories. Geophysical Research Letters, p.e2021GL095264.
  • Yang, J., Tao, B., Shi, H., Ouyang, Y., Pan, S., Ren, W., Lu, C. (2020), Integration of Remote Sensing, County-level Census, and Machine Learning for Century-long Regional Cropland data Reconstruction, International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 91.

  • Pan, S., *Yang, J., Tian, H., Shi, H., Chang, J., Ciais, P., Francois, L., Frieler, K., Fu, B.,Thomas Hickler, T., Ito, A., Nishina, K., Ostberg, S., Reyer, C., Schaphoff, S., teinkamp, J., Zhao, F. (2020), Responses of terrestrial carbon fluxes to temperature and precipitation: carbon extreme versus climate extreme, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 10.1029/2019JG005252 (*Co-first author).
  • Tian, H., Xu, R., Canadell, J.G., Thompson, R.L., Winiwarter, W., Suntharalingam, P., Davidson, E.A., Ciais, P., Jackson, R.B, Janssens-Maenhout, G., Prather, M.J., Regnier, P., Pan, N., Pan, S., Peters, G.P., Shi, H., Tubiello, F.N., Zaehle, S., Zhou, F., Arneth, A., Battaglia, G., Berthet, S., Bopp, L., Bouwman, A.F., Buitenhuis, E.T., Chang, J., Chipperfield, M.P., Dangal, S.R.S., Dlugokencky, E., Elkins, J.W., Eyre, B.D., Fu, B., Hall, B., Ito, A., Joos, F., Krummel, P.B., Landolfi, A., Laruelle, G.G., Lauerwald, R., Li, W., Lienert, S., Maavara, T., MacLeod, M., Millet, D.B., Olin, S., Patra, P.K., Prinn, R.G., Raymond, P.A., Ruiz, D.J., van der Werf, G.R., Vuichard, N., Wang, J., Weiss, R.F., Wells, K.C., Wilson, C., Yang J.,  Yao Y. (2020) A comprehensive quantification of global nitrous oxide sources and sinks. Nature, 586(7828), pp.248-256.
  • Wang, Z., Tian, H., Yang, J., Shi, H., Pan, S., Yao, Y., Banger, K. and Yang, Q., (2020) Coupling of Phosphorus Processes With Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles in the Dynamic Land Ecosystem Model: Model Structure, Parameterization, and Evaluation in Tropical Forests. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 12(10), p.e2020MS002123.
  • Zhang, J., Tian, H., Shi, H., Zhang, J., Wang, X., Pan, S. and Yang, J., (2020), Increased greenhouse gas emissions intensity of major croplands in China: Implications for food security and climate change mitigation. Global Change Biology, 26(11), pp.6116-6133.
  • Yue, X., Liao, H., Wang, H., Zhang, T., Unger, N., Sitch, S., Feng, Z., Yang, J. (2020), Pathway dependence of ecosystem responses in China to 1.5°C global warming, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 20, 2353–2366.
  • Zou, Y., Wang, Y., Qian, Y., Tian, H., Yang, J., Alvarado, E. (2020), Using CESM-RESFire to understand climate-fire-ecosystem interactions and Implications for Decadal Climate Variability, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 20.
  • Ren, W., Banger, K., Tao, B., Yang, J., Huang, Y., Tian, H. (2020), Global pattern and change of cropland soil organic carbon during 1901-2010: Roles of climate, atmospheric chemistry, land use and management, Geography  and  Sustainability, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geosus.2020.03.001.
  • Tao, B., Yang, Y., Yang, J., Smith, R., Fox, J., Ruane, A. C., ... & Ren, W. (2020). Recent Shrinkage and Fragmentation of Bluegrass Landscape in Kentucky. Remote Sensing, 12(11), 1815.
  • Tian, H., Xu, R., Pan, S., Yao, Y., Bian, Z., Cai, W.J., Hopkinson, C.S., Justic, D., Lohrenz, S., Lu, C. Ren, W., Yang, J. (2020) Long‐Term Trajectory of Nitrogen Loading and Delivery From Mississippi River Basin to the Gulf of Mexico. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 34(5), p.e2019GB006475.
  • Yang, J., Ren, W., Ouyang, Y., Feng, G., Tao, B., Granger, J.J. and Poudel, K.P., (2019). Projection of 21st century irrigation water requirement across the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley. Agricultural Water Management217, pp.60-72.
  • Xu, R., Tian, H., Pan, S., Prior, S., Feng, Y., Batchelor, W., Chen, J., and Yang, J., (2019) Global ammonia emissions from synthetic nitrogen fertilizer applications in agricultural systems: empirical and process‐based estimates and uncertainty. Global Change Biology. 25(1), pp.314-326.
  • Tian, H., Yang, J., Xu, R., Lu, C., Canadell, J., Davidson, E., Jackson, R., Arneth, A., Chang, J., Ciais, P., Gerber, S., Ito, A., Joos, F., Lienert, S., Messina, P., Olin, S., Pan, S., Peng, C., Saikawa, E., Thompson, R., Vuichard, N., Winiwarter, W., Zaehle, S., Zhang, B., (2019). Global soil nitrous oxide emissions since the pre‐industrial era estimated by an ensemble of Terrestrial Biosphere Models: Magnitude, attribution and uncertainty. Global Change Biology, 25(2), pp.640-659.
  • Zou, Y., Wang, Y., Ke, Z., Tian, H., Yang, J. and Liu, Y., (2019). Development of a REgion‐Specific Ecosystem Feedback Fire (RESFire) Model in the Community Earth System Model. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems11(2), pp.417-445.
  • Dangal, S.R., Tian, H., Xu, R., Chang, J., Canadell, J.G., Ciais, P., Pan, S., Yang, J. and Zhang, B., (2019). Global Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Pasturelands and Rangelands: Magnitude, Spatiotemporal Patterns, and Attribution. Global Biogeochemical Cycles33(2), pp.200-222.
  • Lu, C., Tian, H., Zhang, J., Yu, Z., Pan, S., Dangal, S., Zhang, B., Yang, J., Pederson, N. and Hessl, A., (2019). Severe Long‐Lasting Drought Accelerated Carbon Depletion in the Mongolian Plateau. Geophysical Research Letters, 46(10), pp.5303-5312.
  • Xia, H., Zhao, J., Qin, Y., Yang, J., Cui, Y., Song, H., Ma, L., Jin, N. and Meng, Q., (2019). Changes in Water Surface Area during 1989–2017 in the Huai River Basin using Landsat Data and Google Earth Engine. Remote Sensing11(15), p.1824.
Curriculum Vitae: