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Zhiliang Zhu, Ph.D.

Dr. Zhiliang Zhu is a senior physical scientist with USGS. He works in the Ecosystem Mission Area and focuses on ecosystem carbon management research including carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emission reduction, and landscape vulnerability assessment.

 

My areas of expertise are in climate change mitigation, carbon cycle research, GHG emission accounting, ecosystem ecology (wildfire, wetland, and forest ecology), remote sensing, land use change, land cover mapping. I have experiences leading interdisciplinary science (in positions of a research scientist, principal investigator, chief scientist, and program manager) in several environmental fields: climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration, global change ecology, land use change, wildfire.

 

 

Professional Experience

  • 2008-present: Senior physical scientist, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA

  • 2007-08: National remote sensing leader, USDA Forest Service, Washington DC 

  • 2000-07: Research physical scientist, USGS EROS Data Center, Sioux Falls, SD 

  • 1994-2000: Principal scientist, Raytheon, EROS Data Center, Sioux Falls, SD 

  • 1990-94: Research forester, USDA Forest Service, Starkville, MS

Education and Certifications

  • 1989, PhD in natural resource management, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

  • 1984, MS in forestry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

  • 1982, BS in forestry, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China

Science and Products

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LUCAS model

Wetland Carbon Working Group: Improving Methodologies and Estimates of Carbon and Greenhouse Gas Flux in Wetlands

WARC researchers are working to quantify the impacts of future climate and land use/land cover change on greenhouse gas emissions and reductions.
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Land Management Research Program, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center
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Wetland Carbon Working Group: Improving Methodologies and Estimates of Carbon and Greenhouse Gas Flux in Wetlands

WARC researchers are working to quantify the impacts of future climate and land use/land cover change on greenhouse gas emissions and reductions.
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Brooks Range in Gates of the Arctic National Park, Alaska

Assessment of Critical Landscape Conditions and Potential Change in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to Support Habitat Management Decision Making

Areas along the Arctic coast are changing the fastest among all of Earth’s habitats due to climate change. The Arctic coast is a fragile ecosystem that provides habitat for migratory birds, endangered species, and species critical for local subsistence living. In this area, permafrost is thawing rapidly, changing how much and when water reaches rivers, ponds, lakes, wetlands and groundwater. In ad...
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Climate Adaptation Science Centers
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Assessment of Critical Landscape Conditions and Potential Change in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to Support Habitat Management Decision Making

Areas along the Arctic coast are changing the fastest among all of Earth’s habitats due to climate change. The Arctic coast is a fragile ecosystem that provides habitat for migratory birds, endangered species, and species critical for local subsistence living. In this area, permafrost is thawing rapidly, changing how much and when water reaches rivers, ponds, lakes, wetlands and groundwater. In ad...
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Image from LandCarbon PP1804 cover

LandCarbon

The biologic carbon sequestration assessment program (LandCarbon) investigates ecosystem carbon cycle problems and develops carbon management science and monitoring methods.
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Land Change Science Program, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center
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LandCarbon

The biologic carbon sequestration assessment program (LandCarbon) investigates ecosystem carbon cycle problems and develops carbon management science and monitoring methods.
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Restoration and Conservation Opportunity Maps for the conterminous U.S. (CONUS)

Nature-based solutions is a leading policy option for mitigating climate change. We mapped areas of potential restoration and conservation opportunities in the conterminous U.S. (CONUS). The potential for five scenarios were examined: increasing forest cover in urban centers, restoring historically forested areas that have been converted to grasslands, conserving pristine grasslands, rewetting pea
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Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

RTK GPS survey data in 1002 area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

The RTK survey, using a Trimble unit, was conducted in August 2021 in the coastal plains region (1002 area) of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as part of a landscape vulnerability assessment. A total of six transects are included in the data, including five research sites and one transect collected at the camp site. Mean horizontal precision was 0.006m, mean vertical precision was 0.011m.
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Climate Adaptation Science Centers

Data inputs and outputs for simulations of species distributions in response to future fire size and climate change in the boreal-temperate ecotone of northeastern China

This data release provides inputs needed to run the LANDIS PRO forest landscape model and the LINKAGES 3.0 ecosystem process model for the temperate-boreal ecotone Great Xing'n Mountains of northeastern China, and simulation results that underlie figures and analysis in the accompanying publication. The study compared the impacts of small and large fires on vegetation dynamics. The data release in
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Climate Research and Development Program, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Landscape inputs and simulation output for the LANDIS-II model in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

This data release provides inputs needed to run the LANDIS-II landscape change model, NECN and Base Fire extensions for the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), USA, and simulation results that underlie figures and analysis in the accompanying publication. We ran LANDIS-II simulations for 112 years, from 1988-2100, using interpolated weather station data for 1988-2015 and downscaled output from 5
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Climate Research and Development Program, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Data release for: Spatially explicit reconstruction of post-megafire forest recovery through landscape modeling

This data release provides inputs needed to run the LANDIS PRO forest landscape model and the LINKAGES 3.0 ecosystem process model for the area burned by the Black Dragon Fire in northeast China in 1987, and simulation results that underlie figures and analysis in the accompanying publication. The data release includes the fire perimeter of Great Dragon Fire; input data for LINKAGES including soil
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Climate Research and Development Program, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Daily HOBO Pro V.2 soil temperate measurements at the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge (2015-2017)

Daily HOBO Pro V.2 soil temperature measurements at the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge (2015-2017). Data collected in Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Southern VA and Northern NC from 9 plot sites representing three general forest types: Atlantic White Cedar, Pocosin Pine, and Maple and Gum.
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Climate Adaptation Science Centers

Pre-fire biomass, burn severity, biomass consumption, and fire perimeter data for the 1987 Black Dragon Fire in China

Geospatial data were developed to characterize pre-fire biomass, burn severity, and biomass consumed for the Black Dragon Fire that burned in northern China in 1987. Pre-fire aboveground tree biomass (Mh/ha) raster data were derived by relating plot-level forest inventory data with pre-fire Landsat imagery from 1986 and 1987. Biomass data were generated for individual species: Dahurian larch (Lari
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Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Aboveground Biomass Data Collected in 2016-17 from Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia

Aboveground Biomass Data from Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia. Plot data includes X and Y location, downed dead wood (DDW) count, mangrove species identification, and site descriptions. Species information was recorded for Bruguiera gymnorhiza, Sonneratia alba, Xylocarpus granatum, Lumnitzera littorea, Rhizophora apiculata, Rhizophora lamarckii, Rhizophora mucronata, Rhizophora stylosa and
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Ecosystems Mission Area

Mangrove Data Collected from J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge, Sanibel Island, Florida, United States

Mangrove inventory data from J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, Sanibel Island, Florida collected in 2016 and 2017. Plot data includes downed woody debris count, mangrove species information and site descriptions. Avicennia germinans (Black mangroves), Laguncularia racemosa (White mangroves) and Rhizophora mangle (Red mangroves) were inventoried for diameter at breast height (DBH), height
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Land Change Science Program

Alaska Land Carbon Assessment Data

We are provoding a set of table and maps that provides summary of ecosystem carbon balance (pools and fluxes) as simulated by the Dynamic Organic Soil version of the Terrestrial Ecosystem Model. Simulations are provided for the historical period from 1950 to 2009 and projections from 2010 to 2099, for the four main landscape conservation cooperative regions in Alaska (i.e. the Arctic, the Western
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Alaska Science Center
Filter Total Items: 56

Above- and belowground biomass carbon stock and net primary productivity maps for tidal herbaceous marshes of the United States

Accurate assessments of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration in natural ecosystems are necessary to develop climate mitigation strategies. Regional and national-level assessments of carbon sequestration require high-resolution data to be available for large areas, increasing the need for remote sensing products that quantify carbon stocks and fluxes. The Intergovernmental Panel on Cli
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Victoria Woltz, Camille Stagg, Kristin B. Byrd, Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Andre S. Rovai, Zhiliang Zhu
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Climate Adaptation Science Centers, Western Geographic Science Center, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

A comprehensive assessment of mangrove species and carbon stock on Pohnpei, Micronesia

Mangrove forests are the most important ecosystems on Pohnpei Island, Federated States of Micronesia, as the island communities of the central Pacific rely on the forests for many essential services including protection from sea-level rise that is occurring at a greater pace than the global average. As part of a multi-component assessment to evaluate vulnerabilities of mangrove forests on Pohnpei,
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Victoria Woltz, Elitsa I. Peneva-Reed, Zhiliang Zhu, Eric L. Bullock, Richard A. MacKenzie, Maybeleen Apwong, Ken Krauss, Dean B. Gesch
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Core Science Systems Mission Area, Ecosystems Mission Area, Land Change Science Program, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center , Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

Detection and characterization of coastal tidal wetland change in the northeastern US using Landsat time series

Coastal tidal wetlands are highly altered ecosystems exposed to substantial risk due to widespread and frequent land-use change coupled with sea-level rise, leading to disrupted hydrologic and ecologic functions and ultimately, significant reduction in climate resiliency. Knowing where and when the changes have occurred, and the nature of those changes, is important for coastal communities and nat
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Xiucheng Yang, Zhe Zhu, Shirley Qiu, Kevin D. Kroeger, Zhiliang Zhu, Scott Covington
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Large fires or small fires, will they differ in affecting shifts in species composition and distributions under climate change?

Climate change is expected to increase fire activity, which has the potential to accelerate climate-induced shifts in species composition and distribution in the boreal-temperate ecotone. Wildfire can kill resident trees, and thus provide establishment opportunities for migrating tree species. However, the role of fire size and its interactions with tree species with varied life-history attributes
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Wenru Xu, Hong S. He, Chao Huang, Shengwu Duan, Todd Hawbaker, Paul D. Henne, Yu Liang, Zhiliang Zhu
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Climate Research and Development Program, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Active forest management accelerates carbon storage in plantation forests in Lishui, southern China

BackgroundChina has committed to achieving peak CO2 emissions before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060; therefore, accelerated efforts are needed to better understand carbon accounting in industry and energy fields as well as terrestrial ecosystems. The carbon sink capacity of plantation forests contributes to the mitigation of climate change. Plantation forests throughout the world are inten
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Jiaojiao Diao, Jinxun Liu, Zhiliang Zhu, Xinyuan Wei, Mingshi Li
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Western Geographic Science Center

Potential for carbon and nitrogen sequestration by restoring tidal connectivity and enhancing soil surface elevations in denuded and degraded south Florida mangrove ecosystems

Mangroves are tidally dependent wetlands that are influenced often by alterations in hydrology associated with coastal developments that impact their distribution, health, and function. Alteration in frequency, depth, duration, and seasonality of tidal inundation can lead to changes in forest condition, although these stress-adapted ecosystems may persist for many years before succumbing to mortal
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N. Cormier, Ken Krauss, Amanda Demopoulos, Brita J. Jessen, Jennifer McClain Counts, Andrew From, Laura L. Flynn
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Climate Research and Development Program, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

Preface to book: Wetland carbon and environmental management

The idea for this book, including its organization and contents, has its origin in the latest environmental and climate policy requirements in the United States, as well as science advances. In 2007, the U.S. Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA), from which Section 712 required U.S. Federal agencies to provide a better understanding of carbon and greenhouse gas fluxes ac
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Ken Krauss, Zhiliang Zhu, Camille Stagg
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Climate Research and Development Program, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

Carbon fluxes and potential soil accumulation within Greater Everglades cypress and pine forested wetlands

In forested wetlands, accumulation of organic matter in soil is partly governed by carbon fluxes where photosynthesis, respiration, lateral advection of waterborne carbon, fire-derived carbon emissions, and methanogenesis are balanced by changes in stored carbon. Stored carbon can eventually accumulate as soil over time if net primary productivity exceeds biomass decomposition. For this study, pot
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W. Barclay Shoemaker, Frank E. Anderson, Matt Sirianni, Andre Daniels
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Water Resources Mission Area, Ecosystems Mission Area, California Water Science Center, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center , Caribbean-Florida Water Science Center (CFWSC)

Summary of wetland carbon and environmental management: Path forward

Wetlands around the world are under pressure from both anthropogenic sources such as land-use change and accelerating climate change (Erwin, 2009; Moomaw et al., 2018). Storage of carbon resources is a key ecosystem service of wetlands and offer natural solutions to climate change mitigation; policies and management actions could determine the fate of these resources and their contributions to cli
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Zhiliang Zhu, Ken Krauss, Camille Stagg, Eric Ward, Victoria Woltz
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Climate Adaptation Science Centers, Climate Research and Development Program, Land Management Research Program, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

Modeling the impacts of hydrology and management on carbon balance at the Great Dismal Swamp, Virginia and North Carolina, USA

The impact of drainage on the stability of peatland carbon sinks is well known; however, much less is understood regarding the way active management of the water-table affects carbon balance. In this study, we determined the carbon balance in the Great Dismal Swamp, a large, forested peatland in the southeastern USA, which has been drained for over two hundred years and is now being restored throu
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Rachel Sleeter
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

The importance of wetland carbon dynamics to society: Insight from the Second State of the Carbon Cycle Science Report

The Second State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR2) culminated in 19 chapters that spanned all North American sectors – from Energy Systems to Agriculture and Land Use – known to be important for understanding carbon (C) cycling and accounting. Wetlands, both inland and coastal, were found to be significant components of C fluxes along the terrestrial to aquatic hydrologic continuum. In this cha
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Randall Kolka, Carl Trettin, Lisamarie Windham-Myers
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center

Carbon flux, storage, and wildlife co-benefits in a restoring estuary

Tidal marsh restorations may result in transitional mudflat habitats depending on hydrological and geomorphological conditions. Compared to tidal marsh, mudflats are thought to have limited value for carbon sequestration, carbon storage, and foraging benefits for salmon. We evaluated greenhouse gas exchange, sediment carbon storage, and invertebrate production at restoration and reference tidal ma
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Isa Woo, Melanie J. Davis, Susan E. W. De La Cruz, Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Judith Z. Drexler, Kristin B. Byrd, Ellen Stuart-Haëntjens, Frank E Anderson, Brian A. Bergamaschi, Glynnis Nakai, Christopher S. Ellings, Sayre Hodgson
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, California Water Science Center, Western Ecological Research Center (WERC), Wetland and Aquatic Research Center
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Friday's Findings - January 27 2023

Title: Potential Shifts of Climate Zones in Global Terrestrial Protected Areas and Implications for Biodiversity Conservation: A Case Study of North...

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Employing an Ecosystem Services Framework to Deliver Decision Ready Science

In the November 25th issue of Advances in Ecological and Environmental Research, the Science and Decisions Center has an article entitled "Employing...

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