Research Interests:

Climate Change
Biogeochemistry
Soil Science
Microbial Ecology
Ecosystem Modeling

My research projects focus on improving the understanding of soil-climate interaction and microbial feedbacks:
Research themes
(1) Thermal variation on soil decomposition
(2) Microbial processes underlying soil decomposition                                                      
(3) Data synthesis and model

Selected publications (of 38 in total):

• Li, J, GS Wang, M Mayes, SD Allison, S Frey, S Zheng, XM Hu, YQ Luo, J Melillo. Reduced carbon use efficiency and increased microbial turnover with soil warming. Global Change Biology. Accepted.
• Liang F, J Li*, S Zhang, H Gao, B Wang, X Shi, S Huang, MG Xu. Two-decade long fertilization induced changes in subsurface soil organic carbon stock vary with indigenous site characteristics. Geoderma. In Press.
• Li, J. Sampling Soils in a Heterogeneous Research Plot. J. Vis. Exp. (Pending Publication), e58519, In-press (2018).
• Li J, S Jian, J de Koff, C Lane, G Wang, M Mayes, D Hui. 2018. Differential effects of nitrogen fertilization and warming on soil respiration and microbial dynamics in switchgrass croplands. Global Change Biology Bioenergy 10:565-576.
• Li J, CL Guo, SY Jian, C Yu, Q Deng, ED Dzantor and D Hui. 2018. Nitrogen fertilization elevated spatial heterogeneity of soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen in Switchgrass and Gammagrass croplands. Scientific Reports 8:1734.
• Jian S, J Li*, J Chen, G Wang, M Mayes, EK Dzantor, D Hui, and Y Luo. 2016. Soil extracellular enzyme activities, soil carbon and nitrogen storage under nitrogen fertilization: a meta-analysis. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 101: 32-43.
  
• Li J, YQ Luo, S Natali, EA Schuur, J Xia, B Pak, Eva Kowalczyk, YP Wang. 2014. Modeling ecosystem carbon cycle and permafrost thaw under annual and seasonal warming at a tundra site in Alaska. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences. 119 (6):2013JG002569.
• Li J. GS Wang. SD Allison. MA Mayes. YQ Luo. 2014. Soil carbon sensitivity to temperature and carbon use efficiency compared across microbial-ecosystem models of varying complexity. Biogeochemistry 119:67-84.
• Li J, SE Ziegler, CS Lane, SA Billings. 2013. Legacies of native climate regime govern the responses of boreal soil microbes to litter stoichiometry and temperature. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 66(0):204-213.
• Li J, SE Ziegler, CS Lane, SA Billings. 2012. Warming-enhanced preferential microbial mineralization of humified boreal soil organic matter: interpretation of soil profiles along a climate transect using laboratory incubation. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 117(G2):G02008. 
• Li J, DD Richter. 2012. Effects of two-century land use changes on soil iron crystalilinity and accumulation in Southeastern Piedmont region, USA. Geoderma 173-174: 184-191. 
• Li, J, DD Richter, A Mendoza, PR Heine. 2010. Effects of land-use history on soil spatial heterogeneity of macro- and trace elements in the Southern Piedmont USA. Geoderma 156:60-73. 
• Li, J, DD Richter, A Mendoza, PR Heine. 2008. Four-decade responses of soil trace elements to an aggrading old-field forest: B, Mn, Zn, Cu and Fe. Ecology 89(10):2911-2923. 
• Richter, D.deB, Bacon, A.R., Billings, S.A., Binkley, D., Buford, M., Callaham, M.A., Curry, A.E., Fimmen, R.L., Grandy, A.S., Heine, P.R., Hofmockel, M., Jackson, J.A., Lemaster, E., Li, J., Markewitz, D., Mobley, M.L., Morrison, M.W., Strickland, M.S., Waldrop, T., and Wells, C.G. 2014. Evolution of Soil, Ecosystem, and Critical Zone Research at the USDA FS Calhoun Experimental Forest. In D. C. Hayes, et al. (eds.), USDA Forest Service Experimental Forests and Ranges, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-1818-4_18, Springer-Verlag. New York. 
• Richter DD, HL Allen, J Li, D Markewitz, and J Raikes. 2006. Bioavailability of slowly cycling soil phosphorus: major restructuring of soil P fractions over four decades in an aggrading forest. Oecologia, 150(2),259-271. 
  
  Refereed journal articles: 35
  Book chapters/Bulletins: 1
  Invited presentations and lectures: 5
  Non peer reviewed publication: 2
  Conference presentations: 35
  

Education:

Ph.D. Duke University

B.S. China Agriculture University

Date Joined Staff: 2014