Chunjiang Liu

• PhD
• Research Director at Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Aim The objectives of this study were to determine the relationships between climatic factors and litterfall in coniferous and broadleaf forests in Eurasia and to explore the difference in litterfall between coniferous and broadleaf forests as related to climate at a continental scale. Location We have used data from across Eurasia. Methods The rel...

Aim The aim of this study is to determine the patterns of nitrogen (N) concentrations in leaf litter of forest trees as functions of climatic factors, annual average temperature (Temp, °C) and annual precipitation (Precip, dm) and of forest type (coniferous vs. broadleaf, deciduous vs. evergreen, Pinus, etc.). Location The review was conducted usin...

The variability of leaf stoichiometry has been studied at different taxonomic levels across various geographic ranges. However, the intraspecific variations in leaf stoichiometry of widely distributed species are poorly understood. We characterize the biogeographical patterns and environmental controls of leaf nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassiu...

The stoichiometric composition of plant reproductive organs varies with environmental conditions at a large geographical scale, which has potentially important consequences both for plant reproductive success and for the nutrition of consumers. In the study reported here, we investigated variations in the concentrations of macronutrients in acorns...

With the intensification of global change, forests are subjected to varying degrees of drought or high-temperature stress, which has an indelible impact on the growth of trees. However, knowledge on the response of sap flow to environmental changes in different types of forests is still rare, especially in China's subtropical forest ecosystem. Cons...

Leaf trichomes are derived from epidermal cells and serve an important function in regulating leaf heat balance and gas exchange. Variation in leaf functional traits is critical for predicting how plants will react to global climate change. In this study, we aimed to investigate how leaf trichome densities vary along large geographic gradients and...

Tropical and subtropical forests play a crucial role in global carbon (C) pools, and their responses to warming can significantly impact C‐climate feedback and predictions of future global warming. Despite earth system models projecting reductions in land C storage with warming, the magnitude of this response varies greatly between models, particul...

Acid deposition in China has been declining since the 2000s. While this may help mitigate acidification in forest soils and water, little is known about the recovery of soils and water from previous severe acidification in tropical China. Here, we assessed the chemistry of mineral soils, water, and acid gases (SO2 and NOx) from three successional f...

Groundwater is one of the important components in the hydrological cycle of the basin. Its dynamic change is of great value for understanding the hydrological regulation mechanism, the cycle of material elements and ecosystem service function of terrestrial ecosystem. Covered with subtropical monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forest and its transition...

Urban forests are anticipated to offer sustainable ecosystem services, necessitating a comprehensive understanding of the ways in which trees respond to environmental changes. This study monitored stem radius fluctuations in Cinnamomum camphora and Taxodium distichum var. imbricatum trees using high-resolution dendrometers at two sites, respectivel...

Over various terrain types, natural forests exhibit tree size and biomass variation. We started long- term research that consists of forest vegetation surveys in the Dinghushan National Nature Reserve to comprehensively investigate productivity based on the structure and species composition of China’s forest communities. We grouped the trees into t...

Understanding leaf trait variation is critical for the prediction of plant responses to global climate changes. Leaf trichomes are derived from stomatal epidermal cells, which play critical roles in biotic defenses and against abiotic stress. Previous studies reported spatial variations in stomatal traits and their driving factors at the same sampl...

World-wide, forests are experiencing drought-induced mortality. However, physiological adaptation to drought is highly variable, which may lead to differential mortality patterns and alter community structure. In this study, saplings of four common tree species (Ormosia pinnata, Dalbergia odorifera, Castanopsis fissa and Michelia macclurei) grown i...

The study aimed to show that droughts are increasing in frequency and intensity in the Dinghushan Biosphere Reserve and to illustrate the effects of seasonal droughts on carbon gain in a sub-tropical forest. This is in response to the threat posed by increased droughts due to global climate change. We used four drought indices to accurately determi...

Allometric scaling of leaf nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) provides information on species adaptation to resource availability and nutrient limitation of primary production. Studies examining how plant functional traits vary spatially have historically used global datasets, which may blur variation at local scale and thus some of the key drivers. G...

Tree growth may be affected by rising temperature. We conducted two long-term, independent warming experiments in a subtropical forest; one experiment used translocation warming and one experiment used infra-red (IR) warming. Both warming techniques are designed to increase air and soil temperatures (Tair and Tsoil), but may also differentially aff...

Phosphorus (P) is often one of the most limiting nutrients in highly weathered soils of humid tropical forests and may regulate the responses of carbon (C) feedback to climate warming. However, the response of P to warming at the ecosystem level in tropical forests is not well understood because previous studies have not comprehensively assessed ch...

Background Nutrient resorption is critical for plants toward balancing their nutritional requirements and adapting to environmental variabilities, which further impacts litter quality and nutrient cycling. However, the interannual variability of nutrient resorption under climate change remains unclear. Methods We investigated the five-year nutrien...

Species diversity plays an essential role in enhancing ecosystem functions (EF) in both natural and plantation forests. However, we do not fully understand whether species diversity could maintain the sustainability of EFs in multiple-rotation plantations. Here, we hypothesized that tree species mixtures could mitigate declines in EFs along success...

Phosphorus (P) is a critical macronutrient that is essential for many life-sustaining processes. Despite decades of work on plant performance under P deficiency and the importance of microbes in ecosystem processes, little is known about how bacterial and fungal flora respond to P gradients and determine the vegetation health. In current study, we...

Compared with other forest systems, research interest in the potential for a stronger ecosystem carbon sequestration of evergreen forests throughout subtropical China has greatly increased. The eddy covariance technique is widely employed to determine accurate forest-atmosphere carbon dioxide (CO2) flux, which is subsequently used to determine fore...

Plants emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which undergo photochemical reactions to generate secondary organic aerosols and cause ozone (O3) accumulation; thus, they are the focus of urban pollution control strategies. Although some studies on biogenic VOCs and aerosols have been conducted, their environmental effects at the community scale are...

Plant leaves, as natural receptors of airborne particles, can retain particles onto their surfaces, and absorb gaseous pollutants, thus mitigating air pollution and improving air quality. Dry deposition is considered the main process for particle removal from the atmosphere, and its velocity (Vd) is a crucial parameter for describing the process. W...

Subtropical soils are generally characterized by phosphorus (P), calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) deficiency; extreme P-rich soils develop on phosphate rocks. How such contrasting geological-derived soils influence genetic diversity and structure of local plant populations have not been well documented, hindering our understanding of plant adaptive...

Aims The interaction between plants and soil is an important internal driver of ecosystem evolution. Many studies have reported the unidirectional effects of soil nutrients on plant diversity and species turnover. However, there are still many gaps in our knowledge about how plant diversity and species turnover feedback to soil nutrients. Methods...

Background：Nutrient resorption is critical for plants toward balancing their nutritional requirements and adapting to environmental variabilities, which further impacts litter quality and nutrient cycling. However, the interannual variability of nutrient resorption under climate change remains unclear. Methods: We investigated the five-year nutrien...

Phosphorus (P) is often one of the most limiting nutrients in highly weathered soils of humid tropical forests, which may regulate the responses of carbon (C) feedback to climate warming. Based on a 7-year continuous field warming experiment conducted by translocating microcosm forest ecosystems from a high-elevation site to low-elevation sites, we...

Sensitivity to climate change is one of the key features of the Dinghushan National Nature Reserve that is located in the lower subtropical China. Having faced typhoon Mangkhut in 2018, there emerged a need to study the effects that the typhoon had on the evergreen broad-leaved forest community in Dinghushan. The forest composition data for 2015, 2...

The stomatal traits influence ecosystem carbon-water fluxes and play essential roles that enable plants to adapt to changing environmental conditions. However, how stomatal traits vary along a large climate gradient and whether stomatal traits coordinated with other leaf functional traits in response to environmental changes remain unclear. We inve...

The landscape patterns of plantations (PT) are the results of human disturbances on local vegetation, and in turn, differ greatly from natural forests (NF), since the patterns strongly influence the natural circulation of material and energy. There is a need to understand the differences of landscape patterns between PT and NF, to establish a near...

Urban green infrastructure is closely linked to the alleviation of pollution from atmospheric particulate matter. Although particle deposition has been shown to depend on leaf characteristics, the findings from earlier studies are sometimes ambiguous due to the lack of controlling variables. In this study, we investigated the impact of leaf morphol...

Key message Nutrient limitation changed from N–P co-limitation in the native shrubs to N limitation in the plantations. Abstract Element stoichiometry is a powerful tool to examine plant–soil nutrient feedbacks. In karst ecosystems, southwest China, afforestation has been widely adopted to restore soil fertility and enhance ecosystem functioning u...

Volatile organic compound (VOCs) emission is an important cause of photochemical smog and particulate pollution in urban areas, and urban vegetation has been presented as an important source. Different tree species have different emission levels, so adjusting greening species collocation is an effective way to control biogenic VOC pollution. Howeve...

Direct and indirect effects of complex urban land-use types on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), including their total amount, composition, sources and sinks, were evaluated from 84 sampling points in the megacity of Shanghai. We measured the content and composition of PAHs adsorbed by the leaves of Cinnamomum camphora and established buffer...

Parasites obtain energy and nutrients from the host, and their body size is also usually limited by host size. However, the regulatory mechanisms that control the plasticity of parasite body sizes and the stoichiometric relationships with their hosts remain unclear. Here we investigated the concentrations of 14 elements (C, H, O, N, P, S, K, Na, Ca...

Estimates of seasonal variation in plant stoichiometry and water use efficiency (WUE) are critical for predicting the time courses of carbon and water fluxes. However, the relationship between seasonal stoichiometry and WUE, and their relationship with climatic factors remains unclear. The carbon isotope composition has been widely used to evaluate...

Precipitation is predicted to become more intense in Southern China in the context of climate change; however, the responses of microbial communities to variations in soil moisture have not been well documented for karst areas. The climate is typically in a subtropical monsoon category with two different seasons: a dry season (December–May) and a w...

Warming may have profound effects on nitrogen (N) cycling by changing plant N demand and underground N supply. However, large uncertainty exists regarding how warming affects the integrated N dynamic in tropical forests. We translocated model plant‐soil ecosystems from a high‐altitude site (600 m) to low‐altitude sites at 300 m and 30 m to simulate...

While studies on temperate species indicate positive correlations between growth and elevated temperature, some observations referring tropical species suggest the opposite, as tropical species operates with more thermally stable climates. In this study, we subjected co-occurring Schima superba Gardn. et Champ., and Ormosia pinnata (Lour.) Merr sap...

Aims: Drought is a limiting factor for plant growth in southern karst areas. Climate change may affect the amount and distribution pattern of precipitation in these areas. It is important to understand the stoichiometric characteristics of soil and plants and how they respond to increasing precipitation in karst areas. Methods: In Jianshui karst ar...

Background: Phosphorus (P) -rich soils develop in phosphorite residing areas while P-deficient soils are ubiquitous in subtropical regions. Little has been reported that how metabolites participate in the seed development and the processes involved in their coping with contrasting-nutrient environments. Results: Here we quantified the metabolite...

Negative air ions (NAIs) exert positive effects on human health. Urban green spaces produce NAIs and perform valuable ecological functions; this phenomenon has attracted much attention. However, NAIs in urban green spaces are influenced by many factors, leading to extremely large variability in their concentrations and complicating their measuremen...

Forest age serves as an essential factor in determining the accuracy of historical and future carbon (C) uptake quantifications, which is especially critical for China since the forest C stock dynamics are sensitive to the fast-growing, young-age plantations. However, a spatially explicit forest age maps with specific focus on forest plantations is...

The DeNitrification–DeComposition (DNDC) model is a process model with a series of carbon and nitrogen biogeochemistry in agro-ecosystems. It incorporates the driving factors of the ecological environment and aims to simulate the carbon and nitrogen cycle in the terrestrial ecosystem. Furthermore, the model can be applied effectively in a paddy eco...

Plants can intercept airborne particulate matter through deposition. Different types of plants exhibit different functional leaf traits, which can affect the dry deposition velocity (Vd). However, the most crucial leaf traits of coniferous and broadleaved trees remain unidentified. In this study, we selected 18 typical plants from the subtropical m...

Background Phosphorus (P) -rich soils develop in phosphorite residing areas while P-deficient soils are ubiquitous in subtropical regions. Little has been reported that how metabolites participate in the seed development and the processes involved in their coping with contrasting-nutrient environments. Results Here we quantified the metabolites of...

Rapid urbanization and industrialization have precipitated the significant urban-rural gradient involving various aspects of human-related activities especially in megacities. Anthropogenic activities are the main source of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contamination, and the rising awareness concerning PAH potential toxicity to human healt...

Quantifying the spatiotemporal distribution of forest biomass carbon (FBC) is vital for the management of urban forests in accordance with the rapid urbanization. This paper presents a method for quantifying and estimating the urban FBC in Shanghai, China, between 2005 and 2015, using data from 93 sampling forest plots and Landsat ETM + data. Our s...

Plant traits—the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants—determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research sp...

Long-term studies have revealed that forest species composition was shifting under environment change and disturbance induced by loss of large trees. Yet, few studies explicitly analyzed their impacts on composition concurrently. To learn more about impacts of environment change and disturbance on driving forest community, we investigated shifts in...

The elemental concentrations of both plants and soils are sensitive to variations in precipitation due to the limiting roles of water on soil processes and plant growth in karst ecosystems of Southwestern China; however, precipitation is predicted to increase in this region. Nevertheless, it is unclear how the elemental composition of soils and pla...

Backgrounds There are growing concerns regarding the restoration of karst rocky desertification (KRD) areas. However, the soil conditions and its residing microorganisms, which are essential for the plants, remain largely unclear. Methods We studied soil characteristics and microbial communities in natural forests (non-KRD) and shrubs with eroded...

Phosphorus (P)-rich sites develop on phosphate-rock ores, while the soils are generally characterized with P deficiency in subtropical areas, resulting in contrasting nutrient environments for plants and herbivores. It remains unclear how in situ herbivorous insects cope with such two extreme nutrient habitats in terms of metabolome and ionome. Her...

Aero submicron particles (d < 1 μm) have attracted widely attention due to their difficulty in removal from the air and serious threat to human health. Leaves are considered as important organs to purify particulate matter and alleviate air pollution. However, the current research mainly focuses on the removal capacity of particulate matter by urba...

Trees and green spaces have been proved to play an important role in purifying urban atmospheric particulate matter and result to the overall improvement of air quality. However, a primary setback was the need for an accurate and easier method to measure the deposition velocity (Vd) of PM2.5 retained on plant leaves. This paper established an indir...

Increasing precipitation has been predicted to occur in the karst areas in southwestern regions of China. However, it is little known how various plants respond to increasing precipitation in this region. Here we determined the impacts of water addition on leaf metabolites of grasses (Cymbopogon distans and Arundinella sitosa) and shrubs (Carissa s...

Aims Subtropical ecosystems are generally characterized by phosphorus (P)-deficient soils; however, extreme P-rich soils develop on phosphate rocks. We aimed to integrate metabolomic and ionomic analyses to survey how in situ trees adaptively respond to such contrasting P soils. Methods Gas (GC-MS) or liquid (LC-MS) chromatography-mass spectrometr...

Livestock production is important for food security, nutrition, and landscape maintenance, but it is associated with several environmental impacts. To assess the risk and benefits arising from livestock production, transparent and robust indicators are required, such as those offered by life cycle assessment. A central question in such approaches i...

Tropical and subtropical forest ecosystems play an important role in the global carbon regulation. Despite increasing evidence for effects of biodiversity (species diversity, functional diversity and functional dominance), stand structural attributes, stand age and environmental conditions (climate and topography) on tree carbon storage, the relati...

The quantitative knowledge of global forest litterfall is very important for understanding the global biogeochemical cycle and evaluating of forest ecosystem services. Our aims are to show the spatio‐temporal patterns of forest litterfall and the variation in different forest types and climate zones in the world. We compiled the global forest litte...

Huang et al (Reports, 5 October 2018, p. 80) report significant increases in forest productivity from monocultures to multispecies mixtures in subtropical China. However, their estimated productivity decrease due to a 10% tree species loss seems high. We propose that including species richness distribution of the study forests would provide more me...

Negative air ions (NAIs) are a natural component of air and have a positive impact on the health of urban residents. Few studies have focused on the relationship between NAI concentration (NAIC) in the urban atmosphere and environmental factors, such as meteorological factors and air pollutants. Therefore, we established observation points in Zhong...

Land use types have been strongly modified across mountainous areas. This has substantially altered the patterns and processes of ecosystems and the components of ecosystem services (ESs), and could in turn impact the sustainable development. In the mountainous Mentougou district of Beijing, we explored the changes in land use type (cropland, orcha...

The aim of the methodology developed in these guidelines is to introduce a harmonized international approach assessing nutrient flows and impact assessment for eutrophication and acidification for livestock supply chains taking the specificity of the various production systems involved into consideration. The methodology strives to increase underst...

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have toxic, teratogenic, mutagenic and carcinogenic effects on living organisms. Plants can function as pollutant bioindicators and bioaccumulators due to their wide surface distribution and specific responses to atmospheric pollutants. However, various plants exhibit significant differences in their capaciti...

Background and AimSubtropical soils are generally characterized as deficient in phosphorus (P), calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg), but rich in iron (Fe) and aluminum (Al). However, soils developed in phosphate rock are extremely P-rich in subtropical forests, southwestern China. Factors controlling plant stoichiometric traits across variable P sites...

Key message: Foliar phosphorus (P) resorption inQuercus variabilisBlume was significantly lower at a P-rich than at a P-deficient site. Moreover, P resorption strongly decreased, and nitrogen:phosphorus and carbon:phosphorus resorption ratios increased with soil P content. This demonstrates a strong link between foliar P resorption and P content in...

Urban forestry is increasingly used as a tool for climate change mitigation and for providing environmental services to inhabitants of urban areas. However, tree species used in urban forestry are usually different from the ones used in commercial forestry. As a consequence, available data on growth and yield under alternative management scenarios...

Appropriate agricultural practices for carbon sequestration and emission mitigation have a significant influence on global climate change. However, various agricultural practices on farmland carbon sequestration usually have a major impact on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It is very important to accurately quantify the effect of agricultural prac...

The methodology and guidance developed here can be used by stakeholders in all countries to assess the sustainability of nutrient use in livestock supply chains. In developing the guidelines, it was assumed that the primary users would be individuals or organizations with a good working knowledge of environmental assessment of livestock systems bas...

3,4-Dimethylpyrazole phosphate (DMPP) has been widely employed to reduce nitrogen leaching and greenhouse gas emissions in the soils of dry farmlands. However, the effects of DMPP on the dynamics of nitrogen in paddy fields remain unclear. For this study, treatments with 0%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 1%, or 1.5% DMPP levels of nitrogen fertilization plus urea w...

In this study, the relationship models at national scale between forest litterfall (and leaf litterfall) and climatic factors (mean annual mean temperature, MAT; mean annual precipitation, MAP; and actual evapotranspiration, AET) were constructed. The spatial and temporal distribution patterns of forest litterfall and leaf litterfall in 2001, 2006...

To understand how different trophic organisms in a parasite food chain adapt to the differences in soil nutrient conditions, we investigated stoichiometric variation and homeostasis of multiple elements in two acorn trees, Quercus variabilis and Quercus acutissima, and their parasite weevil larvae (Curculio davidi Fairmaire) at phosphorus (P)-defic...