Professor LIANG, Guopeng

Research Paper

(*Corresponding author)

• Liang, G*., Schlesinger, W (2026) Potassium fertilization enhances both cereal yield and soil organic carbon: a meta-analysis. Nature Communications.
• Liang, G* (2025) Tree diversity increases soil carbon accumulation. Nature Reviews Biodiversity.
• Liang, G*., Stefanski, A., Eddy, W., Bermudez, R., Montgomery, R., Hobbie, S., Rich, R., Reich, P* (2024) Soil respiration response to decade-long warming modulated by soil moisture in a boreal forest. Nature Geoscience.
• Liang, G., Stark, J., Waring, B (2023) Mineral reactivity determines root effects on soil organic carbon. Nature Communications.
• Liang, G*., Sun, P., Waring, B., Fu, Z., Reich, P (2025) Alleviating nitrogen and phosphorus limitation does not amplify potassium-induced increase in terrestrial biomass. Global Change Biology.
• Liang, G* (2022) Nitrogen fertilization mitigates global food insecurity by increasing cereal yield and its stability. Global Food Security.
• Liang, G*., Luo, Y., Zhou, Z., Waring, B (2021) Nitrogen effects on plant productivity change at decadal time-scales. Global Ecology and Biogeography.
• Liang, G* (2025) Global pattern of warming effects on microbial respiration is explained by soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen. CATENA.
• Full publication list: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=mDPLFsgAAAAJ&hl=en

Teaching Areas

• Soil Science
• Microbial Ecology
• Plant Ecology
• Global Change Ecology

Research Interests

• Soil Biogeochemistry
• Ecosystem Carbon Cycling
• Plant-Soil-Microbe Interactions
• Agricultural Management
• Food Security
• Climate Mitigation
• Nature-based Solutions

Current Research

• Assessing the impacts of environmental change and agricultural management on soil carbon cycling and plant productivity, while elucidating the underlying microbial mechanisms
• Evaluating nature-based solutions to enhance soil health, ensure food security, and mitigate climate change

Research Team

Information regarding our researchers and students at the SEED Lab (Soil Ecology and Environmental Dynamics Lab) is available on our dedicated group website: https://guopeng-liang.github.io/seed-lab/

Fellowships

• Brown Postdoctoral Fellowship (Yale University)
• IGCB Postdoctoral Exchange Fellowship (Institute for Global Change Biology at the University of Michigan)
• Synthesis Skills for Early Career Researchers Fellow (National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis)

Awards and Honours

• Stanford/Elsevier’s Top 2% Scientist
• U.S. Carbon Program Leadership Award (NASA, NOAA, USDA, and USFS)
• Gene E. Likens Award (Biogeosciences Section of the Ecological Society of America)
• Biogeosciences Leaders of Tomorrow (American Geophysical Union and JGR-Biogeosciences)
• Early Career Award (Asian Ecology Section of the Ecological Society of America)
• Sino-Eco Young Investigator Paper Award (Sino-Ecologists Association Overseas)
• IPNI Scholarship (International Plant Nutrition Institute)
• Joseph E. Greaves Endowed Scholarship (Utah State University)