The focus of Xin’s current research is the environmental impact of food production, as this basic activity claims about half of the land surface, accounts for 80% of the anthropogenic N₂O emission, and leads to severe water and air pollution. As such, she is developing a demand-based model to examine the interaction between food demand and its production, nitrogen input, and the resulting N₂O emission. This model will be coupled with the land model (LM3) developed at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) in order to investigate the impact of the intensification and expansion of agricultural production on the global nitrogen cycle, water and air quality, and the climate. Therefore, Xin’s work is relevant to policies that simultaneously address keeping food secure, preventing environmental degradation, and mitigating global climate change.

Xin received a B.S. in Environmental Science and a B.S. in Computer Science from Ocean University of China (OUC), an M.A. in Environmental Science from Peking University (2007), and a Ph.D. from Yale University (2012).

Selected Publications

–         X Zhang, XH Lee, TJ Griffis, JM Baker, MD Erickson, W Xiao, N Hu (2013) The influence of plants on atmospheric methane in an agriculture-dominated landscape, International Journal of Biometeorology, doi: 10.1007/s00484-013-0662-y.

–         X Zhang (2013). Improving regional-scale greenhouse gas inventories in an agriculture-dominated landscape using a multi-scale approach. PhD Dissertation, Yale University.

–         TJ Griffis, XH Lee, JM Baker, MP Russelle, X Zhang, R Venterea, DB Millet (2013) Reconciling the differences between top-down and bottom-up estimates of nitrous oxide emissions for the US Corn Belt, Global biogeochemical cycles, doi: 10.1002/gbc.20066.

–         X Zhang, Y Zhao, MS Ashton, XH Lee (2012) Measuring carbon in forests, in Managing Forest Carbon in a Changing Climate (M. Ashton, M. L. Tyrrell, D Spalding, B Gentry eds), Springer, New York, 139-144.

–         TJ Griffis, XH Lee, JM Baker, K Billmark, N Schultz, MD Erickson, X Zhang, J Fassbinder, W Xiao, N Hu (2011) Oxygen isotope composition of evapotranspiration and its relation to C4 photosynthetic discrimination, Journal of Geophysical Research – Biogeosciences, 116, G01035.

–         TJ Griffis, SD Sargent, XH Lee, JM Baker, J Greene, MD Erickson, X Zhang, K Billmark, N Schultz, W Xiao, N Hu (2010) Determining the oxygen isotope composition of evapotranspiration with eddy covariance, Boundary-Layer Meteorology, 137(2):307-326.

–         JC Chan, X Zhang (2009) Air Pollution Status and Challenges Ahead in the Greater Pearl River Delta Region, in Lectures on China’s Environment, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies Publication Series Report Number 20.

Work in Progress

–         X Zhang, D Mauzerall. The impact of improving nitrogen use efficiency on nitrous oxide emissions from cropland, in preparation, in preparation.

–         X Zhang, D Mauzerall. Scenario analysis of the nitrous oxide mitigation strategies in agricultural sector using a demand-based model, in preparation.

–         X Zhang, X Lee, TJ Griffis, JM Baker, M Erickson, J Fasbinder, W Xiao, N Hu. Quantifying nitrous oxide fluxes from agricultural sources on multiple spatial scales in the Upper Midwest, USA, in review.

–         X Zhang, X Lee, TJ Griffis, JM Baker, M Erickson, J Fasbinder, W Xiao, N Hu. Estimating greenhouse gas fluxes from an agriculture-dominated landscape using multiple planetary boundary layer methods, in preparation.