Geography and ecology

Prof. Wang Yanfen is a global renowned soil scientist from University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. She received her Ph.D. degree in Ecology from Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 2001. She joined UCAS in 2003 and was appointed as the vice president in 2008.

Prof. Wang focuses on the mechanisms of soil carbon stability under global changes. She has established a series of in-situ manipulated experiment platforms in Chinese northern grasslands to elucidate ecosystem responses and adaptations to global changes and anthropogenic activities. Her research has recognized the benefits of moderate human intervention in dryland ecosystems, thus reconciling the conflicts between utilization and conservation. During her professional career, she has published over 350 papers in major scientific journals including Nature Geoscience, Nature Sustainability, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, Nature Communications, National Science Review, Global Change Biology, and Journal of Ecology. These findings pave a solid foundation for policy-making with regard to the sustainable ecosystem management. 

As an outstanding leader and an accomplished educator, Prof. Wang serves as the Vice President of China Ecological Society, International Scientific Centre of Fertilizers (CIEC), and the Vice President of OWSD. She is also a committee member of Partnership for Skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET), and served as an independent board member of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) for nine years. She co-initiated the Global Dryland and Ecosystem Programme, chaired the Sino-German research and training program - Tree Diversity Interaction, and co-chaired with Susan Trumbore the Joint MPG-CAS project: Asia-Europe Dryland Ecosystem Change & Sustainable Management Project. 

（1）Methane production from lignin in anoxic peatland. NATURE GEOSCIENCE, 2025, co-corresponding author.

（2）A framework for quantifying state transitions in complex ecosystems using energy flow networks. SCIENCE BULLETIN, 2025, corresponding author.

（3）Overlooked uneven progress across sustainable development goals at the global scale: challenges and opportunities. THE INNOVATION, 2024, corresponding author.

（4）Global effects of progress towards sustainable development goals on subjective well-being. NATURE SUSTAINABILITY, 2024, co-corresponding author.

（5）Vegetation structural shift tells environmental changes on the tibetan plateau over 40 years. SCIENCE BULLETIN, 2023, first and corresponding author.

（6）An early warning signal for grassland degradation on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. NATURE COMMUNICATIONS, 2023, co-corresponding author.

（7）Grassland changes and adaptive management on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. NATURE REVIEWS EARTH & ENVIRONMENT, 2022, first author.

（8）Unimodal productivity-biodiversity relationship along the gradient of multidimensional resources across Chinese grasslands. NATIONAL SCIENCE REVIEW, 2022, first and corresponding author.

（9）Carbon and nitrogen cycling on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. NATURE REVIEWS EARTH & ENVIRONMENT, 2022, co-corresponding author.

（10）Climatic resources mediate the shape and strength of grassland productivity-richness relationships from local to regional scales. AGRICULTURE, ECOSYSTEMS & ENVIRONMENT, 2022, corresponding author.

（11）Evenness is important in assessing progress towards sustainable development goals. NATIONAL SCIENCE REVIEW, 2021, corresponding author.

（12）Linkage between microbial shift and ecosystem functionality. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY, 2021, first author.

（13）Terrestrial N2O emissions and related functional genes under climate change: A global meta-analysis. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY, 2020, co-corresponding author.

（14）Climate-induced abrupt shifts in structural states trigger delayed transitions in functional states. ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS, 2020, corresponding author.

（15）Microbial community responses reduce soil carbon loss in Tibetan alpine grasslands under short-term warming. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY, 2019, co-corresponding author.

（16）Aboveground net primary productivity and carbon balance remain stable under extreme precipitation events in a semiarid steppe ecosystem. AGRICULTURAL AND FOREST METEOROLOGY, 2017, corresponding author.

（17）Soil methane uptake by grasslands and forests in China. SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY, 2014, first author.

（18）Effects of grazing on N2O production potential and abundance of nitrifying and denitrifying microbial communities in meadow-steppe grassland in northern China. SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY, 2014, corresponding author.

（19）The fluxes of CO2 from grazed and fenced temperate steppe during two drought years on the Inner Mongolia Plateau, China. SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT, 2011, first author.

（20）Seasonal and interannual variation in water vapor and energy exchange over a typical steppe in Inner Mongolia, China. AGRICULTURAL AND FOREST METEOROLOGY, 2007, corresponding author.