I am a broadly trained ecologist with specific research interests in ecohydrology and ecosystem sciences. I am interested in the coupling processes between vegetation systems and hydrological systems across precipitation gradients at various spatial and temporal scales. Specifically, I am interested in understanding how vegetation dynamics resulted from natural and anthropogenic disturbances (e.g. woody plant expansion, drought, fire, and changing climate) will affect soil and hydrological processes, and how altered processes in soil and hydrology will provide feedback on both vegetation systems and atmosphere through vapor, carbon and dust fluxes. My research has been conducted in arid, semiarid and humid ecosystems in Asia, the Pacific and North America. My research approaches include various combinations of field and controlled greenhouse experiments involving plant ecophysiology, soil physics and surface hydrology, with increasing interests in engaging modeling aspect.

Ecological Society for America
Soil and Water Conservatoin Society
Sino-Ecologists Association Overseas

Adams HD, Guardiola-Claramonte M, Barron-Gafford GA, Villegas JC, Breshears DD, Zou CB, Troch PA, and Huxman TE. 2009. Temperature sensitivity of drought-induced tree mortality portends increased regional die-off under global-change-type drought. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 106:7063-7066.

 

Breshears DD, Myers OB, Meyer CW, Barnes FJ, Zou CB, Allen CD, McDowell NG, Pockman WT. 2009. Tree die-off in response to global-change-type drought: mortality insights from a decade of plant water potential measurements. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 7:185-189.

 

Breshears DD, Whicker JJ, Zou CB, Field JP, Allen CD. 2009. Aeolian sediment transport in undisturbed and disturbed dryland ecosystems along the grassland-forest continuum: A conceptual framework spanning gradients of woody plants. Geomorphology 105:28-38.

 

Miao SL, Zou CB, Breshears DD. 2009. Vegetation responses to extreme hydrological events: sequence matters. American Naturalist 173:113-118.

 

Zou CB, Breshears DD, Newman BD, Wilcox BP, Gard MO. 2008. Water dynamics under low- versus high- ponderosa pine tree density: ecohydrological functioning and restoration implications. Ecohydrology 1:309-315.

 

Miao SL, Zou CB. 2008. Seasonal variation in seed bank composition and the interaction with nutrient enrichment in the Everglades wetlands. Aquatic Botany 90:157-164.

 

Breshears DD, Huxman TE, Adams HD, Zou CB, Davison JE. 2008. Vegetation synchronously leans upslope as climate warms. Commentary.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 105:11591-11592.

 

Zou CB, Barron-Gafford GA, Breshears DD. 2007. Effects of topography and woody plant canopy cover on near-ground solar radiation: relevant energy inputs for ecohydrology and hydropedology. Geophysical Research Letters 34: L24S21, doi: 10.1029/2007GL031484, 2007.

 

Zou CB, Barnes PW, Archer S, McMurtry C. 2005. Soil moisture redistribution as a mechanism of facilitation in savanna tree-shrub clusters. Oecologia 145:32-40.

 

Zou CB, Penfold C, Sands R, Misra RK, Hudson I. 2001. Effects of soil air-filled porosity, soil matric potential and soil strength on primary root growth of radiata pine seedlings. Plant and Soil 236:105-115.

 

Zou CB, Sands R, Sun OJ. 2000, Physiological responses of radiata pine roots to soil strength and soil water deficit. Tree Physiology 20:1205-1207.

 

Zou CB, Sands R, Buchan G, Hudson I. 2000. Least limiting water range: a potential indicator of physical quality of forest soils. Australian Journal of Soil Research 38:947-958.