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Chris Zou
Assistant Professor


Education

BS: Biology, Southwest University, 1985
MS: Plant Ecology, Southwest University, 1988
PhD: Forest Science, University of Canterbury, 2000

Links

Curriculum Vitae  
Ecohydrology Lab  

Research Interests:

I am interested in the coupling processes between ecological systems and hydrological systems across precipitation gradients at various spatial and temporal scales. Specifically, I am interested in understanding how changes in ecological properties resulted from natural and anthropogenic disturbances will affect soil and hydrological processes, and how altered processes in soil and hydrology will provide feedback on ecological systems and atmosphere through vapour, 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 modelling aspect.

Professional Memberships

Soil and Water Conservatoin Society
Sino-Ecologists Association Overseas
 

Recent Publications (since 2005)

Royer PD, Breshears DD, Zou CB, Cobb NS, Kurc SA. 2010. Ecohydrological energy inputs in semiarid coniferous gradients:  Responses to management- and drought-induced tree reductions. Forest Ecology and Management 260:1646-1655.

Field JP, Breshears DD, Zou CB, Whicker JJ. How grazing and burning differentially alter wind and water erosion: implications for rangelands. Ecological Applications (in press)

Villegas JC, Breshears DD, Zou CB, Law DJ. 2010. Ecohydrological controls of soil evaporation in deciduous drylands: How the hierarchical effects of litter, patch and vegetation mosaic cover interact with phenology and season. Journal of Arid Environment 74:595-602.

Zou CB, Ffolliott PF, **Wine M. 2010. Streamflow responses to vegetation manipulations along a gradient of precipitation in the Colorado River Basin. Forest Ecology and Management 259:1268-1276.

Villegas JC, Breshears DD, Zou CB, Royer PD. 2010. Seasonally-pulsed heterogeneity in microclimate: phenology and cover effects along deciduous grassland-forest continuum. Vadose Zone Journal 9:537-547.

Zou CB, Royer PD, Breshears DD. 2010. Density-dependent shading patterns by Sonoran saguaros. Journal of Arid Environments 74:156-158.

Wang J, Zou CB, Ren H, Duan W. 2009. Absence of tree seeds impedes shrubland succession in southern China. Journal of Tropical Forest Science 21:210-217.

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.

Miao SL, Zou CB. 2009. Seasonal variation in seed bank composition and the interaction with nutrient enrichment in the Everglades wetlands. Aquatic Botany 90:157-164.

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

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. 
 
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, 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, 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.

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.

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.

 

(**Graduate student advisee)

Office: 562 Ag Hall
Address: 008C Ag Hall
Stillwater, OK 74077
Phone: (405) 744-9637
Fax: (405) 744-3530
Email:  
chris.zou@okstate.edu

 

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