My work demonstrated a profound impact of hurricanes and extreme storms on forest mortality in temperate regions and across Amazonia, and my findings unravel the linkages between climate extremes and forest dynamics, improve the understanding of the mechanism involved in land-atmosphere interactions, and facilitate the prediction of future forest dynamics under a changing climate.

Given the critical role that tropical forests play in the global carbon cycle and the increasing risk of rising tree mortality and reduced carbon sink efficiency, my research is essential for understanding windthrow as a contributor to current forest changes. It incorporates disturbance regimes into earth system models, predicts future carbon dynamics, and informs conservation strategies. This work has also led to my appointment as a science team co-lead for PANGEA, a NASA terrestrial field scoping campaign, aiming for a nine-year funding commitment from NASA.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

  • 2024 Urquiza-Muñoz, J.D., Trumbore, S., Negrón-Juárez, R.I., Feng, Y., Brenning, A., Vasquez-Parana, C.M., Marra, D.M. Increased Occurrence of Large-Scale Windthrows Across the Amazon Basin. AGU Advances, 5, e2023AV001030.
  • 2024 Feng, Y. and Rosa, L. Global biomethane and carbon dioxide removal potential through anaerobic digestion of waste biomass. Environmental Research Letters, 19, 024024.
  • 2023 Feng, Y., Negrón-Juarez, R.I., Chiang, J., Chambers J.Q. Case studies of forest windthrows and mesoscale convective systems in Amazonia. Geophysical Research Letter, 50, e2023GL104395.
  • 2023 Feng, Y., Negrón-Juárez, R.I., Romps, D.M., & Chambers, J.Q. Amazon windthrow disturbances are likely to increase with storm frequency under global warming. Nature Communications, 14(1), 101.
  • 2023 Negron-Juarez, R., Magnabosco-Marra, D., Feng, Y., Urquiza-Muñoz, J.D., Riley, W.J., & Chambers, J. Windthrow characteristics and their regional association with rainfall, soil, and surface elevation in the Amazon. Environmental Research Letters, 18(1), 014030.
  • 2023 Bloom, D.E., Bomfim, B., Feng, Y., Kuppers, L. Combining field and remote sensing data to estimate forest canopy damage and recovery following tropical cyclones across tropical regions. Environmental Research: Ecology, 2(3), 035004.
  • 2022 Bomfim, B., Walker, A. P., McDowell, W. H., Zimmerman, J. K., Feng, Y., & Kueppers, L. M. Linking soil phosphorus with forest litterfall resistance and resilience to cyclone disturbance: A pantropical meta‐analysis. Global Change Biology, 28(15), 4633-4654.
  • 2021 Feng, Y., Negrón-Juárez, R.I., and Chambers, J.Q. Multi-cyclone analysis and machine learning model implications of cyclone effects on forests. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 103, p.102528.
  • 2020 Feng, Y., Negrón-Juárez, R.I. and Chambers, J.Q. Remote sensing and statistical analysis of the effects of hurricane María on the forests of Puerto Rico. Remote Sensing of Environment, 247, p.111940.
  • 2018 Feng, Y., Qi, Y. Modeling Patterns of Land Use in Chinese Cities Using an Integrated Cellular Automata Model. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 7, 403.

Preprints

  • 2019 Chambers J, Gorman C, Feng, Y., Torn M, Stapp J. Rapid remote sensing assessment of landscape-scale impacts from the California Camp Fire. PeerJ Preprints, 7:e27654v1. DOI Link
  • 2018 Feng, Y., Negrón-Juarez R.I., Patricola CM, Collins WD, Uriarte M, Hall JS, Clinton N, Chambers J.Q. Rapid remote sensing assessment of impacts from Hurricane Maria on forests of Puerto Rico. PeerJ Preprints, 6:e26597v1. DOI Link