Bo Zhang - University of Miami

​My future career goal is to combine field work, GIS data and mathematical model together, to understand how certain ecosystem responses to climate change, human disturbance.
I am currently a postdoc working with Dr. J. D. Van Dyken in University of Miami.
I received my PhD degree from University of Miami, and my advisor is Dr. Donald L. DeAngelis. I got my bachelor degree in Forestry from Nanjing Forestry University, China (NFU). 
I am broadly interested in questions of forest ecology, population ecology, theoretical mathematical modeling, invasive species management.

NEWS 2017

​Two grants received

1. Effects, Impacts and Influences of Hurricane Irma Funding,  University of Miami, The College of Arts and Sciences, Co-PI.
2. Greater Everglades Priority Ecosystems Science (GEPES) Fiscal Year 2018 Post-Hurricane Irma Damage Assessment Award, U.S. Geological Survey, PI. 
Looking forward to starting the project soon, with D. L. DeAngelis, M. Rayamajhi, M. Smith and D. Van Dyken.

​Successfully defended my dissertation

Mar.31, 2017, I defended my dissertation successfully, I truly enjoyed the six years, and I am grateful for all the support, help and advice from my advisor, committee members, colleagues, friends and families. Thanks a lot for sharing this journey with me, and I am looking forward to the future.
Publications:
1. The paper that I am co-authored on, "The Relationship between Sap Flow Density and  Environmental Factors in the Yangtze River Delta  Region of China ", was published in "Forests".
2. The paper that I am co-authored on, "Comparative effects of sulfate and nitrate acid rain on litter decomposition and soil microbial community in subtropical plantation of Yangtze River Delta Region", was published in "the Science of Total Environment".
3. First author paper, "Carrying capacity in a heterogeneous environment with habitat connectivity", was published in "Ecology Letters". Thanks for all the co-authors and especially Dr. David Van Dyken for offering this study opportunity.
More stuff coming!
4. First author paper, "Modeling the compensatory response of an invasive tree to specialist insect herbivory", was accepted in "Biological Control". 
Received “NASA-MSU Professional Enhancement Awards”, which are supported by the NASA and Michigan State University (MSU) to assist some outstanding junior scholars in attending the US-IALE meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, April 9-13, 2017.
F1000 ​Associate Faculty Member, Jan 2017 - 
I started to serve as an associate faculty member for Faculty of 1000, in section of Theoretical Ecology. My main responsibility is to check the contents of the following journals to write brief accessible comments to summarize the value of the articles for F1000: 
- Ecology Letters 
- Ecological Applications
NEWS 2016

Fieldwork in China!

In September, we performed a field work in Dabie Mountain, in China, aiming to detect how different woody species respond to environmental stress (such as drought or poor nutrient) along elevation gradient (up to 1300 m).
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Each red dot represented one field plot that we selected along elevation. Soil, litter fall and leaf samples were collected and currently under analysis.

Certification:

​Completion of the Graduate certificate program in "Geo-spatial Technology". 3 years. This program includes Arc-GIS, remote sensing and Geo-spatial analysis. 
Check out this cool program here: 

​Publications:

5. First author paper  "Similarity of adaptive functional traits and plant aggregation in a sub-tropical forest" is in press in "Ecology and Evolution", thanks to all the co-authors and our persistence. Took us >5 years to get it done!!
4. The paper that I am co-authored on, "Spatial patterning of excitatory and inhibitory synapses during spinal circuit development", just got accepted in "The journal of Comparative Neurology". Very exciting news, because we applied spatial analysis (Ripley's L-function) to a neuron science study. Check out Dr.Julia Dallman's lab.
3. The paper that I am co-authored on, "Effect of forest shelter-belt as a regional climate improver along the old course of the Yellow River, China", was published in "Agroforestry Systems".
2. First author paper "Modeling the long-term effects of introduced herbivores on the spread of an invasive tree", has published in "Landscape Ecology'. This work was funded by "USGS’s Greater Everglades Priority Ecosystem Science funding".
1. The paper that I am co-authored on, " Effects of Diffusion on Total Biomass in Heterogeneous Continuous and Discrete-Patch Systems" has published in "Theoretical Ecology". 

NEWS 2015

Publications:

1. The paper that I am co-authored on " Dispersal and spatial heterogeneity: single species" has published in Journal of Mathematical Biology
2. First-author paper "Effects of dispersal on total biomass in a patchy, heterogeneous system: Analysis and experiment" has published in Mathematical Biosciences

News 2014

I presented the study of "The effects of heterogeneity and dispersal on population biomass"  in the "Dispersal and competition of populations and communities in spatially heterogeneous environments" workshop in Lausanne,  Switzerland. Aug 2014. 

Publications:

1. Invited paper “Effects of Population Dispersal in a Non-Uniform Environment Individual Dynamics and Competition: A Patch Model Approach” was published in Journal discrete and Continuous Dynamical System.

​2. The paper that I am co-authored on "Population age and initial density in a patchy environment affect the occurrence of abrupt transitions in a birth-and-death model of Taylor's law" was published in Ecological Modelling.