Yanfen Wang
About me
Prof. Wang Yanfen is a global renowned soil ecologist, an outstanding leader, and an accomplished educator. She serves as the Executive Vice President of University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS).
She 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. Her research interests also include local livelihood and sustainable development of Eurasian Steppe. She co-initiated the Global Dryland and Ecosystem Programme and chaired the Sino-German research and training program - Tree Diversity Interaction.
Prof. Wang is an active leader in national and international academic societies. She is the Vice President of China Ecological Society, a committee member of Partnership for Skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET), and the Vice President of International Scientific Center of Fertilizers (CIEC). She also served as an independent board member of the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) for nine years.
Education
2001 Ph.D. in Ecology, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
1993 B.Sc. in Soil and Plant Nutrition, China Agricultural University
Professional Career
since 2018 Executive Vice President, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
since 2008 Vice President, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
since 2005 Professor, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
2003-2005 Associate Professor, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
2001-2002 Associate Professor, Bureau of Life Science and Biotechnology, CAS
1993-2001 Research Fellow, Institute of Botany, CAS
Academic Membership
since 2024 Fellow of the Geographical Society of China
since 2024 Fellow of the Ecological Society of China
Academic and Professional Associations Service
since 2023 President of OWSD China National Chapter
since 2023 Vice President of the International Scientific Centre of Fertilizers (CIEC)
since 2018 Vice President of the Ecological Society of China
2019-2024 Vice President of the China Society of Natural Resources
2014-2023 Board Member of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD)
Other Memberships/Affiliations
Degrees:
（2）A framework for quantifying state transitions in complex ecosystems using energy flow networks. SCIENCE BULLETIN, 2025.
（3）Global effects of progress towards sustainable development goals on subjective well-being. NATURE SUSTAINABILITY, 2024.
（4）An early warning signal for grassland degradation on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. NATURE COMMUNICATIONS, 2023.
（5）Vegetation structural shift tells environmental changes on the tibetan plateau over 40 years. SCIENCE BULLETIN, 2023.
（6）Grassland changes and adaptive management on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, NATURE REVIEWS EARTH & ENVIRONMENT, 2022.
（7）Unimodal productivity-biodiversity relationship along the gradient of multidimensional resources across Chinese grasslands, NATIONAL SCIENCE REVIEW, 2022.
（8）Carbon and nitrogen cycling on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, NATURE REVIEWS EARTH & ENVIRONMENT, 2022.
（9）Climatic resources mediate the shape and strength of grassland productivity-richness relationships from local to regional scales, AGRICULTURE, ECOSYSTEMS & ENVIRONMENT, 2022.
（10）Linkage between microbial shift and ecosystem functionality. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY, 2021.
（11）Abiotic and biotic controls of soil dissolved organic nitrogen along a precipitation gradient on the Tibetan plateau, PLANT AND SOIL, 2021.
（12）Revealing the community and metabolic potential of active methanotrophs by targeted metagenomics in the Zoige wetland of the Tibetan Plateau, ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY, 2021.
（13）Terrestrial N2O emissions and related functional genes under climate change: A global meta-analysis, GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY, 2020.
（14）Richness of plant communities plays a larger role than climate in determining responses of species richness to climate change, JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, 2019.
（15）Climate-induced abrupt shifts in structural states trigger delayed transitions in functional states, ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS, 2020.
（16）Microbial community responses reduce soil carbon loss in Tibetan alpine grasslands under short-term warming. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY, 2019.
（17）Degraded patch formation significantly changed microbial community composition in alpine meadow soils, SOIL & TILLAGE RESEARCH, 2019.
（18）Plant organic N uptake maintains species dominance under long-term warming. PLANT AND SOIL, 2018.
（19）Aboveground net primary productivity and carbon balance remain stable under extreme precipitation events in a semiarid steppe ecosystem, AGRICULTURAL AND FOREST METEOROLOGY, 2017.
（20）Soil methane uptake by grasslands and forests in China. SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY, 2014.
（21）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.
（22）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.
（23）Seasonal and interannual variation in water vapor and energy exchange over a typical steppe in Inner Mongolia, China. AGRICULTURAL AND FOREST METEOROLOGY, 2007.