About

Liyin He is a faculty member at Duke University Program in Ecology, providing interdisciplinary training in all aspects of ecology. Her expertise encompasses physiological and behavioral ecology; population and evolutionary ecology; community and landscape ecology; biogeochemistry; and ecosystem and global change ecology. Her work involves ecological forecasting, understanding the genetics of adaptation, and tracking ecological phenomena such as bird migrations and storm impacts. She contributes to the academic community through research, seminars, symposia, and outreach activities, focusing on ecological data storytelling, forecasting disease dynamics, and measuring stream health. Her research aims to deepen understanding of ecological systems and their responses to environmental changes.

Research topics

• Atmospheric sciences
• Agronomy
• Environmental science
• Biology
• Physics
• Ecology
• Geology
• Remote sensing
• Meteorology
• Botany
• Materials science
• Chemistry
• Geography

Selected publications

• Sustainable global irrigation expansion could support only two-thirds of croplands under 1.5 °C and 3 °C warming

  Nature Food · 2026-04-23

  article1st author
  PublisherDOI

• Strengthening influence of atmospheric rivers on global snow depth dynamics

  Nature Communications · 2026-04-22

  articleOpen access

  Atmospheric rivers (ARs), narrow zones of intense water vapor transport in the Earth’s atmosphere, play a pivotal role in driving heavy precipitation and temperature anomalies. Snowpack dynamics, essential for global water availability, are sensitive to variations in precipitation and temperature. However, the global influence of ARs on snowpack dynamics remains unclear. Here, we assess how ARs affect snow depth worldwide and explore the underlying physical mechanisms. Our results reveal that ARs drive strong intra-seasonal snowpack variability—generally increasing snow depth in winter and spring and decreasing it in summer (with declines exceeding 15% in Temperate regions) and autumn. Active El Niño-Southern Oscillation can amplify this influence. On interannual timescales, more frequent ARs are associated with reduced snow depth in summer but increased snow depth in other seasons. Snowfall emerges as the primary factor explaining interannual snowpack changes related to ARs. This study provides a crucial advancement in understanding the complex climate-snowpack relationship and underscores the need to represent AR-snowpack interactions in Earth system models. The authors show that more frequent atmospheric rivers (ARs) contribute to reduced snow depth in summer, but increased snow depth in other seasons on interannual timescales, with snowfall being the primary factor explaining snowpack changes related to ARs.

  PublisherDOI

• Global multi-model projections of green water scarcity risks in rainfed agriculture under 1.5 °C and 3 °C warming

  Agricultural Water Management · 2025-05-01 · 14 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Rainfed agriculture, sustaining billions globally, faces escalating threats from climate change, yet the role of green water (soil moisture) in quantifying these risks remains critically understudied. We quantify green water scarcity (GWS)—insufficient rainfall to meet crop needs—under 1.5°C and 3°C warming, tracking shifts in risk categories (reliable, risky, highly risky) based on monthly water stress duration. At baseline (1996–2005), 25 % of global rainfed croplands (183 million hectares, Mha) are classified as reliable (≤1 month of GWS annually). However, with 1.5°C and 3°C of global warming, the risk of GWS increases noticeably, resulting in the loss of 70 Mha and 106 Mha of reliable rainfed croplands, respectively, shifting them into risky or highly risky categories. This degradation jeopardizes food production for 0.8 billion people at 1.5°C and 1.2 billion at 3°C, disproportionately impacting regions reliant on rainfed systems. Crucially, 3°C warming doubles the spatial extent of severe GWS compared to 1.5°C, underscoring the nonlinear rise in agricultural risks with temperature. Our analysis reveals that limiting warming to 1.5°C could preserve croplands that feed 400 million people, highlighting the urgent need for climate mitigation. These findings demand integrated water-resilient strategies—prioritizing soil moisture conservation, adaptive crop choices, and sustainable irrigation—to safeguard global food security. By bridging green water dynamics with climate targets, we provide a roadmap for stabilizing rainfed agriculture in a warming world. • We quantify the location and timing of green water scarcity risks under 1.5°C and 3°C warming scenarios, revealing hotspots vulnerable to water stress • Future warming is expected to intensify green water scarcity, potentially affecting food production for 0.8–1.2 billion people • At 3°C warming, GWS risks double in magnitude and spatial extent compared to 1.5°C warming

  PublisherDOI

• A robust framework for mapping complex cropping patterns: The first national-scale 10 m map with 10 crops in China using Sentinel 1/2 images

  ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing · 2025-04-17 · 16 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• A general framework for nitrogen deposition effects on soil respiration in global forests

  Nature Communications · 2025-12-16 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Since the Industrial Revolution, human activities have altered atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition to global forests, affecting carbon dioxide emissions from soils (soil respiration or SR) – one of the largest land-atmosphere carbon fluxes. However, experimental studies have demonstrated both positive and negative effects of N deposition on SR in global forests, leading to debates on how N deposition increases or decreases SR. We developed a framework for generalizing SR responses to N deposition using synthesized data from 168 N addition experiments worldwide and observed SR across the global natural N deposition gradient. The findings indicate that N deposition decreased SR in 2.9% of global forested areas, particularly in eastern China, western Europe, and the eastern USA. However, the net effect of N deposition increased the global forest SR by ~5% (1.7 ± 0.1 PgC yr –1 ). If N pollution could be effectively controlled, global forest SR would decrease, potentially contributing to a reduction in the terrestrial carbon emissions.

  PublisherDOI

• A general framework for nitrogen deposition effects on soil respiration in global forests

  2025-03-14

  preprintOpen access

  Soil respiration (SR) is one of the largest land-atmosphere carbon fluxes. Since the industrial revolution, human activities have altered atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition in forests, potentially affecting biotic activities and changing SR. However, this is highly uncertain, as mixed effects of N inputs on SR (i.e., increasing vs. decreasing) were observed in global forests. Here we synthesized data from global N addition experiments to quantitatively analyze how N increases or decreases SR. The revealed patterns were consistent with the observed SR changes across the natural N deposition gradient, providing a general framework to explain the diverse effects of N input on SR in global forests. Using a novel probabilistic approach, we estimated that N deposition decreased SR in 2.9% of global forests, mostly N-saturated forests in eastern China, western Europe, and eastern USA. But the net effect of N deposition increased the global forest SR budget by 5.1% (1.7 PgC yr–1). If N pollution could be effectively controlled, global forest SR and its variability would decrease, thereby reducing the uncertainty in the projected terrestrial carbon dynamics.

  PublisherDOI

• Integrated irrigation and nitrogen optimization is a resource-efficient adaptation strategy for US maize and soybean production

  Nature Food · 2025-01-08 · 28 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Tropospheric ozone pollution increases the sensitivity of plant production to vapor pressure deficit across diverse ecosystems in the Northern Hemisphere

  The Science of The Total Environment · 2024-08-23 · 3 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Trade-offs in agricultural outcomes across farm sizes

  Earth Critical Zone · 2024-06-01 · 12 citations

  articleOpen access

  Farm size plays a critical role in agriculture, influencing productivity, resource use efficiency, and environmental impacts. Smallholder farms, compared to large farms, often face constraints such as limited mechanization and advanced technology, leading to lower efficiency and potential environmental degradation. Transitioning from a system dominated by smallholders to one featuring large-scale farming holds potential for sustainable agricultural intensification, especially in regions currently reliant on smallholder systems. However, the benefits and potential unintended consequences of such a transition remain contentious and require further exploration. This review examines the multifaceted role of farm size, highlighting the essential contributions of smallholders to food security, poverty alleviation, crop diversity, and biodiversity despite their limitations in machinery, technology and efficiency. While acknowledging the potential for increased sustainability through scaling up farm size, we also indentify the risks associated with large-scale farming, such as biodiversity loss, increased market volatility, and adverse environmental impacts. We emphasize the importance of tailored strategies for managing different farm size to optimize agricultural productivity, economic viability, human well-being, and sustainable development. Our study provides a new perspective that complements the conventional advocacy for large-scale agriculture, revealing trade-offs of agricultural outcomes across different farm sizes. It offers a comprehensive evaluation of the significance of farm size in shaping future sustainable agricultural systems. • The role of smallholders in food security and poverty alleviation. • The importance of increasing farm size to medium scale. • Cautions of risks of large-scale farming, such as biodiversity loss. • Tailored strategies for sustainable farming of various sizes.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Adverse event reporting in ultrasound-guided brachial plexus blocks: A scoping review

  JCA advances. · 2024-12-17 · 3 citations

  reviewOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Ultrasound-guidance during peripheral nerve blocks has become increasingly popular over the past two decades, with recommendations for formal residency training defined in 2009. With increasing numbers of upper extremities surgeries, ultrasound-guided brachial plexus blocks (BPBs) are commonly utilized in both healthy and complex patients, but are associated with specific adverse events. However, the reporting of adverse events in ultrasound-guided BPBs remains inconsistent. This scoping review examines recent publications on ultrasound-guided BPBs, with a focus on adverse event reporting and the terminology used to describe these outcomes. Based on a comprehensive literature search between 2014 and 2024, 163 studies met inclusion criteria, describing 50,683 ultrasound-guided BPBs, and 2261 adverse outcomes reported. The adverse outcomes reported included hemidiaphragmatic paresis/paralysis, dyspnea/desaturation, Horner's syndrome, hoarseness, vascular puncture/hematoma, postoperative neurological symptoms, local anesthetic systemic toxicity, and pneumothorax. Interscalene blocks accounted for 58 % of all reported adverse events, with hemidiaphragmatic paresis and Horner's syndrome being the most reported outcomes. Vascular puncture was more common in infraclavicular and axillary blocks. Terminology used to describe adverse outcomes included “complications,” “adverse outcomes,” “side effects,” or with no specific terminology. The terms used to describe the outcome for the same BPB type and adverse outcome varied across studies. These findings underscore the types of adverse events being studied and reported, and the variable nomenclature used to describe them. Future research will need to focus on a broader range of adverse events, and utilize a standardized terminology of adverse outcomes to improve comparability of future studies. • Hemidiaphragmatic paralysis and dyspnea are more commonly reported in proximal BPBs. • Vascular events are more commonly reported in distal BPBs. • There is significant variability in the terminology used to describe adverse events.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Christian Frankenberg

  California Institute of Technology

  42 shared

• Yi Yin

  South China Sea Institute Of Oceanology

  28 shared

• Brendan Byrne

  Jet Propulsion Laboratory

  20 shared

• Pierre Gentine

  16 shared

• Junjie Liu

  Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology

  11 shared

• Yuk L. Yung

  California Institute of Technology

  10 shared

• Xiaoyu Cen

  Northeast Forestry University

  9 shared

• Yuan Wang

  Stanford University

  8 shared

Education

• PhD, Environmental Science and Engineering

  California Institute of Technology

  2022