Welcome to the Global Change Research Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. We are a group of scientists who are interested in understanding how climate change and human activities affect terrestrial ecosystems as well as their feedback to the human and Earth systems. We develop and use a variety of tools including land surface models, remote sensing models and data, integrated assessment models and model-data fusion techniques.
"All models are wrong, but some are useful."
George Box
Lab news
New Publication in Ecology Letters Reveals the Link between Canopy Structure and Max Light Use Efficiency
Hamid led a significant new publication, titled “Canopy Structure Exhibits Linear and Nonlinear Links to Biome-Level Maximum Light Use Efficiency“, in Ecology Letters. By synthesizing data from an extensive network of 320 global eddy covariance …
June 3, 2025
Great day at EPIC
Our lab enjoyed a fun and relaxing day touring the EPIC campus! From whimsical architecture to beautiful walking paths, it was a great chance to unwind, explore, and spend time together outside the lab.
May 27, 2025
🎓 Congratulations to Haoran Liu on a Successful Ph.D. Defense! 🎓
A big round of applause to Haoran Liu for successfully defending his Ph.D. dissertation! His hard work, intellectual curiosity, and commitment to advancing science have truly paid off. Haoran’s research has made significant contributions to …
May 27, 2025
New Study Reveals How Transfer Learning Enhances Leaf Trait Prediction Across Ecosystems
We’re excited to share our new publication in Remote Sensing of Environment, titled “Leveraging transfer learning and leaf spectroscopy for leaf trait prediction across biomes” (link to article), led by Fujiang. Accurate prediction of leaf …
May 27, 2025
New Publication on Forest Carbon Dynamics and Land Use Change
Our lab has published a new article in Global Change Biology, titled “Role of Forest Carbon Change in Shaping Future Land Use and Land Cover Change”. This research, led by Meng Luo, investigates how global …
May 10, 2025
Fujiang wins the Joon Lee award
Fujiang has been awarded the department’s Joon Lee Award in recognition of his outstanding academic performance. Congratulations!
April 11, 2025
New PNAS Nexus Study Highlights Human Impact on Western U.S. Wildfires
Led by Fa, a recent publication in PNAS Nexus titled “Exacerbating risk in human-ignited large fires over western United States” sheds light on the significant role human activities play in intensifying wildfire risks across the …
February 28, 2025
AGU24!
Most of our lab traveled to Washington, DC, for the AGU 2024 Annual Meeting, and it was a truly enriching experience! It’s always a joy to reconnect with old friends, make new connections, and immerse …
December 24, 2024Magical Hotspot Effect: Enhanced Correlation Between Hotspot Vegetation Index and Photosynthetic Carbon Flux
Haoran led a study published in Remote Sensing of Environment. This study reveals that measuring the near-infrared reflectance of vegetation (NIRvP) in the “hotspot” direction—where satellite sensors align with the sun’s path—offers a stronger correlation …
December 24, 2024AttentionFire v2.0! Fa published a study on projecting large fires in the western US using a hybrid physical-ML model
“Anthropogenic climate change has caused more frequent and widespread large fires in the western United States (US). Interpretable and accurate methods that can predict large fires in advance and at a high spatial resolution are …
December 16, 2024- More