清华大学 Chao Wu--Home--Home

Chao Wu

Assistant Professor

Personal Information

E-Mail:

Discipline:Ecology

Education Background

2016.09-2019.10 University of Exeter, Geography, Ph.D. (Dual Degree)

2014.09-2019.07 Tsinghua University, Ecology, Ph.D.

2010.09-2014.06 Northeast Forestry University, School of Forestry, B.Sc.(Agr.)

Work Experience

2024.07- Department of Earth System Science, Tsinghua University, Assistant Professor

2021.09-2024.07 University of Utah, Postdoctoral Scholar

2019.09-2021.08 Yale University, Postdoctoral Associate

Research Focus

Terrestrial biogeochemistry and climate feedback
Disturbances and climate extremes (e.g. wildfires, drought, insects, and heatwaves)
Forest carbon sink and nature-based climate solutions
Forest resilience and climate change
***Looking for postdocs

Selected publications (*corresponding author)

1. Forest carbon sink and nature-based climate solutions:

[5] Anderegg WRL*, Blanchard L, Anderson C, Badgley G, Cullenward D, Gao P, Goulden ML, Haya B, Holm JA, Hurteau MD., Lague M, Liu M, Novick KA., Randerson JT, Trugman AT, Wang JA, Williams CA, Wu C, Yang L (2025) Towards more effective nature-based climate solutions in global forests. Nature, 643, 1214-1222

[4] Anderegg WRL*, Trugman AT, Vargas G G, Wu C, Yang L (2025) Current forest carbon offset buffer pool contributions do not adequately insure against disturbance-driven carbon losses. Global Change Biology, 31, e70251

[3] Blanchard L*, Haya B, Anderson C, Badgley G, Cullenward D, Gao P, Goulden ML, Holm JA, Novick KA, Trugman AT, Wang JA, Williams CA, Wu C, Yang L, Anderegg WRL (2024) Funding forests’ climate potential without carbon offsets. One Earth, 7, 1147-1150.

[2] Wu C*, Coffield SR, Goulden ML, Randerson JT, Trugman, AT, Anderegg WRL (2023) Uncertainty in US forest carbon storage potential due to climate risks. Nature Geoscience, 16, 422–429.

[1] Anderegg WRL*, Trugman, AT, Wang, J, Wu C (2022) Open science priorities for rigorous nature-based climate solutions. PLOS Biology, 20, e3001929.

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2. Disturbances and climate extremes:

[8] Zhang W, Liu R*, He J, Liu Y, Wu C (2025) Global fire season types and their characteristics based on MODIS burned area data. Chinese Geographical Science, 35, 374-383.

[7] Akter S, Dube OP, Villagra P, Mockrin M, Taylor S, Roald LA, Di Giuseppe F, Wu C, Fernandes PM, Rouet-Leduc J (2024) Fire risk in a warming world. One Earth, 7, 927-931. (Invited Voices panel article)

[6] Chen B*, Wu S, Jin Y, Song Y, Wu C, Venevsky S, Xu B, Webster C, Gong P. (2024) Wildfire risk for global wildland–urban interface areas. Nature Sustainability, 7, 474–484.

[5] Anderegg WRL*, Wu C, Acil N, Carvalhais N, Pugh TAM, Sadler JP, Seidl R (2022) A climate risk analysis of Earth’s forests in the 21st century. Science, 377, 1099-1103.

[4] Wu C*, Venevsky S*, Sitch S, Mercado LM, Huntingford C, Staver AC (2021) Historical and future global burned area with changing climate and human demography. One Earth, 4, 517-530.

[3] Venevsky S*, Le Page Y, Pereira JMC, Wu C* (2019) Analysis fire patterns and drivers with a global SEVER-FIRE v1.0 model incorporated into dynamic global vegetation model and satellite and on-ground observations. Geoscientific Model Development, 12, 89-110.

[2] Wu C, Wang M, Lu C, Venevsky S*, Sorokina V, Kulygin V, Berdnikov S (2018) Climate-induced fire regimes in the Russian biodiversity hotspots. Global Ecology and Conservation, 16, e00495.

[1] Wu C, Venevsky S*, Sitch S, Yang Y, Wang MH, Wang L, Gao Y (2017) Present-day and future contribution of climate and fires to vegetation composition in the boreal forest of China. Ecosphere, 8, e01917.

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3. Terrestrial biogeochemistry and climate feedback:

[5] Randerson JT*, Li Y, Fu W, Primeau F, Kim JE, Mu M, Hoffman F, Trugman AT, Yang L, Wu C, Wang JA, Anderegg WRL, Baccini A, Friedl MA, Saatchi S, Denning AS, Goulden ML (2025) The weak land carbon sink hypothesis. Science Advances, 11, eadr5489.

[4] Wu C*, Sitch S, Huntingford C, Mercado LM, Venevsky S, Lasslop G, Archibald S, Staver AC (2022) Reduced global fire activity due to human demography slows global warming by enhanced land carbon uptake. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119, e2101186119.

[3] Wang M, Venevsky S*, Wu C*, Berdnikov S, Sorokina V, Kulygin V (2021) Description of local carbon flux from large scale gridded climate data by a global dynamic vegetation model at variable time steps: example of Euroflux sites. Science of the Total Environment, 756, 143492.

[2] Huang X, Ni S, Wu C, Zorn C, Zhang W, Yu C* (2020) GDNDC: An integrated system to model water-nitrogen-crop processes for agricultural management at regional scales. Environmental Modelling & Software, 134, 104807.

[1] Chu H, Venevsky S*, Wu C, Wang M (2019) NDVI-based vegetation dynamics and its response to climate changes at Amur-Heilongjiang River Basin from 1982 to 2015. Science of the Total Environment, 650, 2051-2062.

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4. Forest resilience and climate change

2019 Beijing Outstanding Graduate Awards

2022 2021 Cell Press China Paper of the Year Award (in interdisciplinary science category)