Yao Yitong

2018.11-2022.05 Laboratory for Climate and Environmental Sciences, PhD

2015.09-2018.07 Peking University, Master

2011.09-2015.07 Beijing Forestry University, Bachelor

Jan 2026 – now, Tsinghua SIGS, Assistant Professor

Feb 2025 – Dec 2025, Columbia University, Postdoctoral Research Scientist

June 2022 – Feb 2025, California Institute of Technology, Postdoctoral Research Scholar

Dr. Yao research integrates remote sensing, land surface modeling, and artificial intelligence to study terrestrial carbon–water cycles in the context of global change. By developing proximal remote sensing approaches and data-driven hybrid modeling frameworks, my work seeks to improve understanding of ecosystem responses and feedbacks to extreme climate events.

1. Zhu, L., Ciais, P.*, Yao, Y.*, Goll, D., Luyssaert, S., Cano, I.M., Fendrich, A., Li, L., Yang, H., Saatchi, S., Li, W*. (2025). Spatially varying parameters improve carbon cycle modeling in the Amazon rainforest. Geoscientific Model Development, 18, 4915-4933.

2. Yao, Y., Humphrey, V., Wang, Y., Yin, Y., Konings, A., Holtzman, N., Wood, J., & Frankenberg, C. (2024). Investigating diurnal and seasonal cycles of Vegetation Optical Depth retrieved from GNSS signals in a broadleaf forest. Geophysical Research Letters, e2023GL107121, doi: 10.1029/2023GL107121  

3. Yao, Y., Ciais, P., Viovy, N., et al. (2024). Future drought risks to tree mortality in Amazon rainforests. Earth’s Future, doi: 10.1029/2023EF003740.

4. Yao, Y., Ciais, P., Joetzjer, E., Li, W., Zhu, L., Wang, Y., Frankenberg, C., & Viovy, N. (2024). The impacts of elevated CO2 on forest growth, mortality and recovery in the Amazon rainforest, Earth System Dynamics, 15, 763–778, doi: 10.5194/esd-15-763-2024.

5. Yao, Y., Ciais, P., Viovy, N., Joetzjer, E., Chave, J. (2023). How drought events during the last Century have impacted biomass carbon in Amazonian rainforests. Global Change Biology, 29, 747-762, doi: 10.1111/gcb.16504.

6. Yao, Y. , Joetzjer, E., Ciais, P., Viovy, N., Cresto Aleina, F., Chave, J., et al. (2022). Forest fluxes and mortality response to drought: model description (ORCHIDEE-CAN-NHA r7236) and evaluation at the Caxiuanã drought experiment. Geoscientific Model Development, 15, 7809-7833.  

7. Yao, Y., Ciais, P., Viovy, N., Li, W., Cresto-Aleina, F., Yang, H., et al. (2021). A data-driven global soil heterotrophic respiration dataset and the drivers of its inter-annual variability. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 35, e2020GB006918. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GB006918.  

8. Yao, Y., Li, Z., Wang, T., et al. (2018). A new estimation of China’s net ecosystem productivity based on eddy covariance measurements and a model tree ensemble approach. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 253, 84-93.  

9. Yao, Y., Piao, S., & Wang, T. (2018). Future biomass carbon sequestration capacity of Chinese forests. Science Bulletin, 63, 1108-1117.  

10. Yao, Y., Wang, X., Li, Y., et al. (2018). Spatiotemporal pattern of gross primary productivity and its covariation with climate in China over the last thirty years. Global Change Biology, 24, 184-196.  

11. Yao, Y., Wang, X., Zeng, Z., Liu, Y., Peng, S., Zhu, Z., & Piao, S. (2016). The effect of afforestation on soil moisture content in northeastern China. PLoS One, 11(8), e0160776.  

2018 Make Our Planet Great Again Fellowship