Zhang Pengfei

Dr. Pengfei Zhang is an Assistant Professor and PhD supervisor at the Institute of Environment and Ecology, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School. He received his PhD in Ecology from Utrecht University, the Netherlands, following his earlier training in ecology at Lanzhou University and biotechnology at Shandong University. Before joining Tsinghua University in 2026, he served as a Young Researcher at Lanzhou University and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Zhang’s research focuses on theoretical ecology, community ecology, and global change ecology, with particular interests in understanding and predicting how biodiversity, community structure, ecosystem functioning, and stability respond to global environmental change and anthropogenic disturbances. By integrating long-term field experiments, global collaborative networks, cross-scale ecological data, and quantitative modeling, his research seeks to move community ecology from describing ecological patterns toward understanding mechanisms and developing predictive frameworks. He has developed the Space Resource Utilization (SRU/SRUD) framework and a dominant-species-based predictive framework, demonstrating how abundance structure and dominant groups can be used to understand and predict plant diversity, biomass, and ecosystem stability. His research also extends to plant–microbe interactions and their roles in community assembly and ecosystem functioning.

Dr. Zhang has published more than 20 peer-reviewed articles, including first- and/or corresponding-author papers in Nature Ecology & Evolution, Journal of Ecology, and Oikos. His work has been recognized through an Editor’s Choice, a journal cover feature, and the Second Prize of the Gansu Provincial Natural Science Award. He has led research projects supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and other national and regional research programs, and his research is embedded in international collaborative networks and long-term global change experiments.

2016.11-2019.11  Utrecht University, Ecology, PhD

2012.09-2016.10  Lanzhou University, Ecology, MD-PhD

2006.09-2010.07  Shandong University, Biotechnology, Bachelor

Dr. Zhang has served as a reviewer for more than 15 international and Chinese journals in ecology and environmental sciences, reviewing over 50 manuscripts. He actively participates in academic exchanges and collaborations through professional societies and ecological research networks, including the Ecological Society of America, the British Ecological Society, and the Netherlands Ecological Society. He also serves as an Early Career Editorial Board Member of the Chinese Journal of Plant Ecology.

Dr. Zhang’s research focuses on theoretical ecology, community ecology, and global change ecology, with an overarching goal of understanding the mechanisms underlying community dynamics and developing cross-scale predictive frameworks under global environmental change. By integrating long-term field experiments, global collaborative experimental networks, and multi-scale ecological data, his research addresses four major themes: (1) how global environmental change and anthropogenic disturbances affect the assembly, species coexistence, and diversity maintenance of plant and microbial communities; (2) the mechanisms underlying biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships and the maintenance of community stability; (3) the predictability of plant community dynamics, with an emphasis on developing measurable and transferable ecological indicators and theoretical frameworks; and (4) plant–microbe coupling and its role in regulating ecosystem structure and functioning.

Dr. Zhang has developed the Space Resource Utilization (SRU/SRUD) framework and a dominant-species-based predictive framework, establishing a research program that progresses from mechanistic understanding to indicator development and cross-scale prediction. His work has been published in journals including Nature Ecology & Evolution, Journal of Ecology, Oikos, Oecologia, and Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment.

1. Young Talent Incubation Program of the State Key Laboratory, Co-Principal Investigator, 2025–2029.

2. Fundamental and Interdisciplinary Disciplines Breakthrough Plan of the Ministry of Education of China, Key Research Member, 2025–2029.

3. Forest and Grassland Vegetation Restoration and Ecological Monitoring Project in Aksai County, Principal Investigator, RMB 380,000, 2024–2025.

4. Overseas Visit Program for Young Science and Technology Talents, Ministry of Science and Technology of China, Principal Investigator, RMB 200,000, 2023–2024.

5. Young Scientists Fund (Category C) of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Principal Investigator, RMB 300,000, 2022–2024.

6. Research Start-up Fund for Newly Recruited Faculty, Lanzhou University, Principal Investigator, RMB 1,000,000, 2020–2025.

(1) Zhang, P.F.*, Seabloom, E.W., Y., Foo, J., MacDougall, A.S., Harpole, W.S, Adler, P.B., ... & Borer, E.T. (2025). Dominant species predict plant richness and biomass in global grasslands. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 9(6), 924-936.

(2) Bai, Y., Wei, T. A., Wang, W., Luo, Z., Zhang, P.F.*, & Muraina, T. O. (2025). Rare species facilitate partial recovery of plant diversity after decade-long nitrogen addition. Oecologia, 207(11), 177.

(3) Bai, Y., Wang, W., Luo, Z., Wei, T., Zhang, P.F.* (2025). Differential response of community biomass temporal- and spatial- stabilities to nitrogen addition in an alpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau. Journal of Vegetation Science, 36(3), e70046.

(4) Wang, X., Zhang, P.F.*, Zhang, Y., Wang, J., He, P., Zheng, L., ... & Wang, Z.*. (2025). Grassland shrub encroachment generates divergent contributions of plant-and microbial-derived carbon to soil organic carbon. Plant and Soil, 1-17.

(5) Sun, S., Jousset, A., Geisen, S., Lara, E., Zhang, P.F.*, Li, R., ... & Xiong, W. * (2024). Protist communities as indicators of fertilization-induced changes in a species-rich grassland ecosystem. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 372, 109101.

(6) Sun, S., Liu, C., Zhang, Y., Yue, Y., Sun, S., Bai, Y., Zhang, P.F.*, ... & Xiong, W. * (2024). Divergent impacts of fertilization regimes on below-ground prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities in the Tibetan Plateau. Journal of Environmental Management, 364, 121379.

(7) Liu, L., Ren, Y., Sun, S., Liu, C., Ding, K., Li, R., Zhang, P.F.*, ... & Shen, Q. (2024). Unraveling fertilization effects on the dynamics of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community in the Qinghai-Tibet Alpine Meadow. Soil Ecology Letters, 6(4), 240248.

(8) Zhang, P.F.*, Borer, E.T., Seabloom, E.W., Soons, M.B., Hefting, M.M., Kowalchuk, G.A., …  Du, G.Z. & Hautier, Y. (2023) Space resource utilization of dominant species integrates abundance- and functional-based processes for better predictions of plant diversity dynamics. Oikos, 2023(4), e09519. (Cover image of Volume 2023, Issue 4).

(9) Hautier, Y.*, Zhang, P.F., Loreau, M., Wilcox, K.R., Seabloom, E.W., Borer, E.T., … Wang S.P.* (2020) General destabilizing effects of eutrophication on grassland productivity at multiple spatial scales. Nature Communications, 11(1), 5375.

(10) Zhang, P.F., Kowalchuk, G.A., Soons, M.B., Hefting, M.M., Chu, C.J., Firn, J., Brown, C.S., Zhou, X.H., Zhou, X.L., Guo, Z., Zhao, Z.G., Du, G.Z.* & Hautier, Y.* (2019) SRUD: A simple non-destructive method for accurate quantification of plant diversity dynamics. Journal of Ecology, 107(5), 2155-2166. (Editor’s choice) (Top downloaded paper 2018-2019).

Second Prize, Gansu Provincial Natural Science Award (ranked 5/5), 2025

Overseas Visit Award for Early-Career S&T Talents of Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), 2023

“Four Haves” Mentor Award, 2023

Cover Story Award of Oikos, 2023