Fenghui Yuan

Fenghui Yuan

Research Scientist

Department of Soil, Water and Climate
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

Hello! My name is Fenghui (pronounced “fown-hui”).

My work focuses on understanding water–carbon dynamics in natural and agricultural ecosystems as the environment changes using interdisciplinary approaches. I combine field observations, experiments, and process-based modeling with data-driven approaches in a Model–Experiment (ModEx) integration framework to reduce uncertainties in predicting how ecosystems respond. Through this work, I also engage in teaching and mentoring, helping students and collaborators develop skills in ecosystem science and modeling.

Specifically, my research interests include:

  • Observations and experiments: Quantifying how environmental drivers[1, 2], plant traits[3, 4, 5], and soil microbial processes[6, 7] regulate carbon cycling and water-use efficiency, particularly in sensitive systems such as permafrost regions[8, 9, 10], wetlands[11], and forests and croplands undergoing land-use change[12, 13, 14].

  • Process-based modeling: Improving process-based models by integrating field observations, manipulative experiments, and data-driven approaches to better represent water–soil–plant interactions under changing environmental conditions[15, 16, 17, 18].

  • AI-driven modeling: Developing Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled predictive frameworks to inform sustainable land management and evaluate trade-offs among land productivity, resource use, and environmental outcomes[19, 20, 21, 22, 23].

News

  
March 30, 2026An editorial article for the special section Assessing Greenhouse Gas Emissions at City and Regional Levels: Challenges and Methods has just been published online in Frontiers in Environmental Science. It was a pleasure working with Dr. Cheng Hu and other colleagues to bring this together!
March 20, 2026Submitted a proposal on interdisciplinary studies of trade-offs between environmental and economic benefits of biofuels in agroforestry systems. Excited to collaborate with the team and grateful for Prof. Dean Current’s leadership!
March 14, 2026A paper titled Drought rather than nitrogen addition drives the coordination of hydraulic conductivity and photosynthesis in three coniferous tree species, led by Ph.D. student Jinyuan Tian whom I mentored, has been accepted by Journal of Hydrology. Congratulations to all the authors!
March 9, 2026Invited to give a seminar on Constraining Peatland Methane Emission Uncertainty with Hybrid Models at the Department of Biology, San Deigo State University.
February 11, 2026Glad to give a presentation on ELM-KGML hybrid modeling to the KGML team at the LEAF Institute!
February 10, 2026Submitted an abstract on AI-driven modeling of wetland methane cycling to the Ecological Society of America (ESA) Annual Meeting. Looking forward to presenting in Salt Lake City this July.
December 19, 2025The AI4NM team presented a year’s worth of work on Next-Generation Modeling of Global Natural Methane Fluxes: Integrating Multi-scale Observations with Knowledge-Guided Machine Learning at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting. Congratulations to the AI4NM team!
December 13, 2025A paper titled Scale Dependence of Genome-Derived Microbial Functional Diversity Informing Soil Functions, led by Dr. Nannan Wang, has been accepted by Geoderma. Congratulations to all the authors!
December 5, 2025Taught a course on Process Based Crop Model for the AI-LEAF Undergraduate Scholars Program.
November 13, 2025Submitted a proposal on interdisciplinary studies of woody agriculture systems to USDA-NIFA.
November 4, 2025Attended the Workshop of Uniting modelers, microbiologists, and biogeochemists to improve wetland methane prediction at Ohio State University. A group of ~100 wetland scientists from the modeling, microbiology, and biogeochemistry communities gathered to advance wetland methane prediction and develop a perspective manuscript.
October 3, 2025Attended the ESIIL AI for Natural Methane (AI4NM) workshop in Boulder. It was an exciting and productive working group!
May 14, 2025Attended the SPRUCE All Hands Meeting Meeting in Minneapolis and excited to contribute modeling work on Interactive Impacts of Drought and Warming on CH4 Cycling in a Temperate Bog. This project is a really long-term effort, and I greatly appreciate Dr. Daniel Ricciuto, Dr. Xiaofeng Xu, and the collaboration of the whole team.
May 13, 2025Attended the AI-LEAF Annual Meeting in Fort Collins and Pleased to give a talk on Integrating Bottom-Up and Top-Down Modeling for Verifying Regional Greenhouse Gas Emissions.
April 14, 2025A paper titled Unravelling the combined effects of drought and nitrogen addition on carbon assimilation and reserves in Korean pine saplings, led by Ph.D. student Jin whom I mentored, has been accepted by Frontiers in Plant Science. Congratulations to all the authors!
February 19, 2025Awarded a seed grant from CFANS. Excited to work with the team led by Prof. Dean Current and Prof. Satoshi Ishii!
January 7, 2025A paper titled Modeling Soil Respiration in Summer Maize Cropland Based on Hyperspectral Imagery and Machine Learning, led by Master’s student Fanchao Zeng and co-mentored by Prof. Fuqi Yao and myself, has been accepted by Frontiers in Environmental Science. Congratulations!