I am interested in what are the major factors controlling plankton biomass, community structure (trait distribution), and diversity in the sea and their roles in affecting earth system functions such as the primary production and biological carbon pump. The main approach I use is the numerical modeling, field experiments, and big data analysis. During the past ten years, I have published nearly 40 research papers in the field of marine plankton ecology. 

The primary focus of my research is how biodiversity affects marine ecosystem functioning such as primary production and biological carbon pump, for which the primary producers particularly phytoplankton play the pivotal role. The main questions I ask are:

i) What are the main patterns of functional traits, diversity, biomass, and productivity of primary producers including phytoplankton and macroalgae in the ocean?

ii)  What are the main processes determining these patterns?

iii) What are the fundamental roles of diversity on ecosystem functioning?

One specific question that has been intriguing me during the past several years is whether there exists a difference of temperature sensitivity between autotrophs and heterotrophs. While this appears a simple/trivial question, I have found that it can be a central theme linking statistics (regression), ecology (Metabolic Theory of Ecology and trait-based approaches), and earth sciences (biological pump and Glacial/inter-glacial CO2 fluctuations).

Theoretical Ecology; Biological oceanography; Ecosystem modeling;  R, Fortran, Matlab.