Current Research

Zhang is a research forester whose research focuses on the effect of forest management on long-term stand dynamics. By analyzing newer data with the archived long-term dataset collectively, he found that thinning both ponderosa pine and true fir stands reduced mortality while maintaining stand productivity. Other benefits by treating stand with lower density included significantly reducing hazardous fuels, increasing carbon sequestration, and enhancing health of residual trees and stand resilience to wildfires and biotic disturbances. A similar result was also found with competition control regardless of stand density in ponderosa pine. In addition, He also studied an impact of post-fire management regimes on carbon pools and forest restoration including assessing the rates of ecosystem carbon recovery. These results were extensively cited in the Environmental Assessment Documents in National Forests across northern California and by forest industries in their regional management strategies.

Research Interests

Zhang is interested in using physiological, community, and ecosystem ecology as well as silviculture, soil, and modeling approach to examine the responses of terrestrial ecosystems in general and forest ecosystems in particular to climate change, land use/management, fire, and biotic disturbance in California and globally. He will continue to study how the structure and function, biodiversity, and sustainability of forest ecosystems change and to determine how these changes affect ecosystem services. Furthermore, he tries to build a process-based or a mechanistic model to predict forest productivity under changing climate.

Past Research

In past research projects, Zhang pioneered the use of a stable carbon isotope to study population variation in the water-use efficiency of forest trees, which provided a new, extensively cited tool to study the physiological response of trees to their environment. He used leaf gas exchange to quantify tree ozone uptake. He developed a technique that used large cuttings to increase the survival and growth of cottonwood plantations in the alluvial lands in the Mississippi River.

Education

• University of Idaho, Ph.D. Forestry with Physiological Ecology emphasis 1994
• University of Idaho, M.S. Forest Resources with Forest Genetics emphasis 1990
• Shanxi Agricultural University, A.B.S. Forestry 1981

Professional Organizations

• Ecological Society of America, Member
• Society of American Foresters (SAF), Member

Featured Publications & Products

• Zhang, Jianwei; Ritchie, Martin W.; Maguire, Douglas A.; Oliver, William W. 2013. Thinning ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) stands reduces mortality while maintaining stand productivity.
• Zhang, Jianwei; Oliver, William W.; Powers, Robert F. 2013. Reevaluating the self-thinning boundary line for ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests.
• Zhang, Jianwei; Oliver, William W.; Ritchie, Martin W.; Neal, Donald L. 2013. Overstory and understory dynamics in a ponderosa pine plantation vary with stand density in the Sierra Nevada: 40-year results.
• Zhang, Jianwei; Powers, Robert, F.; Oliver, William; David, Young, H. 2013. Response of ponderosa pine plantations to competing vegetation control in Northern California, USA: A meta- analysis.
• Zhang, Jianwei; Young, David H.; Oliver, William W.; Fiddler, Gary O. 2016. Effect of overstorey trees on understorey vegetation in California (USA) ponderosa pine plantations.
• Powers, Elizabeth M.; Marshall, John D.; Zhang, Jianwei; Wei, Liang. 2013. Post-fire management regimes affect carbon sequestration and storage in a Sierra Nevada mixed conifer forest.
• Zhang, Jianwei; Young, David H.; Luckow, Kenneth R. 2015. Effect of redistributing windrowed topsoil on growth and development of ponderosa pine plantations.
• Zhang, Jianwei; Webster, Jeff; Young, David H.; Fiddler, Gary O. 2016. Effect of thinning and soil treatments on Pinus ponderosa plantations: 15-year results.
• Zhang, Jianwei; Busse, Matt D.; Young, David H.; Fiddler, Gary O.; Sherlock, Joseph W.; TenPas, Jeff D. 2017. Aboveground biomass responses to organic matter removal, soil compaction, and competing vegetation control on 20-year mixed conifer plantations in California.

Publications

• Finley, Kaelyn ; Zhang, Jianwei . 2019. Climate effect on ponderosa pine radial growth varies with tree density and shrub removal.
• Allen, Iris ; Chhin, Sophan ; Zhang, Jianwei . 2019. Fire and forest management in montane forests of the northwestern states and California, USA.
• Mattson, Kim G.; Zhang, Jianwei . 2019. Forests in the northern Sierra Nevada of California, USA, store large amounts of carbon in different patterns.
• Zhang, Jianwei ; Finley, Kaelyn ; Johnson, Nels ; Ritchie, Martin W. 2019. Lowering stand density enhances resiliency of ponderosa pine forests to disturbances and climate change.
• Zhang, Jianwei ; Busse, Matt D.; Fiddler, Gary O.; Fredrickson, Ed . 2019. Thirteen-year growth response of ponderosa pine plantations to dominant shrubs (Arctostaphylos and Ceanothus).
• Ritchie, Martin W.; Zhang, Jianwei. 2018. OP-Yield Version 1.00 user's guide.
• Premer, Michael I.; Chhin, Sophan; Zhang, Jianwei. 2017. Alternative approaches to mixed conifer forest restoration: partitioning the competitive neighborhood.
• Johnson, Christal; Chhin, Sophan; Zhang, Jianwei. 2017. Effects of climate on competitive dynamics in mixed conifer forests of the Sierra Nevada.
• Han, Youzhi; Zhang, Jianwei; Mattson, Kim G.; Zhang, Weidong; Weber, Thomas A. 2016. Sample sizes to control error estimates in determining soil bulk density in California forest soils.
• Wei, Liang; John, Marshall; Zhang, Jianwei; Zhou, Hang; Powers, Robert. 2014. 3-PG simulations of young ponderosa pine plantations under varied management intensity: why do they grow so differently.
• Ritchie, Martin W.; Zhang, Jianwei; Hamilton, Todd A. 2013. Aboveground tree biomass for Pinus ponderosa in northeastern California.
• McDonald, Philip M.; Zhang, Jianwei; Senock, Randy S.; Wright, Jessica W. 2013. Morphology, physiology, genetics, enigmas, and status of an extremely rare tree: Mutant tanoak.
• Yang, D; Zeng, D-H; Zhang, J; Li, L-J; Mao, R. 2012. Chemical and microbial properties in contaminated soils around a magnesite mine in northeast China.
• Ponder Jr., Felix; Fleming, Robert L.; Berch, Shannon; Busse, Matt D.; Elioff, John D.; Hazlett, Paul W.; Kabzems, Richard D.; Kranabetter, J. Marty; Morris, David M.; Page-Dumroese, Deborah; Palik, Brian J.; Powers, Robert F.; Sanchez, Felipe G.; Scott, D. Andrew; Stagg, Richard H.; Stone, Douglas M.; Young, David H.; Zhang, Jianwei; Ludovici, Kim H.; McKenney, Daniel W.; Mossa, Debbie S; Sanborn, Paul T.; Voldseth, Richard A. . 2012. Effects of organic matter removal, soil compaction and vegetation control on 10th year biomass and foliar nutrition: LTSP continent-wide comparisons.
• Ritchie, Martin; Zhang, Jianwei; Hamilton, Todd. 2012. Effects of stand density on top height estimation for ponderosa pine.
• Powers, Robert F.; Busse, Matt D.; McFarlane, Karis J.; Zhang, Jianwei; Young, David H. 2012. Long-term effects of silviculture on soil carbon storage: does vegetation control make a difference.
• Yang, Huixia; Wang, Silong; Zhang, Jianwei; Fan, Bing; Zhang, Weidong. 2011. Biomass and nutrients of Pinus massoniana plantations in southern China: simulations for different management practices..
• Zhang, Jianwei; Schaub, Marcus; Ferdinand, Jonathan A.; Skelly, John M.; Steiner, Kim C.; Savage, James E. 2010. Leaf age affects the responses of foliar injury and gas exchange to tropospheric ozone in Prunus serotina seedlings.
• Zhang, Jianwei; Powers, Robert F.; Skinner, Carl N. 2010. To manage or not to manage: The role of silviculture in sequestering carbon in the specter of climate change.
• Wang, Qinkui; Wang, Silong; Zhang, Jianwei. 2009. Assessing the effects of vegetation types on carbon storage fifteen years after reforestation on a Chinese fir site.
• Zhao, Qiong; Zeng, Dehui; Fan, Zhiping; Yu, Zhanyuan; Hu, Yalin; Zhang, Jianwei. 2009. Seasonal variations in phosphorus fractions in semiarid sandy soils under different vegetation types.
• Zhang, Jianwei; Webster, Jeff; Powers, Robert F.; Mills, John. 2008. Reforestation after the Fountain fire in northern California: an untold success story.
• Zhang, Jianwei; Ritchie, Martin W. 2008. Restoring eastside ponderosa pine ecosystems at the Blacks Mountain Experimental Forest: a case study.
• Zhang, Jianwei; Ritchie, Martin W.; Oliver, William W. 2008. Vegetation response to stand structure and prescribed fire in an interior ponderosa pine ecosystem.
• Zhang, Jianwei; Oliver, William W.; Ritchie, Martin W. 2007. Effect of stand densities on stand dynamics in white fir (Abies concolor) forests in northeast California, USA.
• Robison, Terry L.; Rousseau, Randy J.; Zhang, Jianwei. 2006. Biomass productivity improvement for eastern cottonwood.
• Zhang, Jianwei; Oliver, William W.; Busse, Matt D. 2006. Growth and development of ponderosa pine on sites of contrasting productivities: relative importance of stand density and shrub competition effects.
• Zhang, Jianwei; Oliver, William W. 2006. Stand structure and growth of Abies magnifica responded to five thinning levels in northeastern California, USA.
• Zhang, Jianwei; Cregg, Bert M. 2005. Growth and physiological responses to varied environments among populations of Pinus ponderosa.
• Murthy, Ramesh; Barron-Gafford, Greg; Dougherty, Philip M.; Engels, Victor c.; Grieve, Katie; Handley, Linda; Klimas, Christie; Postosnaks, Mark J.; Zarnoch, Stanley J.; Zhang, Jianwei. 2005. Increased leaf area dominates carbon flux response to elevated CO2 in stands of Populus deltoides (Bartr.).
• Zhang, Jianwei; Oliver, William W.; Powers, Robert F. 2005. Long-term effects of thinning and fertilization on growth of red fir in northeastern California.
• Schaub, M.; Skelly, J.M.; Zhang, J.W.; Ferdinand, J.A.; Savage, J.E.; Stevenson, R.E.; Davis, D.D.; Steiner, K.C. 2005. Physiological and foliar symptom response of Prunus serotina, Fraxinus americana and Acer rubrum canopy trees to ozone under differing site conditions.