Our research program is designed to address issues in ecosystem ecology. The major issues we are currently studying include: (1) how global environmental change alters function and structure of terrestrial ecosystems and (2) how terrestrial ecosystems influence carbon dioxide concentration ([CO2]) in the atmosphere. Our research is aimed at understanding dynamics of carbon, nutrient, and water resources in ecosystems. We study a variety of ecosystems, including forests, grasslands, and deserts. We are particularly interested in using plant ecophysiological processes to understand ecosystem functions.

Our laboratory uses both modeling and experimental approaches. With respect of modeling, we focus on development and testing of predictive models at scales from leaf to globe. In the past, we have developed (1) a novel approach to extrapolate leaf-level study to predict global terrestrial carbon influx (Luo et al. 1996b) and (2) a model to explain plant acclimation to rising atmospheric [CO2] (Luo et al. 1994). Our current efforts are on development of an inverse modeling approach to derive predictive understanding from results of manipulative experiments (Luo et al. 2003).

We are taking advantage of unique experimental facilities for our research. These facilities include the Free-Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) facility at Duke University Forest, Mesonet (115 automated meteorological towers distributed in the whole state of Oklahoma), and the environment-controlled megacosms at the Desert Research Institute.

Our research is highly multidisciplinary, employing techniques from plant physiology, ecology, soil sciences, modeling, mathematics, and biogeochemistry. We are encouraging students with diverse background to join our endeavor.