Yongfa You

My research program investigates how management practices—such as nitrogen fertilization, cover cropping, tillage, irrigation, and rotation—interact with environmental factors to shape the sustainability, productivity, and resilience of agricultural systems. I study these interactions under multiple stressors, including climate change, elevated CO₂, nitrogen deposition, ozone pollution, land use change, and climate extremes like droughts and heatwaves. Using an integrated data-driven approach that combines process-based agroecosystem modeling, remote sensing, machine learning, and field observations, I aim to develop science-based strategies and decision-support tools that guide management choices, improve productivity, and reduce negative environmental outcomes such as soil degradation, yield instability, water pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions.

My extension program provides producers, land managers, and other stakeholders with data-driven insights to improve soil health, enhance productivity, build resilience to environmental stressors, and increase profitability through emerging opportunities such as carbon markets. By translating research findings into practical solutions, the program supports management decisions that enhance farm viability while safeguarding natural resources.

Assistant Professor | 2025-Present
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Postdoctoral Research Fellow | 2024-2025
Center for Earth System Science and Global Sustainability
Boston College

• Harry Murphy Graduate Student Award, Auburn University, 2023
• Outstanding Paper Award, Journal of Remote Sensing, 2020
• Presidential Graduate Research Fellowship, Auburn University, 2019
• National Scholarship, Ministry of Education, China, 2018

1. Shi, Y., Pan, S., You, Y., Prior, S.A., Tian, D., Yu, H., Yu, Q. and Tian, H., 2025. Extreme Dry‐Heat Climate Impacts on Greenhouse Gas Emission Intensity in Wheat Production: Insights and Mitigation Strategies. Global Change Biology, 31(7), p.e70349.
2. Liu, H., Miao, Y., Chen, Y., Shen, Y., You, Y., Wang, Z., Gang, C. (2025). Responses of soil greenhouse gases fluxes to land management in forests and grasslands: A global meta-analysis. Science of the Total Environment, 967, p.178773.
3. Pan, N., Tian, H., Shi, H., Pan, S., Canadell, J., Chang, J., Ciais, P., Davidson, E., Hugelius, G., Ito, A., Jackson, R., Joos, F., Lienert, S., Millet, D., Olin, S., Patra, P., Thompson, R., Vuichard, N., Wells, K., Wilson, C., You, Y., Zaehle, S. (2025). Climate change rivals fertilizer use in driving soil nitrous oxide emissions in the northern high latitudes: Insights from terrestrial biosphere models. Environment International, p.109297.
4. You, Y., Tian, H., Pan, S., Shi, H., Lu, C., Batchelor, W.D., Cheng, B., Hui, D., Kicklighter, D., Liang, X.Z., Li, X., Melillo, J., Pan, N., Prior, S. A., Reilly, J. (2024). Net greenhouse gas balance in U.S. croplands: How can soils be part of the climate solution? Global Change Biology, 30(1), p.e17109.
5. Zhang, J., Tian, H., You, Y., Liang, X.Z., Ouyang, Z., Pan, N., Pan, S. (2024). Balancing non‐CO₂ GHG emissions and soil carbon change in U.S. rice paddies: A retrospective meta‐analysis and agricultural modeling study. AGU Advances, 5(1), p.e2023AV001052.
6. Tian, H., Pan, N., Thompson, R. L., Canadell, J. G., Suntharalingam, P., Regnier, P., Davidson, E. A., Prather, M., Ciais, P., Muntean, M., Pan, S., Winiwarter, W., Zaehle, S., Zhou, F., Jackson, R. B., Bange, H. W., Berthet, S., Bian, Z., Bianchi, D., Bouwman, A. F., Buitenhuis, E. T., Dutton, G., Hu, M., Ito, A., Jain, A. K., Jeltsch-Thömmes, A., Joos, F., Kou-Giesbrecht, S., Krummel, P. B., Lan, X., Landolfi, A., Lauerwald, R., Li, Y., Lu, C., Maavara, T., Manizza, M., Millet, D. B., Mühle, J., Patra, P. K., Peters, G. P., Qin, X., Raymond, P., Resplandy, L., Rosentreter, J. A., Shi, H., Sun, Q., Tonina, D., Tubiello, F. N., van der Werf, G. R., Vuichard, N., Wang, J., Wells, K. C., Western, L. M., Wilson, C., Yang, J., Yao, Y., You, Y., Zhu, Q. (2024). Global nitrous oxide budget (1980–2020). Earth System Science Data, 16(6), 2543–2604.
7. Bian, Z., Tian, H., Pan, S., Shi, H., Lu, C., Anderson, C., Cai, W.-J., Hopkinson, C. S., Justic, D., Kalin, L., Lohrenz, S., McNulty, S., Pan, N., Sun, Ge, Wang, Z., Yao, Y., You, Y. (2023). Soil legacy nutrients contribute to the decreasing stoichiometric ratio of N and P loading from the Mississippi River Basin. Global Change Biology, 29(24), pp.7145-7158.
8. Gang, C., Shi, H., Tian, H., Pan, S., Pan, N., Xu, R., Wang, Z., Bian, Z., You, Y., Yao, Y. (2023). Uncertainty in land use obscures global soil organic carbon stock estimates. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 339, p.109585.
9. Liu, H., Liu, Y., Chen, Y., Fan, M., Chen, Y., Gang, C., You, Y., Wang, Z. (2023). Dynamics of global dryland vegetation were more sensitive to soil moisture: Evidence from multiple vegetation indices. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 331, p.109327.
10. You, Y., Tian, H., Pan, S., Shi, H., Bian, Z., Gurgel, A., Huang, Y., Kicklighter, D., Liang, X.Z., Lu, C., Melillo, J., Miao, R., Pan, N., Reilly, J., Ren, W., Xu, R., Yang, J., Yu, Q., Zhang, J. (2022). Incorporating dynamic crop growth processes and management practices into a terrestrial biosphere model for simulating crop production in the United States: Toward a unified modeling framework. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 325, p.109144.
11. Gang, C., Wang, Z., You, Y., Liu, Y., Xu, R., Bian, Z., Pan, N., Gao, X., Chen, M., Zhang, M. (2022). Divergent responses of terrestrial carbon use efficiency to climate variation from 2000 to 2018. Global and Planetary Change, 208, p.103709.
12. You, Y., Pan, S. (2020). Urban vegetation slows down the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) in the United States. Geophysical Research Letters, 47(18), p.e2020GL089286.
13. You, Y., Wang, S., Pan, N., Ma, Y., Liu, W. (2020). Growth stage-dependent responses of carbon fixation process of alpine grasslands to climate change over the Tibetan Plateau, China. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 291, p.108085.
14. You, Y., Wang, S., Ma, Y., Wang, X., Liu, W. (2019). Improved modeling of gross primary productivity of alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau using the Biome-BGC model. Remote Sensing, 11(11), p.1287.
15. You, Y., Wang, S., Ma, Y., Chen, G., Wang, B., Shen, M., Liu, W. (2018). Building detection from VHR remote sensing imagery based on the morphological building index. Remote Sensing, 10(8), p.1287.