Yushu Xia

Lamont Assistant Research Professor, Biology and Paleo Environment, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO), Columbia Climate School
Affiliated faculty at the Data Science Institute
Geoscience 103, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory 61 Route 9W Palisades, NY 10964 USA

BIOGRAPHY:

Dr. Yushu Xia’s research focuses on soil health assessment and the modeling of soil carbon, nitrogen, and water dynamics in agricultural and natural ecosystems. Her research goal is to improve agricultural and ecosystem productivity while supporting environmental sustainability and broader ecosystem benefits. She seeks to improve soil health and minimize negative environmental impacts through data- and model-driven evidence.

Her work integrates multi-scale datasets from field, laboratory, survey, literature, and remote sensing with empirical and process-based models to quantify ecosystem services and outcomes, such as carbon storage, nitrogen losses through leaching and gaseous pathways, water availability, and ecosystem productivity. She collaborates closely with farmers and ranchers to develop practical, science-based strategies that enhance soil health and improve resource use efficiency.

PROJECTS

Only select projects listed below

Name	Start Date	End Date
Quantifying carbon and soil health on Audubon’s Conservation Ranching certified ranches	2/1/24	1/31/26
Modeling high resolution soil health outcomes tied to regenerative grassland management practices for Hudson Valley	7/1/24	6/30/26
Develop a plan to improve estimates of soil carbon storage in grasslands	3/1/24	12/31/24
Leveraging multi-source datasets with soil survey to improve the spatiotemporal evaluation of dynamic soil properties	10/1/24	9/30/27
Leveraging multi-scale datasets and modeling tools for improved soil health and carbon management	2/1/25	1/31/28
Coordinate and support model intercomparison and ensemble effort for assessing farm management practices	12/20/24	12/19/29
Pilot monitoring and reporting system for tracking carbon benefits of improved grazing management in the Northern Great Plains	12/1/24	11/30/25
Examining the impact of land management on ecosystem services in the Hudson Valley Region	4/1/25	12/31/25
Spring 2025 course support for PS5360 Agroecology	1/1/25	5/31/25
Carbon monitoring on the range: Continuing support for the RCTM Program	1/1/25	12/31/26
Spring 2026 course support for PS5360 Agroecology	1/1/26	5/31/26
Catskill Forest Preserve Visitation Data Analysis	4/1/26	12/31/26
MRV support for the Grassland Resilience and Conservation Initiative (GRACI) project	3/1/26	12/31/26
A circular economy pathway for safer foods, healthier soil, and enhanced carbon sequestration	6/1/26	5/31/27
Long-term subtropical farmland record as a foundation for modeling soil carbon responses to management and climate change	6/1/26	5/31/28

2 PUBLICATIONS ON COLUMBIA | ACADEMIC COMMONS

Only select publications listed below

Name	Published Date
Robust Carbon Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification for Grassland Management in the Great Plains	2025
Soil N₂O Emissions in Organic Farming Systems: A North American Meta-Dataset	2025

PUBLICATIONS

Leschinsky, G. and Xia, Y. 2026. Identifying key management and environmental drivers of organic fertilizer-induced soil N2O emissions across North America: A meta-analysis. Environmental Research Communications. http://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/ae7251.

Li, T., Xia, A., Dalal, R., Manning, S., Beniwal, D., …, Xia, Y., …, and Y.P. Dang. Mid-Infrared spectroscopy for soil organic carbon estimation. Part I: Global review and meta-analysis. Soil & Tillage Research. 262: e107236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.still.2026.107236

Hosseini, F.S., Razavi-Termeh, S.V., Xia, Y., Nouriani, H.M., and Choi, S.M. Multi-source data and decision fusion for enhanced gully erosion susceptibility mapping using machine learning. Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk. https://doi.org/10.1080/19475705.2026.2662432

Schillaci, C., Alves, G., Bayad, M., Bondi, G., Burn, C.R., …, Xia, Y., …, and D.L. Evans. Soil Profiles: a window into soil genesis and degradation. European Journal of Soil Science. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.70322

Arteaga, J., Hartman, M.D., Parton, W.J., Xia, Y., Duan, J., Stephenson, M., Volesky, J., Chen, M., Sharp, D., Straube, J., and Gao, W. 2026. Detecting and modeling topography-induced differences in plant productivity across a grassland ecosystem gradient. Ecosphere. 17: e70537. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70537

Xia, Y., Sanderman, J., Watts, J., Machmuller, M., Mullen, A., Rivard, C., Endsley, A., Hernandez, H., Kimball, J., Ewing, S., et al. 2025. Coupling Remote Sensing with a Process Model for the Simulation of Rangeland Carbon Dynamics. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024MS004342

Xia, Y., Sanderman, J., Watts, J., Carr, C., Ewing, S., Parisien, A., Burdett, C., Hogrefe, T., et al. 2025. Robust Carbon Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification for Grassland Management in the Great Plains. Report for National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. http://doi.org/10.1575/1912/71403

Obour, P., Xia, Y., Ugarte, C., Grift, T., and Wander, M. 2024. Soil Physical Properties and Water Dynamics Under Contrasting Management regimes at the Morrow Plots. Soil & Tillage Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.still.2024.106422

Xia, Y., Sanderman, J., Watts, J., Machmuller, M., Ewing, S., and Rivard, C. 2024. Designing an Optimized Field Sampling Plan for Quantifying Site-level Baseline Soil Organic Carbon. Geoderma. 448: e116952. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2024.116952

Xia, Y., Kwon, H. and Wander, M., 2024. Estimating Soil N2O Emissions Induced by Organic and Inorganic Fertilizer Inputs Using a Tier-2, Regression-based Meta-analytic Approach for US Agricultural Lands. Science of The Total Environment. 927: e171930. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.171930

Bulgari, R., Demiraj, E., Schillaci, C., Tlili, A., and Xia, Y. 2024. Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems special section: Improving livability in urban areas: Examining Urban and Peri‐urban Soil and Plant Management. Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems. 9: e20062. https://doi.org/10.1002/uar2.20062

Xia, Y., Watts, J. Machmuller, M., and Sanderman, J. 2022. Machine Learning Based Estimation of Field-Scale Daily, High Resolution, Multi-Depth Soil Moisture for the Western and Midwestern United States. PeerJ. 10: e14275. https://peerj.com/articles/14275/

Xia, Y., M. Wander, S. Quiring, S. Yuan, and H. Kwon. 2022. Process-based Modeling of Soil Nitrous Oxide Emissions from United States Corn Fields under Different Management and Climate Scenarios Coupled with Evaluation using Regional Estimates. Frontiers in Environmental Science. 9: e971261. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2022.971261

Xia, Y., M. Wander, and K. McSweeney. 2022. Digital Mapping of Agricultural Soil Organic Carbon Using Soil Forming Factors: A Review of Current Efforts at the Regional and National Scales. Frontiers in Soil Science. 7: e890437. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoil.2022.890437

Xia, Y. and M. Wander. 2022. Management Zone-based Estimation of Positive and Negative Nitrous Oxide Flux in Organic Corn Fields. Soil Science Society of America Journal. 86: 1043-1057. https://doi.org/10.1002/saj2.20416

Xia, Y. and M. Wander. 2021. Evaluation of Indirect and Direct Scoring Methods to Relate Biochemical Soil Quality Indicators to Ecosystem Services. Soil Science Society of America Journal. 86: 678-702. https://doi.org/10.1002/saj2.20370

Xia, Y. and M. Wander. 2021. Responses of β-Glucosidase, Permanganate Oxidizable Carbon, and Fluorescein Diacetate Hydrolysis to Conservation Practices. Soil Science Society of America Journal. 85(5): 1649-1662. https://doi.org/10.1002/saj2.20261

Xia, Y., Kwon, H., and M. Wander. 2021. Developing County-level Data of Nitrogen Fertilizer and Manure Inputs for Corn Production in the United States. Journal of Cleaner Production. 309: e126957. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126957

Xia, Y., Guan, K., Copenhaver, M., and M. Wander. 2020. Estimating Cover Crop Biomass Nitrogen Credits with Sentinel-2 Imagery and Sites Covariates. Agronomy Journal. 113: 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.20525

Xia, Y., Ugarte, C., Guan, K., Pentrak, M., and M. Wander. 2018. Developing Near- and Mid-infrared Spectroscopy Analysis Methods for Rapid Assessment of Soil Quality in Illinois. Soil Science Society of America Journal. 82: 1415-1427. https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj2018.05.0175

Staff and Affiliates Directory

Yushu Xia

PROJECTS

2 PUBLICATIONS ON COLUMBIA | ACADEMIC COMMONS

PUBLICATIONS