Young Zhou

Biography: Dr.Zhou earned a B.A. in Ecology from Northeast Normal University (2010) and an M.S. from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2013). He completed his Ph.D. in Ecosystem Science and Management at Texas A&M University in 2018, focusing on savanna vegetation and nutrient biogeochemistry. He then spent four years as a postdoctoral associate at Yale University, supported by the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Fellowship, studying fire regimes and carbon storage in African savannas. After serving as an Assistant Professor at Utah State University (2022–2025), he joined UC Santa Barbara in 2025.

Current Project: The lab studies how ecosystems respond to global change, with an emphasis on carbon and nutrient cycles in fire prone environments. Current projects explore plant, soil, and microbe interactions after fire and the biogeochemistry of ecosystem engineers like termites, primarily in African savannas. These studies combine field experiments, observations, and biogeochemical analyses to understand how disturbances affect ecosystem functioning and services.