Graduated from Duke
Five years, three degrees! 2009-2014, Ph.D., Environment (Ecology) 2012-2014, M.S., Statistical Science 2013-2014, Certificate in College Teaching
Migration Paper Cited by IPCC
Zhu K., Woodall C.W., Clark J.S. (2012). Failure to migrate: lack of tree range expansion in response to climate change. Global Change Biology, 18, 1042-1052. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a scientific intergovernmental body under the auspices of the United Nations. The IPCC provides an internationally accepted authority on climate change, producing reports which have the agreement of leading climate scientists and the consensus of participating governments. For the efforts to [...]
Turnover Paper Published in Global Change Biology
Climate Warming May Speed up Forests' Life Cycles Zhu K., Woodall C.W., Ghosh S., Gelfand A.E., Clark J.S. (2014). Dual impacts of climate change: forest migration and turnover through life history. Global Change Biology, 20, 251-264. News release below. DURHAM, N.C. – Many climate studies have predicted that tree species will respond to global warming by migrating via seed dispersal to cooler climates. But a new study of 65 different species in 31 eastern [...]
Awarded NSF Grant
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awards a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (DDIG) to James S. Clark (Principal Investigator) and Kai Zhu (Co-Principal Investigator) for support of the project entitled "DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Forest climate requirements change through species life history." This award is effective May 1 , 2013 and expires April 30, 2014. See details on the NSF website. Abstract below. Global warming is expected to have strongly negative effects on many species. One way [...]
Received ESA Award
The Ecological Society of America (ESA) has named Kai Zhu, a doctoral student at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, the recipient of its prestigious 2012 Outstanding Research in Ecology by a Graduate Student Award on August 7 at the ESA annual meeting in Portland, OR. Press release below. PhD Student Kai Zhu Receives ESA Award for Outstanding Research DURHAM, NC – The Ecological Society of America (ESA) has named Kai Zhu, a [...]
Winning Dean’s Award
Kai Zhu was named a recipient of the 2012 Dean’s Award for Outstanding PhD Student Manuscript of Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment for his paper, “Failure to migrate: lack of tree range expansion in response to climate change,” which was published in October 2011 in the peer-reviewed journal Global Change Biology. Press release highlights below. Zhu’s study finds that more than half of eastern U.S. tree species aren’t responding as predicted to climate [...]