Research goal

My overall research goal is to improve crop yield, quality, and resource use efficiency in field and in greenhouse production systems by exploiting plant adaptation mechanisms to environmental perturbations in a future warmer, drier and CO₂-enriched climate.

Past research focuses and achievements

My research during the last 20 years had been focused on the physiological and biochemical regulation of growth and functioning of crop plants subjected to major abiotic stresses including drought, heat, cold and salinity, individually or in combination. I have given much attention to the relative importance of hydraulic and chemical influences on crop vegetative and reproductive physiology under drought/heat/cold stresses. My post-doctoral research (2004-2007) financed by the Danish Research Council (SJVF, 23-03-0208, 2004-2007) and by the European Commission (SAFIR, EU, INCO-CT-2004-509163, 2005-2009) was on exploiting the physiological mechanisms for enhancing crop water use efficiency in both horticultural and field crops during deficit irrigation strategies. The research ideas were latterly tested in projects of my Ph.D. students from 2008 to 2015. By integrating the knowledge of crop physiology, agronomy and soil science, my research aimed to understand the processes occurring at the interfaces between crops and their environments; and to develop mechanistic models in order to optimize water-saving deficit irrigation strategies to enhance crop yield/quality and simultaneously improve resource use efficiency. The scientific publications (see publication list) based on my research findings have made significant contribution to the literature and which have increased our knowledge about:

• The role of abscisic acid (ABA) based root-to-shoot signaling in regulating stomatal conductance and its exploitation to enhance water use efficiency during deficit irrigation
• The effects of soil water dynamics under the partial root-zone drying (PRD) irrigation on C, N and P dynamics in the soil-plant systems
• Plasticity of stomatal morphology to irrigation and N and P fertilization regimes and its implication in optimizing water use efficiency
• The underlying mechanisms for enhancing fruit calcium (Ca) content and fruit quality of tomato under PRD
• The role of biochar amendment in enhancing crop salt tolerance and water use efficiency

Current research focuses

Currently, my research lies at investigating the effect of biochar amendment on soil P bioavailability and root to shoot signalling of plants during soil drying. Focus has also been on exploring physiological and biochemical mechanisms of crop plants response to major abiotic stresses in future climate change scenarios. These comprise the following four aspects:

• Illustrated how biochar and soil properties jointly affect P bioavailability and plant nutrients uptake. Our research illustrated the specific effect of different biochars on the chemical and biological P processes in varied soils by affecting P sorption processes, increasing the available P content, and affecting P mineralization and solubilization processes. We have also shown, for the first time in literature, that biochar addition could influence the stoichiometry of plants due to its modification of mineral nutrients supply and influence on minerals uptake.
• Priming-mediated stress tolerance and cross-stress tolerance in crop plants. At molecular, biochemical and physiological levels, we demonstrated, among the first researchers in the world, that drought, low temperature, and high temperature priming at earlier growth stages of wheat plants could enhance tolerance or cross-tolerance to subsequent stresses at reproductive stages. I elucidated the role of melatonin in stress memory and cold tolerance in barley and wheat.
• CO₂ elevation modulates the response of crop plants to drought, cold, heat and salinity stress. For the first time in literature, we reported that stomata of tomato become less sensitive to ABA signaling when grown at elevated CO₂, and there is a shift from chemical towards hydraulic in stomatal control of the plants grown at ambient vs. elevated CO₂ during soil drying. In addition, using an ABA-deficient mutant, we revealed that tomato plants grown at elevated CO₂ had significantly lower leaf and root hydraulic conductance, which was associated with down-regulation of gene expression for aquaporin (i.e., PIPs) and this process, is ABA-dependent. Besides, we showed that grown at elevated CO₂ could enhance tolerant to drought, salinity, cold and heat stresses across different crop species.
• Multi-generational effect of CO₂ elevation on crop water relations and grain quality. For the first time in literature, we revealed that after four generations continuously grown at elevated CO₂, the WUE and shoot biomass and grain yield of wheat plants were enhanced while the grain quality attributes (e.g., minerals and protein) were declined along with the progress of the generations. Our findings highlighted the risk of potential ‘hidden hunger’ in future CO₂-enriched climate.

Future research plan

My research vision is to reveal and exploit the physiological and genotypic resilience mechanisms of major crop plants in response to climate changes scenarios, e.g., co-occurrence of multiple abiotic stresses (drought, heat, and salinity) at elevated CO₂. My core hypothesis is that physiological and genetic responses to multiple abiotic stresses are integrated by complex regulatory network that influence the processes important for yield and quality formation, and which can be revealed by combing modern genotyping and advanced phenotyping technologies. Thus, I will pursue an interdisciplinary approach to:

• Identify the complex crosstalk between physiological and genetic responses to elevated CO₂ and multiple abiotic stresses. The main processes to be investigated are the root-shoot communication and coordination in the regulation of plant water balance, the source and sink dynamics of C and N metabolism, and the rhizosphere process of N, P transformation and acquisition.  
• Reveal the epigenetic mechanisms of intra/intergenerational stress priming and memory for enhanced stress tolerance.
• Investigate the role of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) on stress resilience and nutrient uptake in a CO₂-enriched environment. 
• Develop novel irrigation and fertilization strategies to enhance resilience of crops (in terms of both yield and quality) to multiple abiotic stresses as well as under elevated CO₂ growth conditions.
• Establish a Robust Crops Centre as a spearhead breakthrough research by imposing realistic multi-stress conditions using state-of-the-art climate-controlled growth chambers, semi-field greenhouses and instrumented field trials.

Education

1988 – 1992      B.Sc., Beijing Agricultural University (now China Agricultural University), Beijing, China

1998 – 2000      M.Sc., Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover, Germany

2001 – 2004      Ph.D., The Royal Veterinary & Agricultural University (KVL, now University of Copenhagen), Copenhagen, Denmark

2007 – 2008      Diploma in educational studies for Assistant Professors, Danish Pedagogical University

2019                 Certificate of Completion of Leading Research – a leadership course, University of Copenhagen

Employment

2020.5 –           Professor and group leader of Crop Stress Physiology, Crop Sciences Section, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

2007 – 2020.4   Associate Professor and group leader of Crop Stress Physiology, Crop Sciences Section, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

2004 – 2007      Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Sciences, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University (KVL), Copenhagen, Denmark

2000 – 2001      Research Assistant, Institute of Vegetable and Fruit Science, University of Hannover, Hannover, Germany

1992 – 1998      Research assistant/associate, Institute of Soils and Fertilizers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China

Research Specialization

• Crop stress physiology
• Agricultural water and nutrient management

Research and Scientific Leadership

• Group leader of Crop Stress Physiology since 2016 
• PI or Co-PI for more than 30 national and international projects in the last 20 years with a total budget > 40 million DKK

Below is a list of major projects:

Fellowships

• 1998-2000: DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) Fellowship
• 2001-2004: KVL Ph.D. Stipend

Committees

• 2008 – Member of Assessment Committee for Ph.D. thesis at Hunan Agricultural University
• Since 2010 – Evaluator for NSFC (National Scientific Foundation of China) proposals
• 2011 – Chair of Assessment Committee for Ph.D. thesis at University of Copenhagen
• 2012 – 2019 Head of Education Program for Water and Environment in the Sino-Danish Centre for Education and Research (SDC)
• 2012 – Member of Scientific Committee for the 12^th International Symposium on the Processing Tomato
• 2013 – Member of Assessment Committee for Ph.D. thesis at Danish Technical University
• 2014 – Member of Assessment Committee for a Ph.D. thesis at Aarhus University.
• 2015 – External Examiner for Ph.D. thesis at University of Western Australia.
• 2015 – Evaluator for a research proposal (Understanding cold-tolerance of C4 photosynthesis to improve yield) submitted to NOW, the Netherland
• 2015 – External Examiner for Ph.D. thesis at University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan.
• 2016 – External Examiner for Ph.D. thesis at University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan.
• 2016 – Chairman of Assessment Committee for PhD thesis at PLEN, University of Copenhagen
• 2017 – External Examiner for Ph.D. thesis at University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan.
• 2017 – Evaluator for a research proposal (Ecological relevance of stomatal density and size) submitted to Czech Science Foundation
• 2017 – Evaluator for a proposal submitted to DAAD programme P.R.I.M.E., Germany
• 2018 – Chairman of Assessment Committee for Ph.D. thesis at University of Copenhagen
• 2018 – Member of Assessment Committee for a postdoc position in crops – beneficial microbial interaction at PLEN, University of Copenhagen
• 2018 – Chairman of evaluation committee for an assistant professor position in applied statistics at PLEN, University of Copenhagen
• 2018 – Evaluator for a research proposal (MemoCrop) submitted to ANR, France
• 2019 – Chairman of Assessment Committee for Ph.D. thesis at PLEN, University of Copenhagen
• 2019 – Member of evaluation committee for an associate professor position in plant nutrition in protected production at Aarhus University
• Since 2019 – Member of Ph.D. Committee at PLEN, University of Copenhagen
• 2020 - Chairman of Assessment Committee for Ph.D. Thesis at PLEN, University of Copenhagen
• 2021 - Chairman of Assessment Committee for Ph.D. position at PLEN, University of Copenhagen
• Since 2021 - PhD coordinator at PLEN, University of Copenhagen
• 2021 - External examiner for a Ph.D. qualifying exam at Aarhus University
• 2021 - Member of Assessment Committee for Ph.D. thesis at Norwgian University of Life Science, Norway
• 2021 - Review Panel member for full tenure professorship at COMSATS University Islamabad, Vehari Campus, Pakistan
• 2022 - Evaluator for full professorship promotion at China Agricultural University, China
• 2022 - Convener for S11 of IHC 2022, Angers, France
• 2023 - External examiner for a Ph.D. qualifying exam at Aarhus University
• 2023 - Member of Assessment Committee for Ph.D. thesis at Aarhus University
• 2023 - Evaluator for a research proposal submitted to NOW, The Netherlands
• 2024 - Member of Examination Committee for Ph.D. thesis at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU
• 2024 - Evaluator for a research proposal submitted to UAUE, UAE.

Editorial Functions

• Since 2014 – Member of editorial board for Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science
• Since 2017 – Associate editor for Frontiers in Plant Science
• Since 2019 - Associate editor for Plants