Yushu Xia

Dr. Yushu Xia's research focuses on soil health assessment and modeling. Her overarching objective is to simultaneously promote agricultural productivity, environmental sustainability, and ecosystem benefits. In doing so, she aims to improve soil health and reduce negative environmental impacts. 

Her research leverages multi-scale datasets (e.g., field, lab, survey/literature, remote sensing) and modeling tools (both empirical and process-based) to improve the quantification of ecosystem services and ecosystem service outcomes, such as carbon storage, nitrogen losses through leaching and gaseous emissions, water dynamics, and ecosystem productivity. She collaborates closely with farmers and ranchers to develop practical, science-based strategies for improving soil health and resource use efficiency.

Education

2021 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Ph.D. in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences

2016 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, M.S. in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences

2014 Zhejiang University, B.S. in Environmental Science

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