Wenyun Zuo

[ 左闻韵]

 Ph.D. (Biology)

 University of New Mexico, 2011

2011-present    Visiting Scholar, Biological Sciences Department, Missouri University of Science and Technology, MO, USA (Host: Dr. Chen Hou) 
2006-2011        Ph.D., Biology Department, University of New Mexico, NM, USA (Advisor: Dr. James H. Brown) 
2003-2006        M.S., Center of Ecology, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China (Advisor: Dr. Keping Ma) 
1999-2003        B.Sc., College of Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China (Advisors: Dr. Jinsheng He, et al.)

I am interested in quantitative analysis and development of theory on various complex systems.

My PhD work primary focus is on Life History Theory and Metabolic Theory of Ecology especially in energy budgets during different biological processes, such as ontogenetic growth, reproduction, and infection. I am also collaborating in projects on analyzing human energy consumption and the sustainability of human system, and developing theory on sexual dimorphism in mammals.

My former research in China is about species-abundance relationship, environmental factors affecting species distribution, and also ecological modeling for predicting potential distribution of species, which I am still interested in and working on.

Awards & Distinctions
      2011              2010 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Chinese Students Study Abroad, China Scholarship Council, China
      2010              Grove Research Scholarship, Department of Biology, UNM
      2009              Gaudin Research Scholarship, Department of Biology, UNM
      2008              Grove Summer Scholarship, Department of Biology, UNM
      2008/09/10   Three Student Research Allocations Committee (SRAC) grants, UNM
      2007-2009    Four Student Enrichment Opportunity Grants from Program in Interdisciplinary Biological and Biomedical Science, UNM
      2006-2008    HHMI Interfaces Scholars at UNM.
      2004-2005    First Class Scholarship, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Science.

Publications

1. Burger, Joseph R., Craig D. Allen, James H. Brown, William R. Burnside, Ana D. Davidson, Trevor S. Fristoe, Marcus J. Hamilton, Norman Mercado-Silva, Jeffrey C. Nekola, Jordan G. Okie, Wenyun Zuo. 2012. The Macroecology of Sustainability. PLoS Biol 10(6): e1001345. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001345. [PDF]

2. Deng, Jianming, Wenyun Zuo, Zhiqiang Wang Zhexuan Fan, Mingfei Ji, Genxuan Wang, Jinzhi Ran, Changming Zhao, Jianquan Liu, Karl J. Niklas, Sean T. Hammond, and James H. Brown. 2012. Insights into plant size-density relationships from models and agricultural crops. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences [Early Online]

3. Zuo, Wenyun, Melanie E. Moses, Geoffrey B. West, Chen Hou, and James H. Brown. 2012. A general model for effects of temperature on ectotherm ontogenetic growth and development. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B , 279: 1840-1846. [PDF] (Highlited by Nature Climate Change)

4. Sibly, Richard, Wenyun Zuo, Astrid Kodric-Brown, James H. Brown. 2012. Rensch's rule in large herbivorous mammals derived from metabolic scaling. American Naturalist, 179: 169-177. [PDF]

5. Charnov, Eric L., Wenyun Zuo. 2011. Growth, mortality, and life-history scaling across species. Evolutionary Ecology Research,13: 661-664. [PDF]

6. Charnov, Eric L., Wenyun Zuo. 2011. Human hunting mortality threshold rules for extinction in mammals (& fish). Evolutionary Ecology Research, 13: 431-437. [PDF]

7. Brown, James H., William R. Burnside, Ana D. Davidson, John P. DeLong, William C. Dunn, Marcus J. Hamilton, Jeffrey C. Nekola, Jordan G. Okie, Norman Mercado-Silva, William H. Woodruff, Wenyun Zuo. 2011. Energetic limits to economic growth. Bioscience, 61(1): 19-26. [PDF] (Cover paper)

8. Zuo, Wenyun, Melanie E. Moses,  Chen Hou,  William H. Woodruff, Geoffrey B. West, and James H. Brown. 2009. Response to Comments on “Energy Uptake and Allocation During Ontogeny”. Science, 325: 1206-c. [PDF]

9. Hou, Chen , Wenyun Zuo, Melanie E. Moses, William H. Woodruff, James H. Brown, and Geoffrey B. West. 2008. Energy Uptake and Allocation During Ontogeny. Science, 322: 736-739. [PDF]

10. Zuo, Wenyun, Ni Lao, Yuying Geng, and Keping Ma. 2008. GeoSVM: an efficient and effective tool to predict species' potential distributions. Journal of Plant Ecology, 1(2): 143-145. [PDF]

11. Moses, Melanie E., Chen Hou, William H. Woodruff, Geoffrey B. West, Jeffery C. Nekola, Wenyun Zuo and James H. Brown. 2008. Revisiting a Model of Ontogenetic Growth: Estimating Model Parameters from Theory and Data. American Naturalist, 171(5): 632-645. [PDF]

12. Zuo, Wenyun, Ni Lao, Yuying Geng, and Keping Ma. 2007. Predicting Species Potential Distribution — SVM Compared with GARP. Journal of Plant Ecology (Chinese Version), 31(4): 711-719. (in Chinese with English abstract) [PDF]

13. He, Jinshen, Zhiheng Wang, Xiangping Wang, Bernhard Schmid, Wenyun Zuo, Meng Zhou, Chengyang Zheng, Mingfeng Wang, and Jingyun Fang. 2006. A test of the generality of leaf trait relationships on the Tibetan Plateau. New Phytologist, 170(4): 835-848. [PDF]

14. Han, Mei, Chengjun Ji, Wenyun Zuo, Jinshen He, and Jingyun Fang. 2006.  Interactive effects of elevated CO2 and temperature on leaf anatomical characteristics in eleven North American plants. Acta Ecologica Sinica, 26(2): 326-333. (in Chinese with English abstract) [PDF]

15. Zuo, Wenyun and Keping Ma. 2005. The development of DIVERSITAS. Advances in Biodiversity Conservation and Research in China VI. China Meteorological Press, Beijing, China. 9-16. (in Chinese)

16. Zuo, Wenyun, Jinshen He, Mei Han, Chengjun Ji, Dan F. B. Flynn, and Jingyun Fang. 2005. Responses of plant stomata to elevated CO2 and temperature: observations form 10 plant species grown in temperature and CO2 gradients. Acta Ecologica Sinica, 25 (3): 565-574. (in Chinese with English abstract) [PDF]

17. Yang, Yuanhe,  Sheng Rao, Huifeng Hu, Anping Chen, Chengjun Ji, Biao Zhu, Wenyun Zuo, Xuanran Li, Haihua Shen, Zhiheng Wang, Yanhong Tang, and Jingyun Fang. 2004. Plant species richness of alpine grasslands in relation to environmental factors and biomass on the Tibetan Plateau. Biodiversity Science, 12(1):200-205. (in Chinese with English abstract) [PDF]