Overview
Dr. Li's research interests focus primarily on climate dynamics, land-atmosphere interaction, hydroclimatology, and climate modeling. Her current research is to understand how the hydrological cycle changes in the current and future climate and their impacts on the ecosystems, subtropical high variability and change, unforced global temperature variability, and climate and health issues.
Current Duke Appointments & Affiliations
Grainger Professor of Earth and Climate Sciences
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2026 - Present
Earth and Climate Sciences,
Nicholas School of the Environment
Professor of Climate in the Division of Earth and Climate Science
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2025 - Present
Earth and Climate Sciences,
Nicholas School of the Environment
Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
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2024 - Present
Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Pratt School of Engineering
Recent Scholarly Works
Monitoring post-fire ecohydrological recovery through integrated remote sensing and ecological modeling
Journal article Science of Remote Sensing · December 1, 2026 Wildfire simultaneously disrupts ecosystem carbon, water, and soil processes, yet these coupled effects and post-fire recovery trajectories cannot be reliably assessed from spectral vegetation indices alone. Here, we developed a fine-scale, multi-dimension ... Full text CiteContemporary patterns of prescribed fire and its risks and benefits to water quantity and water quality over the conterminous United States
Journal article Environmental Research Letters · December 1, 2025 Prescribed fire has emerged as an essential ecosystem management practice for maintaining forest health and mitigating wildfire risks. However, its spatio-temporal patterns and potential impacts on water quantity and quality remain poorly understood compar ... Full text CiteClimate impacts and future trends of hailstorms in China based on millennial records.
Journal article Nature communications · September 2025 Understanding how hailstorm trends have changed in the context of climate change is a persistent challenge, mainly because of the lack of long-term consistent observations of hailstorms. Here, we leverage hail damage records from Chinese historical books a ... Full text CiteRecent Grants
IUCRC Phase I Duke University: Center for Innovation in Risk-analysis for Climate Adaption and Decision-making (CIRCAD)
ResearchParticipating Faculty Member · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2025 - 2031Improving Forests to Faucets Data and Analyses to Support Landscape Scale Restoration Decision-making for Benefiting Water Quality
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by US Forest Service · 2023 - 2027Assessing The Impacts of Wildland Fire on Watersheds Under Climate Change
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by US Forest Service · 2023 - 2026View All Grants