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 Appointments & Affiliations
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 Publications
Climate 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 CiteContrasting biological production trends over land and ocean
Journal Article Nature Climate Change · August 1, 2025 Terrestrial and marine ecosystems constitute the primary components of the Earth’s biosphere, yet their photosynthetic productions are typically studied separately, which limits understanding of planetary carbon uptake and biosphere health. Here, using mul ... Full text CiteA tangle of climate modes and the elusiveness of march precipitation variability over the southeastern US
Journal Article Environmental Research Communications · July 1, 2025 This study investigates March precipitation and its interannual variability over Southeastern US because March precipitation ranks the second highest and bears largest variability. Moisture budget analysis demonstrates that moisture divergence, specificall ... 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 - 2030Improving 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