Xu Lian

13.0k total citations · 11 hit papers
57 papers, 7.4k citations indexed

About

Xu Lian is a scholar working on Global and Planetary Change, Atmospheric Science and Ecology. According to data from OpenAlex, Xu Lian has authored 57 papers receiving a total of 7.4k indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 47 papers in Global and Planetary Change, 18 papers in Atmospheric Science and 11 papers in Ecology. Recurrent topics in Xu Lian's work include Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics (38 papers), Climate variability and models (30 papers) and Remote Sensing in Agriculture (11 papers). Xu Lian is often cited by papers focused on Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics (38 papers), Climate variability and models (30 papers) and Remote Sensing in Agriculture (11 papers). Xu Lian collaborates with scholars based in China, United States and France. Xu Lian's co-authors include Shilong Piao, Anping Chen, Philippe Ciais, Xuhui Wang, Ranga B. Myneni, Ivan A. Janssens, Shushi Peng, Tao Wang, Yongshuo H. Fu and Qiang Liu and has published in prestigious journals such as Nature Communications, PLoS ONE and Remote Sensing of Environment.

In The Last Decade

Xu Lian

55 papers receiving 7.2k citations

Hit Papers

5 papers align trajectories

What are hit papers?

Hit papers significantly outperform the citation benchmark for their cohort. A paper qualifies if it has ≥500 total citations, achieves ≥1.5× the top-1% citation threshold for papers in the same subfield and year (this is the minimum needed to enter the top 1%, not the average within it), or reaches the top citation threshold in at least one of its specific research topics.

Characteristics, drivers and feedbacks of global greening

2019 1.4k citations Shilong Piao, Xuhui Wang et al. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment profile →
Plant phenology and global climate change: Current progresses and challenges

2019 1.3k citations Shilong Piao, Qiang Liu et al. Global Change Biology profile →
Multifaceted characteristics of dryland aridity changes in a warming world

2021 482 citations Xu Lian, Shilong Piao et al. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment profile →
Divergent hydrological response to large-scale afforestation and vegetation greening in China

2018 410 citations Yue Li, Shilong Piao et al. Science Advances profile →
Climate mitigation from vegetation biophysical feedbacks during the past three decades

2017 390 citations Zhenzhong Zeng, Shilong Piao et al. Nature Climate Change profile →
Summer soil drying exacerbated by earlier spring greening of northern vegetation

2020 362 citations Xu Lian, Shilong Piao et al. Science Advances profile →
Extension of the growing season increases vegetation exposure to frost

2018 261 citations Qiang Liu, Shilong Piao et al. Nature Communications profile →
Temporal trade-off between gymnosperm resistance and resilience increases forest sensitivity to extreme drought

2020 213 citations Xiangyi Li, Shilong Piao et al. Nature Ecology & Evolution profile →
Increasing sensitivity of dryland vegetation greenness to precipitation due to rising atmospheric CO2

2022 199 citations Yao Zhang, Pierre Gentine et al. Nature Communications profile →
Global water availability boosted by vegetation-driven changes in atmospheric moisture transport

2022 154 citations Jiangpeng Cui, Xu Lian et al. Nature Geoscience profile →
Future reversal of warming-enhanced vegetation productivity in the Northern Hemisphere

2022 149 citations Shilong Piao, Xiangyi Li et al. Nature Climate Change profile →

Peers — A (Enhanced Table)

Peers by citation overlap · career bar shows stage (early→late) cites · hero ref

Name	h						Papers	Cites
Xu Lian China	31	5.5k	2.6k	2.1k	1.2k	993	57	7.4k
Tao Wang China	48	5.0k 0.9×	2.1k 0.8×	2.9k 1.4×	1.2k 1.1×	947 1.0×	171	8.3k
Zaichun Zhu China	34	5.0k 0.9×	2.8k 1.1×	1.5k 0.7×	772 0.7×	675 0.7×	79	6.5k
Lindsay B. Hutley Australia	53	5.8k 1.1×	3.5k 1.4×	1.3k 0.6×	1.0k 0.9×	1.8k 1.8×	186	8.3k
Mengtian Huang China	23	3.3k 0.6×	2.1k 0.8×	1.2k 0.6×	663 0.6×	658 0.7×	39	4.8k
William K. Smith United States	43	4.5k 0.8×	2.4k 1.0×	1.6k 0.7×	465 0.4×	1.2k 1.2×	117	6.8k
James Cleverly Australia	41	3.8k 0.7×	2.0k 0.8×	1.1k 0.5×	1.1k 1.0×	676 0.7×	100	4.9k
Yangjian Zhang China	43	3.9k 0.7×	3.2k 1.3×	1.8k 0.8×	426 0.4×	1.5k 1.5×	188	7.2k
Kevin R. Hultine United States	36	3.5k 0.6×	1.5k 0.6×	1.4k 0.7×	799 0.7×	1.4k 1.4×	108	5.0k
Christopher R. Schwalm United States	34	5.1k 0.9×	1.3k 0.5×	2.3k 1.1×	889 0.8×	1.3k 1.3×	78	6.3k
M. E. Litvak United States	42	4.2k 0.8×	1.8k 0.7×	2.3k 1.1×	603 0.5×	1.4k 1.4×	120	6.3k

Countries citing papers authored by Xu Lian

Since Specialization

Citations

This map shows the geographic impact of Xu Lian's research. It shows the number of citations coming from papers published by authors working in each country. You can also color the map by specialization and compare the number of citations received by Xu Lian with the expected number of citations based on a country's size and research output (numbers larger than one mean the country cites Xu Lian more than expected).

Fields of papers citing papers by Xu Lian

Since Specialization

Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by Xu Lian. Nodes represent research fields, and links connect fields that are likely to share authors. Colored nodes show fields that tend to cite the papers produced by Xu Lian. The network helps show where Xu Lian may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of Xu Lian

This figure shows the co-authorship network connecting the top 25 collaborators of Xu Lian. A scholar is included among the top collaborators of Xu Lian based on the total number of citations received by their joint publications. Widths of edges represent the number of papers authors have co-authored together. Node borders signify the number of papers an author published with Xu Lian. Xu Lian is excluded from the visualization to improve readability, since they are connected to all nodes in the network.

All Works

Sort: Min cites: Since: Top N: Style:

20 of 20 papers shown

Cui, Jiangpeng, Xu Lian, Ruud van der Ent, Luís Gimeno, & Diego G. Miralles. (2025). Greater role of atmospheric circulation than evapotranspiration in reshaping terrestrial moisture recycling. Science Bulletin.

Lian, Xu, Josep Peñuelas, Youngryel Ryu, et al.. (2024). Diminishing carryover benefits of earlier spring vegetation growth. Nature Ecology & Evolution. 8(2). 218–228. 38 indexed citations

Hong, Songbai, Josep Peñuelas, Hao Xu, et al.. (2024). Weakened connection between spring leaf‐out and autumn senescence in the Northern Hemisphere. Global Change Biology. 30(7). e17429–e17429. 7 indexed citations

Jiang, Hou, Ning Lu, Jun Qin, et al.. (2024). Roofing Highways With Solar Panels Substantially Reduces Carbon Emissions and Traffic Losses. Earth s Future. 12(7). 1 indexed citations

Li, Jun, Yao Zhang, Emanuele Bevacqua, et al.. (2024). Future increase in compound soil drought-heat extremes exacerbated by vegetation greening. Nature Communications. 15(1). 10875–10875. 13 indexed citations

Lian, Xu, Jiangpeng Cui, Anping Chen, et al.. (2023). Discrepant trends in global land-surface and air temperatures controlled by vegetation biophysical feedbacks. Environmental Research Letters. 18(12). 124013–124013. 5 indexed citations

Cui, Jiangpeng, Mingzhu He, Xu Lian, Zhongwang Wei, & Tao Wang. (2023). Spatial Pattern of Plant Transpiration Over China Constrained by Observations. Geophysical Research Letters. 50(20). 8 indexed citations

Cui, Jiangpeng, Xu Lian, Chris Huntingford, et al.. (2022). Global water availability boosted by vegetation-driven changes in atmospheric moisture transport. Nature Geoscience. 15(12). 982–988. 154 indexed citations breakdown →

He, Mingzhu, Xu Lian, Jiangpeng Cui, Hao Xu, & Shilong Piao. (2022). Vegetation Physiological Response to Increasing Atmospheric CO₂ Slows the Decreases in the Seasonal Amplitude of Temperature. Geophysical Research Letters. 49(6). 10 indexed citations

10.

Lian, Xu, Shilong Piao, Anping Chen, et al.. (2021). Multifaceted characteristics of dryland aridity changes in a warming world. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment. 2(4). 232–250. 482 indexed citations breakdown →

11.

Cui, Jiangpeng, Hui Yang, Chris Huntingford, et al.. (2021). Vegetation Response to Rising CO₂ Amplifies Contrasts in Water Resources Between Global Wet and Dry Land Areas. Geophysical Research Letters. 48(14). 23 indexed citations

12.

Lian, Xu, Shilong Piao, Laurent Li, et al.. (2020). Summer soil drying exacerbated by earlier spring greening of northern vegetation. Science Advances. 6(1). eaax0255–eaax0255. 362 indexed citations breakdown →

13.

Li, Xiangyi, Shilong Piao, Kai Wang, et al.. (2020). Temporal trade-off between gymnosperm resistance and resilience increases forest sensitivity to extreme drought. Nature Ecology & Evolution. 4(8). 1075–1083. 213 indexed citations breakdown →

14.

Cui, Jiangpeng, Shilong Piao, Chris Huntingford, et al.. (2020). Vegetation forcing modulates global land monsoon and water resources in a CO2-enriched climate. Nature Communications. 11(1). 5184–5184. 55 indexed citations

15.

Liu, Qiang, Shilong Piao, Ivan A. Janssens, et al.. (2018). Extension of the growing season increases vegetation exposure to frost. Nature Communications. 9(1). 426–426. 261 indexed citations breakdown →

16.

Wang, Tao, Dan Liu, Shilong Piao, et al.. (2018). Emerging negative impact of warming on summer carbon uptake in northern ecosystems. Nature Communications. 9(1). 5391–5391. 48 indexed citations

17.

Li, Yue, Shilong Piao, Laurent Li, et al.. (2018). Divergent hydrological response to large-scale afforestation and vegetation greening in China. Science Advances. 4(5). eaar4182–eaar4182. 410 indexed citations breakdown →

18.

Lian, Xu, Shilong Piao, Chris Huntingford, et al.. (2018). Partitioning global land evapotranspiration using CMIP5 models constrained by observations. Nature Climate Change. 8(7). 640–646. 276 indexed citations

19.

Zeng, Zhenzhong, Shilong Piao, Laurent Li, et al.. (2017). Climate mitigation from vegetation biophysical feedbacks during the past three decades. Nature Climate Change. 7(6). 432–436. 390 indexed citations breakdown →

20.

Zhao, Chuang, Shilong Piao, Xuhui Wang, et al.. (2016). Plausible rice yield losses under future climate warming. Nature Plants. 3(1). 16202–16202. 134 indexed citations

Rankless uses publication and citation data sourced from OpenAlex, an open and comprehensive bibliographic database. While OpenAlex provides broad and valuable coverage of the global research landscape, it—like all bibliographic datasets—has inherent limitations. These include incomplete records, variations in author disambiguation, differences in journal indexing, and delays in data updates. As a result, some metrics and network relationships displayed in Rankless may not fully capture the entirety of a scholar's output or impact.

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