My research interest focuses on understanding soil microbial regulation of carbon cycling in agroecosystems, with a particular emphasis on microbial residue‐mediated carbon stabilization via the soil microbial carbon pump and its feedbacks to climate change.

2014-2020 Ph.D. Microbiology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China; 2010-2014 B.S. Biotechnology, Liaoning Normal University, China

2023-present Associate Researcher, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China; 2020-2022 Assistant Scientist, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China; 2024-2025 Visiting scholar, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany; 2016-2017 Visiting student, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, USA

Conservation tillage; Soil microbial ecology; Soil organic carbon cycling

(1)Xuefeng Zhu, Joshua Schimel, Chao Liang*. (2025). Quantifying asynchrony between microbial necromass and soil organic carbon for sustainable soil carbon management. Soil Biology & Biochemistry, 211, 109950. (2) Zhijian Mou#, Xuefeng Zhu#, Mengqiang Zhu, Hongfei Liu, Chao Liang, Zhanfeng Liu*. (2025). Benchmarking GC and HPLC for amino sugar analyses across soils: A comprehensive evaluation. Soil Biology & Biochemistry, 214, 110066. (3) Wangi Wang#, Xuefeng Zhu#, Yuzhu Li, Shuhan Dong, Yan Liu, Kaikai Min, Huijie Lu, Wei Zhang, Hongbo He*, Xudong Zhang. (2025). Distinct decomposition dynamics of heterogeneous carbon components in cultivated agricultural soils controlled by flexible microbial substrate utilization strategy. Journal of Integrative Agriculture. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jia.2025.12.063 (4) Jie Li#, Xuefeng Zhu#, Feng Zhou, Yi Li, Xuesong Ma, Wei Zhang, Xuelian Bao, Tiantian Zheng, Zhen Bai, Hongbo He*, Xudong Zhang. (2025). Biochemical heterogeneity of soil components manipulating long-term organic carbon pool buildup over mineral protection in the mollisol. Soil & Tillage Research, 252, 106578. (5) Zhangmi He#, Xuefeng Zhu#, Feng Zhou, Mengtao Zhu, Xuelian Bao, Fangbo Deng, Hongbo He*, Xudong Zhang. (2025). How bacterial traits scale to soil organic matter pool buildup revealed by long-term maize straw mulching experiment. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 393, 109816. (6) Xuefeng Zhu, Kaikai Min, Kai Feng, Hongtu Xie, Hongbo He, Xudong Zhang, Ye Deng, Chao Liang*. (2024). Microbial necromass contribution to soil carbon storage via community assembly processes. Science of The Total Environment, 951, 175749. (7) Xuefeng Zhu#, Hongtu Xie#, Michael D. Masters, Yichao Rui, Yu Luo, Hongbo He, Xudong Zhang, Chao Liang*. (2023). Microorganisms, their residues, and soil carbon storage under a continuous maize cropping system with eight years of variable residue retention. Applied Soil Ecology, 187, 104846. (8) Xuefeng Zhu, Randall D. Jackson, Evan H. DeLucia, James M. Tiedje, Chao Liang*. (2020). The soil microbial carbon pump: from conceptual insights to empirical assessments. Global Change Biology, 26(11), 6032-6039. (9) Xuefeng Zhu, Hongtu Xie, Michael D. Masters, Yu Luo, Xudong Zhang, Chao Liang*. (2020). Microbial trade-off in soil organic carbon storage in a no-till continuous corn agroecosystem. European Journal of Soil Biology, 96, 103146. (10) Xuefeng Zhu, Chao Liang*, Michael D. Masters, Ilsa B. Kantola, Evan H. DeLucia (2018). The impacts of four potential bioenergy crops on soil carbon dynamics as shown by biomarker analyses and DRIFT spectroscopy. Global Change Biology Bioenergy, 10(7), 489-500.