Professor at Inner Mongolia University, China
Prof. Dr. Dima Chen is a highly cited environmental and ecosystem scientist whose influential body of work spans plant diversity, soil ecology, biogeochemistry, and global change biology, contributing substantially to the understanding of how biodiversity, nutrient enrichment, and climate-related processes regulate terrestrial ecosystem functioning. With 100 published documents and an h-index of 37, supported by 5,858 citations from 4,899 citing documents, her research has produced landmark findings, including evidence that plant diversity significantly enhances productivity and soil carbon storage, as demonstrated in her widely cited PNAS article from 2018. She has advanced global understanding of microbial necromass dynamics, plant nutrient stoichiometry, and ecosystem productivity through high-impact publications in Nature Communications, PNAS, Ecology Letters, Functional Ecology, Soil Biology and Biochemistry, Geoderma, and Landscape Ecology. Her work has elucidated how nitrogen enrichment, soil acidification, and long-term nutrient inputs shape belowground communities, microbial stability, carbon cycling, and ecosystem resilience. She has revealed critical mechanisms showing that acidification-induced declines in plant diversity are mediated by below-ground community shifts, and demonstrated that soil acidification plays a stronger role than nitrogen availability in regulating soil respiration under long-term N enrichment. Her contributions also include uncovering the drivers of fungal functional group diversity on ecosystem stability, the long-term effects of continuous cropping on soil health, and the differential responses of soil bacteria to N and P additions. Through extensive collaborations, she has explored grazing legacy effects, precipitation gradients, and interactions between plants, microbes, and soil processes across diverse grassland ecosystems. Collectively, her research offers foundational insights into ecosystem stability, nutrient cycling, and soil biodiversity under global change pressures, establishing her as a leading authority in terrestrial biogeochemistry and ecological sustainability.
Featured Publications
Xu, F., Li, J., Wu, L., Zhu, B., Chen, D., & Bai, Y. (2025). Grazing legacy mediates the diverse responses of grassland multidimensional stability to resource enrichment. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 365, 109313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2024.109313
Zhou, X., Liu, S., Wang, B., Wu, L., Wu, Y., Zhang, H., & Chen, D. (2025). Forest conversion-induced soil biota homogenization destabilizes ecosystem functions. Communications Earth & Environment, 6, Article 2909. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02909-7
Huang, J., Wang, S., Wu, Y., Lu, X., Bai, Y., Wang, B., & Chen, D. (2025). Monoculture-experiment evidence that plant species identity regulates soil biota attributes and soil functions. CATENA, 245, 109309. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2025.109309
Yu, J., Wu, L., Wu, Y., Wang, B., Chen, H., Bai, Y., & Chen, D. (2025). Nitrogen and phosphorus enrichment differentially affect grassland ecosystem functioning via multitrophic pathways. Journal of Ecology, 113, 70105. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.70105
Wang, B., Meng, Y., Deng, S., Zhou, X., Wang, S., Wu, Y., Wu, L., Bai, Y., & Chen, D. (2025). Biodiversity of soil biota and plants stabilises ecosystem multifunctionality with increasing number of global change factors. Journal of Ecology, 113, 70054. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.70054
Lu, X., Chen, D., Xing, W., Li, Y., Chen, X., Lou, N., Ding, J., & Bai, Y. (2025). Contrasting impacts of nitrogen enrichment on soil nematode diversity in natural and managed ecosystems. Journal of Applied Ecology, 62, 70072. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.70072
Mi, J., Wang, F., Shi, J., Wang, Q., Pang, H., Yu, J., Chen, D., & Bai, Y. (2025). Contrasting trends in plant diversity and soil carbon mineralization under precipitation‐driven vegetation and soil carbon dynamics in the Mongolian Plateau. Ecology and Evolution, 15, e71806. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71806
Zhang, H., Wang, B., Wu, Y., Wu, L., Yue, L., Bai, Y., & Chen, D. (2025). Plants and soil biota co‐regulate stability of ecosystem multifunctionality under multiple environmental changes. Ecology, 106(2), e4534. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4534