Shilu Zheng
Associate Professor
Biodiversity & Global Change

I am interested in the effects of global environmental change on biodiversity, with a particular focus on trait-based approaches to understand how human activities and climate change influence wildlife at multiple scales. A distinctive feature of my work is the use of natural history specimens, which enables the assessment of large-scale spatiotemporal intraspecific trait variation in response to global change.

My research aims to advance both theoretical and empirical understanding of how biota respond to global change, ranging from individual-level trait shifts to community-level functional restructuring. By integrating field data, large-scale open databases, and statistical modeling, I aim to uncover general patterns of resilience and vulnerability in the face of rapid environmental change, and to inform more effective strategies for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem management in a changing world.