I am a Professor of Yangtze Institute for Conservation and Development (YICODE) at Hohai University. My research interests focus on Watershed Hydro-biogeochemistry and Water Quality. More specifically, I am interested in understanding how water moves and interacts with other components in natural and human-impacted environments. Ultimately, I aim to understand and address water quality challenges from watershed and continental scales, using both the process-based reactive transport model and the data-driven machine (deep) learning model.

Our recent work leveraged deep learning for large-scale water quality modeling：

• Zhi, W., Baniecki, H., Liu, J., Boyer, E., Shen, C., Shenk, G., ... & Li, L. (2024). Increasing phosphorus loss despite widespread concentration decline in US rivers. PNAS, 121(48), e2402028121.
• Zhi, W., Appling, A. P., Golden, H. E., Podgorski, J., & Li, L. (2024). Deep learning for water quality. Nature Water, 2(3), 228-241.
• Li, L., Knapp, J. L., Lintern, A., Ng, G. H. C., Perdrial, J., Sullivan, P. L., & Zhi, W.. (2024). River water quality shaped by land–river connectivity in a changing climate. Nature Climate Change, 14(3), 225-237.
• Zhi, W., Klingler, C., Liu, J., & Li, L. (2023). Widespread deoxygenation in warming rivers. Nature Climate Change, 1-9
• Zhi, W., Ouyang, W., Shen, C., & Li, L. (2023). Temperature outweighs light and flow as the predominant driver of dissolved oxygen in US rivers. Nature Water, 1(3), 249-260.

Academic Profiles:

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• 2021, From Hydrometeorology to River Water Quality: Can a Deep Learning Model Predict Dissolved Oxygen at the Continental Scale?
  • doi: 10.1021/acs.est.0c06783 | |
• 2020, The Shallow and Deep Hypothesis: Subsurface Vertical Chemical Contrasts Shape Nitrate Export Patterns from Different Land Uses
  • doi: 10.1021/acs.est.0c01340 |

• 2021 under review, BioRT-Flux-PIHM v1. 0: a Watershed Biogeochemical Reactive Transport Model
  • doi: 10.5194/gmd-2020-157 |
• 2020, Significant Stream Chemistry Response to Temperature Variations in a High-elevation Mountain Watershed
  • doi: 10.1038/s43247-020-00039-w |
• 2019, Distinct Source Water Chemistry Shapes Contrasting Concentration‐Discharge Patterns
  • doi: 10.1029/2018WR024257 |

• 2015, Enhanced Long-term Nitrogen Removal and Its Quantitative Molecular Mechanism in Tidal Flow Constructed Wetlands
  • doi: 10.1021/acs.est.5b00017 |
• 2014, Quantitative Response Relationships Between Nitrogen Transformation Rates and Nitrogen Functional Genes in a Tidal Flow Constructed Wetland under C/N Ratio Constraints
  • doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2014.06.035 |
• 2014, Methods for understanding microbial community structures and functions in microbial fuel cells: A review
  • doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2014.08.096
• 2012, Constructed wetlands, 1991–2011: A review of research development, current trends, and future directions
  • doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.09.064