Contact Information
Research Areas
Biography
Dr. Atul Jain’s research focuses on climate interactions with the land physical (hydrology and energy), biological processes (carbon and nitrogen), and the land use/cover changes (LULCC), including agricultural intensification, and how these interactions affect surface processes that exchange energy, water and major GHGs (CO2, CH4, and N2O) between surface and the atmosphere, and contribute to climate change and variability. To conduct this research, Dr. Jain and his students and other lab members have developed and applied a global model-data integration framework, ISAM, in combination with satellite and ground-based observation data at regional and global scales.
Some recent research challenges on which his research lab members have focused on include (1) the impact of LULCC on biogeophysics (water, energy) and biogeochemistry (carbon and nitrogen), (2) climatic effect on permafrost soil carbon storage, (3) CH4 and N2O emissions from wetland and dryland, (4) synergistic effects of environmental ([CO2] and climate), management (irrigation and nitrogen input), and extreme climate events on agricultural crop production, and (5) spatially explicit production- and consumption-based GHG emissions worldwide from the plant- and animal-based human food.
Dr. Jain has won numerous awards and honors, including the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Award. He has served as a lead and contributing author for major assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He is the author of over 175 scientific articles, including highly cited articles in Nature and Science. Clarivate Analytics (formerly Thomson Reuters) has listed Dr Jain as one of the "Most Highly Cited” Researchers, and Reuters has listed him as one of the “World’s Top Climate Scientists”.
Research Interests
Education
Ph.D. Atmospheric Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology
Additional Campus Affiliations
Professor, Climate, Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences
Professor, Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Recent Publications
Zhang, Z., Poulter, B., Melton, J. R., Riley, W. J., Allen, G. H., Beerling, D. J., Bousquet, P., Canadell, J. G., Fluet-Chouinard, E., Ciais, P., Gedney, N., Hopcroft, P. O., Ito, A., Jackson, R. B., Jain, A. K., Jensen, K., Joos, F., Kleinen, T., Knox, S. H., ... Zhuang, Q. (2025). Ensemble estimates of global wetland methane emissions over 2000-2020. Biogeosciences, 22(1), 305-321. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-305-2025
Gong, C., Tian, H., Liao, H., Pan, N., Pan, S., Ito, A., Jain, A. K., Kou-Giesbrecht, S., Joos, F., Sun, Q., Shi, H., Vuichard, N., Zhu, Q., Peng, C., Maggi, F., Tang, F. H. M., & Zaehle, S. (2024). Global net climate effects of anthropogenic reactive nitrogen. Nature, 632(8025), 557-563. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07714-4
Li, L., Lu, C., Winiwarter, W., Tian, H., Canadell, J. G., Ito, A., Jain, A. K., Kou-Giesbrecht, S., Pan, S., Pan, N., Shi, H., Sun, Q., Vuichard, N., Ye, S., Zaehle, S., & Zhu, Q. (2024). Enhanced nitrous oxide emission factors due to climate change increase the mitigation challenge in the agricultural sector. Global change biology, 30(8), Article e17472. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.17472
Orlov, A., Jägermeyr, J., Müller, C., Daloz, A. S., Zabel, F., Minoli, S., Liu, W., Lin, T. S., Jain, A. K., Folberth, C., Okada, M., Poschlod, B., Smerald, A., Schneider, J. M., & Sillmann, J. (2024). Human heat stress could offset potential economic benefits of CO2 fertilization in crop production under a high-emissions scenario. One Earth, 7(7), 1250-1265. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2024.06.012
O’Sullivan, M., Sitch, S., Friedlingstein, P., Luijkx, I. T., Peters, W., Rosan, T. M., Arneth, A., Arora, V. K., Chandra, N., Chevallier, F., Ciais, P., Falk, S., Feng, L., Gasser, T., Houghton, R. A., Jain, A. K., Kato, E., Kennedy, D., Knauer, J., ... Zaehle, S. (2024). The key role of forest disturbance in reconciling estimates of the northern carbon sink. Communications Earth and Environment, 5(1), Article 705. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01827-4