Zhengyu Liu

About

Zhengyu Liu is the Max Thomas Professor of Climate Dynamics in the Department of Geography at The Ohio State University. His research focuses on the modeling and understanding of the global climate system and ocean-atmosphere-land interactions, with applications to climate change and climate variability of the past, present, and future. His projects include modeling climate variability on seasonal to interdecadal time scales, as well as the climate changes associated with the last glacial/interglacial cycles and future global warming. Liu is also interested in the dynamics of the general oceanic circulation and geophysical fluid dynamics. He holds a Ph.D. in Physical Oceanography from MIT, an M.S.. in Dynamic Meteorology from the Chinese Academy of Science, and a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from Nanjing Institute of Meteorology, China. Liu has contributed extensively to the field through research, publications, and teaching, including courses in dynamic meteorology and climate change.

Research topics

• Physical geography
• Oceanography
• Climatology
• Geography
• Paleontology
• Geology
• Environmental science
• Earth science
• Geomorphology

Selected publications

• Seasonal origin of the thermal maxima at the Holocene and the last interglacial

  Nature · 2021 · 352 citations

  DOI

• Antarctic surface temperature and elevation during the Last Glacial Maximum

  Science · 2021 · 239 citations

  Water-stable isotopes in polar ice cores are a widely used temperature proxy in paleoclimate reconstruction, yet calibration remains challenging in East Antarctica. Here, we reconstruct the magnitude and spatial pattern of Last Glacial Maximum surface cooling in Antarctica using borehole thermometry and firn properties in seven ice cores. West Antarctic sites cooled ~10°C relative to the preindustrial period. East Antarctic sites show a range from ~4° to ~7°C cooling, which is consistent with th…

  DOI

• Hydroclimate footprint of pan-Asian monsoon water isotope during the last deglaciation

  Science Advances · 2021 · 226 citations

  depletion in the AM region is accompanied by a northward migration of the westerly jet and enhanced southwesterly monsoon wind, as well as increased rainfall from South Asia (India) to northern China but decreased rainfall in southeast China.

  DOI

• Global mean sea level over the past 4.5 million years

  Science · 2025-10-16 · 19 citations

  articleOpen access

  Changes in global mean sea level (GMSL) during the late Cenozoic remain uncertain. We use a reconstruction of changes in δ 18 O of seawater to reconstruct GMSL since 4.5 million years ago (Ma) that accounts for temperature-driven changes in the δ 18 O of global ice sheets. Between 4.5 and 3 Ma, sea level highstands remained up to 20 m above present whereas the first lowstands below present suggest onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation at 4 Ma. Intensification of global glaciation occurred from…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Mega‐Tripolar Precipitation Change Accompanying Water Isotopes in Holocene Asian Summer Monsoon Reanalysis

  Geophysical Research Letters · 2025-09-03 · 8 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Abstract The climatic interpretations of speleothem δ 18 O c records over Asian summer monsoon (ASM) region have been controversial. Here, combining speleothem δ 18 O c records with the first transient Holocene simulation of an isotope‐enabled earth system model, we reconstruct a dynamically consistent spatio‐temporal evolution of the ASM precipitation using paleoclimate data assimilation. Our reconstruction finds a new mega‐tripolar pattern of precipitation variations accompanying a continental…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: P2C2--isotope-enabled TRAnsient Climate Evolution of the last 21,000 years (iTRACE21)----Understanding Deglacial Climate/Isotope Changes Using iCESM

  NSF · $135k · 2017–2019

• NIH Grant K08HL075410

  NIH · $667k · 2009

• Collaborative Research: Pliocene and Pleistocene transient climate simulations and model-proxy comparisons for surface temperature and monsoon circulation

  NSF · $62k · 2011–2016

Frequent coauthors

• Bette L. Otto‐Bliesner

  NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research

  127 shared

• Shaoqing Zhang

  115 shared

• Liang Ning

  Nanjing Normal University

  64 shared

• Mi Yan

  64 shared

• Lixin Wu

  Laoshan Laboratory

  62 shared

• Esther C. Brady

  NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research

  61 shared

• Jian Liu

  China Meteorological Administration

  55 shared

• Jiaxu Zhang

  51 shared

Similar researchers at Ohio State University

• Bryan Markh-68
• Harvey Millerh-49
• Man-Yau (Joseph) Chanh-44