Weixing Zhu is an ecosystem ecologist with broad interests in various environmental issues. An important ecosystem process his lab focuses on is nitrogen biogeochemical cycling; they are particularly interested in the fate of human-related, elevated input of nitrogen in natural forests. Watershed is a type of ecosystem in which anthropogenic pollution ends in surface and groundwater. Zhu and his students have been involved in the study of local headwater watersheds that drain ultimately to the Chesapeake Bay. Other research in his lab includes studies in urban ecosystem, exotic plant species invasion, restoration ecology, and plant-soil interactions.