Xiaoli studies the spatial self-organization and emergent properties of ecosystems at multiple scales. Two general questions of interest are: (1) how do local interactions among ecological agents give rise to emergent properties at the landscape scale? And (2) how does geomorphic evolution of landscapes interact with biological evolution of organisms at the time scale relevant to both processes? Xiaoli is particularly interested in developing general theoretical frameworks to understand how an ecosystem works. The primary approach applied is mathematical modeling, combined with monitoring and/or experimental data collected from the field.