Research Interests:

I am investigating strategies used by plants to optimize the distribution of water through their highly branched vascular systems. These studies will further our understanding of factors that increase plant performance under various drought conditions. 

Specific questions being investigated in my lab include:  How do plants remove air embolisms in the plant xylem when water potentials are negative?  Can plants alter the bio-mechanical strength of the bordered pit membranes that separate xylem conduits?  How does the wounding of the xylem tissue impact the measure of hydraulic resistance? and How do plants regulate leaf shape with respect to crown position within individual trees and along a latitudinal gradient?

If you interested in conducting research in my lab then please click below:

•  2009-10 research

•  summer research 
  
  If you need more information on the procedures to enroll for research credit then follow this link:  
  Information on the procedures to conduct research.

Other Involvement

 Premedical Sciences Advisory Committee Member

Most recent presentation

"Dying for a good cause - xylem pays the ultimate price for transpiration". UCLA's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology: Discovering Nature Series. Spring 2010.

Abstract:

Leaf photosynthetic performance is directly related to leaf water status. The xylem provide the hydraulic connection between water located in the soil and the leaf. Because the hydraulic resistance of this connection impacts the rate of water supply to leaves it has been used to characterize plant adaptations to their environment. In this presentation I will discuss the role of the living and dead cells in translocating fluids from the soil to the leaf. I will also discuss the importance of two non-trivial issues that greatly compromise our ability to fully characterize xylem properties in plants. The first is focused on the role of the living cells in meditating a xylem wound response that causes errors in our estimation of stem hydraulic resistance (by up to 80% in some tree species). The second issue deals with the difficulty in measurement error that results from opening non-functional flow paths when hydraulic measurements are made on excised tissues that contain multiple years of xylem growth. Results from a new measurement protocol to deal with this issue will also be discussed.