RESEARCH
We address questions about plant responses to the environment across a variable and changing world. Our research focuses primarily on carbon cycling in leaves—respiration and photosynthesis—how these fluxes vary across different settings and different species, and the impact of these changes on the greater ecosystem.
Ecology examines the interconnectedness of the natural world and how biological processes shift and adapt with the environment. All my research is fundamentally a team endeavor - all studies mentioned below have multiple authors ranging in level from undergraduate to senior scientists and full professors.
If you are interested in doing research in the lab, please read about the following projects and questions and make an appointment to discuss which might be most interesting to work on!
Ecology examines the interconnectedness of the natural world and how biological processes shift and adapt with the environment. All my research is fundamentally a team endeavor - all studies mentioned below have multiple authors ranging in level from undergraduate to senior scientists and full professors.
If you are interested in doing research in the lab, please read about the following projects and questions and make an appointment to discuss which might be most interesting to work on!
Complexity and change in the warming Arctic tundra
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How do plants alter their carbon cycling under different environments?
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How can we model impacts of historic and future CO2 levels on plant function?
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Place-based, student-led research
- Undergraduate research and serving as a mentor to novel research ideas is fundamental to my role as a professor at Macalester. Sometimes this means taking a totally new research direction - some examples of how we have incorporated new methods and ideas below:
- Elizabeth Hrycyna ('21) used satellite data from TROPOMI via Google Earth Engine to examine NO2 variation in US Midwestern cities, and how it might align with historic redlining. This study started as an Honors thesis in Spring 2019, and evolved a lot over time - from a field-based idea, to a database idea, to remote sensing. With support from collaborators Saiido Noor ('23) and Jennings Mergenthal ('21), this study turned into a manuscript that is now published in Elementa as of Summer 2022!
- There are open questions for lab members to explore on local, urban ecological issues such as Emerald Ash Borer and shade deficits and temperature impacts, as well as work in global change experiments like Cedar Creek and SPRUCE!