Eleinis Ávila-Lovera
Assistant Professor
Office/Building: ASB 540
Phone: 801-213-1115
Email: eleinis.avila@biology.utah.edu
Ávila-Lovera Site: https://eleinisavila.wixsite.com/my-site
Research Statement
I am a plant ecophysiologist interested in understanding how plants respond to and tolerate drought. Mechanisms of drought tolerance involve a set of traits that allow plants to cope with the negative effects of water limitation, which also affect survival. My research focuses on one of these drought survival traits: the presence of photosynthetic stems. A lot of my work has focused on studying the physiology and ecology of stem photosynthesis in both temperate (e.g., Mediterranean-climate ecosystems and deserts) and tropical latitudes (e.g., xerophytic shrublands and dry forests) and its responses to a changing climate.
Research Interests
General Interests
Selected Publications
- Ávila-Lovera E, Winter K, Goldsmith GR (2022) Evidence for phylogenetic signal and correlated evolution in plant-water relations traits. New Phytologist 10.1111/nph.18565
- Berry ZC, Ávila-Lovera E, De Guzman ME, O’Keefe K, Emery NC (2021) Beneath the bark: assessing woody stem water and carbon fluxes and its prevalence across climates and the woody plant phylogeny. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change 4: 675299
- Ávila-Lovera E, Garcillán PP, Silva-Bejarano C, Santiago LS (2020) Functional traits of leaves and photosynthetic stems of species from a sarcocaulescent scrub in the southern Baja California Peninsula. American Journal of Botany 107(10): 1410-1422.
- Ávila-Lovera E, Haro R*, Ezcurra E, Santiago LS (2019) Costs and benefits of photosynthetic stems in desert species from southern California. Functional Plant Biology 46(2): 175-186.
- Ávila-Lovera E, Zerpa AJ, Santiago LS (2017) Stem photosynthesis and hydraulics are coordinated in desert plant species. New Phytologist 216(4): 1119-1129.