Research Statement

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Humans are having an ever-increasing influence on Earth, resulting in global changes that impact ecological systems and ecological cycles. These global changes have altered the trace gas composition of the atmosphere, changed the abundances and distributions of water and nutrients, and facilitated the spread of invasive species. Over the past five decades, the Ehleringer Lab studied these interactions among the global change drivers, ecosystem form and function, and the responses of plant species in boreal, desert, temperate, amd tropical ecosystems. Our experimental approaches included physiological flux measurements, stable isotope analyses, and geographic information system (GIS) modeling. As I near retirement, my current research focuses on the ecophysiology, population dynamics and carbon-nitrogen cycles in three dominant Mojave Desert shrubs: Encelia farinosa, Encelia frutescens, and Ambrosia salsola. Our observations are now in their fifth decade of annual measurements, making these datasets critical to understanding how desert shrubs are responding to the current megadrought.

Research Interests

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General Interests

• Ecology & Conservation Biology
• Ecosystem Science
• Physiology & Functional Morphology
• Plant Biology

Specific Interests

• Global change ecology
• Urban ecology
• Plant adaptation