Lab postdoc Dr. Luiza Aparecido has been busy in Yasuní measuring photosynthesis rates on many of the common canopy-dominant species, but the work has been more challenging than expected. Everything has been going well with our side of experiments, which focus on understanding how vein architecture affects photosynthetic responses to leaf damage. Above our student…

Off to the Amazon – two weeks ago Dr. Luiza Aparecido and I headed to eastern Ecuador to start a new ecophysiology project. We are working with Dr. Renato Valencia, his student Emily Guevara, botanist Pablo Alvia, and Dr. Rafael Cárdenas (all at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador) to better understand tradeoffs underlying herbivory…

(guest post via the American Geophysical Union blog) Greetings from Panama! Here is a snapshot of one day of nearly thirty of postdocs Dr. Hugo Candido and I (Dr. Luiza Aparecido) collecting gas exchange data from mature tropical trees at the STRI Sherman/San Lorenzo crane site in Panama. To compensate my fear of heights and…

Undergraduate researcher Sabrina Woo just accepted two prestigious awards here at ASU – a ‘true grit’ award, and a ‘student of the year’ award. They are both well-deserved. Sabrina joined us a year ago, and has done a great job working in both the desert and in the wet lab, while also taking good care…