Sustainability Leadership Fellow Cohort: 2017-2018
Ph.D. Student, Department of Biology and Graduate Degree Program in Ecology
Research Summary:I study the different strategies that grasses use to deal with drought. As soil dries, some grasses play it safe and close the little pores on their leaves where water is exchanged for carbon dioxide, the building block for plant food. Bolder grasses, however, leave their pores open during drought to continue making food at the risk of losing too much water and causing whole leaves to die – a huge waste of energy for the plant. I use these strategies to explain how drought can limit plant growth in North American grasslands, which provide food for beef cattle.