The Urban Trees Ecophysiology Network

Current: Bullard Fellow, Harvard Forest. Fall 2024: Assistant Professor in Environmental Sciences and Architecture. Meghan has a joint appointment in the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Architecture starting in August of 2024. Meghan received her BA from Middlebury College, where she studied dendroecology with her advisor Andrea Lloyd. She then completed her PhD at Harvard University in Organismal and Evolutionary Biology, working with plant physiologist Missy Holbrook and geneticist Robin Hopkins. She is currently a Bullard Fellow at the Harvard Forest and Postdoct affiliate at MIT and looking forward to joining the UVA faculty next year.

Jess Gersony is a plant physiologist, artist, and educator. She is passionate about exploring human-planet interactions through both scientific and artistic inquiry, and strives to do this work through an intersectional, social justice lens. The ultimate goals of her work are to increase and deepen our awareness of (and relationship to) the natural world, to further diversity, equity and inclusion in STEM spaces, and to improve our understanding of how plants are responding to climate change. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor at Smith College where she leads the PLACE (PLant physiology, Art, and Community Engagement) Lab. https://theplacelab.blog/about-us/

Dan received his B.S. and M.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from North Carolina State University. He received his Ph.D. in Plant Physiological Ecology from Wake Forest University in 2006 and was a postdoctoral research associate with the US Forest Service in Corvallis from 2007 to 2010. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Georgia. Dr. Johnson’s research interests are plant physiology and ecology. Particularly, he is interested in water limitations to plant distributions and productivity and xylem structure and function.

Professor, Département des sciences biologiques, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) Chair in urban forestry I am interested in green infrastructures and the effects of biodiversity on the functioning and resilience of forest ecosystems, both in the forest and in the city. My current research makes use of controlled experiments, simulations and long term field surveys to test the links between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in forest ecosystems. I am scientific coordinator of the International Diversity Experiment Network with Trees (IDENT), with several experiments established in North America, Africa and Europe. I also lead a research chair on the urban forest.

Post-doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, Finland. My work focuses on how trees function and acclimate in differing urban environmental conditions, with a particular interest in the emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) by urban trees.

Jeannie Wilkening is a President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Minnesota,Twin Cities. Her work bridges engineering, hydrology, and ecology to understand the drivers and feedbacks between plant function and changes in the physical environment. She received a PhD and MS in Environmental Engineering from UC Berkeley as an NSF Graduate Fellow, an MPhil in Earth Sciences from the University of Cambridge as a Churchill Scholar, and a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Arizona.

Xue’s group research aims to advance process understanding and representation of ecohydrological processes. We also apply this knowledge to improve carbon and hydrological predictions at the ecosystem and watershed scales. For UTEN, we are using remote sensing and machine learning methods in combination with field data to inform the magnitude and geographical extent of canopy water stress and its correlation with cooling benefits. feng.umn.edu

Senior Researcher at the National Council of Scientific Research (CONICET) of Argentina. I am a tree ecophysiologist and forest ecologist working on plant´s responses to abiotic stress as well as on the impact of forests in biogeochemical cycles. I work in natural and planted forests, and more recently, on urban forests. I am also Associate Editor of the journal Forest Systems and lecturer in graduate students courses at the EPG-Faculty of Agronomy, Univ. of Buenos Aires. More info at: https://sites.google.com/site/ecologiaforestaltandil/ Education: BS Degree in Biology (National Univ. of Córdoba, Argentina); PhD in Biology (Univ. of Comahue, Argentina).

A plant ecophysiologist whose PhD focused on unravelling the main physiological processes driving drought-induced tree mortality. Particularly interested in how, under extreme water stress, a decrease in plant’s relative water content, subsequent to the failure of plant’s vascular system, lead to cell death and particularly meristem death. Mantova's postdoc aims to understand how hotter droughts will affect the growth and survival of numerous genotypes of loblolly pine trees. https://twitter.com/MarylouMantova

Plant ecophsyiolgist, studying trees’ response to climate change in drylands. Seeks to understand tree’s functionality capabilities in urban environment and how trees mitigate the urban heat island, reducing thermal comfort. Aiming to know better how trees operate under stress and how to measure it.

Dr. Beatriz Salgado-Negret is an Associate Professor in the Biology Department at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Bogotá). She holds a PhD in Biological Sciences with a specialization in Ecology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Her research in functional ecology aims to uncover the underlying processes and mechanisms that drive the distribution of plant species, their responses to environmental changes, and their influence on ecosystem processes. This research approach offers significant insights and practical tools for the conservation, management, and restoration of endangered forest ecosystems in tropical regions.

Dr. Winbourne is a terrestrial biogeochemist and global change ecologist at University of Massachusetts, Lowell in the Department of Environmental, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences. Broadly, Winbourne is interested in how plants and soils regulate the movement of carbon, nutrients, and water in terrestrial ecosystems, and how these essential ecosystem processes respond to human activities, such as urbanization. More information is available on lab website: www.joywinbourne.com

Senior Researcher at the National Council of Scientific Research (CONICET) of Argentina. I am a tree ecophysiologist and forest ecologist. My research interests include deciphering the mechanisms that allow different species -and genotypes within them- to resist abiotic stress factors increased in the framework of climate change, and how to manage them to improve their resistance and resilience both in rural and urban environments. I also aim to quantify different ecosystems services provided by trees and forests in order to promote their use as green solutions for different environmental challenges. I am also Editor-in-Chief of the journal Forest Ecology and Management. More info about my research at https://sites.google.com/site/ecologiaforestaltandil/ Education: BS Degree in Biology (National Univ. of Mar del Plata, Argentina); PhD in Biology (Univ. of Comahue, Argentina).

Assistant Professor of Plant Ecophysiology Bill is a plant ecophysiologist and global change ecologist. Broadly, he is interested in how plants respond to extreme environmental conditions—especially regarding their function, dysfunction, and the limits of survival. Current research includes understanding the hydraulic and thermal limits of plant life on Earth. More information is available on his lab website at https://ecophyslab.com. Education: BS in Biology, University of Central Oklahoma PhD in Plant Biology, Oklahoma State University

I hold a background in Physics, and my current research focuses on unraveling the intricate dynamics of water and carbon within the soil-plant-atmosphere system. My goal is to craft elegant mathematical models that succinctly capture the essence of the real-world phenomena I study.

Dr Renée Marchin Prokopavicius is a plant ecophysiologist who studies the effects of warming, drought, and heatwaves on plant function. Her research aims to better understand the impacts of climate change on natural ecosystems and urban forests. The combination of drought and heatwaves poses a serious threat to tree survival. Her research has documented some surprising physiological responses of plant leaves to high temperatures, identified heat-tolerant species and their associated plant functional traits, and ultimately helped guide species selection for restoration and urban greening projects in Australia.

Institute of Plant Sciences, ARO, The Volcani Center Studies plant ecology, physiology and flowering mechanism

Studies the tree's response to heat waves, on multiple time scales. Develops advanced time series analysis tools and models to reveal hidden patterns in tree resilience. Developed the Trumpet IoT datalogger for UTEN. Plays the Trumpet, of course, as a professional jazz musician. Nepenthes aficionado.

Dr. Grace John is an assistant professor in the Biology Department of the College of Liberal Art's and Sciences at the University of Florida. Her research focuses on plant functional anatomy and stress physiology in urban ecosystems. She received her PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles with a special focus on urban tree water use efficiency and drought tolerance. Her lab employs a combination of theoretical structure-function modeling, laboratory experiments, and field observations designed to leverage organismal responses to the environment as a bridge between processes at larger (i.e., ecosystems) and smaller (i.e., molecular) scales

Dr Ossola is an urban ecologist and Ast Professor of Urban Plant Science at the University of California, Davis. He is a Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and a former US National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine NRC Associate within the National Risk Management Research Laboratory of US-EPA in Cincinnati, Ohio. Dr Ossola is a recipient of a 2022 New Innovator Award from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR). Dr Ossola’s research focuses on urban ecology, climate change, forestry, water management, food production, urban planning and design. Website: urbansciencelab.ucdavis.edu/ Twitter: @lessandrOssola

coming soon...

I am Associate Professor of Plant Physiological Ecology at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. My research examines the evolved physiological mechanisms underpinning ecological patterns and processes, particularly those arising in response to abiotic stresses. I pursue this by combining trait measurements with natural experiments conducted at scales ranging from whole plants to entire ecosystems and in natural, agricultural and urban environments.