RESEARCH
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Fieldwork at the Itatiaia National Park (RJ, Brazil), with Agata Gabriel and Rodrigo Brandt - Photo credit: F. Takashi
Research at the Plant Ecophysiology Lab depends upon teamwork and collaborations:
(1) Within the Univesity of Adelaide (e.g. students, staff, field/lab assistants, faculty);
(2) With national universities (e.g. UniSA, WSU, La Trobe);
(3) International universities and research centers (e.g. Universities of Oxford -UK, Bristol - UK, Bekeley -US, Utah - US, Rio de Janeiro - Brazil, STRI - Panama, Clermont-Auvergne - France); and
(4) Diverse industry sectors (e.g. Forestry SA, SA Water, SA Botanic Gardens).
Restinga of Massambaba (RJ/ Brazil) - Photo credit: I. Matos
During my master’s degree at the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro (RJ, Brazil), I conducted field and greenhouse experiments to investigate how positive interactions among shrubs and seedlings could enhance the drought resilience of Restingas, a Brazilian coastal vegetation. Although all studied species showed higher seedling survival rates beneath shrubs, a few species grew better on bare and drier soils. Those intriguing results made me wonder why some plants succumb while others resist droughts. Read More
Itatiaia National Park (RJ, Brazil) - Photo credit: I.Matos
To further evaluate the differential resilience of plants to drought, I left the coastal plains and climbed up to the top of the highest mountains in Brazil. In the Campos de Altitude, the grassland vegetation that covers those mountains summits, I developed my Ph.D. dissertation, which explored the differential vulnerability of plant communities to drought. During my Ph.D., I conducted a meta-analysis of rainfall manipulative experiments performed on grasslands to evaluate their overall stability (resilience, recovery, and resistance) in response to droughts. I also investigated three different functional strategies that plants from the Campos de Altitude exhibit in response to drought, which included drought-tolerance, foliar water storage, and foliar water absorption (i.e. the ability to absorb atmospheric sources of water through the leaves). Read more
Leaf venation of Baccharis uncinela (Asteracea) - Photo credit: I.Matos
In my postdoctoral position at the University of California at Berkeley I led a multicultural team of 28 graduate and undergraduate students to investigate the rules linking leaf venation architecture and function. Working on this NSF-funded and cutting-edge project allowed me to continue evaluating mechanisms of plant resistance and resilience to drought, but also expand into other important functional processes at the leaf-level scale (e.g. herbivory, mechanical damage). Read more
Lab Partners
Lab Partners
Research collaborators
Research collaborators
Adeline B. Sales
(Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Brazil)
Carolyn E. B. Proenca
(Universidade de Brasilia, Brazil)
Benjamin Blonder
(University of California at Berkeley, USA)
Cleiton B. Eller
(University of Exeter, UK)
Bruno H. P. Rosado
(Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Dulce Mantuano
(Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Bernardo M. Flores
(Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil)
Imma Oliveras
(University of Oxford, UK)
Marina Hirota
(Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil)
Thiago A. Amorim
(Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Oliver Binks
(Australian National University, Australia)
Mark Fricker
(University of Oxford, UK)
Sami W. Rifai
(University of New South Wales, Australia)
Patrick Meir
(Australian National University, Australia)
Myrna F. Landim
(Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Brazil)
Tina Christmann
(University of Oxford, UK)
Bianca Zorger
(Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Nariman Mahabadi
(University of Akron, USA)
Todd Dawson
(University of California at Berkeley, USA)
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