"Diurnal vs circacian patterns in the land-atmosphere exchanges of CO2 and H2O vapor"

Summary

The circadian clock acts as a central “orchestrator” of plant metabolism, meaning that it regulates the temporal pattern of expression as a function of time of day. Circadian regulation is nearly universal across phylogenies and affects ~10% of the genome in mammals and ~ 30% in plants. Processes under circadian regulation include defense responses to pathogens, pollination, cold acclimation, photosynthesis and respiration and even diurnal changes in the composition of the community of the associated microbiome, to name but a few. However, circadian regulation has been mostly studied at molecular scales, and its ecological implications have only seldom been considered. Here I will explore the ecological implications of circadian rhythms in gas exchange from leaves to canopies and across biomes.

Biography

I obtained my PhD at the University of Wyoming and have been a faculty member at the Universities of Castilla-la Mancha, Western Sydney and, since 2014, Lleida. My research program seeks to understand the interaction between endogenous and exogenous processes in the regulation of the trade-off between Carbon assimilation and water loss in plants under stress. In recent years, I have also developed an interest towards developing mechanistic and simple models of fire risk and in understanding plant responses to large wildfires and other extreme events. More information may be found at http://vicres.github.io