The Dryland Plant Ecophysiology Lab | Desert Botanical Garden

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The Dryland Plant Ecophysiology Lab studies plant ecophysiology traits that underlie adaptation to heat waves, drought and other stressors. We use the most up-to-date approaches to study plant water relations, photosynthesis and growth to better understand how plants respond to stressful environmental conditions. We seek to identify solutions for restoring and conserving dryland forests, plant communities, and sensitive species threatened by global environmental change.

Projects

Urban landscaping for a cooler future

The heat island effect is extreme in the arid Southwest and are poised to increase in intensity due to population growth and climate change. With collaborators at the School of Earth Sciences and the Environment at Arizona State University, the DPEL is combining...

Plant responses to heat stress

Water loss in plants has commonly been considered only as a cost of photosynthetic carbon gain. However, plants may use water in ways that may not necessarily optimize instantaneous carbon gain, but instead as a strategy for leaf evaporative cooling. The DPEL and...

The distinctive form and function of giant cactus

Giant cactus are among the most charismatic and iconic plant life forms on the planet, but many giant cactus species are threatened by the effects of climate change. At the Dryland Plant Ecophysiology Lab (DPEL) the staff studies the distinctive physiological features...

Tree ecophysiology in dryland riparian ecosystems

Riparian forests are among the most threatened in North America as a consequence of altered hydrological conditions, invasive species and climate change. The Dryland Plant Ecophysiology Lab seeks to identify tree ecophysiological traits that underlie adaptation to...

Meet the Team

Kevine Hultine

Kevin Hultine (Ph.D.)

Lab director / Plant Ecophysiologist

Hultine’s expertise involves studying how plants cope with environmental stress in desert ecosystems in urban, riparian and upland areas. He is focused on the duel effects of drought and thermal stress on plants and ecosystems in dryland regions worldwide. He applies stable isotope methods, measurements in plant water relations and measurements of plant carbon allocation and storage to improve the understanding of how desert plant systems function at multiple scales.

Google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=04hEUKIAAAAJ&hl=en

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9747-6037

khultine@dbg.orgphone: 480.481.8195

Lab Director / Plant Ecophysiologist

Natalie Melkonoff

Kelly kerr (ph.d)

Kelly received her PhD from the University of Utah. Her research interests revolve around the resiliency of forest tree species to climate change. She is particularly interested in using tree physiology, genetics and modeling to understand and predict tree species’ responses to the environment.

 

Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Santa Barbara

Bush-pic

Susan Bush (Ph.D)

Bush is a global change ecologist whose research has largely focused on fluxes of carbon and water in both urban and natural ecosystems. Her research effort has spanned scales from leaf-level gas exchange and xylem vascular hydraulics of individual plants to landscape scale investigations of water and carbon exchange with the atmosphere as impacted by anthropogenic factors (urbanization, invasive species, and climate change).

Google Scholar Profile

 

Field Ecology Program Director

Madelin-Moran-1

Madeline Moran (M.S.)

M.S. Plant Biology and Conservation, Arizona State University (In progress)
Huizingh Desert Research Fellowship Award

Moran’s background is in plant ecology/conservation and environmental education. Moran’s research interests include how plants physically respond to environmental stress, the implications of those responses within their ecosystem and finding community-based solutions to conservation issues. Currently, she is working on her masters about how the thermal tolerance of cottonwood leaves differs in varying climate conditions and how increasing temperatures might alter the efficacy of photosynthesis in these trees.

Madeline Moran was recently awarded the Huizingh Desert Research Fellowship. The award provides five years of funded to support her PhD program to study the thermal tolerance of plants exposed to heat stress. Madeline becomes the second student to receive this prestigious award. Congratulations Madeline!

memoran3@asu.edu

Ph.D. Arizona State University/Desert Botanical Garden (In progress)
Huizingh
Desert Research Fellowship Award

Dan Koepke

Dan Koepke (M.S.)

Plant Functional & Physiological Ecology Research Assistant

Koepke assists lab personnel and colleagues with field and laboratory projects. His work focuses on plant hydraulics and seeks to identify morphological and physiological traits that respond to environmental stresses, and how these traits are interrelated. In turn, information about trait expression improves the ability of site managers to restore ecosystems faced with environmental change.

Google Scholar Profile

dkoepke@dbg.org

Senior Research Assistant

Natalie Melkonoff

Natalie Melkonoff (B.S.)

PhD. Biology, Arizona State University/Desert Botanical Garden (In progress)

Melkonoff’s work is focused on the interactions between plants and animals and how the physiological processes of both impact their interdependence on one another and their ability to thrive under different environmental stressors. She is currently working on her Ph.D. with a focus on the interactions between milkweed, monarch butterflies and pollinators in the Sonoran Desert. She also coordinates Desert Botanical Garden’s monarch and pollinator conservation initiative, Great Milkweed Grow Out.

nmelkonoff@dbg.org480.941.3516

Ph.D. University of Arizona/Desert Botanical Garden (In progress)

Mushroom-Pic-1-1024×1024

Ali Schussler (M.S.)

Ali manages the plant physiology and molecular labs. Where she works with the traits and function of traits in desert and arid riparian plants, along with the genomics and phylogenies of agave, cactus and other desert plants. One of her personal research interests is on dark septate endophytic fungi and how they influence plants in desert and riparian systems, where these fungi are potentially aiding plant growth regulator production, nutrient and water uptake and other positive plant growth responses.  

 

Lab Manager

Natalie Melkonoff

Jessica Guo (PH.D)

Guo is a plant ecologist and data scientist intrigued by plant strategies for surviving arid environments. She is particularly interested in disentangling the temporal patterns of plant responses to environmental extremes and uses Bayesian statistical approaches to evaluate empirical measurements from the field and lab. Guo also loves to teach reproducibility and data science skills in R. 

 

 

Data Science Program Director

Natalie Melkonoff

Brad Posch (Ph.D)

Dr. Posch is a plant ecophysiologist who studies how plants respond to environmental stressors such as heat and drought. Posch received his Ph.D. from the Australian National University and has worked as a postdoc under Dr. Nick Smith at Texas Tech University. Although Posch’s research focuses on leaf gas exchange, he is also interested in the biochemical processes underlying physiological responses to warming.

Google Scholar

ResearchGate

Bposch@dbg.org

Plant Ecophysiologist 

Natalie Melkonoff

SUSAN ALBOR (B.S)

Susan Albor’s background is in soil ecology and environmental science. Albor’s research interests include studying interactions between plants and mycorrhizal fungi and how plant traits are shaped by their relationships with beneficial soil microbes. Currently she is working on her PH.D. studying how plant microbe interactions may increase the thermal tolerance of plants when exposed to heat stress. Susan Albor’s received a prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation to support her doctoral studies.

Ph.D. Arizona State University/Desert Botanical Garden (In progress)

Lab Updates

New paper published by former PhD student Dr. Giacomo Mozzi

Paper recently published in the Annals of Botany showing how the succulent leaves differ from non-succulent leaves in their structure and function.

New paper published by Postdoctoral Research Associate, Dr. Brad Posch

Paper recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showing how leaf cooling boosts tree survival during intense heat waves.

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Nov. 29, 30 & Dec. 1: Last Garden entry is 3 p.m. The Garden will reopen at 5:30 p.m. to Las Noches de las Luminarias ticket holders.