Recent Courses
EE BIOL 162 - Plant Physiology
EE BIOL 194B - Research Group or Internship Seminars: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Research Areas
Conservation Biology, Ecology, Physiological Ecology, Plant Biology, Tropical Biology
Research Interests
We are interested broadly in mechanisms underlying function and co-existence of plant species-- including responses to resources, tolerance of environmental challenges, and competition-- as well as the evolution and functional consequences of diversity in plant traits. We explore processes across scales ranging from molecules to ecosystems.
Examples of current research areas include hydraulics of leaves and whole plants; evolution and functional consequences of diversity in leaf designs; plant responses to resource supply combinations; scaling laws of plant design during evolution and ontogeny; evolutionary, ecological and conservation plant physiology; ecohydrology of native vs invasive dominated forests.
Selected Publications
Earles JM, Buckley TN, Brodersen CR, Busch FA, Cano FJ, Choat B, Evans JR, Farquhar GD, Harwood R, Huynh M, John GP, Miller ML, Rockwell FE, Sack L, Scoffoni C, Struik PC, Wu A, Yin X, Barbour MM., "Embracing 3D complexity in leaf carbon-water exchange", Trends in Plant Science, - (2018) [link].
Fletcher L, Cui H, Callahan H, Scoffoni C, John G, Bartlett M, Burge D, Sack L., "Evolution of leaf structure and drought tolerance in species of Californian Ceanothus", American Journal of Botany, - (2018) [link].
Medeiros C, Scoffoni C, John GP, Bartlett M, Inman-Narahari F, Ostertag R, Cordell S, Giardina C, Sack L., "An extensive suite of functional traits distinguishes wet and dry Hawaiian forests and enables prediction of species vital rates", Functional Ecology, - (2018) [link].
Scoffoni C, Albuquerque C, Cochard H, Buckley TN, Fletcher LR, Caringella MA, Bartlett M, Brodersen CR, Jansen S, McElrone AJ, Sack L., "The causes of leaf hydraulic vulnerability and its influence on stomatal conductance and photosynthetic rate in Arabidopsis thaliana", Plant Physiology, - (2018) [link].
Craven D, Knight TM, Barton KE, Bialic-Murphy L, Cordell S, Giardina CP, Gillespie TW, Ostertag R, Sack L, Chase JM., "OpenNahele: the open Hawaiian forest plot database", Biodiversity Data Journal, 6 : e28406- (2018) .
Ibanez T, Keppel G, Baider C, Birkinshaw C, Culmsee H, Cordell S, Florens V, Franklin J, Giardina C, Gillespie T, Laidlaw M, Litton C, Martin T, Ostertag R, Parthasarathy N, Randrianaivo R, Randrianjanahary M, Rajkumar M, Rasingam L, Ratovoson F, Reza L, Sack L, Aiba S, Webb E, Whitfeld T, Zang R, Birnbaum P., "Regional forcing explains local species diversity and turnover on tropical islands", Global Ecology and Biogeography, 4 : 474-486 (2018) .
John GP, Henry C, Sack L., "Leaf rehydration capacity: associations with other indices of drought tolerance and environment", Plant, Cell & Environment, 41 : 2638-2653 (2018) .
Johnson DJ, Needham J, Xu C, Massoud EC, Davies SJ, Anderson-Teizeira KJ, Bunyavejchewin S, Chambers JQ, Chang-Yang CH, Chiang JM, Chuyong GB, Ondit R, Cordell S, Fletcher C, Giardina CP, Giambelluca TW, Gunatilleke N, Gunatilleke S, Sieh CF, Hubbell S, Inman-Narahari F, Kassim AR, Katabuchi M, Kenfack D, Litton CM, Lum S, Mohamad M, Musalmah N, Ong PS, Ostertag R, Sack L, Swenson NG, Umana MN, Uriarte M, Valencia R, Yap S, Zimmerman JK, McDowell NG, McMahon SM., "Climate sensitive size-dependent survival in tropical trees", Nature Ecology and Evolution, 2 : 1436-1442 (2018) .
LaManna JA, Mangan, SA, Alonso A, Bourg NA, Brockelman WY, Bunyavejchewin S, Chang L-W, Chiang J-M, Chuyong GB, Clay K, Condit R, Cordell S, Davies SJ, Furniss TJ, Giardina CP, Gunatilleke IAUN, Gunatilleke CVS, He F, Howe RW, Hubbell SP, Hsieh C-F, Inman-Narahari FM, Jan�k D, Johnson DJ, Kenfack D, Korte L, Kral K, Larson AJ, Lutz JA, McMahon SM, McShea WJ, Memiaghe HR, Nathalang A, Novotny V, Ong PS, Orwig DA, Ostertag R, Parker GG, Phillips RP, Sack L, Sun I-F, Tello JS, Thomas DW, Turner BL, Vela Diaz DM, Vr?ka T, Weiblen GD, Wolf A, Yap S, Myers JA, "Response to Comment on 'Plant diversity increases with the strength of negative density dependence at the global scale'", Science, 360 : eaar3824- (2018) .
LaManna JA, Mangan, SA, Alonso A, Bourg NA, Brockelman WY, Bunyavejchewin S, Chang L-W, Chiang J-M, Chuyong GB, Clay K, Condit R, Cordell S, Davies SJ, Furniss TJ, Giardina CP, Gunatilleke IAUN, Gunatilleke CVS, He F, Howe RW, Hubbell SP, Hsieh C-F, Inman-Narahari FM, Jan�k D, Johnson DJ, Kenfack D, Korte L, Kr�l K, Larson AJ, Lutz JA, McMahon SM, McShea WJ, Memiaghe HR, Nathalang A, Novotny V, Ong PS, Orwig DA, Ostertag R, Parker GG, Phillips RP, Sack L, Sun I-F, Tello JS, Thomas DW, Turner BL, Vela D�az DM, Vr?ka T, Weiblen GD, Wolf A, Yap S, Myers JA. 2018., "Response to Comment on ?Plant diversity increases with the strength of negative density dependence at the global scale"", Science, 360 : eaar5245- (2018) .