Biodiversity Research Seminar Series (BRS)
BRS: CANCELLED
April 8, 2020, 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Timothy Perez "The ecophysiology of photosynthetic heat tolerances in tropical plants"
host: Sean Michaletz, cookies TBA
Abstract: Physiological thermal tolerances are often assumed to define the limits of species’ climatic niches, and there is a growing interest in understanding how heat tolerances can be used to predict species’ responses to climate change. In my talk, I provide a review of methods used to estimate heat tolerances in photosynthetic tissues, investigate if photosynthetic heat tolerances are constrained by climate and phylogeny, and propose a mechanistic explanation for variation in heat tolerances. I will also present results that use heat tolerances to model heat stress and explore the physiological drivers of decelerating growth in tropical trees.