Search

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), I examined interactions between plants and the environment they live in along the soil-plant-atmospheric continuum and addressed the effects of drought and acid deposition on plant water use. Using a novel stable isotope technique, I showed that plant water source utilization can be modulated in some species based on the soil and atmospheric conditions they experience, whereas others only access a single subsurface water source. By modeling cuticular conductance in multiple plant species, I showed that the variability of cuticular conductance across species is largely related to the changes in leaf water potentials between pre-dawn and midday measurements collected in field studies. I also assessed the individual and combined effects of soil water stress and atmospheric water stress on plant productivity by developing a new methodology, which can be used across scales. In doing so, I found that in deciduous broad-leaf forests, periods of high vapor pressure deficit caused sufficient hydraulic stress to reduce plant productivity more than low soil water content alone, and often reduced productivity to levels equal to periods of both low soil water stress and high vapor pressure deficit. Utilizing historical data from a whole forest acidification experiment, I was able to link the stress of nutrient deficiencies caused by acid deposition (specifically calcium) to increases in plant water utilization. This was the first observation of such an effect at the ecosystem scale and could have significant implications for understanding water availability in the future. Finally, I assessed a common method for extracting cellulose from tree rings for isotope analyses, which is often used to determine the historical water use efficiency of plants. I was able to determine chemical alteration to the cellulose molecule using stable isotope measurements and spectroscopy. The chemical modification seems to be systemic and therefore could be addressed through mathematical corrections to existing data. Having accurate values of plant water use efficiency is extremely important for understanding how different stressors in the past changed the way plants used their water resources. My series of studies provide new insights and tools to evaluate the plant-environment interactions in current and future environments.

©2018. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. Southern African climate is characterized by large precipitation variability, and model precipitation estimates can vary by 70% during summer. This may be partly attributed to underestimation and lack of knowledge of the exact influence of the Atlantic Ocean on precipitation over the region. The current study models trajectories of precipitation events sampled from Windhoek (2012–2016), coupled with isotopes (δ18O, δ2H, δ17O, d, and δ′17O-δ′18O) to determine key local drivers of isotope compositions as well as infer source evaporative conditions. Multiple linear regression analyses suggest that key drivers of isotope compositions (relative humidity, precipitation amount, and air temperature) account for 47–53% of δ18O, δ2H, and δ17O variability. Surprisingly, precipitation δ18O, δ2H, and δ17O were independent of precipitation type (stratiform versus convective), and this may be attributed to greater modification of stratiform compared to convective raindrops, leading to convergence of isotopes from these precipitation types. Trajectory analyses showed that 78% and 21% of precipitation events during the period originated from the Indian and South Atlantic Oceans, respectively. Although precipitation from the Atlantic Ocean was significantly enriched compared to that from the Indian Ocean (p