Matt Austin, Ph.D.
Curator of Biodiversity Data
Herbarium
Research Interests
• Pollination ecology
• Global change biology
• Biodiversity conservation
Adam Smith, Ph.D.
Associate Scientist in Global Change Ecology
Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development
Research Interests
• Climate change vulnerability of threatened plant species
• Species distribution models
• Global change, conservation, biogeography, and macroecology
Investigating the effects of climate change on plant reproduction and physiology. Austin Austin is Curator of Biodiversity Data in the Herbarium interested in how plant-pollinator communities respond to environmental variability. Smith is an Associate Scientist in Global Change Ecology interested in addressing the impacts global change (climate change, land use/land cover, invasive species, etc.) will have on individual species and their communities and means by which human intervention can facilitate adaptive responses. Contemporary climate change has already altered many aspects of the natural world, including the timing of reproduction and physiological requirements. Many plants have been observed to shift the timing of their flowering earlier or later in the year as a result of the lengthening of the growing season. Likewise, the density of plant stomata (essentially, “nostrils” on leaves) has declined in some species as atmospheric CO2 levels have risen. However, to date, there has been very little examination of how changes in phenology and stomatal density might change together, and how their covariance is affected by water availability. Stomata are essential for plant physiology since they allow CO2 into the plant and O2 out, but they also are a key avenue for loss of water due to evapotranspiration. Thus, in water-stressed environments, stomata densities may decline due to increased availability of CO2 and limited water. In this project, the student will work with Drs. Austin and Smith to assess the relationship between stomatal densities and water availability. The participant will use herbarium specimens collected across the past 150 years to assess changes in stomatal densities. Depending on the availability of facilities, the participant may also conduct a greenhouse experiment manipulating water for the same species examined in the herbarium, to assess plasticity in stomatal densities. It is possible for the student participating in this project to receive co-authorship on a publication resulting from this work.