Ecohydrology
Group
Department
of Geography
& Department of Environment and
Sustainability
D. Scott
Mackay is Professor of Ecohydrology.
His research examines plant responses
to environmental stress using plant
hydraulics, biophysical modeling, and
Bayesian analysis. His research group
studies how drought, heat, and biotic
disturbances combine to threaten
forests, crops, and the security of
plant-based food, fiber, and energy
production. They use a
systems approach, build biophysical
process-based
models, and synthesize data from
sensors, biometric measurements, and
genomics to reveal emergent plant
traits, water and carbon cycling,
and plant-microbe associations. Our research
topics and associate research findings
are described below.
Heat,
Drought, and Tree Mortality
Healthy
forests are carbon sinks, but
when trees die they become
carbon sources. Forests also
transpire 40% of the global
average precipitation falling
on land areas, a so they are a
key component of the
land-atmosphere energy
balance. Our research products
on tree mortality include:
Scientists
have long sought to be able to peer
into the subsurface to see how root
processes interact with other
processes occurring below ground. We
developed a novel
modeling approach that provides
one "lens" for seeing below the
surface. We ask how does root
growth prior to and during drought
allow trees to adjust their water
uptake depths to sustain their
access reliable water sources? Here you can read
about our findings:
Subsurface
hydrology has received less
attention compared to
aboveground processes for
predicting the physiological
responses of plants to drought.
Our
work fills this gap by
considering the integrated
systems of plant hydraulics and
groundwater hydrology. Here you can
read about our findings:
Biotic
disturbances are an
integral part of whole
ecosystems responses to
environmental dynamics,
but the roles they play in
integrated systems remains
only partly known. Here you
can read about our
findings:
Plant
traits interact with
environmental conditions
to affect plant growth and
productivity. By examining
these interactions using
crop species and
biophysical process-based
models, we are improving
understanding of
mechanisms by manipulating
both plant traits and
their environment. This
provides a robust
hypothesis testing
framework to study traits
that are transferable to
natural settings and novel
environmental conditions.
Here you
can read about our
findings:
We have
asked how species, plant
age, disturbance, and
spatial gradients
associated with edaphic,
topographic, and
micrometeorologic
dynamics affect
evapotranspiration. This
research provided the
empirical and
theoretical foundation
for the Terrestrial
Regional Ecosystem
Exchange Simulator
(TREES), our
biophysical
process-based model
for understanding
plant ecophysiological
responses to
environmental stress.
Here you can read
about our findings:
