Disentangling light, temperature and water effects on the carbon balance of Mediterranean woodlands
Last August, Functional Plant Biology published online our paper on the effects of soil water and temperature on light inhibition in Mediterranean holm oak forests. There is a long story behind this paper. More than ten years ago now, in December 2006, I found myself sleeping at -15°C in a beautiful Mediterranean continental holm oak woodland, in one of the most remote areas of Western Europe with three fabulous scientists: Fernando Valladares, Owen Atkin and Joana Zaragoza-Castells. They handed me a thick operational manual, a torch lamp and a very heavy grey suitcase. I had no-idea what I was about to get myself into. For me, that campaign turned out to be a landmark not only for my career, but also for my life. During that week, I learned the basis of how plants take and use carbon and how light, water availability and temperature up- and down-regulate these processes. That field campaign was followed by six more while we followed acclimation of photosynthesis and respiration in the light and in the dark. The years went by and none of us had found the opportunity to get that dataset into publishable form. Fortunately for us, Mathew Turnbull decided to visit Josep Peñuelas lab in CREAF. During that visit, the team at CREAF measured photosynthesis, light and dark respiration on the same species, but under two levels of water availability. Mathew brought together these two datasets and found that the degree of light inhibition by respiration is quite conserved regardless of the growth temperature and water availability. Read the whole story here.
Reference:
Turnbull, Ogaya, Barbeta, Peñuelas, Zaragoza-Castells, Atkin, Valladares, Gimeno, PÃas & Griffin (2017) Light inhibition of foliar respiration in response to soilwater availability and seasonal changes in temperaturein Mediterranean holm oak (Quercus ilex) forest. Functional Plant Biology. DOI: 10.1071/FP107032
PS On that first campaign in 2006 I learned that I had won a scholarship to carry on a PhD with Fernando Valladares. After meeting, Owen Atkin on that same campaign, later he invited me to collaborate on an experiment in his lab at the Australian National University. On that trip to Australia, I met David Ellsworth who later would be my postdoc supervisor, again in Australia. During that postdoc, it turns out I also met my husband!