This project is investigating how native plants alter their water use patterns with changes in the environment and with management practices. By better understanding how plants compete and use their resources, we can develop more efficient management systems for water production. This project investigates water use over a variety of scales from leaf level physiological parameters -- carbon assimilation, transpiration, water relations, and growth rates -- to individual plants and to small watersheds. The projects listed below explain the objectives and goals of our various research programs.
Research Projects
- Rangeland watershed research (with Dr. Brad Wilcox and Dr. Bob Knight)
- The effects of prescribed fires on water quality
- Soil water infiltration enhancement via surface treatments (with Dr. Robert K. Lyons)
- Light compensation points of juvenile juniper trees for photosynthesis and water use.
- Water use by juvenile and resprouting trees and shrubs
- Water use of native ornamental shrubs
- Rainfall Interception and Transpiration by Ashe Juniper