US-Germany Cooperative Research: Combined Imaging of Plant Growth and Photosynthesis from the Cellular to the Ecosystem Level

0340609 Rascher This award supports Uwe Rascher and students from Columbia University in a collaboration with Achim Walter of the Institute of Phytosphere Research at the Foschungszentrum Juelich, Germany. The research will focus on photosynthesis and growth as key processes in determining the overall performance of plants and ecosystems. Both processes are dynamic, heterogeneous in space and time, and depend on a spectrum of environmental factors. Currently empirical connections between growth processes of different organs are established and can be used for scaling between different levels of plant organization. The central aims of this project are to evaluate the range of dynamic growth distributions within the canopy of different model species; to analyze leaf growth distributions as a function of various environmental factors; to test the correlations between fluctuations of growth, photosynthesis and environmental parameters; and to identify molecular and physiological mechanisms that mediate between photosynthetic energy acquisition and plant growth. A second aim of this project is to facilitate the exchange of young researchers within an established international cooperation between a research institute in Germany and Columbia University's Biosphere 2 Center. Presently, the group investigates interactions between growth and photosynthesis of plants and plant communities as quantified by non-destructive, novel imaging techniques and determines the underlying physiological processes.