I am a researcher in plant ecophysiology and ecology, passionate about understanding the mechanisms that drive plant responses to environmental change. My work focuses on how plants find solutions to their existential problems—survival, growth, and reproduction—in their silent, sessile world full of competition, limited resources, disturbances, and extreme events (much like us, humans!). 

What fascinates me is how plants solve these challenges through what we call “plant strategies” a term that refers to the specific combinations of traits plants adopt and evolve to thrive in a given environment. Strategies are environment-specific; there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Plants are subtle and complex organisms, and they must respond to adversity in smart, adaptive ways. Every strategy involves trade-offs—because nothing is perfect, and every decision comes with costs and benefits. 

Take drought, for example. To avoid dehydration and hydraulic failure, plants must conserve water by closing the tiny pores on their leaves (called stomata—from the Greek word for “mouth”). But closing their mouths means no more carbon dioxide can enter their cells, halting photosynthesis. So what now? Die of thirst or starve? Luckily, plants are more resourceful than that. They balance this trade-off by boosting their photosynthetic capacity to compensate for stomatal closure. I study these kinds of strategic adaptations—how plants optimize their gains versus costs in ever-changing environments, and how these responses affect population fitness and community structure. I am particularly interested in assessing these strategies in response to atmospheric and soil dryness, in interaction with soil nutrients and soil microbial communities. Ultimately, as an ecologist, my goal is to understand how plant strategies scale up to shape ecosystem functioning and stability.