lalithak [at] ncbs [dot] res [dot] in

Lalitha Krishnan (PhD student)

Climate change is inducing many changes in weather patterns, including an increase in the variability of rainfall, which will results in more pulsed rainfall patterns. These changes in rainfall have the potential to alter the structure of plant communities by altering the amount of water and soil nutrients (Nitrogen and Phosphorus in particular) that are available to plants. My PhD project aims to determine how dry deciduous trees and C4 grasses respond to pulsed rainfall patterns. To do this I will grow several species of dry deciduous trees and common C4 grasses in PVC tubes and subject them to various watering treatments, in which all plants receive the same total amount of water but the frequency changes from daily to weekly episodes. Furthermore I will attempt to predict changes in the total biomass of the different species by looking at various physiological and structural functional traits including photosynthesis and stomatal conductance as well as specific leaf area and specific root length and stomatal densities.