Welcome to Ram Oren's Lab
Located at the Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, our lab performs research on the interaction of plants with their physical environment. In particular, we investigate how forests influence the rate of mass (water and carbon) and energy exchange between the biosphere and atmosphere, and how the rates of these exchanges is affected by variation in plant-resource availability and climate, both spatially and temporally. Further work investigates the controls over carbon allocation among plant and ecosystem pools, and the rate of carbon movement among pools. In addition to contributing basic science, this research program informs on the effect on ecosystem services (carbon sequestration, water yields, timber production) of spatial and temporal variation in climate and resource availability. The broadest fields describing these types of studies are ecosystem physiology and hydro-ecology.
In our investigations we rely on principles and tools of plant and ecosystem physiology and ecology, plant-soil hydraulics and microclimate, and use both experiments and modeling. The experiments range in scale from individual leaves and organs (e.g., hydraulic properties of pine needles) to forest stands (e.g., the Duke Forest Free Air CO2 Enrichment [FACE] experiment). The models include a homegrown one-dimensional radiative transfer model for mixed conifer-broadleaved stands, and a homegrown one-dimensional canopy-conductance constrained carbon assimilation (4C-A) scheme, both employed using classical deterministic or hierarchical Bayesian modeling approach.
Oren’s lab often accepts externally-sponsored graduate students and visiting scholars from other U.S. and foreign universities who come to learn both measurement techniques and modeling.
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