Gerard Sapes
Postdoctoral Associate/Research Scientist, University of Florida, USA
Gerard seeks to understand why plants die and find the key physiological factors that can predict when plants will die from drought. Some of these factors include the amount of water within living tissues of plants, the quantity of air bubbles in their vascular system, and the amount of sugars that plants have stored to use during times of stress. I am also interested in the role that other living organisms such as fungi or bark beetles can have on amplifying or reducing stress and affect risk of tree mortality. With his research, he aims to provide tools to forecast tree mortality at a global scale by understanding processes that occur within a tree. Formerly a post doc at the University of Minnesota focused on spectral detection of oak wilt and drought, he is now a researcher at the University of Florida working with Bill Hammond on spectral physiology.