Trees play a crucial role in the human experience, offering ecosystem services like clean air and forestry products. However, they also have a deeper significance: providing joy, curiosity, and cultural value that can enhance our mood and enrich our lives.
I am a graduate student In Dan Johnson’s Tree Physiology Lab in the Warnell School of Forestry at the University of Georgia (UGA). My goal is to build on our understanding of how trees and forests operate to guide land management decisions that will support forest persistence in a changing world. -Vanessa
Trees require carbon dioxide taken into their leaves, but that can leave them vulnerable to water stress under low water conditions. One piece of my research focuses on how different tree species manage their water under water stress, so that we can make better predictions about their survival under changing conditions.
Favorite links
Some of my current favorite links to share data with others
Climate.gov
Tracking climate change and natural variability over time
IPCC Synthesis Report for Policy Makers (1.5 C)
Key findings of the IPCC Special Report, based on the assessment of the available scientific, technical, and socio-economic literature relevant to global warming of 1.5 C and for the comparison between global warming of 1.5 C and 2 C above pre-industrial levels.
ILEX- Tree Identification and Exploration Tool
An online plant identification tool, created by faculty and students at UNC Greensboro. Created to assist in online dendrology coursework during COVID-19
The National Map Viewer
Base-layer GIS data available from the USGS. Access topographic maps, LiDAR point cloud data, and state boundary shape files
“Wood is a marvelous tissue; it never ceases to fascinate me, be it as a construction
material for buildings, ships, fine musical instruments, or as the delicate structure
one sees in the microscope. Wood is described in standard plant anatomy texts, and in books that are entirely devoted to it.”
— Tyree and Zimmermann, Xylem Structure and the Ascent of Sap (2002)
Vanessa Gremler | Tree Physiological Ecologist 