Travis E. Huxman Research Group

University of California, Irvine

How do plant traits and water-carbon coupling control ecosystem responses to drought and precipitation pulses? The lab documents ecohydrological consequences of drought and tree die‑off by measuring carbon and water fluxes across arid landscapes to link plant physiology to ecosystem-scale gas exchange. Researchers compare leaf‑ to ecosystem‑level CO2 fluxes and soil respiration sensitivity across gradients of shrub encroachment and soil texture using field flux measurements and synthesis approaches. The group investigates precipitation pulse effects on plant and microbial responses using chamber and isotopic partitioning methods to separate transpiration and evaporation. They use cross‑biome syntheses and modeling to scale cellular and plant processes to landscape carbon‑water coupling.