Sustainability

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Global warming is changing the habitability of many places for many species on Earth. Plants occupy the largest portion of the land surface and understanding thermo-adaptation in plants is critical and timely for global sustainability, food security and species conservation. This is a new focus for collaboration between molecular biologists and ecologists. In the 1970s, Carnegie scientists studying Tidestromia oblongifolia in Death Valley discovered that it is highly adapted to high temperatures and has optimal photosynthetic rate at 47ºC that is comparable to crop plants in their most favorable conditions. The molecular basis of this remarkable thermo-adaptation of photosynthesis remains largely uninvestigated. To decipher the mechanisms of thermo-adaptation of T. oblongifolia, we have assembled an interdisciplinary team with expertise in ecophysiology, genomics, biochemistry and computational modeling of photosynthesis. We have successfully recreated Death Valley conditions in our customized growth chambers and are conducting physiological measurements of two T. oblongifolia ecotypes (Death Valley (max temp ~50ºC) and Dos Palmas (max temp ~42ºC) along with three ecotypes of a related Amaranth species called Amaranthus hypochondriacus, which is an ancient crop from the Incas that has a high potential for future agriculture.

C-SPIRIT


​Additionally, we are a part of the Center for Sustainable Plant Innovation and Resilience through International Teamwork (C-SPIRIT), an NSF-funded global collaboration focused on improving plant and soil resilience. Through C-SPIRIT, we work with researchers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Korea, and Japan to discover stress-adaptive traits and bioactive compounds that support agricultural sustainability in a changing climate. This work expands our fundamental research into a broader framework for real-world impact, linking molecular discovery to ecosystem-scale solutions for climate resilience.
STANFORD & MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
“Stanford sits on the ancestral land of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe. This land was and continues to be of great importance to the Ohlone people. Consistent with our values of community and inclusion, we have a responsibility to acknowledge, honor, and make visible the University’s relationship to Native peoples.”
"We acknowledge that Michigan State University occupies the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary Lands of the Anishinaabeg – the Three Fires Confederacy of Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi peoples. We affirm Indigenous sovereignty and hold Michigan State University accountable to the needs of American Indian and Indigenous peoples."