Curriculum Vitae

Professor

Division of Biological Sciences

Section of Evolution and Ecology

University of California

Davis, CA 95616

(Phone: 530-752-1288)

email: rwpearcy@ucdavis.edu

Education:

A.A. Paul Smiths College, 1961

B.S. Forestry, University of Montana, 1963

M.S. Forest Soils-Ecology, University of Montana, 1965

Ph.D. Plant Ecology and Physiology, Colorado State University, 1969

Positions Held:

Postdoctoral Fellow, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Stanford, CA, 1969-1971.

Assistant Professor, Biology, State University of New York at Albany, 1971-1975.

Assistant Professor, Botany, University of California, Davis, 1976-1978.

Associate Professor, Botany, University of California, Davis, 1978-1983.

Visiting Scientist, CSIRO Division of Forest Research, Canberra, 1983.

Visiting Fellow, Research School of Biological Sciences, Canberra, 1983.

Professor, Botany, University of California, Davis, 1983-1995

Program Manager, USDA Competitive Grants Program, Plant Responses to the Environment, 1989-1990

Chair, Department of Botany, University of California, Davis 1990-1994

Professor, Section of Evolution and Ecology, Division of Biological Sciences, University of California Davis 1996-

Honors:

Phi Kappa Phi, 1968

Carnegie Institution Post-doctoral Fellowship, 1969-70

Carnegie Corporation Post-doctoral Fellowship, 1970-71

Society Memberships:

American Association for the Advancement of Science

Ecological Society of America

International Association for Ecology

British Ecological Society

Society for Experimental Biology, U.K.

Advisory and Other Services:

Member, Advisory Committee for Population Biology and Physiological Ecology Program, National Science Foundation, 1979-1982.

United States Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, Workshop on water use in dryland agriculture, 1981.

Co-Chairman, Environmental Physiology Panel, International Conference on Rising Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide and Plant Productivity, Athens, GA, May 1982.

Member, Environmental Stress Effects on Plants Panel, USDA Competitive Grants Program, 1987

Chairman, Oversight Committee for Population Biology and Physiological Ecology Program, National Science Foundation, 1987.

Chair, Physiological Ecology Section, Ecological Society of America, 1988-1990

Member, Visiting Experts Committee, Division of Integrative Biology and Neurosciences, National Science Foundation. 1993

Member, Research Strengthening Panel, USDA, National Research Initiative, Competitive Grants Program 1994

Oecologia, 1985-; Plant Cell and Environment, 1991- ; Physiological Ecology, a series of monographs and treatises , Academic Press, 1988-; Tree Physiology, 1997-

Plant ecology

Plant ecophysiology

Ecophysiological methods

Research Interests:

My research focuses on plant ecophysiology, especially the acquisition of carbon and light. Currently there are two areas of primary emphasis. We are studying how plants utilize sunflecks in forest understories and plant canopies. This work includes mechanicstic studies desgned to illucidate the primary controls on sunfleck utilization such as the dynamics of stomatal conductance and light regulation of photosynthetic enzymes. It also includes studies designed to understand the functional and ecological significance of sunfleck utilization in canopies through both experimental and modelling approaches

The second major area of research concerns the role of plant architecture in resource acquisition and utilization in both chaparral communities in California where plants are exposed to extreme high light high temperatures and drought and in tropical forest understory communities in Panama where light is extremely limiting but seasonal drought is also important. We are utilizing a 3-dimensional model with reconstructs crown architecture in computer space to examine the tradeoffs between biomechanical, hydraulic and light capture functions of plant crowns in different environments. We are also applying this model to understand the compromizes between carbon gain and avoidance of high-temeprature/high-light stress in chaparral environments.

Selected Publications (total of 138 journal articles, invited review articles and invited book chapters)

Sims, D. A. and R. W. Pearcy. 1993. Sunfleck frequency and duration affects growth rate of the understory plant, Alocasia macrorrhiza (L.) G. Don. Functional Ecology 7:683-689.

Pearcy, R. W., R. L. Chazdon, L. J. Gross, and K. A. Mott. 1994. Photosynthetic utilization of sunflecks, a temporally patchy resource on a time scale of seconds to minutes. In: M. M. Caldwell and R. W. Pearcy (eds.), Exploitation of Environmental Heterogeneity by Plants: Ecophysiological Processes Above and Below Ground. Academic Press. pp 175-204.

Sims, D. A., R. Gebauer and R. W. Pearcy. 1994. Scaling sun and shade photosynthetic acclimation of Alocasia macrorrhiza to whole plant performance-II. Simulation of carbon balance and growth at different photon flux densities. Plant Cell and Environment 17: 889-900

Krall, J. P., E. V. Sheveleva, and R. W. Pearcy. 1995. Regulation of Photosynthetic Induction State in High- and Low-Light-Grown Soybean and Alocasia Macrorrhiza (L) Don,G. Plant Physiology 109:307-317

Pearcy, R. W. and Yang, W. (1996) A three-dimensional crown architecture model for assessment of light capture and carbon gain by understory plants. Oecologia 108: 1-12.

Pearcy, R. W. and W. Yang. 1998. The functional morphology of light capture and carbon gain in the Redwood forest understorey plant Adenocaulon bicolor Hook. Functional Ecology 12: 543-552.

Pearcy, R. W., and W. M. Yang. 1996. A Three-Dimensional Crown Architecture Model for Assessment of Light Capture and Carbon Gain by Understory Plants. Oecologia 108:1-12.

Valladares, F., and R. W. Pearcy. 1999. The geometry of light interception by shoots of Heteromeles arbutifolia: morphological and physiological consequences for individual leaves. Oecologia 121:171-182.

Valladares, F., S. J. Wright, E. Lasso, K. Kitajima, and R. W. Pearcy. 2000. Plastic phenotypic response to light of 16 congeneric shrubs from a Panamanian rainforest. Ecology 81:1925-1936.

Allen, M. T., and R. W. Pearcy. 2000. Stomatal behavior and photosynthetic performance under dynamic light regimes in a seasonally dry tropical rain forest. Oecologia 122:470-478.

Pearcy, R. W. 2000. Plants-carbon balance and growth. in H. A. Mooney and J. Canadell, eds. Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Change vol II The Earth system: biological and ecological dimensions of global environmental change. John Wiley, London.

Sage, R. F., and R. W. Pearcy. 2000. The physiological ecology of C₄ photosynthesis. in R. C. Leegood, T. D. Sharkey, and S. von Caemmerer, eds. Photosynthesis: physiology and metabolism. Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Hague.

Books:

Pearcy, R. W., J. Ehleringer, H. A. Mooney, and P. Rundel (eds.) 1989. Plant physiological ecology: field methods and instrumentation. Chapman and Hall, London.

M. M. Caldwell and R. W. Pearcy (eds.). 1994 Exploitation of environmental heterogeniety by plants: ecophysiological processes above and below ground. Academic Press, San Diego.