Miquel Gonzalez-Meler, PhD

My research interest areas are in physiological and ecosystem ecology, global change and stable isotope ecology. My laboratory focuses on the study of plant and ecosystem functioning in different global change scenarios and in ecosystem feedbacks on biosphere-atmosphere interactions. My specific interests are: 1) role of plant and ecosystem respiration in the global carbon cycle; 2) effects of environmental change on plant and ecosystem respiration; 3) understanding the mechanisms of physiological acclimation and adaptation of plants to the environment; 4) use of stable isotopes for understanding physiological and ecosystem processes. My research is an interdisciplinary effort aim to scale up mechanisms of environmental acclimation and adaptation of plants to ecosystem process and function. Mechanistic understanding is crucial when predicting the effects and roles of terrestrial ecosystems to global environmental change scenarios.

Some of the research sites include restoration prairies in the Chicago area to understand the potential of ecosystems to mitigate environmental change; crop fields in Illinois to understand the effects of elevated CO₂ and ozone on plant productivity; and coniferous forests in North Carolina to understand the effects of elevated CO₂ on forested ecosystems.

PhD, Smithsonian Institution of Washington, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain

MS, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain

BS, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain

(Complete list of publications on Google Scholar)

1. Flower CE, Knight K, Gonzalez-Meler MA (2012) Changes in carbon content and forest community composition in response to ash-induced mortality by the invasive emerald ash borer. Biological Invasions, DOI 10.1007/s10530-012-0341-7.
2. Lynch DJ, McInerney FA, Kouwenberg LLR, Gonzalez-Meler MA (2012) Plasticity in bundle sheath extensions of heterobaric leaves of woody plants. American Journal of Botany 99: 1197-1206.
3. Gomez-Casanovas N, Matamala R, Cook DR, Gonzalez-Meler MA (2012) Time scale dependencies between the variations in net ecosystem exchange and the autotrophic and heterotrophic components of soil respiration in prairie grasslands. Global Change Biology 18: 2532-2545.
4. Taneva L and Gonzalez-Meler MA (2011) Distinct patterns in the diurnal and seasonal variability in four components of soil respiration in a temperate forest under free-air CO2 enrichment. Biogeosciences 8: 3077-3092. doi:10.5194/bg-8-3077.
5. O’Brien, SL, Jastrow JD, McFarlane KJ, Guilderson TP, Gonzalez-Meler MA (2011) Stable mineral-associated soil organic matter pools revealed by combined physical and chemical fractionation. Biogeochemistry. doi:10.1007/s10533-011-9673-0
6. Taneva L and Gonzalez-Meler MA (2011) Temporal variability in four components of soil respiration. Biogeosciences Discuss 8: 2875-2911. doi:10.5194/bgd-8-2875-2011.
7. O’Brien SL, Jastrow JD, Grimley DA and Gonzalez-Meler MA (2010) Moisture and vegetation controls on soil organic carbon and total nitrogen accumulation in restored grasslands. Global Change Biology 16: 2573-2588.
8. Gonzalez-Meler MA, Blanc-Betes E, Flower C, Ward J, Gomez-Casanovas N (2009) Plastic and adaptive responses of plant respiration to changes in atmospheric CO2 concentration. Physiologia plantarum, 137: 473-484.