Welcome to the Lambrecht lab
We study how climate shapes variation in plant form and function, with a particular focus on the impacts of water availability on plant reproductive and physiological traits.
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Courses taught by Prof. Lambrecht address concepts of plant physiological ecology, along with California plant community distribution in relation to climate, geology, and soils.
Research Interests
To study how climate shapes variation in plant form and function, we use a combination of greenhouse, field, and common garden studies. We ask questions like: What are physiological resource costs of reproduction, and how do these vary across environments and with a changing climate? How does resource availability, especially water, affect variation in evolution of reproductive and other functional traits? Our research helps us understand not only basic plant functional and evolutionary biology, but also big picture issues, such as how plants respond to climate change, how invasive species thrive, and what limits rare species, so that we may inform management and conservation.
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Most Recent
Publications
Lambrecht SC, Gujral AK#, Renshaw L#, Rosengreen L+ (2020) Evolutionary and plastic changes in a native annual plant after a historic drought. Ecology and Evolution doi 0.1002/ece3.6156
Cheptou P-O and SC Lambrecht (2020) Sidewalk plants as a model for studying plant adaptation to urban fragmentation. Chapter 8 in Urban Evolutionary Biology. Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198836841.003.0008
Lambrecht SC, A Morrow+, R Hussey# (2017) Variation in and adaptive plasticity of flower size and drought-coping traits. Plant Ecology 218: 647-660
# = undergraduate student, + = graduate student