Brent Ewers

Botany Department

Professor and Department Head

Contact Information

(307) 766-6745beewers@uwyo.edu

Office: Biodiversity Institute

Specialization—Plant biophysics, physiological ecology, ecohydrology, process, empirical, phenomenological modeling of plant controls over energy and mass from cells to landscapes.

 

Education

  • BS, Forest Biology, minor in Botany, Colorado State University, 1995
  • MS, PhD Ecology, Duke University, 1997, 1999
  • Post-Doctoral Fellow, Forest Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1999-2002

 

Courses

  • LIFE 1010 General Biology
  • BOT 4730/5730 Plant Physiological Ecology

 

Websites

WyACT

Research

Dr. Ewers investigates how plants control energy flows and mass cycles at scales ranging from organs to landscapes. His lab group uses a variety of tools in their investigations including gas exchange, isotope ratios, lab-induced embolism, sap flux, micrometerology, remote sensing, spatial analyses and process-based modeling. These tools are applied to a variety of ecosystems ranging from crops to forests to steppe grasslands.

 

Current Research Projects

  • Impact of time since fire on boreal forest carbon, water and nutrient cycles.
  • Bark beetle and symbiotic blue-stain fungi controls over carbon, water, energy and nutrient fluxes from Rocky Mountain Forests.
  • Genetics of drought adaptations of water relations and productivity in Brassica rapa (oil-seed rape) and related crops.

 

Selected Publications

B Wilske; H Kwon; L Wei; S Chen; N Lu; G Lin; J Xie; W Guan; E Pendall; BE Ewers; J Chen. 2010. Evapotranspiration (ET) and regulating mechanisms in two semiarid Artemisia-dominated shrub steppes at opposite sides of the globe. Journal of Arid Environments. 74(11):1461-1470.

Cleary, MB, E Pendall, BE Ewers. 2010. Aboveground and Belowground Carbon Pools After Fire in Mountain Big Sagebrush Steppe. Rangeland Ecology and Management. 63:187-196.

Loranty, MM, DS Mackay, BE Ewers, E Traver, EL Kruger. Contribution of Competition for Light to Within-Species Variability in Stomatal Conductance. Water Resources Research. 46:W05516.

Mackay, DS, BE Ewers, ML Loranty, EL Kruger. On the representativeness of plots for scaling canopy transpiration in a Populus tremuloides forest stand. Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences. 115:602016.

Traver, E, BE Ewers, DS Mackay and ML Loranty. 2010. Tree transpiration varies spatially in response to atmospheric but not edaphic conditions. Functional Ecology. 24: 273-282.

Edwards CE, MSHL Haselhorst, AM McKnite, BE Ewers, DG Williams, and C Weinig. 2009. Genotypes of Brassica rapa respond differently to plant-induced variation in air CO2 concentration in growth chambers with standard and enhanced venting. Theoretical and Applied Genetics. 119(6): 991-1004.

Barker CA, BD Amiro, H Kwon, BE Ewers and JL Angstmann. 2009. Evapotranspiration in intermediate-aged and mature fens and upland black spruce boreal forests. Ecohydrology. 2(4): 462-471.

Bond-Lamberty, B, SD Peckham, ST Gower, BE Ewers. 2009. Effects of fire on regional evapotranspiration in the central Canadian boreal forest. Global Change Biology. 15(5):1242-1254.

Resco, V, BE Ewers, W Sun, TE Huxman, JF Weltzin, DG Williams. 2009 Drought-induced hydraulic limitations constrain leaf gas exchange recovery after precipitation pulses in the C3 woody legume, Prosopis velutina. New Phytologist. 181: 672-682.