Department: Northern Research Station
P.O. Box 640 271 Mast Road
Durham, NH 03824
Research Interests
Long-term goals of my research are: 1) to develop early biochemical indicators of environmental stress in trees using tissue culture as well as healthy mature trees growing under environmental stress in the field; 2) to genetically manipulate spruce and poplar tissues in culture in order to modulate their response to stress and/or their efficiency of regeneration through somatic embryo production. As a part of various interdisciplinary research teams: Involved with studying the wood core chemistry and foliar chemistry (including inorganic cations, polyamines, amino acids, proteins, and chlorophyll) at various sites in the Northeastern US in order to determine correlation between these parameters and root, soil, and soil solution chemistry. So far, putrescine, a polyamine, and arginine have shown the potential to be used as early indicators of physiological stress.