California Native Plant Society
Santa Clara Valley Chapter
Santa Clara Valley Chapter
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California climate models predict future high temperatures that reduce fog and threaten redwoods in hotter, drier parts of their range. Most tree models for climate change rely on models that focus on rainfall. Since redwoods use fog for water, rainfall- based models don’t work for them. Dr. Michelle Geary and Jennifer Mo started a project in 2015 to study the survival of coast redwood seedlings in reduced fog. Dr. Geary will share what they’ve found and the next steps in their study.
Michelle Geary has a PhD in Plant Biology from UC Davis. Her research focused on photosynthetic physiology of the evergreen tree tan-oak, studying function across years and seasons, across the species range. She’s fascinated by how plants deal with stress, especially stresses that change across time. Dr. Geary’s been teaching plant biology at West Valley College since 2003. She started the redwood project with Jennifer Mo, one of her students, in 2015. In 2017-2018, she took a research sabbatical to expand the project and refine a plan to integrate more research into undergrad education in and out of the classroom. She doesn’t sleep enough, but loves her students and her work.
