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

Biodiversity Institute

WyACT

Ewers Lab Github Page

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.