Photo of Gonzalez-Meler, Miquel

Miquel Gonzalez-Meler, PhD

Professor

Biological Sciences

Contact

Building & Room:

3338 SES

Address:

845 W. Taylor St.

Office Phone:

(312) 355-3928

Email:

mmeler@uic.edu

Related Sites:

About

My research interest areas are in physiological and ecosystem ecology, global change and stable isotope ecology. My laboratory focuses on the study of plant and ecosystem functioning in different global change scenarios and in ecosystem feedbacks on biosphere-atmosphere interactions. My specific interests are: 1) role of plant and ecosystem respiration in the global carbon cycle; 2) effects of environmental change on plant and ecosystem respiration; 3) understanding the mechanisms of physiological acclimation and adaptation of plants to the environment; 4) use of stable isotopes for understanding physiological and ecosystem processes. My research is an interdisciplinary effort aim to scale up mechanisms of environmental acclimation and adaptation of plants to ecosystem process and function. Mechanistic understanding is crucial when predicting the effects and roles of terrestrial ecosystems to global environmental change scenarios.

Some of the research sites include restoration prairies in the Chicago area to understand the potential of ecosystems to mitigate environmental change; crop fields in Illinois to understand the effects of elevated CO2 and ozone on plant productivity; and coniferous forests in North Carolina to understand the effects of elevated CO2 on forested ecosystems.

Selected Publications

(Complete list of publications on Google Scholar)

  1. Glass NT, Yun K, de Oliveira EA, Zare A, Matamala R, Kim SH, Gonzalez-Meler M. (2023) Perennial grass root system specializes for multiple resource acquisitions with differential elongation and branching patterns. Frontiers in Plant Science. 14. 1146681
  2. Berkelhammer M, Drewniak B, Ahlswede B, Gonzalez‐Meler MA (2022) Root foraging alters global patterns of ecosystem legacy from climate perturbations Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, e2021JG006612. doi: 10.31223/X5V620
  3. Habermann E, Dias de Oliveira, E, Delvecchio G, Belisário R, Barreto RF, Viciedo DO, Rossingnoli NO, Costa KA, Prado RM, Gonzalez-Meler MA, Martinez CA (2021) How does leaf physiological acclimation impact forage production and quality of a warmed managed pasture of Stylosanthes capitata under different conditions of soil water availability? Science of the Total Environment, 759: 143505.
  4. Ricketts MP, Matamala R, Jastrow JD, Antonopoulos DA, Koval J, Ping CL, Liang C, Gonzalez-Meler MA (2020). The effects of warming and soil chemistry on bacterial community structure in Arctic tundra soils. Soil Biology and Biochemistry. 148, 107882.
  5. Flower CE, JE Dalton, JS Brown, C Whelan, MA Gonzalez-Meler (2019) Patch use in the Arctic ground squirrel: Effects of micro-topography and shrub encroachment. Oecologia. 190 (1), 243-254.
  6. Lin, J, Bohlke, JK, Huang, S, Gonzalez-Meler, MA, and Sturchio, NC. (2018) Chemical and isotopic data for a study of seasonality of nitrate sources and isotopic composition in the Upper Illinois River, 2004-2008: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P93WD0TH
  7. McNickle GG, Gonzalez-Meler MA, Lynch DJ, Baltzer JL, Brown JS (2016) The world’s biomes and primary production as a triple tragedy of the commons foraging game played among plants. Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2016.1993
  8. Marshall KA, Gonzalez-Meler MA (2016) Can ecosystem services be part of the solution to environmental justice? Ecosystem Services 10A: 202-203.
  9. Zellner ML, Massey DA, Minor ES, Gonzalez-Meler MA (2016) Exploring the Effects of Green Infrastructure Placement on Neighborhood-Level Flooding via Spatially Explicit Simulations. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 59, 116-128.
  10. Blanc-Betes ME, JM Welker, NC Sturchio, JP Chanton and MA Gonzalez-Meler (2016) Increases in winter snow precipitation transform Arctic tundra from a sink to a source of methane. Global Change Biology 22 (8): 2818-2833. DOI 10.1111/gcb.13242
  11. Cheng W, Parton W, Gonzalez-Meler MA, McNickle G, Phillips R, Brzostek E, Jastrow, JD (2014) Tansley review: Synthesis and Modeling Perspectives of Rhizosphere Priming. New Phytologist, 201:31-44.
  12. Hopkins F, Gonzalez-Meler MA, Flower CE, Lynch DJ, Czmiczik C, Tang J and  Subke J-A (2013) Ecosystem-level controls on root-rhizosphere respiration. New Phytologist. 199: 339-351, DOI: 10.1111/nph.12271.
  13. Flower CE, Knight KS, Gonzalez-Meler MA (2013) Impacts of the emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) induced ash (Fraxinus spp.) mortality on forest carbon cycling and successional dynamics in the eastern United States. Biological Invasions 15(4): 931-944. DOI 10.1007/s10530-012-0341-7
  14. Gonzalez-Meler MA, Blanc-Betes E, Flower C, Ward J, Gomez-Casanovas N (2009) Plastic and adaptive responses of plant respiration to changes in atmospheric CO2 concentration. Physiologia Plantarum 137: 473-484.
  15. DeLucia EH, Drake JE, Thomas RB, Gonzalez-Meler MA (2007) Forest Carbon use efficiency: is respiration a constant fraction of gross primary production? Global Change Biology 13: 1157-1167.
  16. Matamala R, Gonzalez-Meler MA, Jastrow JD, Norby R, Schlesinger WD (2003). Slow root C turnover in forests: implications for carbon sequestration. Science 302: 1385-7.

Education

PhD, Smithsonian Institution of Washington, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain

MS, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain

BS, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain