Drew MP Peltier

Assistant Professor – University of Nevada-Las Vegas

I study tree growth and physiological responses to drought and climate change.

The driving focus of our lab group is understanding how trees respond to their environment across temporal scales, towards improving our capacity to predict forest responses to future global change. Trees respond to climate conditions over long time scales, where precipitation many years in the past may be driving tree growth happening today — we call this “memory.” The lab is focused on improving the quantification of memory in tree growth using new collections of tree rings to parameterize Bayesian hierarchical models  and improve the representation of memory effects in dynamic global vegetation models.

We also explore the mechanisms of memory, such as very long storage of nonstructural carbon reserves. Carbon reserves are the products of past photosynthesis, sugars, starch, and lipids, stored for future metabolic needs. Radiocarbon dating of carbon reserves has shown trees rely on decades-old reserves to survive long-term drought, or 50-100 year old reserves to recover from extreme fire. We work in forests across the western US, from the diminutive piñon (Pinus edulis), to very tall coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) and giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum).

Zoe Wall

PhD student – School of Life Sciences

MS (2024) Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma

Research Interests: My past research sought to understand the roles of plant-soil feedbacks and functional traits in community resilience to long-term drought in a mixed-grass prairie. I am broadly interested in plant physiological responses to water stress, and I am investigating water potential regulation under drought across timescales in pinon-juniper woodlands. I’m also interested in the application of geospatial technologies to plant responses to landscape-scale climatic gradients. 

Declan West

PhD student – School of Life Sciences

BS (2024) Environmental Science, University of Washington

Research Interests: My current research interest is in nonstructural carbon storage dynamics in Coast Redwood and Giant Sequoia trees using radiocarbon dating. I have done previous research on NSC dynamics in trees under experimental drought stress and cold hardiness under different irrigation regimes.  

Your name here?

PhD student – School of Life Sciences

If you are interested in joining the Peltier lab as an MS or PhD student, please apply through the UNLV Graduate College. Once you have submitted your application, please email me describing why you are interested in joining my lab and confirming that your application is complete. Please title your email: “Potential graduate student – your name“. Please note that I will not respond to any inquiries until the student has applied through the UNLV Graduate College.

Coral Bean

Affiliated retriever

Energetic but largely unhelpful