Luca da Sois

I am a naturalist passionate about plant ecology and plant responses to abiotic factors, in particular to drought. My research is focussed on better understanding plant water use and drought resistance strategies at different time scales.

Currently, I am developing my PhD investigating plant responses to varying water availabilities with the aim of characterizing short-term to long-term adjustments leading to homeostasis in plant water relations. In particular, I am interested in understanding how traits describing water relations and resources allocation are coordinated, integrated and ultimately modulate plant responses to drought. Also, I am studying leaf metabolomic profiles to investigate which metabolites are implied in plant responses to drought. Merging the ecological and physiological perspectives, with the background provided by metabolomic analyses, I intend to develop an interdisciplinary novel conceptual framework describing plant response strategies to drought.

My PhD is being developed within the framework of the DRESS project led by Jordi Martínez Vilalta.