Dr. Ingo Ensminger
Global Change & Photosynthesis, Plant Physiology
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Position: Adjunct Faculty Address: Department of Biology email: ingo.ensminger@utoronto.ca |
Research Interests
My research is focused on the mechanisms by which plants adjust to their changing environment, i.e. the regulation of acclimational and seasonal processes. This includes the mechanisms by which plants and especially evergreen conifers adjust to changes in their growth conditions in order to balance energy input (sunlight) and its metabolic utilization. An understanding of these processes is not simply of scientific interest, as it addresses some of the fundamental questions in global change research and they are indispensable for the understanding of how plants will respond to anticipated climate change.
Old growth Scots pine forest (Pinus sylvestris) near Zotino/Central Siberia [photo: Ingo Ensminger]
For Canada the response of evergreen conifers to climate change is an important ecological and economic issue, as it holds 25% of the world’s boreal conifer forests. It is proposed that climate change might increase the boreal carbon sink. However, conifers might also be negatively affected by increased land surface air temperatures. This is due to e.g. the disruption of regulatory processes or water stress and hence an incomplete exploitation of the increased growing season. Changes in growth and productivity of these boreal forests will have important effects on the economic production of boreal conifer forests and their ability to sequester carbon.
