Research Group
Environmental Plant Physiology
Biography/Research Overview
I am broadly interested in the relationship between anatomy and physiology. In previous positions I have researched the ways that succulence influences water relations and crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM), with a focus on the tropical genus, Clusia. At Cambridge, I am exploring how mesophyll anatomy influences the movement of CO2 through leaves.
Previous positions
2022 - 2023 Research Technician, University of Essex
2020 - 2021 Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Illinois, USA
2019 Visiting Fellow, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama
Qualifications
2015 - 2019 PhD Newcastle University
2012 - 2015 BA University of Oxford
Key publications
Forty years of research into Crassulacean Acid Metabolism in the genus Clusia: anatomy, ecophysiology and evolution (2023), Annals of Botany, https://academic.oup.com/aob/advance-article/doi/10.1093/aob/mcad039/7073688
Leaf Vein Density Correlates with Crassulacean Acid Metabolism, but not Hydraulic Capacitance, in the Genus Clusia (2023), Annals of Botany, https://academic.oup.com/aob/advance-article/doi/10.1093/aob/mcad035/7055329
Dissecting Succulence: Crassulacean Acid Metabolism and Hydraulic Capacitance are Independent Adaptations in Clusia Leaves (2023), Plant, Cell & Environment, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/pce.14539
Are cell wall traits a component of the succulent syndrome? (2022), Frontiers in Plant Sciences, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2022.1043429/full
Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) supersedes the turgor loss point (TLP) as an important adaptation across a precipitation gradient, in the genus Clusia (2021), Functional Plant Biology, https://www.publish.csiro.au/fp/FP20268
All publications
Google Scholar: Alistair Leverett - Google Scholar
