Faculty in Biology

Barbara Hawkins, Professor bhawkins@uvic.ca Office & Lab: CUNN 151 Phone: 250-721-7117 Lab Phone: 250-853-3841 Teaching: Higher Plants, Tree Biology, Plant Stress Physiology.

Research Interests:
Mineral nutrition and cold tolerance of tree seedlings.

My research interests are in the field of tree seedling physiology. I am particularly interested in how temperate and boreal trees adapt and acclimate to the stresses of low temperature and low levels of available nitrogen. To distinguish between adaptation and acclimation, I explore the interaction of genetic and environmental components of seedling response to nutrient stress and cold stress.
Recent projects in my lab include:

• Studies of net fluxes of ammonium, nitrate and protons along the length of conifer seedling roots; and how these fluxes are affected by species, genotype, nutrient status of the plant, and pH and nutrient concentration of the root medium.
• Measurement of net fluxes of ammonium, nitrate and protons in the pitchers of several species of pitcher plants
• Measurements of available ammonium, nitrate and amino acids in forest soils and uptake of these inorganic and organic forms of nitrogen by forest trees and shrubs
• Assessment of the phenology and cold hardiness of full-sib families from the coastal Douglas-fir tree improvement program.