Sarif Morningstar

Sarif is a PhD student (Eugene Cota Robles Fellow and NSF Graduate Research Fellow) interested in using biochemistry and physiology to understand how ectomycorrhizal mutualism works to improve plant stress tolerance. They have designed custom water baths to control the temperatures of seedling root systems, and developed a ¹³CO₂ enrichment system using ¹³C-bicarbonate to trace carbon allocation in mycorrhizal tree seedlings. This supports an NSF-funded project examining the extent to which diverse fungal communities can help plants "hedge their bets" against change in the environment.