Dave Love

About

I’ve always been fascinated by the biology around me. From snakes, insects, and frogs to moss, trees and flowers I spent my youth crawling the meadows and ponds of suburban Michigan and my summers in the Wasatch and Uinta mountains looking for new organisms to discover and study. When I got to the University of Utah I had the opportunity to delve deeper into biology and fell in love with plants. Between combing the deserts and mountains looking for new species of wildflowers and putting hours in the lab and field studying tree water relations I spent my undergrad years deeply involved with our native flora. I then went on to pursue a PhD in plant ecophysiology under the advisement of John Sperry at the U. My research interests have focused on tree responses to drought stress and the development of models to predict forest productivity and mortality risk. After my PhD I had postdoctoral appointments at the University of Alberta and the University of Georgia before joining the Biology Department here at Snow where I get the incredible opportunity to share what I know about biology with our fantastic students.

Education

• PhD; Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 2012-2018
• B.S.; Biology, Emphasis in Environmental and Organismal Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 2006-2012

Appointments

• Graduate Research Assistant, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 2012-2018
• Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta 2018
• Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 2018-2021
• Assistant Professor, Snow College, Ephraim, UT 2021-Present

Research

• My research centers around the central question “how will plants respond to climate change”, focusing on how vascular plants will respond to increasing drought, and how to predict mortality risk and recovery following drought stress.
• I have 11 years of experience in fieldwork, project design, and data management both as part of large and small teams, and as a manager of junior researchers.
• Products of my research efforts include publications in peer reviewed journals, scientific presentations, and novel modeling tools and methodologies.

Publications and Presentations

Publications

1. Sperry JS, Love DM (2015) Tansley Review: What plant hydraulics can tell us about plant responses to climate-change droughts. New Phytologist 207: 14-17
2. Sperry JS, Venturas MD, Anderegg WRL, Mencucinni M, Mackay DS, Wang Y, Love DM(2017) Predicting stomatal responses to the environment from the optimization of photosynthetic gain and hydraulic cost. Plant Cell and Environment 40: 816-830 (Solicited article for special issue on water transport)
3. Adams H.D, Zeppel M.J.B, Anderegg, W.R.L. et al. (59 more authors including David M. Love) (2017) A multi-species synthesis of physiological mechanisms in drought-induced tree mortality. Nature Ecology and Evolution.
4. Venturas MD, Sperry JS, Love DM, Frehner EH, Allred MG, Wang Y, Anderegg WRL (2018) A stomatal control model based on optimization of carbon gain versus hydraulic risk predicts aspen sapling responses to drought. New Phytologist. DOI: 10.1111/nph.15333
5. Umebayashi T, Sperry JS, Smith DD, Love DM (2019) 'Pressure fatigue': the influence of sap pressure cycles on cavitation vulnerability in Acer negundo. Tree Physiology 39: 740–746
6. Love DM, Sperry JS (2018) In situ embolism induction reveals vessel refilling in a natural aspen stand. Tree Physiology 38: 1006-1015
7. Wang Y, Sperry JS, Venturas MD, Trugman AT, Love DM, Anderegg WRL (2019) The stomatal response to rising CO2 concentration and drought is predicted by a hydraulic trait-based optimization model. Tree Physiology 39: 1416–1427
8. Love DM, Venturas MD, Sperry JS, Brooks PD, Pettit JL, Wang Y, Anderegg WRL, Tai X, Mackay DS (2019) Dependence of aspen stands on a subsurface water subsidy: implications for climate change impacts. Water Resources Research 55: 1833-184
9. Trueba, S., Théroux-Rancourt, G., Earles, J.M., Buckley, T.N., Love, D.M. , Johnson, D.M. and Brodersen, C. (2022), The three-dimensional construction of leaves is coordinated with water use efficiency in conifers. New Phytologist, 233: 851-861. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.17772
10. Mrad A; Johnson DM; Love DM; Domec JC (2021) The roles of conduit redundancy and connectivity in xylem hydraulic functions, New Phytologist 231: 996-1007
11. Birch, J.D., Chikamoto, Y., DeRose, R.J., Manvailer, V., Hogg, E.H., Karst, J., Love, D.M., Lutz, J.A., Frost-Associated Defoliation in Populus tremuloides Causes Repeated Growth Reductions Over 185 years. Ecosystems (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-022-00799-w

Presentations

1. Venturas M, Love DM, Sperry JS, Wang Y, Anderegg WRL (August 2017) “Variability of hydraulic traits across ten aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) stands in Utah: implications for stomatal response modeling and drought stress vulnerability assessment” Poster presented at Ecological Society of America annual meeting, Portland, OR, USA.
2. Love DM, Sperry JS (August 2017). “In situ embolism induction reveals vessel refilling in a natural aspen stand” Poster presented at Ecological Society of America annual meeting, Portland, OR, USA.
3. Sperry JS , Venturas M , Love DM, Wang Y, Anderegg WRL, Mackay DS (December 2017) “From plant hydraulics to ecohydrology: a case study of water limitation in aspen forests” talk presented at American Geophysical Union annual meeting, New Orleans, LA, USA.
4. Love DM, Venturas M, Sperry JS, Wang Y, Anderegg WRL (December 2017). “Testing a hydraulic trait based model of stomatal control: results from a controlled drought experiment on aspen” Poster presented at American Geophysical Union annual meeting, New Orleans, LA, USA.
5. Venturas M, Love DM, Sperry JS, Frehner EH, Aldred MG, Wang, Y, Anderegg WRL (August 2018) “Modeling plant responses to drought using a photosynthesis gain versus hydraulic risk optimization algorithm: insights from a controlled drought experiment on aspen” Invited talk presented at the presented at the Ecological Society of America annual meeting, New Orleans, LA,USA.
6. Love DM, Johnson DM, Trueba S., Brodersen C.B. (December 2019). “Hydraulic conductance and vulnerability segmentation in Pinus shoots: coordination between xylary and extraxylary conductance” Poster presented at American Geophysical Union annual meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA
7. Wei X, Love DM, Klutsch J, Ratcliffe B, Chen C, Thomas BR.(August 2020) “Genetic variations in drought response traits in two dominating species of boreal forests of western Canada” talk presented at the Ecological Society of America annual meeting (virtual).
8. Love DM, Johnson DM, Trueba S., Brodersen C.B. (August 2020). “Hydraulic conductance and vulnerability segmentation in Pinus shoots” talk presented at the Ecological Society of America annual meeting (virtual).