Rate My Professor Eleinis Ávila-Lovera

A plant ecophysiologist, Ávila-Lovera’s research centers on understanding plant responses to drought and tolerance mechanisms, particularly the role of photosynthetic stems in survival across ecosystems such as deserts, Mediterranean-climate regions, xerophytic shrublands, and dry forests. Her lab explores physiological traits like water status regulation in leaves versus stems and coordination between hydraulic conductivity and stem photosynthesis. She teaches BIOL 5460: Plant Ecology in a Changing World and is a co-founder and coordinator of the Red Latinoamericana de Ecofisiología Vegetal. Key publications include “Evidence for phylogenetic signal and correlated evolution in plant-water relations traits” (New Phytologist, 2022), “Beneath the Bark: Assessing Woody Stem Water and Carbon Fluxes and Its Prevalence Across Climates and the Woody Plant Phylogeny” (Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 2021), “Stem photosynthesis and hydraulics are coordinated in desert plant species” (New Phytologist, 2017), “The benefits of woody plant stem photosynthesis extend to hydraulic function and drought survival in Parkinsonia florida” (Tree Physiology, 2024), and “Variation in stem bark conductance to water vapor in Neotropical plant species” (Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 2024). Her scholarship has accumulated 876 citations, with an h-index of 17. She has delivered public lectures, including “Why Have Green Stems?” at the Natural History Museum of Utah.