Rate My Professor Troy Ocheltree

Troy Ocheltree is an Associate Professor in the Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship within Colorado State University’s Warner College of Natural Resources. As a plant ecophysiologist, his research focuses on plant ecophysiology, including plant water-use strategies, drought tolerance, drought-induced mortality, and sensor development for measuring physiological processes. He investigates survival mechanisms in plants during extreme weather events like droughts and heat waves, quantifying mortality thresholds to predict impacts of environmental disturbances. Key aspects of his work include assessing how plants use water over time, identifying drought survival strategies, and determining rooting depths exceeding 10 feet without excavating roots. Ocheltree earned his Ph.D. in Agronomy from Kansas State University in 2012 and completed postdoctoral research in the Department of Forest Resources at the University of Minnesota. He joined Colorado State University as faculty and advanced to associate professor status.

In 2023, Ocheltree served as interim head of the Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship. He is affiliated with the School of Global Environmental Sustainability, where he held a Resident Fellowship in 2018-2019, and serves on the Faculty Council representing Natural Resources until 2027. His contributions extend to grassland ecology, climate change adaptation, natural resource management, and ecosystem functioning. Notable publications include 'Identification of suites of traits that explains drought tolerance in tall fescue and perennial ryegrass' (2020, New Phytologist), 'Grass veins are leaky pipes: vessel widening in grass leaves facilitates embolism repair' (2024, New Phytologist), 'A 50-year look-back on the efficacy of limited transpiration traits: does the evidence support the recent surge in interest?' (2025), and 'Xylem embolism refilling revealed in stems of a weedy grass' (2025). Ocheltree received the 2019 Early Career Undergraduate Teaching Award from the Range Science Education Council and Society for Range Management for excellence in teaching, advising, and mentoring. He was awarded a Global Challenges Research Team grant from the School of Global Environmental Sustainability in 2024-2025. His scholarship has accumulated over 3,250 citations.