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Event ended Lectures

BIO Distinguished Lecture: Lisa Ainsworth

About this event

The Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO) and the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS) hosted a Distinguished Lecture from Lisa Ainsworth of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (USDA ARS) and Research Leader of the Global Change and Photosynthesis Research Unit, co-located on the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on September 12, 2024.

A recording is linked below.

Adapting crops to global atmospheric change
The rapid pace of atmospheric change presents challenges and opportunities for agricultural crop production. Rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations potentially increase the rate of photosynthesis in C3 crops and decrease stomatal conductance in C3 and C4 crops, which in theory could lead to water savings during times of drought. Ozone is an oxidant that accelerates the process of senescence, reducing fitness of crop species. For the past 20 years, the Soybean Free Air Concentration Enrichment (SoyFACE) facility has served as a testbed for studying mechanisms of crop responses to atmospheric change in the field. The facility has examined interactive effects of changing atmospheric conditions with rising temperature and drought stress to identify germplasm that could be used to breed crops for future atmospheric conditions. More recently, experiments have tested potential climate mitigation strategies under elevated CO2. In this talk, I will highlight research from 20 years of SoyFACE, discussing the lessons learned and the accelerating need for climate change solutions.

About Dr. Ainsworth
Lisa Ainsworth is the Research Leader of the Global Change and Photosynthesis Research Unit, co-located on the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She received her BS in Biology at UCLA and PhD in Crop Sciences from the University of Illinois. Her research addresses crop responses to global atmospheric change and potential solutions to mitigate climate change through agriculture. She studies photosynthetic responses of plants to climate change, and her research is broadly integrative, from genetic to agronomic scales. She directs the Soybean Free Air Concentration Enrichment (SoyFACE) facility, the longest running open-air experiment for studying crop responses to atmospheric change. In 2019, she was awarded the National Academy of Sciences Prize in Food and Agricultural Sciences and was an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2020.