Carbon partitioning (soluble sugars, starch, structure), carbon storage in plants, crop modelling, pollen development and seed set
The research on predicting crop yield and quality in controlled environments (led by Dr. Ana Cristina Zepeda) focuses on quantifying and interpreting plant responses to a changing environment, with the ultimate goal of exploiting plant flexibility to climate fluctuations to achieve more sustainable horticultural production. It specifically addresses the following areas:
1. Modelling carbon storage and remobilization in plants as influenced by fluctuations in light and temperature, and examining how these processes impact crop growth.
2. Modelling and researching the physiology of pollen development in response to suboptimal temperatures.
3. Understanding physiological causes of tip burn in lettuce.
4. 4TU Re-design: Local and on-demand production of fresh fruits and vegetables. See more: 4TU Re-design Project.
Our top 3 publications
1. Zepeda, A.C., Heuvelink, E., & Marcelis, L.F.M., Carbon storage in plants: a buffer for temporal light and temperature fluctuationsSilico Plants, Volume 5, Issue 1, 2023, diac020.
2. Zepeda, A. C., Heuvelink, E., & Marcelis, L. F. (2022). Non-structural carbohydrate dynamics and growth in tomato plants grown at fluctuating light and temperature. Frontiers in Plant Science, 13, 968881.
3. To be continued...
Full list of publications: Research@WUR and Google Scholar