Varsha Pathare

As a plant ecophysiologist, I am interested in developing our integrated, multiscale (cellular to ecosystem scales) understanding of the traits and mechanisms that govern photosynthesis, growth, and water use of grasses under changing climate and translating this knowledge for developing 'climate-resilient' crops and supporting sustainable use and restoration of grasslands. I study natural diversity and genetically engineered grasses belonging to C3 and C4 photosynthetic pathways using field and climate-controlled experiments and leveraging various emerging approaches from plant ecophysiology, including mass spectroscopy, gas exchange, microscopy, and phenomics.  

At Cornell-SIPS, my research will focus on (1) Identifying leaf anatomical and biochemical properties for improving photosynthesis and water-use efficiency in C3 and C4 grasses; (2) Redesigning leaf cell walls for optimizing CO2 and water movement inside leaves and ; (3) Developing an integrated understanding of plant-atmosphere CO2-water fluxes under G x E x M to enhance the C-sequestration and water-use efficiency of our cropping systems.