I am a PhD candidate in the group of Plant Stress Resilience and my research focuses on the mechanisms of plant acclimation to combined elevated temperatures and hypoxia. 

Climate change leads to increased occurrence of environmental stresses, forcing plants to cope with multiple abiotic factors at the same time. For example, global warming is associated with increase in both drought and intensified rainfall leading to flooding. Flooding can cause full or partial submergence stress in plants, and partial submergence - also known as waterlogging, reduces oxygen levels in the root zone, leading to hypoxic stress.

The aim of my project is to shed light on how hypoxia affects thermomorphogenesis responses, caused when plants are exposed to suboptimal high temperatures and vice versa. In addition, we ask whether well-established molecular regulators involved in hypoxia and thermomorphogenesis are potential candidates for crosstalk between the two stresses and focus on the affected physiological and developmental processes, to gain an understanding of plant functioning under combined stressors.

In general, the project aims to unravel broader principles of plant stress acclimation strategies and their interactions with optimal goal to contribute improving plant resilience to climate change.