SUMMARY
In this talk, he will present novel findings regarding the role of fog in the carbon and water relations of tropical cloud forests trees. Recent evidence suggests that foliar water uptake (FWU) is a common and important water-acquisition mechanism that can mitigate the deleterious effects of soil water deficits for tropical cloud forest trees. During fog events, water is not only absorbed by leaves but also transported through the xylem, towards the soil. This novel finding on water transport through plants challenges the current unidirectional soil-plant-atmosphere (SPAC) model.

BIOGRAPHY
Rafael Oliveira received his PhD in Integrative Biology from the University of California, Berkeley and is currently a Professor at the Department of Plant Biology at the University of Campinas, Brazil’s leading research institution for Ecology. His research is focused on the ecology and physiology of tropical plants, with a strong focus on plant hydraulics, ecohydrology and plant mineral nutrition. Current projects in his lab investigate the impacts of drought, fire and changing nutrient availability in the functioning of tropical forests and savannahs.

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