I joined the Kenyon faculty in 2012 after completing postdocs at Landcare Research/Manaaki Whenua (New Zealand) and the University of New Mexico. My training is in environmental and ecological plant physiology, and in my work I use stable isotopes to study how environmental stress impacts plant physiology. Very fortunately, numerous research opportunities during my graduate and postdoctoral training allowed me to conduct fieldwork in a number of ecosystems throughout the world, including semiarid and subalpine forest systems in the southwestern USA and alpine plant communities in New Zealand. My research interests are diverse and include alpine ecophysiology, mesophyll conductance to CO2, and plant carbon-water exchange. Current research efforts in my lab are focused on understanding plant resource-use physiology in response to climate drivers, particularly water-use efficiency during thermal and drought stress.

Areas of Expertise

Environmental plant physiology, stable isotopes in plant ecology and plant physiology, plant carbon-water relations

Education

Ph.D., University of New Mexico
M.Sc., Northern Arizona University
B.S., University of Oklahoma

Selected Publications

Limousin JM, Bickford CP, Dickman L, Pangle R, Hudson P, Boutz A, Gehres N, Osuna J, Pockman W, McDowell N. (2013) Regulation and acclimation of leaf gas-exchange in a pinon-juniper woodland exposed to three different precipitation regimes. Plant, Cell and Environment. In press.

Bickford CP, Hunt JE & Heenan PB. (2011) Microclimate characteristics of alpine bluff ecosystems of New Zealand's South Island, and implications for plant growth. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 35(3): 273-279.

Barbour MM, Tcherkez G, Bickford CP, Mauve C, Lamothe M, Sinton S & Brown H. (2011) d¹³C of leaf-respired CO2 reflects intrinsic water-use efficiency in barley. Plant, Cell & Environment 34:792-99.

Bickford CP, Hanson DT & McDowell NG. (2010) Influence of diurnal variation in mesophyll conductance on modeled ¹³C discrimination: results from a field study. Journal of Experimental Botany 61:3223-3233.

Bickford CP, McDowell NG, Erhardt EB & Hanson DT. (2009) High frequency field measurements of diurnal carbon isotope discrimination and internal conductance in a semi-arid species, Juniperus monosperma. Plant, Cell and Environment 32:796-810.

Barbour MM, McDowell NG, Tcherkez G, Bickford CP & Hanson DT. (2007) A new measurement technique reveals rapid post-illumination changes in the carbon isotope composition of leaf-respired CO₂. Plant, Cell and Environment 30:469-482.

Bickford CP, Kolb TE, Geils BW. (2005) Host physiological condition regulates parasitic plant performance: Arceuthobium vaginatum subsp. cryptopodum on Pinus ponderosa. Oecologia 146(2):179-189.