Sendall_headshot

Contact Info

Email: ksendall [at] rider.edu

Phone Number: 609-895-5410

Department: Department of Biology, Behavioral Neuroscience and Health Sciences

Office Location: Mike and Patti Hennessy Science and Technology Center

Education

  • 2012, Ph.D., Plant Biology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis MN
  • 2012, Ph.D., Ecology, Macquarie University, Sydney AUST
  • 2006, M.S., Biology, California State University, San Marcos CA
  • 2004, B.S., Biology, California State University, San Marcos CA

Research Interests

My lab studies how plant communities such as forests and salt marshes respond to climate change and extreme weather events. I currently have a research experiment on campus investigating how seedlings from different locations (e.g., North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania) survive and grow in a common garden experiment. This is an example of assisted migration, where the prevailing hypothesis is that southern populations from warmer and drier environments will be better adapted to growth conditions in northern latitudes in the future. We are manipulating rainfall for half of these seedlings, capturing approximately 40% of rainfall from each storm and storing it. This stored water is then added back to research plots every third storm. This manipulation mimics the types of extreme storms expected to become more common in the northeast under climate change, as well as the drier periods that are expected between large storms.

Research Funding

  • Department of Energy, Coastal Terrestrial Interface Carbon Cycling in a Warmer Climate, 2020-2023
  • National Science Foundation, Interactive effects of warming and drought on physiological and growth responses of boreal and temperate tree seedlings: A PUI Research Initiative, 2022-2025

Undergraduate Courses Taught

  • Principles of Biology II (BIO 116)
  • Ecology (BIO 350)
  • Plant Biology (BIO 335)
  • Seminar in Ecology (BIO 420)
  • Life Science: Ecology and the Environment (BIO 100)

Selected Publications

  • Sendall KM, Meléndez-Muños, CM, Ritter AD, Rich RL, Noyce GL, Megonigal JP. 2024. Effects of warming and elevated CO2 on stomatal conductance and chlorophyll fluorescence of C3 and C4 coastal wetland species. Wetlands 44: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-024-01780-0.
  • Reich PB, Stefanski A, Rich RL, Sendall KM, Montgomery RA, Bermudez R. 2021. Assessing the relevant timeframe for temperature acclimation of leaf dark respiration: A test with 10 boreal and temperate species. Global Change Biology 27: 2945-2958.
  • Falster D, Gallagher R, Wenk E, Wright I, Sendall KM, et al. 2021. AusTraits: a curated plant trait database for the Australian flora. Scientific Data 8: 1-20.
  • Stefanski A, Bermudez R, Sendall KM, Montgomery RA, Reich PB. 2019. Surprising lack of sensitivity of biochemical limitation of photosynthesis for nine tree species to open-air experimental warming and reduced rainfall in a southern boreal forest . Global Change Biology 26: 746-759.
  • Reich PB, Sendall KM, Stefanski A, Rich RL, Montgomery A, Hobbie S. 2018. Effects of climate warming on photosynthesis in boreal tree species depend on soil moisture. Nature 562: 263-267.
  • Reich PB, Sendall KM, Stefanski A, Wei X, Rich RL, Montgomery RA. 2016. Boreal and temperate trees show strong respiratory acclimation to experimental and seasonal warming. Nature 531: 633-636.
  • Sendall KM, Reich PB, Zhao C, Xiarong W, Stefanski A, Rice KE, Rich RL, Montgomery RA. Acclimation of photosynthetic temperature optima of temperate and boreal tree species in response to experimental forest warming. Global Change Biology 21: 1342-1357.