Patrick Herron

My interests revolve around the physiology of plant roots and strategies for most efficient capture of nutrients and water from the soil.   My thesis has approached the question at two scales. At the finest scale I have applied microbial biosensors along plant roots to map very carefully how carbon and water availability is altered during root development and diurnal cycles.   At the macro scale, I have been examining the influence of hydraulic redistribution on nutrient processes in the shallow soils.

Contact Information

Patrick Herron
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
75 N. Eagleville Rd. University of Connecticut
Storrs, CT 06269-3043
Phone: (860) 486 5382 Fax: (860) 486 6364

patrick.herron@uconn.edu

patrickherron12@gmail.com

Curriculum Vitae
Lux-based biosensor
work mapping carbon
availability around
roots of Zea mays

Image of pPProGreen microbial biosensor expressing green
fluorescence in response to low water potential in soil

Publications

Herron, P.M.,   D.J. Gage, and Z.G. Cardon (In Prep) Micro-scale water potential gradients visualized in soil around plant root tips using microbiosensors.

Herron, P.M., C.T. Martine, A. Latimer and S. Leicht (In Press). Diversity and Distributions. Invasive plants and their ecological strategies: prediction and explanation of woody plant invasion in New England.

Cardon, Z. G., and Herron, P. M. (2005)  Sweeping water, oozing carbon: long distance transport and patterns of rhizosphere resource exchange. IN: Vascular Transport in Plants .  Holbrook, N.M. and Zwieniecki, M.A. (eds). Academic Press, San Diego, pp. 257-276.

Adams, P., Herron, P ., and Meletis, E.I.  (1998) First Order Spin- paramagnetic transition and tricritical point in ultrathin Be films.  Phys. Rev. B   58,6 

Published abstracts

Zoe Cardon, Daniel Gage, John Stark, Patrick M. Herron , Catalina Arango Pinedo. 2007. Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness: lux expressing biosensors in the rhizosphere. Abstracts-Ecological Society of America Meeting . San Jose, CA (August 2007)

Patrick M. Herron , Catalina Arango Pinedo, Zane Haider, Daniel Gage and Zoe Cardon. 2007. Water flux in the rhizosphere: structuring cycling of C and N. Abstracts-Ecological Society of America Meeting . San Jose, CA (August 2007)

Christopher T. Martine, Patrick M. Herron, Andrew M. Latimer and Stacey A. Leicht Young. 2007. Invasive plants and their ecological strategies: a model-based approach to prediction and explanation of woody plant invasion in New England. Abstracts-Botanical Society of America Meeting . Chicago, IL (July, 2007)

Patrick Herron , Carson Holt, John Stark and Zoe Cardon. 2006. Injections of 13C-Acetic Acid vapor and 15N-Ammonia gas into soil to track the fate of nutrients without disturbing soil water status: applications in an investigation of hydraulic redistribution under Artemisia tridentata . Abstracts-Soil Science Society of America Meetings , Indianapolis, Indiana

Zoe Cardon , Patrick Herron , Catalina Arango Pinedo, Zane Haider and Daniel Gage. 2006. Live reports from the soil grain ­­- the promise and challenge of microbiosensors. Abstracts-Soil Science Society of America Meetings , Indianapolis, Indiana

Patrick Herron , Daniel Gage and Zoe Cardon. 2005. Patterns of water potential gradients around roots in soil as reported by microbiosensors. Abstracts-Ecological Society of America Meeting , Montreal, Canada

Zoe Cardon, Daniel Gage, Patrick Herron , and Frank Moussy. 2005. Microbiosensors and miniaturized enzyme based sensors for soil research. Abstracts-Ecological Society of America Meeting , Montreal, Canada

Chris Martine, Patrick M. Herron , Andrew M. Latimer, Stacey A. Leicht, and E.S. Mosher. 2005. Predicting the next woody invasives in New England: a model-based approach to identifying future threats. Austin, Texas (Poster)

Patrick Herron , Daniel Gage and Zoe Cardon. 2003. Divining rods: Pseudomonas putida as a microbiosensor of fine scale osmotic potentials in soil. Abstracts-Ecological Society of America Meeting. Savannah, Georgia (Poster)

Patrick Herron , Michelle Rosado, Ryan Bringhurst, Dan Gage, and Zoe Cardon.  2002. Speedometer bacteria:  A proxy for carbon availability in the rhizosphere.  Abstracts-Ecological Society of America Meeting .  Tucson, Arizona

Ryan Bringhurst, Zoe Cardon, Patrick Herron , and Daniel Gage.  2001. A biosensing strain of Sinorhizobium meliloti used to monitor release of a-galactosides into the rhizosphere.  Abstracts-American Society for Microbiology Meeting ,