#  Noel Michele Holbrook 

Sabbatical Academic Year 2025-2026

Charles Bullard Professor of Forestry

Faculty Fellow of the Arnold Arboretum

Affiliate of Environmental Science and Engineering

 

 

 



   ![Professor Noel Michele Holbrook standing in a field wearing a purple top](/sites/g/files/omnuum6811/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/2026-01/NM%20Holbrook%20cropped.jpg?itok=WD9cYkeR) 

 



 

 location\_on Biological Laboratories16 Divinity AvenueCambridge, MA 02138 

 smartphone [617-496-0603](tel:617-496-0603) 

 email <holbrook@oeb.harvard.edu> 

 laptop\_windows [Holbrook Group](http://holbrookgroup.oeb.harvard.edu/) 

 

 



 

Faculty Support: [Amarilis Castro](/people/amarilis-castro)

Professor Michele Holbrook studies the physics and physiology of vascular transport in plants with the goal of understanding how constraints on the movement of water and solutes between soil and leaves influences ecological and evolutionary processes. Dr. Holbrook is currently working on questions relating to cavitation, stomatal mechanics, leaf hydraulic design, and xylem evolution.

**Recent Publications**

Knoblauch, M., J. Knoblauch, D.L. Mullendore, J.A. Savage, B.A. Babst, S.D. Beecher, A.C. Dodgen, K.H. Jensen and N.M. Holbrook. 2016. Testing the Munch hypothesis of long distance phloem transport in plants. *eLife* 10.7554/eLife.15341.

Mueller, N.D., E.E. Butler, K.A. McKinnon, A. Rhines, M. Tingley, N.M. Holbrook and P. Huybers. 2016. Cooling of US Midwest summer temperature extremes from cropland intensification. Nature Climate Change 6, 317-322.

Savage, J. D. Haines, and N.M. Holbrook. 2015. The making of giant pumpkins: how selective breeding changed the phloem of *Cucurbita maxima* from source to sink. Plant Cell and Environment 38, 1543-1544.

Zhang, Y.-J., F.E. Rockwell, J.K. Wheeler and N.M. Holbrook. 2014. Reversible deformation of transfusion tracheids in *Taxus baccata* is associated with a reversible decrease in leaf hydraulic conductance. *Plant Physiology* 165, 1557-1565.

Rockwell, F.E., N.M. Holbrook, and A. Stroock. 2014. The competition between liquid and vapor transport in transpiring leaves. *Plant Physiology*, 164, 1741-1758.

Stroock, A.D., V. Pagay, M.A. Zwieniecki, and N.M. Holbrook. 2014. The physicochemical hydrodynamics of vascular plants. *Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics* 46, 615-642.

Wheeler, J.K., B.A. Huggett, A.N. Tofte, F.E. Rockwell, and N.M. Holbrook. 2013 Cutting xylem under tension or supersaturated with gas can generate PLC and the appearance of rapid recovery from embolism. *Plant, Cell and Environment* 36, 1938-1949.



 

 

 





 

 

- ## Building
    
     [Bio Labs](/building/bio-labs)
- ## Faculty Affiliation
    
     [Harvard Forest](/faculty-affiliation/harvard-forest)
- ## Lab Group
    
     [Holbrook Lab Members](/lab-group/holbrook-laboratory)
- ## People
    
     [Faculty](/people/faculty) [Department Faculty](/people/department-faculty)
- ## Research Areas
    
     [Ecology](/research-areas/ecology) [Biomechanics](/research-areas/biomechanics) [Biodiversity &amp; Systematics](/research-areas/biodiversity-and-systematics) [Physiology](/research-areas/biomechanics-physiology)
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