What determines plant sensitivity to heat?: Individual to lifetime impacts. Temperature is a major determinant of the distribution of species and yet the capacity to predict the thermal sensitivity of plants is extremely limited. How vulnerability varies as a plant grows from seed to adult and produces more seed is a key question. Whether chronic warming exacerbates or ameliorates effects of extreme events, e.g. triggering the plant to enlist defensive strategies, is also an open question. This ....What determines plant sensitivity to heat?: Individual to lifetime impacts. Temperature is a major determinant of the distribution of species and yet the capacity to predict the thermal sensitivity of plants is extremely limited. How vulnerability varies as a plant grows from seed to adult and produces more seed is a key question. Whether chronic warming exacerbates or ameliorates effects of extreme events, e.g. triggering the plant to enlist defensive strategies, is also an open question. This project will advance fundamental understanding of how thermal tolerance varies across species and over the plant life cycle and how it scales demographically to lifetime vulnerability. The work will yield a significant advance in our capacity to predict impacts of extreme heat events on plant performance and distribution.
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Protecting cereal grain development at high temperatures. This project aims to investigate new temperature-responsive factors that regulate cereal grain development to protect grain production under heat stress. The new research will leverage international collaborations with access to cutting-edge genetic and technological resources, and refine novel X-ray imaging techniques in Australia, to observe how temperature affects flower structure and function in barley and rice. Favourable mutations t ....Protecting cereal grain development at high temperatures. This project aims to investigate new temperature-responsive factors that regulate cereal grain development to protect grain production under heat stress. The new research will leverage international collaborations with access to cutting-edge genetic and technological resources, and refine novel X-ray imaging techniques in Australia, to observe how temperature affects flower structure and function in barley and rice. Favourable mutations that optimise plant yield and fitness will be defined and explored in other, more complex, cereals such as wheat. Expected outcomes will be fundamental breakthroughs in understanding how plants respond to, and buffer, the effects of heat to lead to translational breeding strategies that bolster grain yield.Read moreRead less
A paradigm shift for predictions of freshwater harmful cyanobacteria blooms. This project aims to advance model predictions to generate novel insights into the triggers of freshwater harmful cyanobacteria blooms. Current models are poorly adapted for this purpose because they fail to account for antecedent environmental forcing. The project is expected to create new knowledge of cyanobacteria dynamics from simulating the adaptive responses of individual cyanobacteria cells, colonies or filaments ....A paradigm shift for predictions of freshwater harmful cyanobacteria blooms. This project aims to advance model predictions to generate novel insights into the triggers of freshwater harmful cyanobacteria blooms. Current models are poorly adapted for this purpose because they fail to account for antecedent environmental forcing. The project is expected to create new knowledge of cyanobacteria dynamics from simulating the adaptive responses of individual cyanobacteria cells, colonies or filaments to temperature, light and nutrient history. Three field studies will be used to validate a new individual based model. The outcomes of this project will be valuable for managing freshwater ecosystems that are increasingly subject to blooms in a warming climate, and for testing suitable mitigation and control strategies.Read moreRead less
Australian tropical rainforests in the face of climate change. This project aims to investigate the roles of increasing atmospheric water stress and rising carbon dioxide in driving changes in tree performance and species composition in Australian tropical rainforests. Forest census plots indicate increasing tree mortality, but the mechanisms through which this is occurring are unknown. Experiments will be conducted to unravel the underlying physiological processes. Community-level behavior will ....Australian tropical rainforests in the face of climate change. This project aims to investigate the roles of increasing atmospheric water stress and rising carbon dioxide in driving changes in tree performance and species composition in Australian tropical rainforests. Forest census plots indicate increasing tree mortality, but the mechanisms through which this is occurring are unknown. Experiments will be conducted to unravel the underlying physiological processes. Community-level behavior will be investigated with flux tower and remotely sensed data. The project expects to generate new knowledge of how Australian tropical rainforests are responding to climate change. The expected outcome is an enhanced capacity to understand and manage a highly valued component of the Australian forest estate.Read moreRead less
Control of crop-microbe symbiosis by new plant hormones. This project aims to discover how plants use hormone-like chemicals, called butenolides, to control symbiotic relationships with soil fungi. It will use multidisciplinary and collaborative techniques to establish how butenolide metabolism affects the diversity of fungal colonisation. Expected outcomes of this project include a deeper understanding of how plants regulate the competency of roots to host symbiotic fungi, and how this affects ....Control of crop-microbe symbiosis by new plant hormones. This project aims to discover how plants use hormone-like chemicals, called butenolides, to control symbiotic relationships with soil fungi. It will use multidisciplinary and collaborative techniques to establish how butenolide metabolism affects the diversity of fungal colonisation. Expected outcomes of this project include a deeper understanding of how plants regulate the competency of roots to host symbiotic fungi, and how this affects plant growth. As such, it will generate knowledge of how cereals such as barley could be modified to improve their nutrient use efficiency. Benefits of this project include the potential to reduce fertiliser inputs, thereby improving the competitiveness and environmental impact of Australian agriculture.Read moreRead less
Boosting C4 photosynthesis to climate proof crop yields. Building next generation C4 crops, such as maize, sugarcane and sorghum, to cope with drought and heat stress is requisite to ensure the supply of food and fodder. Here we will increase the content and / or catalytic efficiency of the primary carboxylase of C4 photosynthesis (PEPC) that supplies CO2 to the carbon concentrating mechanism and ensures high photosynthetic rates. We will develop new SynBio tools to create and test novel PEPC is ....Boosting C4 photosynthesis to climate proof crop yields. Building next generation C4 crops, such as maize, sugarcane and sorghum, to cope with drought and heat stress is requisite to ensure the supply of food and fodder. Here we will increase the content and / or catalytic efficiency of the primary carboxylase of C4 photosynthesis (PEPC) that supplies CO2 to the carbon concentrating mechanism and ensures high photosynthetic rates. We will develop new SynBio tools to create and test novel PEPC isoforms with desirable properties. Ultimately, the project aims to identify isoforms that improve plant fitness under stress conditions. Optimising PEPC activity will provide next generation solutions to improve water balance and carbon assimilation to keep C4 crops productive under future climates.Read moreRead less