Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140100505
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$394,620.00
Summary
Is plant organisation the fountain of eternal youth? The decline in performance at advanced ages, senescence, affects life quality, lifespan and productivity. It is believed that this phenomenon is universal, including all species from microbes to humans. Yet, some plants do not exhibit senescence. This project will identify the mechanisms that enable plants to escape senescence. Using a unique global demographic database, the project will determine whether, how and when senescence has evolved a ....Is plant organisation the fountain of eternal youth? The decline in performance at advanced ages, senescence, affects life quality, lifespan and productivity. It is believed that this phenomenon is universal, including all species from microbes to humans. Yet, some plants do not exhibit senescence. This project will identify the mechanisms that enable plants to escape senescence. Using a unique global demographic database, the project will determine whether, how and when senescence has evolved across 850 plant species. It will also experimentally test how drought, nutrients and resprouting affect senescence in two mallee Eucalyptus species in the Simpson Desert. This research will provide new insights into the evolution of senescence and will elucidate how some plants escape a supposedly unavoidable fate.Read moreRead less
Invasive plant success and multi-trophic level chemical ecology using Paterson's curse as a model. The role of plant defence compounds discovered recently in Paterson's curse will be studied in the plant's native western Mediterranean and in southern Australia. Findings will support biological control efforts and provide fundamental insights into the ecological mechanisms that allow such plants to become aggressive invaders.