Pushing the envelope: does range size limit eucalypt tolerance to warming? This project aims to characterise the biogeographic constraints on the physiological flexibility of eucalypts to accommodate climate warming. Do temperature tolerances of diverse taxa vary predictably with native geographic range sizes and climate of origin? In addressing this question, the project expects to generate new knowledge on the comparative physiological responses of diverse eucalypt taxa to warming and heat wav ....Pushing the envelope: does range size limit eucalypt tolerance to warming? This project aims to characterise the biogeographic constraints on the physiological flexibility of eucalypts to accommodate climate warming. Do temperature tolerances of diverse taxa vary predictably with native geographic range sizes and climate of origin? In addressing this question, the project expects to generate new knowledge on the comparative physiological responses of diverse eucalypt taxa to warming and heat waves using controlled-environment studies and a unique facility at Western Sydney University for heat wave studies of large trees. Expected outcomes include an enhanced capacity to predict carbon exchange and growth responses of native trees to climate warming over large geographic scales.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210101654
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$335,528.00
Summary
Assessing Eucalyptus forest responses to rising CO2 and climate change. Rising atmospheric CO2 and the associated changes in rainfall regimes are rapidly reshaping how Australia’s forest ecosystems function and underpin our daily life. Whether Australia’s native Eucalyptus trees can withstand the impacts of climate extremes such as drought and heat under rising CO2 is a crucial question that this project aims to resolve. Using an innovative framework that integrates novel knowledge, data assimil ....Assessing Eucalyptus forest responses to rising CO2 and climate change. Rising atmospheric CO2 and the associated changes in rainfall regimes are rapidly reshaping how Australia’s forest ecosystems function and underpin our daily life. Whether Australia’s native Eucalyptus trees can withstand the impacts of climate extremes such as drought and heat under rising CO2 is a crucial question that this project aims to resolve. Using an innovative framework that integrates novel knowledge, data assimilation and ecosystem modelling, this project will provide critically needed evidence to disentangle the multifaceted impacts of climate change to Eucalyptus trees. This will help reduce the predictive uncertainty in assessing the vulnerability and resilience of Eucalyptus forests in the changing Australian landscape. Read moreRead less
Brown is the new green: grassland responses to drought and heat. This project aims to improve accuracy and precision in predicting the impact of water availability and heat stress on grassland function. Grassland ecosystems are important reservoirs of global biodiversity and carbon storage. Grasslands are highly sensitive to drought and heat stress, but studies recently showed that current grassland models cannot predict these responses because they do not adequately represent the key processes ....Brown is the new green: grassland responses to drought and heat. This project aims to improve accuracy and precision in predicting the impact of water availability and heat stress on grassland function. Grassland ecosystems are important reservoirs of global biodiversity and carbon storage. Grasslands are highly sensitive to drought and heat stress, but studies recently showed that current grassland models cannot predict these responses because they do not adequately represent the key processes of physiological drought tolerance, leaf browning, and species traits. This project will collect targeted data sets in order to develop and test model representations of these key processes. This will provide significant benefits, such as greatly increasing capacity to predict the impact of drought and heat stress on grasslands, at scales ranging from field to globe.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200100649
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$415,416.00
Summary
Green or crispy: Which plants use transpiration to survive heatwaves? Heatwaves are increasing in frequency and intensity, and extreme heat poses a significant threat to tree growth and survival. This project aims to investigate how different Australian tree species respond to extreme heat by tracking dynamic changes in water use during both natural and experimental heatwaves, representing current and future stress levels. Identification of a predictable response among plant functional types cou ....Green or crispy: Which plants use transpiration to survive heatwaves? Heatwaves are increasing in frequency and intensity, and extreme heat poses a significant threat to tree growth and survival. This project aims to investigate how different Australian tree species respond to extreme heat by tracking dynamic changes in water use during both natural and experimental heatwaves, representing current and future stress levels. Identification of a predictable response among plant functional types could be used to better forecast the potential effects of climate change on forest ecosystems. This project also expects to identify heat-tolerant tree species and their relevant physiological traits, which can improve the success of urban tree plantings to help create cooler, greener cities throughout Australia.Read moreRead less
The role of epigenetics in conferring resilience to environmental change. This project aims to determine whether epigenetic mechanisms confer resilience to environmental change in natural populations. Understanding epigenetic mechanisms is significant because they can mediate compensatory responses by animals to rapid environmental change. This project intends to link molecular changes to ecological outcomes to determine rapid remodeling of phenotypes to maintain fitness in variable environments ....The role of epigenetics in conferring resilience to environmental change. This project aims to determine whether epigenetic mechanisms confer resilience to environmental change in natural populations. Understanding epigenetic mechanisms is significant because they can mediate compensatory responses by animals to rapid environmental change. This project intends to link molecular changes to ecological outcomes to determine rapid remodeling of phenotypes to maintain fitness in variable environments. The project would benefit Australia’s research capacity and training, and the efficacy of conserving our natural environment.Read moreRead less
Unlocking telomere effects on life, death and fitness in a warming world. Few things in biology provoke such a strong desire for understanding as when adult death and fatal disease can be predicted early in life. A common factor linking early life stress, disease, ageing and time of death are telomeres, the protective regions at the end of each chromosome. This project aims to explicitly link telomere dynamics in free-living ectotherm populations with experimental approaches to advance our under ....Unlocking telomere effects on life, death and fitness in a warming world. Few things in biology provoke such a strong desire for understanding as when adult death and fatal disease can be predicted early in life. A common factor linking early life stress, disease, ageing and time of death are telomeres, the protective regions at the end of each chromosome. This project aims to explicitly link telomere dynamics in free-living ectotherm populations with experimental approaches to advance our understanding of parental and environmental effects on offspring telomeres and their effects later in life. This project will take advantage of one of the world’s longest datasets on ectotherm responses to climate to provide new knowledge of how telomeres affect fitness and the role that the environment plays.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160101484
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$379,500.00
Summary
How will Australian rainforest species cope with climate warming? This project plans to investigate how, and how much, rainforest tree species will adjust to warmer temperatures. Understanding the temperature dependence of physiological processes of Australian rainforest trees and how they are related to climate variation is critical. This should enable prediction of how species will adjust to warmer temperatures, what their thermal tolerances are and how future species distribution ranges may c ....How will Australian rainforest species cope with climate warming? This project plans to investigate how, and how much, rainforest tree species will adjust to warmer temperatures. Understanding the temperature dependence of physiological processes of Australian rainforest trees and how they are related to climate variation is critical. This should enable prediction of how species will adjust to warmer temperatures, what their thermal tolerances are and how future species distribution ranges may change.Read moreRead less
Finding damage thresholds in pyrethrum to optimise crop profitability. This project aims to use a new vascular approach to develop a quantitative stress tolerance framework for the crop species pyrethrum, defining the risks to plant production of water, heat and frost stress. Using novel optical and x-ray technology, this project seeks to pinpoint damaging stress thresholds and combine this knowledge with crop monitoring technology in a way that will allow crop managers to avoid damaging stress ....Finding damage thresholds in pyrethrum to optimise crop profitability. This project aims to use a new vascular approach to develop a quantitative stress tolerance framework for the crop species pyrethrum, defining the risks to plant production of water, heat and frost stress. Using novel optical and x-ray technology, this project seeks to pinpoint damaging stress thresholds and combine this knowledge with crop monitoring technology in a way that will allow crop managers to avoid damaging stress events. The intended outcome is to enable the pyrethrum industry, and ultimately a diversity of crop managers, to better utilise new advances in monitoring technology to maximise the benefits of irrigation such that yields are high relative to water use and damage by stress is avoided. Immediate beneficiaries will be the pyrethrum industry, but the research will provide a model, applicable to the multitude of irrigated crops in Australia. Read moreRead less
Silicon defences for plant protection. This project aims to study how silicon uptake in grasses affects plant susceptibility aboveground. Grasses contain more silicon than nearly any other plant, which they acquire entirely from the soil. Silicon increases plant resistance to herbivores, disease and drought, but up to 25 per cent of grass productivity is lost to root herbivores, a situation compounded by water stress. Silicon uptake is poorly understood, but root herbivory and changing rainfall ....Silicon defences for plant protection. This project aims to study how silicon uptake in grasses affects plant susceptibility aboveground. Grasses contain more silicon than nearly any other plant, which they acquire entirely from the soil. Silicon increases plant resistance to herbivores, disease and drought, but up to 25 per cent of grass productivity is lost to root herbivores, a situation compounded by water stress. Silicon uptake is poorly understood, but root herbivory and changing rainfall patterns can either impair uptake or induce the plant to take up more silicon. The goal of this project is to optimise silicon-based resistance in grasses and exploit this for plant protection from invasive pests and drought.Read moreRead less
Forecasting live fuel moisture content, the on/off switch for forest fire. Dry forest fuels are a precursor of large bushfires. This research aims to develop, for the first time, a model to reliably forecast the moisture content of live fuels (e.g. the foliage and fine branches of shrubs and trees). This will be achieved by combining (i) satellite-derived estimates of live fuel moisture content, (ii) forecasts of soil moisture, and (iii) plant physiological responses to soil dryness. Forecasts o ....Forecasting live fuel moisture content, the on/off switch for forest fire. Dry forest fuels are a precursor of large bushfires. This research aims to develop, for the first time, a model to reliably forecast the moisture content of live fuels (e.g. the foliage and fine branches of shrubs and trees). This will be achieved by combining (i) satellite-derived estimates of live fuel moisture content, (ii) forecasts of soil moisture, and (iii) plant physiological responses to soil dryness. Forecasts of live fuel moisture content will deliver an early warning system of the risk of bushfires. These forecasts will also facilitate improved planning of prescribed burns: if fuels are too dry there is a risk of burns escaping, conversely, if fuels are too wet there is a risk that burns will fail to meet objectives.Read moreRead less