End of 2023: get togethers

As this year draws to a close, we took some time to get together and have fun! We went to a delicious Thai restaurant in Richmond, and some of us even played badminton together.

Lab dinner in Richmond! Clockwise from front: Jinlong Li, Vinod Jacob, Tiantian Pan, Travis Britton, Chongzhe Zhang, Anu Middha, Kasia Zieminska, Lily Dun, Ian Wright, Andrea Westerband, Shubham Chhajed, Nodoka Izumi. Absent: Emma Sumner

Field campaign across Australia

Members of the Wright lab have been busily collecting data across multiple sites in Australia, including New South Wales and Queensland. We continue to investigate how plants allocate carbon and water towards different tissues, and are testing novel predictions based on least-cost optimality theory.

Clockwise from left: Shubham Chhajed (postdoc), Lily Dun (Research assistant), Joshua Sean Lee (volunteer) and Andrea Westerband (postdoc) sampling at Nightcap National Park

We are working with native woody species, and are measuring plant size as well as leaf and stem morphology and physiology for multiple species per site. Our work is ongoing! As we are now transitioning from primarily field-based work to processing our samples in the lab. We have also been measuring sapwood respiration in the lab, using custom-made cuvettes attached to a LICOR gas exchange system.

Ian hard at work in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park!

Research Assistant, Lily Dun, at Round Hill Nature Reserve

Respiration measurements at Daintree Observatory

Discovery Project: Fieldwork in Tasmania

Fieldwork for an ARC Discovery Grant, awarded to Ian, is now officially underway! Postdocs Andrea Westerband and Shubham Chhajed are leading a broadscale field campaign across eastern Australia; exploring how plants allocate carbon, water and nutrients towards different tissue types and functions.

Sampling across broad temperature and moisture gradients, we are measuring plant morphological and physiological traits including leaf photosynthesis, sapwood respiration, leaf nutrient concentrations, and whole-plant allometry across a range of plant sizes.

Our first two sites are at the cold end of our temperature gradient, within two hours of Hobart, Tasmania. These sites include temperate open woodland forest and heath vegetation. We are focusing exclusively on woody native species, including small shrubs no taller than 40 cm, all the way up to trees 30 m tall. We were fortunate to have two research assistants on this trip, Lily Dun and Whylie Walton. Special thanks to them for all their help in the field.

A key component of our work requires that we extract pieces of sapwood tissue from the living stems of all individuals sampled. For trees, we use increment borers to extract these “cores”. Once we’ve extracted the sapwood, we measure the respiration rate in the lab under controlled conditions. ~Special thanks to the Brodribb lab (UTas) for allowing us to use their lab space!

Watch this space for more updates!

End of 2022

It’s been an exciting year for the Wright Lab! We’re now firmly established at Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment. Vin Jacob, Emma Sumner, Trav Britton joined us as postdocs. Anu Middha and Tiantian Pan joined us as PhD students. Shubham Chhajed submitted his PhD thesis in October. Christian Marando submitted his Masters by Research thesis in November. Spanish ecologist Paco Pugnaire visited us for several months. Lab members published a lots of great science in lots of great journals [see here]. And now we’re all looking forward to summer holidays! Below, a photo from our end-of-year dinner (L to R: Tiantian Pan, Emma Sumner, Yuki Tsujii, Christian Marando, Ian Wright, Anu Middha, Shubham Chhajed, Vin Jacob. Absent: Trav Britton, Andrea Westerband, Julian Schrader, Mark Westoby).

Centre for Plant Success in Nature & Agriculture

An ever-growing focus of research in our lab surrounds the ARC Centre for Plant Success in Nature & Agriculture. At our node of the Centre we’re investigating adaptations to temperature and water stress in a range of Australian species, including eucalypts and C4 grasses. Our node draws together researchers from HIE (Ian Wright – Chief Investigator; postdocs Vin Jacob, Trav Britton, Emma Sumner; and Profs Rachael Gallagher, Brendan Choat & Jonathan Plett), and also Brian Atwell from Macquarie University. We’ll also have 2-3 PhD students starting by the end of 2023. Other nodes of the Centre are at U Queensland (central node), U Tasmania, Queensland Institute of Technology, and Monash University.

Here’s a short video about the Centre:

Fieldwork at Currency Creek Arboretum, South Australia

We (Trav and Vin) recently joined collaborators from the UTAS node of the Centre of Excellence for Plant Success at Currency Creek Arboretum in South Australia. The arboretum, run by Dean Nicolle, is the largest collection of eucalypt species in the world with over 900 species and sub-species (and counting). We collected several functional traits across this diverse group of species, as part of an on-going project within the Plant Success CoE that explores adaption to water and heat stress in eucalypts. Thanks to Dean for his knowledge and help, and UTAS collaborators (Chris Blackman, Ben Halliwell and Gabi Hartill) for a great week!

Welcome to Vin, Trav and Emma!

The big news for the lab is we’re finally getting underway with our participation in the ARC Centre for Plant Success in Nature & Agriculture! We welcome three new people to the Wright Lab, postdocs Trav Britton, Vin Jacob and Emma Sumner, who across several projects will be investigating climate adaptations in eucalypts and Australia native grasses.

PhD opportunities (closing 31st March)

We have two three-year PhD scholarships available at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment (Western Sydney Uni) node of the ARC Centre for Plant Success in Nature & Agriculture. Join Ian Wright (Chief Investigator), Rachael Gallagher, Brendan Choat and other leaders of plant science (at HIE and other Centre nodes) for your PhD researching climate-related adaptations in Australian native species. More information on the PhD projects available can be found HERE and from Distinguished Professor Ian Wright (ian.j.wright@westernsydney.edu.au)

1. Ecological/ecophysiological adaptations to temperature and water stress. Focusing on Australian species from iconic clades such as Eucalyptus and Sorghum, in this project we will investigate climate-related adaptations in carbon and water physiology, canopy architecture and perhaps reproduction also. Within this over-arching theme there is scope for tailoring the project to your strengths and interests, e.g. stronger emphasis could be placed on field studies or, alternatively, on glasshouse-based experimental work. For ecologically-minded candidates there’s potential to place the work within biogeographic and evolutionary contexts. For those with strong quantitative backgrounds there’s scope for twinning empirical research with modelling and theory. Making links to the genetic basis of key traits may be possible for candidates with those skills and interests.

2. Anatomy and physiology of the leaf cuticle – the crucial barrier to desiccation. In this project you will investigate the dual roles of the leaf cuticle in providing physical support to leaves and in preventing water loss. Cuticle properties will be studies using a combination of approaches such as biomechanical tests, anatomical investigations, chemical characterisation and physiological tests (e.g. quantifying permeability to water loss at different temperatures). Making links to the genetic basis of key traits could also be considered. Target clades for this work could include eucalypts, native grasses or Solanaceae. The over-arching project theme is set but there is scope for tailoring the research to your strengths and interests.

To support living costs, the successful candidates will receive a tax-free stipend of $30,000(AUD) per annum for up to 3 years. International candidates with sufficiently strong track record will be eligible for a tuition fee waiver and financial support to cover the university-required Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) insurance policy.

PhD opportunities in plant ecology and ecophysiology

At the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment we are opening a new node of the ARC Centre for Plant Success in Nature & Agriculture. Join Ian Wright (Chief Investigator), Rachael Gallagher, Brendan Choat and other leaders of plant science (at HIE and other Centre nodes) for your PhD researching the success of Australian native species in challenging environments!

We have several scholarships available ($30k p.a.) on a variety of topics such as Adaptations to temperature and water stress in Eucalyptus; Anatomy and physiology of the leaf cuticle – the crucial barrier to dessication; Adaptations to heat and drought in Australian Andropogoneae grasses; and Climatic predictability as a driver of inter- and intraspecific variation in leaf and root traits.

More information on the PhD projects available can be found HERE and from Ian Wright (ian.j.wright@westernsydney.edu.au) or Rachael Gallagher (rachael.gallagher@westernsydney.edu.au)

Plant Functional Ecology postdoc position (closes 7th November)

We are seeking a talented, field-experienced postdoc – with proven capacity to lead peer-reviewed publications – to join the new HIE/WSU node of the ARC Centre for Plant Success in Nature & Agriculture – where we will research adaptations to heat and drought in Australian native species, e.g. in eucalypts and native grasses.

Your duties will include:

• Help develop our research program about adaptations to heat and water stress, at WSU and collaboratively across other Centre nodes
• Field and laboratory measurements of photosynthesis and plant functional traits
• Compile and analyse plant trait datasets
• Prepare manuscripts for publication in high impact journals
• Communicate project results at national and international conferences

More information here: https://tinyurl.com/e4ym9bsw