With long faces we recently bid farewell to post-docs Vincent Maire and Allyson Eller. Vincent has taken up a faculty position at U. Quebec (Trois-Rivières), and Allyson has a Visiting Professorship at Bates College (Maine USA). We wish them every success with their new positions, and thank them for their superb contributions to our group over the last 2 years!
Allyson and Emma recently led a three week field campaign to Atherton to measure all things trait related. (Pictured above Saskia Grootemaat, Urvashi Lallu, Emma Gray and Allyson Eller).
Armed with two licors, a 15 metre extendable pole, and five research assistants (Saskia Grootemaat, Michelle Demers, Urvashi lallu, Aurelie Dumont and Wuu Kuang Soh), we managed to sample the various leaf and wood traits of over 25 species.
Although the trip started out bright and sunny, after four days we were hit with relentless rain which did not cease for the remainder of our trip (Michelle Demers, Urvashi Lallu and Wuu Kuang Soh pictured above). I guess it shouldn’t have come as a complete surprise, considering we were sampling in a rainforest (pictured below, Allyson after a foray into the forest).
Lunch times with some sun peeking through the clouds did much to lift everyone’s spirits (pictured above from left Michelle Demers, Urvashi Lallu, Aurelie Dumont, and Emma Gray). The enthusiasm of our fantastic team of helpers was untempered by the leeches and the indescribable monotony of separating leaves from stems. And if the rain’s goal was to hinder our progress it was unsuccessful. If anything it made us more determined, and we far surpassed our goal of twenty species.
Getting settled underneath a gazebo and three tarps, we set up a makeshift lab in the field which withstood everything the weather could throw at us. It’s also possible that regular tea breaks helped with our positive attitude.
The Atherton sun finally showed it’s face the day we left, and another successful field trip was complete! 
(Pictured from left, Allyson Eller, Egoitz Alkorta Miranda (a Spanish intern working for CSIRO) , Michelle Demers, Wuu Kuang Soh, Urvashi Lallu and Emma Gray).
Finally, we were all in the same place at the same time, and we took a photo!
L to R: Ian, Emma, Allyson, Rachael, Saskia, Vincent, Marina
PhD student Emma Gray is in Paris, yesterday being awarded one of fifteen UNESCO-L’Oréal For Women in Science International Fellowships (2014).
Congratulations Emma!
More information (media releases) here and here
“EcoTas13”, the 5th joint conference of the Ecological Society of Australia and the New Zealand Ecological Society runs from November 24-29 in Auckland, New Zealand. Emma, Marina, Rachael, Saskia and Vincent will be there, while Allyson and Ian hold the fort back home. Look out for the following presentations:
Allyson Eller and her fearless labmates (pictured are Emma Gray, Allyson Eller, Ian Wright, and Marina Scalon) once again escaped Sydney to visit a beautiful example of a classic Australian ecosystem. The Queensland wet tropical rainforest is a World Heritage Area and a fantastic place to spend some time measuring photosynthesis and respiration.
Allyson spent a week in Cape Tribulation at the Daintree Rainforest Observatory with collaborators from Lucas Cernusak’s lab at James Cook University. She made leaf photosynthesis and respiration measurements from a crane erected in the rainforest that allows researchers access to the rainforest canopy.
Ian, Emma, and Marina joined Allyson for a trip to Atherton where they measured trees in the CSIRO rainforest arboretum and at the Robson Creek supersite. Here Allyson waits for stabilization while measuring photosynthesis on a cut branch. At the end of a successful two weeks they returned with measurements for 20 species that will be coupled with previous measurements of biomass allocation and growth rate to answer questions about the links between functional traits and growth rate strategies.
Last few months, Saskia has accomplished burning experiments in the FLARE-lab at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. As might be expected, the Australian litter burned well and there were some clear differences in the combustibility of the different species. This Friday she will give a labtalk about her findings (2pm, room E8C-212).
The ring of fire
We’re very excited to welcome Yusuke Onoda (Kyoto University) as a Visiting Scholar for the next three months. And to welcome Emma Gray, who has joined us for a PhD, all the way from South Africa (further cementing the “United Nations” aspect of our lab group)…
Our savanna study site, 35 km east of Darwin
Allyson Eller (post-doc) escaped the dreary June weather in Sydney by leading a field campaign in Darwin (far northern Australia) to quantify the respiration rates of wood and bark in 17 woody savanna species. She was joined by a revolving cast of lab-mates and collaborators including Ian Wright, Vincent Maire, Lucas Cernusak and Mick Brand — who were eager to show off their field and lab skills while enjoying the beautiful scenery and warm weather.
Mick, Allyson and Ian in the field
The three-week trip included measurements of leaf respiration and of wood and bark respiration from both trunks and branches. The samples are now being prepped for determination of nitrogen content so that we can quantify respiration – N relationships in different tissues and between different species.
Measuring sapwood respiration in a custom-made cuvette
When in Darwin we work out of the Hutley Lab at Charles Darwin University (thanks everyone!). Luckily we finished our work before the site was taken out by a fire!
The Wright Lab (Western Sydney University) 