Switching partners: a driving force for tree productivity in a changing environment? Eucalypts take part in a mutually beneficial association with diverse communities of mycorrhizal fungi to satisfy nutrient demands. The fungi that eucalypts interact with change as they grow but the reasons for this shift are not known. To improve forestry management strategies, the project will determine why and how this shift occurs.
Aboriginal patch burning and the quest for sustainable fire management. This project aims to document historical changes in the spatial grain of the patch burning mosaic in an Arnhem Land savannah with an unbroken history of management by Aboriginal people, and in adjacent areas where traditional management has ceased. The mosaic's spatial grain will be inferred by mapping the individual ages of the long-lived conifer Callitris intratropica. Prior research has shown that Callitris individuals c ....Aboriginal patch burning and the quest for sustainable fire management. This project aims to document historical changes in the spatial grain of the patch burning mosaic in an Arnhem Land savannah with an unbroken history of management by Aboriginal people, and in adjacent areas where traditional management has ceased. The mosaic's spatial grain will be inferred by mapping the individual ages of the long-lived conifer Callitris intratropica. Prior research has shown that Callitris individuals can be reliably aged, and population structures are very sensitive to fire regimes: saplings only establish if unburnt for 10 years. This research is expected to provide the first direct test of the hypothesis that Aboriginal people maintained fine-grained fire mosaics in savannas, and inform bushfire policy debates.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150100408
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$393,416.00
Summary
Understanding plant:fungal communication to increase plant productivity. Relationships between mutualistic fungi and plants are exploited as they foster plant productivity and vigour. One significant problem facing the agro-forestry and agricultural industries is that the ability of beneficial fungi to colonise plant hosts is highly dependent on the genetic background of the host. Ultimately, this means that if fungal inoculants are not matched with the appropriate plant host, maximal benefits f ....Understanding plant:fungal communication to increase plant productivity. Relationships between mutualistic fungi and plants are exploited as they foster plant productivity and vigour. One significant problem facing the agro-forestry and agricultural industries is that the ability of beneficial fungi to colonise plant hosts is highly dependent on the genetic background of the host. Ultimately, this means that if fungal inoculants are not matched with the appropriate plant host, maximal benefits from these relationships are not achieved. This project aims to identify the first genetic markers to be used for matching plants with appropriate fungal isolates, thereby guaranteeing optimal plant performance. This will add a critical component to the global effort of increasing the productivity of our natural resources.Read moreRead less
Factors controlling ectomycorrhizal contributions to plant N nutrition. This project aims to define the mechanistic link between nitrogen metabolism in symbiotic ectomycorrhizal fungi and its effect on the quantity of nitrogen shared with a plant host. Using a genetically diverse population of a key Australian fungal species, the project expects to uncover genetic features related to nitrogen metabolism that correlate to improved support of plant nutrition. Expected outcomes include better under ....Factors controlling ectomycorrhizal contributions to plant N nutrition. This project aims to define the mechanistic link between nitrogen metabolism in symbiotic ectomycorrhizal fungi and its effect on the quantity of nitrogen shared with a plant host. Using a genetically diverse population of a key Australian fungal species, the project expects to uncover genetic features related to nitrogen metabolism that correlate to improved support of plant nutrition. Expected outcomes include better understanding of plant-microbe interactions, groundwork for tools to better model the role of fungi in soil nutrient cycling and guidelines for plant:fungal pairings in reforestation practices. Overall, these should provide significant benefit to the global effort in understanding the role of soil microbes in plant nutrition.Read moreRead less
Characterising controls of carbon flow from trees into mycorrhizal fungi. This project aims to improve our understanding of below-ground carbon sequestration. A significant portion of plant photosynthate is shuttled to root-associated mutualistic ectomycorrhizal fungi in forest ecosystems. Therefore, fungal partners of forest trees are valuable carbon sinks. One problem impeding below-ground carbon accounting in forest soils is a lack of understanding concerning the genetic control of how photos ....Characterising controls of carbon flow from trees into mycorrhizal fungi. This project aims to improve our understanding of below-ground carbon sequestration. A significant portion of plant photosynthate is shuttled to root-associated mutualistic ectomycorrhizal fungi in forest ecosystems. Therefore, fungal partners of forest trees are valuable carbon sinks. One problem impeding below-ground carbon accounting in forest soils is a lack of understanding concerning the genetic control of how photosynthetically fixed sugars are passed to root-associated microbes. This project aims to identify and characterise the sugar transporters that shuttle carbon in ectomycorrhizal plant–fungal interactions and investigate how these are affected by elevated carbon dioxide. It may also identify isolates of mutualistic fungi that could be paired with eucalypt hosts to maximise carbon sequestration and forest productivity.Read moreRead less
Closing the carbon cycle: an ecological understanding of wood decay. The project aims to understand the controls on the return of carbon to the atmosphere within forests, especially focusing on this problem from a microbial perspective. Microbial dynamics and wood decay are crucially important for the global carbon cycle. What the field is lacking is a trait-based ecology of wood decomposers. The project plans to examine the interactions among fungal and oomycete endophytes and decomposers throu ....Closing the carbon cycle: an ecological understanding of wood decay. The project aims to understand the controls on the return of carbon to the atmosphere within forests, especially focusing on this problem from a microbial perspective. Microbial dynamics and wood decay are crucially important for the global carbon cycle. What the field is lacking is a trait-based ecology of wood decomposers. The project plans to examine the interactions among fungal and oomycete endophytes and decomposers through a series of experiments. The expected outcome of this project is a clear understanding of the role of traits in wood decomposer communities, especially their influence on priority effects, competitive hierarchies, and the resultant wood decay rate.Read moreRead less
Impacts of global environmental change on biodiversity of tropical savannas. This project aims to predict the biodiversity consequences of a global trend of increasing woody cover in tropical savannas. Believed to be driven by a combination of elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration, climate change and management actions including fire suppression and cattle grazing. Expected outcomes are the integration of a range of modelling approaches to predict long-term impacts of environmental change on sa ....Impacts of global environmental change on biodiversity of tropical savannas. This project aims to predict the biodiversity consequences of a global trend of increasing woody cover in tropical savannas. Believed to be driven by a combination of elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration, climate change and management actions including fire suppression and cattle grazing. Expected outcomes are the integration of a range of modelling approaches to predict long-term impacts of environmental change on savanna biodiversity and the identification of land-use and management strategies to best mitigate these impacts. Likely benefits are an improved understanding of trade-offs between alternative land-uses in the savannas, including biodiversity conservation, fire management for carbon credits, and cattle grazing.Read moreRead less
Are Secreted Proteins determinants of host range in ectomycorrhizal fungi? This project aims to understand the role of small secreted proteins in governing symbiotic fungal-host compatibility and determine the impact of environmental change on the role of these proteins. Using innovative approaches, this project expects to achieve these goals using comparative genomics, transcriptomic analyses and functional characterisation of these proteins within a keystone Australian ectomycorrhizal fungus. ....Are Secreted Proteins determinants of host range in ectomycorrhizal fungi? This project aims to understand the role of small secreted proteins in governing symbiotic fungal-host compatibility and determine the impact of environmental change on the role of these proteins. Using innovative approaches, this project expects to achieve these goals using comparative genomics, transcriptomic analyses and functional characterisation of these proteins within a keystone Australian ectomycorrhizal fungus. It is anticipated that outcomes of this project will add a critical component to the global effort in understanding the role of soil microbes in supporting the health of plants experiencing a variety of climactic conditions. This could provide significant benefits to informing management practices of forest ecosystems.Read moreRead less
Bringing back Australia's lost woodland biodiversity: towards strategic multi-species reintroductions. Australia has the highest rate of mammal extinction of any continent on the planet. This has reduced biodiversity and compromised many important ecological processes. What is the best way to re-build depauperate mammal communities with multi-species reintroductions? What effects do multi-species reintroductions have on recipient ecosystems? This project aims to explore these questions by reintr ....Bringing back Australia's lost woodland biodiversity: towards strategic multi-species reintroductions. Australia has the highest rate of mammal extinction of any continent on the planet. This has reduced biodiversity and compromised many important ecological processes. What is the best way to re-build depauperate mammal communities with multi-species reintroductions? What effects do multi-species reintroductions have on recipient ecosystems? This project aims to explore these questions by reintroducing three mammal species to a critically endangered temperate woodland: a carnivore (the eastern quoll), an insectivore (yellow-footed antechinus), and a herbivore (the eastern chestnut mouse). Results from this sequenced multi-species reintroduction experiment will have broad applicability to ecosystem restoration in Australia and overseas.Read moreRead less
From genes to ecosystems: does genetic divergence in eucalyptus alter biodiversity and ecosystem function? The project will use a dominant tree species of south-eastern Australia to examine how genetic based variation in its traits influences community organisation, biodiversity and ecosystem processes. Outcomes from this research will be important for responding to an uncertain future environment and maintaining the services ecosystems provide.