Crops for a phosphorus-scarce future: plant adaptation to fluctuating phosphorus availability. Phosphorus is commonly used on farmland to ensure high yields. However, rock phosphate reserves are declining and leaching of phosphorus from farmlands into native vegetation and water bodies causes significant environmental degradation. As a result, more phosphorus-efficient farming systems are urgently required. Many Australian native plants have adapted to low phosphorus soils and fast fluctuations ....Crops for a phosphorus-scarce future: plant adaptation to fluctuating phosphorus availability. Phosphorus is commonly used on farmland to ensure high yields. However, rock phosphate reserves are declining and leaching of phosphorus from farmlands into native vegetation and water bodies causes significant environmental degradation. As a result, more phosphorus-efficient farming systems are urgently required. Many Australian native plants have adapted to low phosphorus soils and fast fluctuations in phosphorus availability. This project aims to investigate plant adaptations to phosphorus fluctuations and the potential for storing phosphorus when it is abundant for later use. This should aid development of crops with improved phosphorus fertiliser-use efficiency in anticipation of a phosphorus-scarce future.Read moreRead less
The key to making root nodules - new tricks for old hormones. This project aims to use and develop new chemical and microscopy-based tools to test whether the cell-type specific plant hormone changes induced by rhizobia in legumes can be triggered in non-legumes. Most crop plants rely on fossil fuel-derived nitrogen fertilisers, while legumes benefit from biologically-fixed nitrogen through a symbiosis with rhizobia bacteria that initiate nodules. It is not understood why non-legumes cannot form ....The key to making root nodules - new tricks for old hormones. This project aims to use and develop new chemical and microscopy-based tools to test whether the cell-type specific plant hormone changes induced by rhizobia in legumes can be triggered in non-legumes. Most crop plants rely on fossil fuel-derived nitrogen fertilisers, while legumes benefit from biologically-fixed nitrogen through a symbiosis with rhizobia bacteria that initiate nodules. It is not understood why non-legumes cannot form this symbiosis. This project aims to apply detailed knowledge of nodulation in model legumes to a phylogenetically diverse range of nodulating and non-nodulating plant species. This is expected to give new insight into the evolution of nodulation and advance the long held goal of extending nodulation to non-legumes.Read moreRead less
Nutrient transfer across symbiotic membranes in soybean. Legume plants interact with soil bacteria that fix nitrogen from the air to obtain nitrogen required for growth, reducing their use of fertilisers. Understanding how nutrients are exchanged between bacteria and legumes may improve the efficiency of this process. This would make legumes a more valuable component of sustainable agricultural systems.
Building resilient alpine environments with less snow. In this project, we aim to build resilience into alpine National Parks and Alpine Resorts to counter the effects of ongoing declines in snow. Alpine environments depend on snow to regulate water flows, insulate vegetation, control soil erosion and promote proper ecosystem functioning. How these processes will operate in a snow-free future is unknown. We will determine how and where snow characteristics drive soil water availability for plant ....Building resilient alpine environments with less snow. In this project, we aim to build resilience into alpine National Parks and Alpine Resorts to counter the effects of ongoing declines in snow. Alpine environments depend on snow to regulate water flows, insulate vegetation, control soil erosion and promote proper ecosystem functioning. How these processes will operate in a snow-free future is unknown. We will determine how and where snow characteristics drive soil water availability for plants and which plant species have the best adaptation and regeneration potential under extreme conditions such as heat, frost and drought. Benefits of the project include innovative land management and rehabilitation solutions, to safeguard Australia's alpine areas under changing environmental conditions.Read moreRead less
Facilitation of high leaf phosphorus-use efficiency by nitrate restraint. This project aims to determine the link between high phosphorus use efficiency and nitrogen metabolism in the Fabaceae, Myrtaceae and Proteaceace, the three families of plants that co-dominate the flora on the extremely phosphorus-impoverished soils of south-western Australia, a Global Biodiversity Hotspot. It is expected that the extremely high phosphorus use efficiency in these plants is inextricably linked to a low capa ....Facilitation of high leaf phosphorus-use efficiency by nitrate restraint. This project aims to determine the link between high phosphorus use efficiency and nitrogen metabolism in the Fabaceae, Myrtaceae and Proteaceace, the three families of plants that co-dominate the flora on the extremely phosphorus-impoverished soils of south-western Australia, a Global Biodiversity Hotspot. It is expected that the extremely high phosphorus use efficiency in these plants is inextricably linked to a low capacity for nitrogen uptake. An anticipated outcome is new insight into how these plants achieve highly efficient phosphorus and nitrogen use, providing new understanding into the functioning of plants in an exceptionally biodiverse ecosystem and into traits that may lead to to crops with higher fertilizer use efficiency.Read moreRead less