Climate change, vegetation function and plant biodiversity
This dynamic research group has the exciting objective of unravelling the relationship between changing environments and the persistence of plants. The group's strategic focus is to predict the impact of regional, national and global anthropogenic effects on vegetation structure and function by providing high quality and impact research. The focus is on regionally accessible species and vegetation but we aim to have global impact by addressing generic ecological and evolutionary questions. Students are involved a diverse range of projects that apply leading edge fundamental and applied research to achieve the maximum impact.
Members of the research group are drawn across the disciplinary areas of Conservation Biology (Caroline Gross), Fire Ecology (Peter Clarke), Ecosystem Service (Nick Reid), Evolutionary Ecology (Glenda Vaughton), Plant Systematics (Jeremy Bruhl), and Remote Sensing (Lalit Kumar) across two long standing botanical groups at UNE in Ecosystem Management and in Botany.UNE's strength in this area of research is the close proximity of a wide range of landscapes and vegetation types within a few hours drive of UNE. A major attraction for research in examining vegetation function is the Newholme Field Station only a short distance from UNE's main campus. The research group is internationally renowned publishing extensively in high impact journals and attracting multimillion dollar funding from both industry and government. Currently there are around 50 post-graduate and honours students associated with the group together with six post-doctoral researchers.
There is a global paucity of research on the interactive effects of climate, and related disturbances (e,g. fire, drought, grazing and mining) on plant and animal persistence in fragmented landscapes. Disturbance regimes in Australia are predicted to be altered by climate change because of changing disturbance frequency and intensity (see Hennessy et al. 2005). The combined effects of changed disturbance regimes (frequency, intensity and season) pose threats, not only to species, but have the potential to alter the distribution of whole ecosystems (e.g. Bond et al. 2005). The aim of the group is to unite existing research strengths in Australian flora at UNE to focus on key issues in plant biodiversity and evolution in the face of increased disturbance regimes.
Links:
School of Environmental and Rural Science
Contact:
Associate Professor Peter Clarke
School of Environmental and Rural Science
Phone: +61 2 6773 3712
Email: plcarke1@une.edu.au