Crop Physiology and Production

• Crop physiology: We work on fundamental physiological processes which determine crop yield including photosynthesis and respiration and their links to other functional traits.

• Horticulture and protected cropping: We are researching processes to improve horticultural crop production in a range of protected cropping systems including climate-controlled facilities.

• High-throughput phenotyping: Many traditional techniques for measuring key plant traits are slow and cumbersome. We are at the fore-front of developing and applying novel techniques to support high-throughput phenotyping of plant traits.

• Acclimation to climate change: The increasing frequency of occurrence and duration of extreme weather events including heatwaves and drought keeps posing serious challenges to crop production. We investigate the capacity of crops to adjust to these extreme events and the consequences for crop yield and quality.

The lab is keen to welcome enthusiastic prospective students (Honours, Masters, MPhil and PhD) and postdoctoral fellows. We are open to domestic and international students interested in basic or applied plant science research. From understanding mechanisms that confer stress tolerance to optimising crop production systems.

The University of New England offers some scholarships for prospective domestic and international students applying or studying for a Higher Degree Research (HDR) or Honours program. See here for more information. There are also grants and scholarships offered by governments, charitable organisations, companies and research institutes.

Lab Leader – Dr Onoriode Coast

Pratima Rana Shahi

PhD topic: Acclimation of leaf photosynthesis and respiration to nocturnal warming in Australian wheat.

Ross Clay

PhD topic: Exploring a century of Australian wheat cultivars for high temperature stress tolerance.

Abigail Addo-Danso

PhD topic: Drivers of pasture physiology and biomass production in tree-pasture systems.

Hanna Amoanimaa-Dede

PhD topic: Acclimation of wheat leaf photosystem II critical temperature to heat stress.

Joy Ojo

PhD topic: Phenotyping for heat tolerance in crops: using novel tools to find novel traits.

Amrutha Vijayakumar

PhD topic: Managing CO₂ levels in controlled environment cropping systems to optimise yield.

Md Ashraful Alam

PhD topic: Nitrogen and phosphorus uptake under heat stress and implications for energy metabolism in rice.