Plant Ecology Laboratory
Research in our lab focuses on diversity patterns in biological communities, and on the interactions underlying these patterns. The main questions we address are: how do communities vary along natural gradients and gradients of human impact? What are the major assembly rules shaping communities; and are they attributable to biotic interactions or environmental heterogeneity? What are the roles of different biotic interactions - including competition, facilitation, herbivory and symbiosis - in structuring communities? Read more
News archive - September
Visiting post-doc Adam
September 2019
During September and October Dr Adam Frew is visiting the group for 5 weeks. Adam is a Scotsman by birth but now naturalised in Australia. He is about to complete his Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Charles Sturt University in Australia and will be taking up a new appointment at the University of Southern Queensland in October to start his own teaching and research group.
Adam is collaborating with Maarja Öpik and the group on a recent a pot experiment looking at how elevated atmospheric CO2 impacts AM fungi in Australian C3 and C4 grasses, and the effects on plant-herbivore interactions. During his visit Adam extracted AM fungal DNA from root samples and learnt as much as he could about the bioinformatics and statistical approaches used when assessing AM fungal diversity.
Adam also had the honour of giving the first seminar of the academic year to the department!
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