Dr Ros Gleadow
To grow or to defend: Allocation of resources by plants in a changing climate
Phone: 990 51667
E-mail: Ros.Gleadow@sci.monash.edu.au
Plant production must become more efficient as food and biofuels compete for dwindling areas of arable land. A major cost for farmers is now fertiliser, especially nitrogen (N). Plants have limited resources available, so there is a trade-off between investing in growth, survival, stress tolerance and herbivore defence systems. The partitioning of resources is a dynamic process regulated by both genetic and environmental factors. Both drought and elevated CO2, (eCO2) often result in a decrease in nutrient value of plants by shifting allocation of resources away from growth to defence.. We offer a series of projects that seek to understand the mechanisms controlling the balance between plant productivity and nutritive status in both crop plants and trees in order to prepare for global climate change. Projects can be modified to include more or less emphasis on genetic regulation, plant physiology or insect feeding experiments depending on the interest and expertise of the student.
