I am an ARC Future Fellow (2011-14) and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University.

My research (funded both by the Australian Research Council and Macquarie University) focuses on:

• Investigating relationships among ecologically-important leaf, stem and canopy traits - e.g. via "GloPNet"(Global Plant Trait Network)
• Understanding the anatomical & physiological underpinnings of variation in plant functional traits
• Scaling up from tissue-level traits to whole-plant growth outcomes
• Quantifying the effects of climate & soils on these traits and trait relationships, locally, regionally, globally...
• Improving trait-based approaches to vegetation-climate modelling (e.g. in Dynamic Global Vegetation Models)
• Exploring the ecological strategies of paleo-species via their (fossil) traits

Lab members. Post-docs: Julia Cooke. PhD students: Tiina Tosens (Structural Limitations to Photosynthesis), Kasia Zieminska (Angiosperm Ecological Strategies in Relation to Wood Anatomy), Marina Scalon (Comparative Ecophysiology of Australian and Brazilian Mistletoes), Yasmine Hageer (Defining Plant Functional Types for Global Modeling; co-supervised with Sandy Harrison). Research Associate: Tanja Lenz.

We have close ties and over-lapping membership with a number of other research groups at Macquarie Uni, most notably the Comparative Ecology Group (Westoby lab), the Plant Invasion and Restoration Ecology Laboratory (Leishman lab), and the Biosphere & Climate Dynamics group (Harrison/Prentice group).

Interested in joining us? Key criteria for potential students: (1) Proven academic track record (research, data analysis & write-up); (2) Clear ideas for a potential project. I'm open-minded in regard to research background -- it could be in plant ecology, ecophysiology, anatomy/morphology, vegetation modeling, ecoinformatics... Note: "Co-tutelle" arrangements (international joint supervision of projects) may be possible, enabling highly-motivated students to spend half of their candidature at Macquarie Uni, and half in a second research group, overseas. Students are strongly encouraged to broaden their horizons via the multi-disciplinary Genes to Geoscience and Climate Futures Macquarie University Research Centres.

Close collaborators from outside Macquarie include Amy Zanne (U. Missouri), Peter Reich (U. Minnesota), Jenny McElwain (UC Dublin) and others...

I am on the editorial board of Global Ecology & Biogeography.

Recent news:

• ** In early 2012 we'll be advertising two full-time postdoc positions, one part-time research assistant position and two PhD scholarships associated with the ARC-funded (2012-14) Discovery Projects "Scaling functional traits to whole-plant growth" and "Next-generation vegetation model based on functional traits". **
• Just published! Falster DS, Reich PB, Ellsworth DS, Wright IJ, Westoby M, Oleksyn J, Lee TD (2012). Lifetime return on investment increases with leaf lifespan among 10 Australian woodland species. New Phytologist 193:409-419. [download]
• Julia Cooke won the the British Ecological Society's Haldane Young Investigator's Prize for her paper Cooke J & Leishman MR (2011). Silicon concentration and leaf longevity: is silicon a player in the leaf dry mass spectrum? Functional Ecology 25:1181-1188. [download]