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Plant strategies for adapting to changing climates range from the molecular to the macroecological. Rachael will present two cases studies of potential climate change responses in the Australian flora which operate at vastly different scales of biological organisation.

First, Rachael will present a new continental-scale analysis of the vulnerability of Australian vegetation to climate change based on realised temperature and rainfall niche limits of ~19,000 species. Second, Rachael will provide evidence from quantitative proteomics for a strong relationship between heat-wave exposure in the field and protein expression response under experimental heat-wave conditions in six populations of Eucalytpus grandis. Rachael will discuss the challenges of reconciling fine-scale experimental work on single (or few) species like E. grandis with continent-wide analyses of climate change vulnerability across thousands of plant species. 

Rachael is a plant ecologist who seeks to understand the vulnerability of vegetation to global change. She is particularly focused on quantifying the impact of climate change at different at different scales. At the molecular level, Rachael is part of several interdisciplinary teams using 'omics techniques to investigate species adaptive and plastic responses to changing climate. Her research also addresses questions about the biogeography of plant form and function at the continental scale using large compilations of functional trait and herbarium specimen data for the Australian flora. 

Institute for Applied Ecology Seminar Series