Where we collect seed for restoration matters. In a new paper led by Jayden Engert, we examined where nurseries source seed for rainforest plantings and discuss what that means for restoration success.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Featured on the cover of @globalchangebio.bsky.social is a thermal image of Elaeocarpus Grandis taken at @jcuofficial.bsky.social Daintree Rainforest Observatory. In this species we find that populations originating from warmer climates have narrower leaves with higher rates of water loss.

Heading to Oaxaca for #ATBC2025 ? Make sure you stop by our symposium for all things leaf temperature, heat tolerance, and tradeoffs across climate gradients 🌿💧🌡️

How do tropical rainforest trees respond to warming? 🌡️🌿We experimentally warmed canopy leaves by 4°C for 8 months and found significant declines in photosynthesis and stomatal conductance, with no shift in Topt. Read the new paper, led by Kristine Crous here: shorturl.at/AVTOk

To see how physiological and morphological acclimation to treatments affected thermoregulation, I then monitored leaf temperature & water use. Air temperature was ramped up from 18 to 38°C, and VPD was lowered from 4 to 1.5 kPa. This revealed some very complex responses - watch this space!

Temperature and vapour pressure deficit are highly correlated, complicating efforts to assess their impact on trait variation. I disentangled the effects of these variables on sapling growth, physiology, and leaf traits in a glasshouse experiment shorturl.at/kb87b @newphyt.bsky.social

Although intraspecific variation led to enhanced leaf cooling at warmer sites for some species - this was not always the case. Diverse species thermoregulation strategies were also observed when comparing lowland vs upland origin trees grown in a provenance trial for 2 years shorturl.at/sjdtV

Early in my PhD, I had the opportunity to collaborate with Kristine Crous and others on an insitu leaf warming experiment assessing thermal acclimation of mature trees shorturl.at/eJA9Q. This project, among others, revealed that tropical leaves can reach high temperatures shorturl.at/W2wIs.

Time to introduce myself! Recently, I defended my thesis titled "Patterns and Drivers of Leaf Thermoregulation in Rainforest Trees of the Australian Wet Tropics" where I focused on the role of within-species acclimation and adaptation on leaf temperature. Here’s a little summary of what went on…