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Dr Kimberley Simpson: Ecological strategies associated with fast plant growth

Growth rate is one of the most influential determinants of ecological interactions and survival under different environmental conditions, and therefore represents a major axis of trait variation in plants. Species innately differ in their growth rates, which can vary by more than an order of magnitude in plants.However, despite this central importance of growth to the ecology of species, we know little about how variation arises from physiological differences among species. Drawing upon the results of comparative screening experiments of grass species under different environmental conditions, I'll explore the roles of resource capture, life history, photosynthetic pathway, domestication status and plant size in driving fast growth. I'll uncover traits influential to growth rate in grasses and discuss the implications for the ecological behaviour and interactions of species in grassy biomes.