About us

Our research aims to understand genetic and environmental regulation of plant water uptake and use, and their impacts on plant performance (e.g., photosynthesis, biomass accumulation, crop yields). Specific foci include impacts of photosynthesis type on plant water relations, the environmental regulation of stomatal physiology, the operation of long distance phytohormonal signalling when plants experience soil water deficit and determining how vapour pressure deficit mediates whole plant water use. We research the impacts of drought on plant hydraulic architecture in diverse species adapted to different environments, while our external collaborations with plant breeders examine genetic regulation of crop water use and associated regulatory variables via genome-wide association studies.

Determining how irrigation treatments interact with different soil amendments (e.g. microbial inoculants, organic fertilisers) and agricultural techniques (e.g. spectral manipulation, rootstocks, agri-voltaics) allow extensive collaborations with commercial partners seeking to understand optimal deployment of their technologies in cropping systems.We utilise an extensive range of commercially supplied (pressure chambers, psychrometers, soil moisture probes) and bespoke (whole plant pressure chamber, whole plant gas exchange) instrumentation to quantify soil / plant water status, collect xylem sap samples for metabolite analysis and determine water use. Root imaging techniques allow interactions with our Centre for Sustainable Soils, while high-throughput hormone analysis techniques (immunological technique for ABA, photoacoustic laser spectroscopy for ethylene) can biochemically determine plant stress. We interact with our Plant Phenotyping group to quantify leaf and plant water use at varying timescales using transient-time porometry, infra-red gas analysis and gravimetric techniques. Crop scale projects with national and international collaborators in Mediterranean, Chinese and West African cropping systems have assessed the impacts and secured the application of water-saving irrigation techniques.