North Shore - meeting & talk by Zoom with Shubham Chhajed: Hydraulic drivers of photosynthetic variation

Shubham Chhajed is the recipient of the 2020 Val Williams Scholarship. He will talk about his study Hydraulic drivers of photosynthetic variation in co-occurring plant species in Sydney region: a least-cost theory approach:

Plants need to photosynthesise efficiently to grow and be healthy and to do this they require access to carbon dioxide and water. During periods of water stress there are trade-offs in obtaining CO2 for photosynthesis and preventing excessive water loss.

Shubham is investigating the photosynthetic variation among co-occurring species in relation to their hydraulic strategies on a range of native plants from the Sydney region by applying a new theoretical model to the problem.

The award money will pay for stable isotope analyses of foliar carbon which is needed to obtain reliable estimates of leaf gas exchange rates that is central to this study.

Shubham’s talk will be followed by a short plant identification presentation.

Contact Sue Fredrickson paulandsuefreddo@bigpond.com or 0401 362 921 for a Zoom invitation.