Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Charles Sturt University
I am a Research Fellow at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, NSW. I investigate soil-plant-insect interactions. Specifically I try and understand how plant traits drive insect herbivory. I have a particular interest in the role of silicon in plant biology and ecology, as well as how arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi alter plant-invertebrate interactions in the soil.
I obtained my PhD from the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment at Western Sydney University where I studied the impacts of silicon and AM fungi on plant-insect interactions belowground.
Prior to this I completed my BSc (Honours) at the University of St Andrews in Scotland where I studied how silicon enhances barley resistance to insect herbivores.
I am currently an Associate Editor for Austral Ecology and for Pedobiologia (Journal of Soil Ecology).
'Soil probiotics' promise bigger, healthier crops, but there's a downside
Oct 24, 2018 00:31 am UTC| Insights & Views Science
More than half the worlds plant-derived energy intake comes from just three crops: rice, wheat and maize. These crops, like most land plants, live in an evolutionarily ancient partnership with a certain type of fungus,...
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