Centre Leader - Perennial Horticulture
BAgSci Hons (Tas) PhD (Tas)
| Contact Campus | Sandy Bay Campus |
| Building | Life Sciences Building |
| Telephone | +61 3 6226 2776 |
| Mobile | 0419 386 288 |
| Dugald.Close@utas.edu.au |
Dr Close teaches in the following undergraduate units:
KLA365 - Horticultural Science
Dr Close has supervised 13 completed honours projects (1 is current in 2012), 5 completed PhD projects (7 current) and 1 completed Masters projects.
A list of publications is available via Dr Close's WARP research report.
Some publications are available via Dr Close's eprint page.
Dugald Close is Acting Deputy Director and Perennial Horticulture Centre Leader with the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA), Program Manager for the Horticulture Australia Limited National 5-year Apple and Pear Orchard Productivity Program, Lead Agency National Cherry Industry Coordinator, represents Tasmania on the National Horticulture Research Network and is the immediate past Program Leader for Horticulture in the Department of Primary Industries and Water, Tasmania. He has over 15 years experience in industry-applied tree physiology research in the forestry, farm forestry and revegetation, native horticulture, nursery, viticulture and tree-crops industries. Appointments have included Australian Research Council post-doctoral fellowship with UTAS on a national tree seedling project with 8 industry partners, Senior Research Scientist with Kings Park and Botanic Garden (adjunct lecturer at UWA) responsible for developing and leading the Plant Ecophysiology group and working with industry and government authorities, leading a national research program in tree health as a Fellow with the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre (adjunct Senior Research Fellow Murdoch University), before moving into management and research in production perennial horticulture as Centre Leader in TIA.
Area of interest is applied Tree Ecophysiology: including tree photosynthesis, pigment and antioxidant chemistry, tree water relations, tree nutrition and plant-herbivore interactions. This has led to 57 refereed scientific journal articles, 4 book chapters, and 34 technical publications, over $9M in competitive grant funding and a UTas Rising Star award for 2011. Current research activity includes: the ecophysiology of native tree establishment on farms and native recruitment of eucalypts in managed ecosystems, apple, cherry and grape vine canopy and crop physiology; orchard soil carbon and biochar amendments and their effects on tree nutrition; cherry fruit nutrition and; cherry postharvest science. Previously on the Editorial Board of Tree Physiology (2006-2008) and currently Associate Editor of New Forests and Editorial Board Member of Environmental and Experimental Botany and ISRN Ecology.
See the TIA Perennial Horticulture Centre.