University of Tasmania, Australia

Testing the ecophysiological tolerance levels of Callitris species

We have undertaken a continental-wide survey of the native conifers in the genus Callitris. Part of the program involved from preliminary glasshouse experiments. We have been undertaking a number of glasshouse experiments studying the tolerance of Callitris species to extreme drought stress and have discovered these native Australian conifers are incredibly drought tolerant. We would like to extend our research program to investigate the response of Callitris to elevated CO2 and temperature in order to understand why this genus is so restricted in the modern Australian landscape and how climate change may affect the various species’ geographic distributions.