University of Tasmania, Australia

How sclerophyll vegetation came to dominate Australia is a long standing evolutionary question. The plant family Proteaceae is key to this question because it spans almost the full range of Australia’s vegetation and has a strong fossil record. We will combine molecular phylogeny with anatomy to reconstruct the pattern of evolution of key leaf traits related to creating open forests and heaths and to build the framework needed to identify fossil leaves of this family in a rigorous manner. The integration of new and rigorous evidence derived from living and fossil plants will provide the clearest evidence yet for the origins of Australian environments. This has ramifications for understanding plant responses to past and future climate changes.

In this project we will use fossil leaves and modern plants to clarify the evolution of a defining feature of the Australian landscape and its biota: our unique sclerophyll flora. We will do this by tracking changes in the taxonomic diversity and structure of fossilised leaves across the gamut of environmental changes that have affected the Australasian region over the last 65 million years, including the effects of extremely high CO2 concentrations and marked changes in rainfall and its distribution. This also feeds into our understanding of biotic responses to current environmental changes that are fundamentally linked to our chronically nutrient-poor soils and water-stressed lands. To do this project will exploit the excellent fossil record, diverse leaf anatomy and well-developed phylogeny of the key Australian plant family Proteaceae. This family has long been used as a model system both for understanding the relationship between structure and function of leaves, and for the evolution of the Australian environment, and this project builds upon this sound base.

We are enthusiastic about recruiting PhD students to take part in this well-funded and exciting project. We are also planning to develop this project into future grants and ongoing work.

Carpenter RJ, Jordan, GJ, Macphail MK, Hill RS (2012) Near-tropical early Eocene terrestrial temperatures at the Australo-Antarctic margin, western Tasmania. Geology (in press)

Carpenter RJ Proteaceae leaf fossils: phylogeny, diversity, ecology and austral distributions. Botanical Review

Carpenter RJ, Goodwin MP, Hill RS, Kanold K (2011)Silcrete plant fossils from Lightning Ridge, New South Wales: new evidence for climate change and monsoon elements in the Australian Cenozoic. Australian Journal of Botany 59, 399-425.

Jordan GJ (2011) Tansley Review: A critical framework for assessing biological palaeoproxies: predicting past climate and levels of atmospheric CO2 from fossil leaves. New Phytologist 192: 29–44.

Members (External)

Dr Greg Jordan, School of Plant Science (greg.jordan@utas.edu.au)

Ass. Prof. Tim Brodribb, School of Plant Science (Tim.Brodribb@utas.edu.au)

Dr Ray Carpenter, University of Adelaide

Prof. Robert Hill, University of Adelaide.