The Future Fellowships Scheme was introduced to promote research in areas of critical national importance by giving outstanding researchers incentives to conduct their research in Australia. The aim of Future Fellowships is to attract and retain the best and brightest mid-career researchers.

Project summary

Leaf respiration-related metabolism in terrestrial vegetation liberates considerable amounts of carbon dioxide, ammonia and hydrogen sulphide into the atmosphere. Such gaseous losses are detrimental to biomass production but respiration also sustains nutrient assimilation and biosyntheses. This project aims to describe flux patterns in respiratory metabolism and disentangle interactions with other pathways such as photorespiration and nitrogen assimilation. It will exploit stable isotopes to quantify metabolic partitioning and show coordination between major processes. It will establish key mechanisms by which respiration dictates plant carbon balance and contributes to identifying metabolic bottle-necks in plant primary production (FT140100645,0607 PLANT BIOLOGY, Administered by ANU.)