Contacts
Group membership
Prof Adrienne Nicotra is a plant evolutionary ecologist with interest in the capacity of plants to respond to environment and environmental change – what we call phenotypic plasticity. Her work focusses on native species from a wide range of environments, though she is particularly fond of mountain flora. Adrienne joined ANU as a postdoctoral fellow in 1998 and has been there ever since, now as a Professor in the Division of Ecology and Evolution in the Research School of Biology. In addition to her research work, Adrienne teaches, supervises honours and postgraduate students and is the director of the Australian Mountain Research Facility.
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Synthesis group grant, 2019
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ESA Member Services Award , 2016
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ARC Future Fellowship, 2010
Research interests
Research in my lab applies novel approaches in plant comparative ecology to the study of evolutionary ecology and ecophysiology to give insights into patterns and processes underlying plant function at multiple scales.
We are interested in phenotypic plasticity - the range of forms a given genetic individual can exhibit under different environments - and when and how it evolves and when it matters. We also have a soft spot for alpine ecology and enjoy exploring the links between plant reproductive ecology and ecophysiology.
A wide range of projects are underway in the lab and most of these provide options for undergraduate, Honours or PhD projects - see our Research projects for more detail and feel free to contact me if you'd like more information
Recent grants
- 2023-2025 Leigh Andrea, Genevieve Wright, Adrienne Nicotra, Melessa Schroder, Maurizio Rossetto, Rosie McVeigh. Determining plant resilience to temperature stress in NSW alpine Threatened Ecological Communities. NSW Environmental Trust, Research 2022 grant.
- 2023-2027 Nicholson, Jaylen and Adrienne Nicotra, The influence of drought, heatwaves, and microclimate on culturally significant plants in Uluru-Kata Tjuta national park, Parks Australia
- 2022-2027 Nicotra, Adrienne, Matthew Brookhouse, Saul Cunninghan, Jamie Pittock, Owen Atkin, Ben Smith, Paul Miller, Josh Dorrough, Melessa Schroder, John Wright, Rosie Cooney, ARC LP210300506. Understanding snow gum dieback for effective and integrated management
- 2021-2023 Brookhouse Matthew, Saul Cunningham, Adrienne Nicotra, Patrick Meir, Graham Farquhar, Marta Yebra, Environmental drivers, landscape determinants and control of snow- gum dieback (NSW Environmental Trust)
- 2020-2023 Nicotra, Adrienne, Susanna Venn, Saul Cunningham, ARC Discovery DP200101382 Drivers of phenotypic evolution in a vulnerable alpine ecosystem
- 2020-2023 Venn, Susanna, Adrienne Nicotra, John Morgan, Samantha Grover, Adam Miller, Dave Cantril, Marie Keatley, ARC LP190100844 Building resilient alpine environments with less snow
- 2019-2022 Nicotra, Leigh, Offord, Guja, Rosetto, Bravo, ARC LP (LP180100942) Living on the edge: how do Australian plants cope with extreme temperature?
- 2019-2020 Nicotra, Adrienne, Justin Borevitz ; Eelco Rohling ; Geoffrey Cary ; Angela Moles ; Mark Hovenden ; Ben Kefford ; Don Driscoll ; Susanna Venn ; William Cornwell ; David Keith ; Marta Yebra ; Gregory Summerell, ARC LIEF, LE190100039 Australian mountain environmental research infrastructure facility, AMRIF
- 2017-2020 Kruuk, Loeske, Adrienne Nicotra and Christina Richards, ARC DP Program, DP170101681, Multi-trait plasticity in response to a changing environment
Projects
- Supervisor, Enhancing climate-resilience of ecological restoration
- Principal investigator, ATLS - the Australian Thermal Load Sensitivity Project. What determines plant sensitivity to heat?
- Principal investigator, Australian Mountain Research Facility (AMRF, ARC LIEF project)
- Principal investigator, Climate Change Impacts on Plants in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park
- Principal investigator, Drivers of phenotypic evolution in a vulnerable alpine ecosystem
- Principal investigator, Ecology and ecophysiology in Australian plant species in a climate change context
- Principal investigator, Save Our Snow gum: Understanding Snow Gum Dieback for Effective and Integrated Management
I convene, Field Studies in Functional Ecology (Biol2203) and Advanced Field Studies in Functional Ecology (Biol3303), a 2 week intensive course held in the Australian alpine or the tropics of Australia and South East Asia, depending on the year. Check out our course videos here: Kosciuszko National Park in December 2016 and the Daintree Rainforest in July 2017.
A wide range of projects are underway in the lab and most of these provide options for undergraduate, Honours or PhD projects - see my Lab projects for more detail.