Contacts
Group membership
Owen Atkin obtained his BSc (Hons) in 1987 (ANU) and his PhD in 1993 (Toronto). From 1993-1995 he held an EU Post Doctoral Fellowship (Utrecht). From 1996-1999 he held an ARC Post Doctoral Fellowship at the ANU.
Thereafter, he moved to UK to take up a faculty position in the Biology Dept at the University of York (1999-2008). He then returned to the ANU in 2008, was awarded an ARC Future Fellowship in 2009 and promoted to Professor in 2010. From 2014-2021, he was a Chief Investigator within the ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Energy Biology.
In 2017, Prof. Atkin became Head of the Division of Plant Sciences in the Research School of Biology at ANU. In 2019, he was appointed as Vice Chancellor's Entrepreneurial Professor at ANU, and became the Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurial Agri-Technology (CEAT) - a collaboration between ANU and CSIRO, with investment from the ACT Government. From 2022-2023, Prof. Atkin was also Director of the ANU node of the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility; he led the formation of the University’s successful application as part of the next cycle of NCRIS funding. In 2024, he became Director of the ANU Agrifood Innovation Institute.
A major focus of Prof. Atkin's research is assessing the impact of environmental gradients on plant physiological processes, particularly respiration. He has been an Editor for New Phytologist since 2007.
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ARC Future Fellowship, 2009
Research interests
My lab studies plant metabolic responses to environmental gradients, including how leaf respiration varies within and among biomes across the globe. Working with climate modeling groups in the UK and USA, we are using the results of our field surveys to improve representation of leaf respiration in terrestrial biosphere models. With colleagues in the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, we are also using molecular, biochemical and physiological studies to understand the factors responsible for variation in respiration rates, both in crop (wheat and rice) and natural ecosystem species. Understanding the processes that control heat tolerance of leaf carbon metabolism is also a focus of our current research.
Current grants
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology (CE140100008). 2014-2020.
- USA DoE Grant. 2014-2018. Global land model development: time to shift from a plant functional type to a plant functional trait approach. [CIs: Peter Reich and Arindam Banerjee (Uni of Minnesota, USA, Peter Thornton (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA)]
- International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP), 2016-2019. Improving yield by optimising energy use efficiency.
Collaborators
Much of our work is done in collaboration with other research groups at ANU, elsewhere in Australia and overseas. These include current links with:
- Professor Harvey Millar, University of Western Australia (Perth, Australia)
- Professor Elizabeth Vierling, UMass Amherst (USA)
- Professor Barry Pogson, ANU (Canberra, Australia)
- Dr Chris Huntingford, Centre of Ecology and Hydrology (Wallingford, UK)
- Professor Peter Reich, University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, USA)
- Professor John Evans, ANU (Canberra, Australia)
- Professor Marilyn Ball, ANU (Canberra, Australia)
- Professor Matthew Turnbull, University of Canterbury (Christchurch, New Zealand)
- Professor Kevin Griffin, University of Columbia (New York, USA)
- Professor Mark Tjoelker, Western Sydney University (Richmond, NSW, Australia)
- Professor David Tissue, Western Sydney University (Richmond, NSW, Australia)
- Professor David Day, Flinders University (Adelaide, SA)
Recent conference presentations
- Atkin, O.K. & Heskel, M. (2015). Measuring leaf respiration in the light under field conditions.Invited seminar presentation at the 18th New Phytologist Workshop–The Kok Effect: beyond the artifact, emerging leaf mechanisms, Anger, France, July 6-8, 2016.
- Atkin, O.K. and 61 others (2015). Global variability in leaf respiration in relation to climate and leaf traits. Keynote seminar. Session BG2.13 - Plant Traits and biogeochemical cycles. European Geosciences Union General Assembly, Vienna, 17th April 2015. Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 17, EGU2015-4793, 2015 (http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2015/orals/17110)
- Atkin, O.K. (2014) Carbon balance and the prospects for reducing respiratory losses. Invited talk at a workshop to aid in Development of GRDC Strategic Initiative in Heat Stress. GRDC, Barton ACT 2600. Dec 18th 2014
- Atkin, O.K. (2014).Leaf photosynthetic and respiratory CO2 exchange in two thermally-contrasting Australian tropical rainforest ecosystems.Oral presentation at 51st Annual Meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation 2014, Cairns, July 22 2014.
- Atkin, O.K. (2013). Plant ecophysiological measurements at TERN Supersites: a crucial link between vegetation modelling, biodiversity and ecosystem function.Invited seminar presentation at the 2013 Symposium of the Terrestrial Ecological Research Network (TERN).Old Parliament House, Canberra, February 19 2013.
- Atkin, O.K. (2012). Plant respiration in a thermally dynamic world. Smithsonian Temperature Symposium – Tropical vegetation and rising temperatures: functional basis of ecological response, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama City, Panama, June 1-2 2012
- Atkin, O.K. (2011) Coupling of leaf carbon metabolism with chemical composition Variability among species and environmental gradients. Invited seminar presentation at the 27th New Phytologist Symposium – Stoichiometric flexibility in terrestrial ecosystems under global change, Biosphere II, Oracle, Arizona, USA, September 25-28, 2011
- Atkin, O.K. (2010). Impacts of thermal history on plant respiration: An organelle, organ and global perspective. Plenary, XVII Congress of the Federation of European Societies of Plant Biology (FESPB) – Valencia, Spain, July 4-9, 2010.
Projects
- Supervisor, Can seedling screens of energy use efficiency in wheat transfer to yield in the field?
- Supervisor, Energy use and the plant canopy - measuring local respiration trends.
- Supervisor, Investigating the genetic architecture of thermal acclimation of leaf energy metabolism using GWAS
- Supervisor, Student projects - additional topics for the future
- Principal investigator, Exploring the combined response of heat and drought on photosynthesis and respiration of C4 plants
- Principal investigator, Reducing uncertainty in the prediction of leaf respiration in a changing world
In recent years, I have lectured or offered projects into the following courses at ANU:
1st year - Biol1009 (Diversity of Life)
2nd year - Biol2122 (Plant Functional Diversity: Genomes to Biomes) & Biol2203 (Field Studies in Functional Ecology)
3rd year - Biol3125 (Plants and Global Climate Change), Biol3107 (Advances in Medical and Plant Biochemistry) & Biol3208 (Biology Research Project)