Dining in the Dirt Down Under - How does climate change alter plant and soil chemical and biophysical effects on root-feeding insects?

University of Aberdeen, UK/University of Western Sydney, Australia – Joint PhD Studentship

Plants exploit an array of chemical and biomechanical defences against herbivores. Increasing evidence suggests that mechanical toughness is a particularly effective defence, with research to date focussing on leaves and shoots. Herbivores that attack the plant from belowground are largely overlooked, however, despite being a major component of many ecosystems. For example, the weight of root-feeding insects often exceeds that of sheep in grasslands.
The nutritional quality and toughness of plant roots is affected both by the biophysical properties of the soil in which they grow and by abiotic factors influencing plant growth more generally, both above and below ground. Thus climate change is expected to produce changes to root properties as temperature, rainfall and increased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations alter patterns of plant growth and allocation as well as altering the biophysical interactions between roots and soil . For example, water-logging can decrease root strength, whereas drier soils increase mechanical impedance resulting in increased root diameter and strength. This project will specifically address how environmental change in soils affects root toughness and chemistry, and how this in turn affects the feeding ecology of root herbivores.
We seek a motivated student with a good degree in biological, environmental or physical sciences to undertake this exciting project in the UK and Australia. The supervisory team encompasses expertise in plant-soil biophysical processes (Paul Hallett, Aberdeen), belowground entomology (Scott Johnson, UWS) and chemical ecology (Ben Moore, UWS). This provides extraordinary scope for multi-disciplinary research training in both countries.