Event Date
Malcolm is a senior lecturer in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney. He took this position in 2010 after several years of post-doctoral research in the United Kingdom into volatile organic compound (VOCs) emissions from plants, under different biotic and abiotic stresses. His current research into VOCs emissions focuses on understanding their “how”, “what” and “why”, and deciphering the open access information of the volatilome as a way to influence plant-environment interactions, particularly for conservation efforts. This work alongside animal ecologists was recognized with an Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Environmental Research in 2024. When he is not torturing plants to study their VOC emissions, he then sets them on fire to understand the role that VOCs play in plant flammability, smoke composition, and the impact that this has on carbon pools and cycling within forests.
In this talk, Malcolm Possell highlights the interdisciplinary research he and his colleagues at the University of Sydney have used to examine trade-offs between environmental objectives and prescribed burning. With a particular focus on carbon, Malcolm explores how the combination of extensive measurements from the field, combined with laboratory studies, have been used to develop new models and validate Australia’s full carbon accounting model (FullCAM), a tool used to model Australia’s greenhouse gas emission from the land sector, for dry sclerophyll forests. He will then describe how the modelling approaches used in that work are applied to examine plant flammability in California and Australia.
We'll have coffee, fruit and snacks. Grad students can get credit for PLS 190 - be sure to sign the sign-in sheet at the table as you come in!
This is part of our Wednesday Seminar series, held (almost) every Wednesday at noon during the school year. All are welcome! Enjoy the company of other folks interested in all things plants. Ask questions at the end, and network with faculty and students.
Can't make it? Contact us for the Zoom link: tkleist@ucdavis.edu