Ian Wright
Department of Biological Sciences
Macquarie University
Australia
Biography
I'm a tenured academic in the Department of Biological Science at Macquarie University (2009 - ). My undergrad degree was in botany at the University of Melbourne (B.Sc Hons 1995). I was awarded a PhD in plant ecology by Macquarie University in 2002. After that I held various positions including ARC Discovery Postdoctoral Fellow (2005-8), Deputy Convenor of the ARC-NZ Research Network for Vegetation Function (2005-9), and ARC Future Fellow (2011-2015). Currently I am Deputy-Associate Dean of Research for the Faculty of Science & Engineering. I convene BIOL347 Plants and Ecosystems.
Research Interest
1) Understanding plant ecological strategies via functional traits 2) Quantifying trait relationships from local to global scales (and the effects of climate and soils) 3) Understanding the anatomical, physiological & evolutionary underpinnings of trait variation 4) Developing and testing 'first principles' theory for plant function, for use in vegetation modelling 5) Biogeographic patterns in the Australian flora 6) Using 'omic technologies to ask ecological questions 7) New approaches to predicting and monitoring outbreaks of Myrtle Rust (Puccinia psidii)
Publications
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Poorter H, Niinemets Ãœ, Poorter L, Wright IJ, Villar R. Causes and consequences of variation in leaf mass per area (LMA): a metaâ€analysis. New Phytologist. 2009 May 1;182(3):565-88.
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Warton DI, Wright IJ, Falster DS, Westoby M. Bivariate line-fitting methods for allometry. Biological Reviews. 2006 May;81(2):259-91.
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Wright IJ, Reich PB, Westoby M, Ackerly DD. The worldwide leaf economics spectrum. Nature. 2004 Apr 22;428(6985):821.
