Marisa Collins

Biography

Marisa has a background in irrigation / crop physiology, spending the last nine years working for CSIRO in Adelaide SA and Griffith NSW on a range of cereal and horticultural crops including rice, wheat, cotton and grapevines. As a crop physiologist I have specialized in researching crop responses to abiotic stresses and improving crop water productivity. A large portion of my work focusses on examining how factors such as crop varieties and irrigation management techniques can contribute to increasing water-use efficiency in irrigated cropping systems. My previous work in grapevines included optimizing irrigation for different varieties / cultivars and improving drought tolerance using rootstocks. After moving across to working in mixed farming systems with CSIRO in Griffith NSW my work largely focussed on combining my skills as a crop physiologist with remote sensing and satellite imaging techniques to assess yield variability and water productivity in rice, cotton and wheat. My work included a range of projects from agricultural industry groups including: ACIAR, RIRDC, CRDC and GRDC. My current and past projects include assessment of yield limitations in wheat caused by waterlogging, assessment of yield variability drivers in rice, benchmarking water-use efficiency in cotton and internationally, improving dry season crop production in Cambodia and Laos. In my role as an agronomist and crop physiologist all my work has a water focus specialising in crop responses to abiotic stresses and improving crop water productivity generally through developing knowledge of crop physiological responses to water stress and improved crop management.

Research Interest

Plant and soil sciences