Our weekly lunch seminar series featuring internal speakers in the field of ecology and evolutionary biology.

Abstract
Maximizing the growth and productivity of commercial plantations is critical for meeting global demands for wood and paper products, without resorting to unsustainable harvesting of native forests or increasing the plantation estate at the expense of other primary production systems. Because Eualyptus plantations are often established on nutrient-poor soils in Australia, optimizing fertilizer use is an important management tool for maximizing in these systems. To improve site-specific fertilizer regimes, a more detailed mechanistic understanding of the productivity response to nutrient supplementation under varied abiotic conditions is needed. Here, I present a conceptual framework explaining the interplay between nutrition, leaf area dynamics, physiological processes and growth, based on the results of three large-scale field fertilizer experiments in E. nitens plantations in Tasmania, Australia. I present several lines of evidence that large applications of nitrogen exacerbates water stress and hence reduces productivity in warm and dry conditions.

Image: 180 degree view of a forest canopy

This seminar will be in-person and livestreaming on Zoom (link this page). Contact eebsemaccess@umich.edu for password at least two hours prior to the event.