What determines plant sensitivity to heat?: Individual to lifetime impacts

It is difficult to predict the effect that increasingly frequent extreme heat events will have on Australian plants, though we know temperature can define where a species can survive. To manage Australian biodiversity in the face of rapid climate change natural resource managers and policymakers need good predictions of how extreme heat will affect plant species. The Australian National Botanic Gardens, with its thousands of seed collections and living plants provides a fantastic resource to study how extreme heat affects plants as they grow from seed to seedling to adulthood. We will assess the sensitivity of these different stages to extreme heat and will develop models to assess how Australian plant species will respond to a warmer, more variable climate. Our work will help natural resource managers to predict which species will be most sensitive to extreme heat events and where in Australia those impacts will occur. This will lead to informed policies and management plans