Congratulations to new Associate Investigator Dr Cate Macinnis-Ng who recently received the Roger Slack Award in Plant Biology. The annual award by the New Zealand Society of Plant Biologists recognises an outstanding contribution to the study of plant biology in the last five years.
Cate specialises in plant functional responses to environmental conditions. She is particularly interested in the impact of climatic variability and change on carbon and water fluxes of the forests. Since moving to New Zealand in 2010, Cate has been exploring the physiology of our largest and longest-lived tree, kauri. Among key findings Cate has found evidence for drought adaptations in a species previously thought to be highly vulnerable to water stress. This research has laid the groundwork for a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship exploring limits of drought tolerance using a NZ-first throughfall exclusion experiment. Cate will be presenting her work at the upcoming NZSPB annual meeting at Queenstown Research Week on September 2nd.