Other past projects

Plants in a changing world
Additional project exploring crop resilience and environmental adaptation. Scroll below to learn about our research. 

Plants on the Pill: Crop root responses to wastewater pharmaceuticals

People: Amanda Rasmussen, MD Khaled Mosharaf (PhD student)
This research will improve our understanding of crop physiology responses to human pharmaceuticals found in waste water. Understanding how pharmaceutical interact with plant functioning during soil exposure will allow us to breed crops more efficiently with respect to water use, improving sustainable food production.
Collaborators: Salim Alam; Tristan Dew (Biosciences, UoN); Sarah Cook (Warwick University)
​Funding: Commonwealth PhD Scholarship

Publications: ​Md Khaled Mosharaf, Rachel L. Gomes, Sarah Cook, Mohammed S. Alam, Amanda Rasmussen (2024) Wastewater reuse and pharmaceutical pollution in agriculture: Uptake, transport, accumulation and metabolism of pharmaceutical pollutants within plants Chemosphere 354:143055  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.143055

Wheat responses to water and nitrogen supply

People: Olivia Cousins
This research will improve our understanding of the functioning of an important class of roots in our most important cereal crops. Understanding how these roots respond to different environments will allow us to breed more effective crops to improve food production more sustainably.
Funding: Adelaide-Nottingham joint studentships
Supervisors: Sacha Mooney (UoN), Tim Cavagnaro (UoA; soilecology.org), Amanda Rasmussen (UoN), Ronald Smernik (UoA)

Publications: 
Cousins OH, Garnett TP, Rasmussen A, Mooney SJ, Smernik RJ, Brien CJ, Cavagnaro TR (2021) Frequency versus quantity: phenotypic response of two wheat varieties to water and nitrogen variability. Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition 21(2) 1631-1641 ​doi.org/10.1007/s42729-021-00467-3
Cousins OH, Garnett TP, Rasmussen A, Mooney SJ, Smernik RJ, Cavagnaro TR (2020) To stress or not to stress: Plant and soil responses to variable water and nitrogen supply. Plant Science. (doi.org/10.1016/j.plantsci.2019.05.009)