Jaymie Norris - PhD Student

School of Plant Biology (M090) 
University of Western Australia
35 Stirling Highway
Crawley WA 6009
AUSTRALIA

telephone:  +61 8 6488 7923
fax:           +61 8 6488 7925
email:         norrij01@student.uwa.edu.au 

Dip (NRM), Swinburne University (2000)
BSc (Hons) - University of Western Australia (2004)

Research Interests

• Ecology (fire, microbial, spatial, wetland, and forest)
• Microbiology
• Biogeochemistry & nutrients dynamics
• Molecular techniques in microbial ecology

PhD Thesis - Microbial clues for ecologically sustainable management of fire-prone landscapes

Supervisors: Dr Pauline Grierson (UWA), Dr Richard Cookson (UWA), Dr Matthias Boer (UWA)
Funding:  Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) & Bushfire CRC Program B4.2
Commenced: February 2005

Fire creates spatial patterns and is in turn affected by spatial patterns of past fires. These patterns have implications for key ecological processes of water, carbon and nutrient cycling, and may provide a mechanism that regulates biodiversity. Productivity, carbon and nutrient cycling are intrinsically linked to fuel loads and patterning of litter (fuel) within the landscape and therefore to the spread of future fires, and key cycling processes are mediated by the microbial community.

The processes and feedback mechanisms that drive and control the recovery of vegetation, litter, and fuels post-fire are only partly understood and remain poorly described in terms of past fire regimes (intensity, frequency & extent of fire). An important component of assessing recovery (and both long and short-term shifts in ecosystem function) is to have an early indication that the processes set in motion are putting the system of interest on the correct trajectory of recovery. My research will focus on understanding changes in microbial functional groups (diversity, function & activity) - as sensitive indicators - in relation to shifts in nutrient cycling processes and plant community composition across the landscape after fire. My research will be focussed on the Walpole Fire Mosaic in WA, with some complementary studies in the northern jarrah forests (post Perth Hills Fire in Jan 2005).

Objectives

 • To measure patterns of productivity (biomass, litter accumulation), species (microbial and plant) and resource (carbon and nutrients) distribution after prescribed burning

• To determine how microbial community composition and function influence composition of carbon and nitrogen in forest soils and how these relationships are affected by fire regimes

• To assess how different fire regimes affect possible relationships between functional biodiversity of plants and microbes

• To assess spatial heterogeneity of microbial community structure and functioning in relation to the impacts of fire on key ecological processes and determine scales of change
 

Useful Links

Bushfire CRC
International Society for Microbial Ecology
Ecological Society of Australia
UWA, School of Plant Biology
UWA, School of Earth and Geographical Sciences (SEGS)