1. HIE Home
  2. People
  3. Postgraduate Students
  4. Current Postgraduate Students
  5. Aaranya Sekaran

Aaranya Sekaran

Aaranya SekaranCandidature:

PhD  Candidate

Thesis Title:

Past, current, and future vegetation dynamics of Australia’s arid zone with mulga - Will the desert get deserted?

Research Project:

I am assessing how plant populations respond to climate change. I am studying one of the dominant trees of the Australian desert, commonly called the Mulga (scientifically: a species complex of Acacia aneura), for my PhD. Mulga are considered drought-resistant, but they seem to suffer mass mortalities when drought or heat waves become extreme. Mulga are highly widely spread and dominant in the desert and these huge population losses are expected to have strong negative impacts on the desert ecosystem. Hence, my goal is to understand why, when, and how many deaths happen and if the plant recruitments will be sufficient to offset these deaths to keep the populations rolling. My work involves collecting on-field data and collating data from across Australia on mulga populations (i.e., number of deaths/recoveries/seedling recruitments) and mulga physiology (i.e., water potential, stomatal conductance, carbon reserves, cuticular conductance). I will stitch this information together to understand how mulga respond to climatic and environmental conditions. I would be using a well-established process-based model, LPJ-Guess, which is being modified for Australian Vegetation by the DAVE team led by Distinguished Prof Belinda Medlyn, to predict mulga’s future population trajectories.

Publication

Waters CM, Hacker RB, Sekaran A, Grant AR, (2025) 'Grazing management of Australian native woody regeneration as an effective nature-based climate-change solution', Rangeland Journal, vol.47, no.2, art no.RJ24032

Supervisors:

Distinguished Prof Belinda Medlyn FAA, Dr Rachael Nolan, Prof Brendan Choat, Dr Laura Williams, Dr Katherine Tuft (Arid Recovery), Dr Graeme Finlayson (Bush Heritage Australia)