Doctor Renée Marchin Prokopavicius
View Renée's Researcher Profile
Dr. Renée Marchin (Prokopavicius) is a plant ecophysiologist who studies the effects of warming and drought on plant function. She joined Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment (HIE) in August 2017 and is currently working on an ARC DECRA project entitled, “Green or crispy: Which plants use transpiration to survive heatwaves?”. Her aim is to discover which plant species can survive heat and drought in urban areas by determining relevant functional traits that protect droughted plants from thermal damage.
Dr. Prokopavicius’ research aims to improve predictions of the effects of climate change on terrestrial and urban ecosystems. She primarily uses ecophysiological approaches to understand how plant traits determine which species or genotypes succeed in changing environments. Her research has focused on plant traits related to water relations and growth, such as photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, transpiration, and water use efficiency. She has worked in a diverse range of terrestrial ecosystems, from temperate forests to subalpine grasslands to agricultural cropping systems.
Much of Dr. Marchin’s research has direct relevance to land managers, conservation organisations, and the agriculture/horticulture industries. As a rangeland technician for the Bureau of Land Management (California, USA), she monitored the effectiveness of efforts to restore degraded aspen stands. Her Ph.D. research (North Carolina State University, 2013) examined how phenology and transpiration of temperate forests will be affected by future warming. She studied how climate change affects the carbon fluxes of mountain grasslands in the Snowy Mountains (NSW, Australia). Her research for the Which Plant Where? project determined the heat and drought tolerance of over 100 plant species to inform selection of tolerant plants for urban plantings throughout Australia. Find out more on her personal webpage: https://reneemarchin.weebly.com.
Areas of research/teaching expertise
Plant ecology, plant physiology, climate change biology, warming, heatwaves, drought, phenology, photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, transpiration, chlorophyll fluorescence, eddy covariance
Grants
- Green or crispy: Which plants use transpiration to survive heatwaves?
Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award, 2020-2024: $415,416 AUD - Mitigating climate change in Western Sydney by maintaining green tree canopies
Co-researchers: Paul Rymer and Mark Tjoelker NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment via Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils Ltd (WSROC), 2021-2022: $275,000 AUD - Assessing the hydrological costs of carbon sequestration in managed forests and biofuel plantations
Environmental Protection Agency STAR Graduate Fellowship, 2010-2013: $111,000 USD
Awards and Recognition
- Kenneth R. Keller Award for excellence in Ph.D. research from North Carolina State University, 2014: $2000 USD
- Africana Studies Project Scholarship, North Carolina State University, 2011: $750 USD
- Graduate student invitation to the 1 st INTERFACEMeeting, 2011, Captiva Island, FL, USA
- Benjamin Hall and Margaret Hall Foundation Scholarship, University of Kansas, 2005: $2500 USD
Professional Service
- Organiser for the Sydney Plant Ecophysiology Group meetings, 2017‒2020
- Vice President of the North Carolina State University Plant Biology Graduate Student Association, 2011–2013
People
- Professor Matthias Boer
- Associate Professor Yolima Carrillo
- Associate Professor Chris Cazzonelli
- Professor Brendan Choat
- Professor James Cook (Theme Leader - Plants Animals and Interactions)
- Doctor Eleonora Egidi
- Professor David Ellsworth
- Doctor Manuel Esperon
- Doctor Adam Frew
- Associate Professor Rachael Gallagher
- Professor Oula Ghannoum
- Doctor Christopher Gordon
- Professor Scott Johnson
- Associate Professor Catriona Macdonald
- Doctor James Makinson
- Doctor Jessica Meade
- Distinguished Professor Belinda Medlyn (Theme Leader - Ecosystem Function and Integration)
- Associate Professor Ben Moore
- Professor Uffe Nielsen (Theme Leader - Soil Biology and Genomics)
- Associate Professor Rachael Nolan
- Associate Professor Alexie Papanicolaou
- Professor Elise Pendall
- Associate Professor Jonathan Plett
- Professor Jeff Powell
- Professor Sally Power
- Doctor Renée Marchin Prokopavicius
- Professor Markus Riegler
- Associate Professor Paul Rymer
- Doctor Demi Sargent
- Associate Professor Robert Sharwood
- Distinguished Professor Brajesh Singh
- Professor Ben Smith (Director of Research)
- Distinguished Professor David Tissue
- Professor Mark Tjoelker (Interim Director)
- Doctor Bin Wang
- Doctor Jun-Tao Wang
- Professor Justin Welbergen
- Distinguished Professor Ian Wright (Chief Scientist)
Honorary and Adjunct Appointments
