Professor Elise Pendall
Professor Elise Pendall is a soil and ecosystem ecologist who investigates the responses of biogeochemical cycling to climate change and ecological disturbances. She spent 11 years on the faculty of the University of Wyoming, and came to HIE in 2014, where she leads the Soil Biology and Genomics theme and teaches the Master's unit "Ecosystems in a Changing World."
I'm interested in the metabolism of terrestrial ecosystems - the breathing of the Earth - and how it can mitigate climate change...
Key research questions investigate how climate change and ecological disturbances influence ecosystem carbon storage and water loss, and their potential for climate change feedbacks. Elise has authored nearly 200 refereed journal articles, including six highly-cited Nature papers. Her elevated atmospheric CO2 research has demonstrated a trade-off in carbon storage between plants and soils, and that nutrient availability and mycorrhizal associations are key limitations to primary production.
Areas of Research / Teaching Expertise
Bushfires (opens in a new window), Soil science, biogeochemistry, ecosystem ecology, stable isotope ecology.
Awards and Recognition
- President, AGU Biogeosciences Section, 2018-2020
- Cumberland Plain TERN-OzFlux Supersite Principal Investigator, 2016-present
- Member of the editorial board, Biogeoscience, 2014-2019
- Associate Editor of the editorial board Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 2013-2018
- Member of the editorial advisory board, Global Change Biology, 2011-2016
- National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) Science Advisory Board, 2009-2011
- NOAA Climate and Global Change Post-Doctoral Fellowship, 1998-2000
Societies I Support
- American Geophysical Union (opens in a new window)
- Earth Science Women's Network (opens in a new window)
- Ecological Society of America (opens in a new window)
- Soil Science Australia (opens in a new window)
Grants / Current Projects
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Rhizosphere mediation of soil greenhouse gas fluxes with climate change
Co-Researchers: Sally Power and Catriona Macdonald
Partner/Funding Body: Australian Research Council Discovery
Period: 2022-2024Impacts of climate extremes on the productivity, nutritional characteristics and persistence of perennial legumes and mixtures
Co-Researchers: Sally Power and Ben Moore
Partner/Funding Body: Meat and Livestock Australia
Period: 2022-2025DPIE Cumberland Plain Conservation Plan - Research Strategy and Implementation
Co-Researchers: Paul Rymer, Uffe Nielsen, Matthias Boer, Rachael Nolan, Jeff Powell, Yolima Carrillo, Catriona Macdonald, Ben Moore, Markus Riegler, Neil Perry and Juan Salazar
Partner/Funding Body: NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment
Period: 2021-2025Bushfire Recovery: Endangered dry sclerophyll woodlands, Sydney basin bioregion
Co-Researchers: Paul Rymer, Matthias Boer and Yolima Carrillo.
Partner/Funding Body: Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment
Period: 2020-2021Terrestrial Ecosystems Research Network (TERN) Co-Researchers: David Ellsworth, Matthias Boer and Brendan Choat
Partner/Funding Body: NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment
Period: 2020-2022Bushfire Risk Management Research Hub - Burning for a healthy future: People and their environments
Co-Researchers: Matthias Boer, Brendan Choat, Belinda Medlyn and Mark Tjoelker
Partner/Funding Body: NSW Office of Environment and Heritage [via University of Wollongong]
Period: 2018-2022Brown is the new green: grassland responses to drought and heat
Co-Researchers: Belinda Medlyn, Sally Power and David Tissue
Partner/Funding Body: Australian Research Council Discovery
Period: 2018-2020Temperature sensitivity of ecosystem respiration and its components
Co-Researcher: Mark Tjoelker
Partner/Funding Body: Australian Research Council Discovery
Period: 2017-2019Sustainable pasture systems under climate extremes
Co-Researchers: Sally Power, Ian Anderson, Brajesh Singh, Mark Tjoelker, David Tissue, Jeff Powell, Catriona Macdonald and Ben Moore
Partner/Funding Body: Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) Donor Company & Dairy Australia
Period: 2017-2020Decadal Scale Estimates of Forest Water Yield After Bark Beetle Epidemics in Southern Wyoming
Co-Researchers: Brent Ewers, Urszula Norton, Shannon Albeke, Ramesh Sivanpillai
Partner/Funding Body: Wyoming Water Research
Period: 2012-2013Water in a Changing West: The Wyoming Center for Environmental Hydrology and Geophysics
Co-Researchers: Scott Miller and Stephen Holbrook
Partner/Funding Body: US National Science Foundation
Period: 2012-2017Data-model synthesis of grassland carbon metabolism: Quantifying direct, indirect and interactive effects of warming and elevated CO2
Co-Researchers: Kiona Ogle, Bill Parton and David Williams
Partner/Funding Body: US Department of Energy Terrestrial Carbon
Period: 2011-2014Winter soil respiration in Southeast Wyoming
Co-Researcher: Colin Tucker
Partner/Funding Body: US National Science Foundation
Period: 2011-2013Plant-microbe feedback responses to climate change in grasslands
Co-Researchers: Matthew Wallenstein, Dana Blumenthal and Yolima Carrillo
Partner/Funding Body: US National Science Foundation
Period: 2010-2014How the timing of summer precipitation affects the responses of boreal forest to climate change
Co-Researchers: D Mann and A Lloyd
Partner/Funding Body: US National Science Foundation
Period: 2010-2013Impacts of bark beetle outbreaks on forest water yield in southern Wyoming
Co-Researchers: Brent Ewers and David Williams
Partner/Funding Body: Wyoming Water Development Council
Period: 2010-2013Quantifying the effects of large-scale vegetation change on coupled water, carbon and nutrient cycles: Beetle Kill Co-Researchers: Paul Brooks, Brent Ewers
Partner/Funding Body: US National Science Foundation
Period: 2009-2012How does warming prevent soil nitrogen availability from declining in response to elevated CO2? Co-Researchers: Mark Hovenden, PC Newton, Matthias Rillig, Pauline Mele and Mark Lieffering
Partner/Funding Body: Australian Research Council Discovery
Period: 2009-2013
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
