Professor Sally Power
View Sally's Researcher Profile
Professor Sally Power is an ecosystems ecologist who employs a variety of empirical approaches - from mesocosm experiments to field-scale manipulations and surveys – to study the direct and indirect effects of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems. Her research explores how human activities affect processes at the leaf, plant and community level, and how these effects influence ecosystem function and sustainability.
Sally has established several long-term field experiments manipulating levels of nitrogen deposition, tropospheric ozone, rainfall and temperature. These large experimental platforms enable integrative research into above- and below-ground responses to realistic global change scenarios.
Recently, her research has focused on the interactive effects of multiple, co-occurring drivers of global change, including climate, eutrophication, habitat management and biodiversity loss.
By characterising physiological, biogeochemical and productivity responses to multiple drivers we can improve our mechanistic understanding of, and thus our ability to predict, ecological responses to a changing world.
Sally is also passionate about public engagement with science and has led a wide range of outreach activities involving members of local communities and schools in 'hands on' scientific research.
Areas of research/teaching expertise
Ecosystems ecology, ecological responses to air pollution and climate change, plant-soil interactions, grassland ecology.
Awards and recognition
- Appointed to the School of Science’s Learning and Teaching Committee, 2021
- Selected as the University Institute’s representative on the Academic Senate’s Education Committee, 2016-2020
- Chair, Teaching Committee, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, 2014-present
- Steering Committee member, Committee on Air Pollution Effects Research, 2009-2014
- President, European Heathlands Network, 2007-2011
- Steering Committee member, Ecological Continuity Trust, 2007-2012
- Awarded Elsie Widdowson Research Fellowship, 2005
- Council member, British Ecological Society, 2004-2007
Grants / current projects
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Supporting the health and expansion of the Australian stingless bee industry
Co-Researchers: James Cook, James Makinson, Markus Riegler, Robert Spooner-Hart , Amy-Marie Gilpin
Partner/Funding Body: Horticulture Innovation Australia
Period: 2023-2028Climate change and the long-term health and sustainability of Australia's urban forests
Co-Researchers: Manuel Esperon-Rodriguez, Mark Tjoelker, and Matthew Brookhouse (ANU)
Partner/Funding Body: Heman Slade
Period: 2022-2023Crop and varietal data to better understand the importance of pollination
Co-Researchers: James Cook, Ben Moore, and James Makinson
Partner/Funding Body: Horticulture Innovation Australia via Plant and Food Research, New Zealand
Period: 2022-2026Impacts of climate extremes on the productivity, nutritional characteristics and persistence of perennial legumes and mixtures
Co-Researchers: Elise Pendall and Ben Moore
Partner/Funding Body: Meat and Livestock Australia
Period: 2022-2025Rhizosphere mediation of soil greenhouse gas fluxes with climate change
Co-Researchers: Elise Pendall and Catriona Macdonald
Partner/Funding Body: Australian Research Council Discovery
Period: 2022-2024Loss of horticultural pollination services from wild insects following bushfires
Co-Researchers: James Cook, Simon Tierney and Amy-Marie Gilpin
Partner/Funding Body: Horticulture Innovation Australia
Period: 2021-2023Ecoregional planting guide for agroecosystems in the Blue Mountains
Co-Researchers: James Cook and Amy-Marie Gilpin
Partner/Funding Body: Wheen Bee Foundation
Period: 2020Brown is the new green: grassland responses to drought and heat
Co-Researchers: Belinda Medlyn, David Tissue and Elise Pendall
Partner/Funding Body: Australian Research Council Discovery
Period: 2018-2020Stingless bees as effective managed pollinators for Australian horticulture
Co-Researchers: James Cook, Robert Spooner-Hart, Markus Riegler, Brajesh Singh, David Tissue and Ian Anderson
Partner/Funding Body: Horticulture Innovation Australia
Period: 2017-2022Sustainable pasture systems under climate extremes
Co-Researchers: Brajesh Singh, Mark Tjoelker, Elise Pendall, David Tissue, Jonathan Plett, Ian Anderson, Ben Moore, Catriona Macdonald, Jeff Powell and Yolima Carrillo
Partner/Funding Body: Meat & Livestock Australia Donor Company and Dairy Australia
Period: 2017-2020Which plant where, when and why database for growing urban green space
Co-Researchers: David Ellsworth, Ian Anderson, Mark Tjoelker and Paul Rymer
Partner/Funding Body: Horticulture Innovation Australia
Period: 2016-2021Healthy bee populations for horticultural pollination services
Co-Researchers: James Cook, Markus Riegler, Robert Spooner-Hart, Ian Anderson, Catriona Macdonald, Brajesh Singh and Paul Rymer
Partner/Funding Body: Horticulture Innovation Australia, Syngenta Australia Pty Ltd, Bayer Australia Ltd and Greening Australia
Period: 2016-2021Accounting for biodiversity and carbon in golf courses within the Hawkesbury-Nepean catchment area (ABC-golf)
Co-researchers: Brajesh Singh, Catriona Macdonald and James Cook
Partner/Funding body: Hawkesbury-Nepean Catchment Management Authority and NSW Department of Trade and Investment
Period: 2013-2015Drought, deluge and diversity decline - How do root herbivores affect grassland resilience to predicted changes in rainfall patterns?
Co-researcher: Scott Johnson
Partner/Funding body: Hermon Slade Foundation
Period: 2013-2016Linking above- and below-ground responses of grassland ecosystems to climate change
Partner/Funding body: Grantham Institute for Climate Change
Period: 2011-2014Open Air Laboratories (OPAL): Ozone and climate change impacts on the structure and functioning of grassland ecosystems
Partner/Funding body: UK Big Lottery Fund
Period: 2007-2012DIRECT: Diversity, rainfall and elemental cycling in a terrestrial ecosystem
Co-researcher: Pete Manning
Partner/Funding body: Grantham Institute for Climate Change, Natural Environment Research Council
Period: 2007-2011International Cooperative Programme (ICP) – Vegetation: Characterising plant response to ozone
Partner/Funding body: Natural Environment Research Council
Period: 2006-2013Effects of fire on below-ground heathland processes
Co-researcher: Richard Ellis
Partner/Funding body: Natural Environment Research Council
Period: 2006-2007Summer fire effects on heathland response to nitrogen deposition
Partner/Funding body: British Ecological Society
Period: 2006-2007Effects of eutrophication on terrestrial ecosystems
Partner/Funding body: Natural Environment Research Council
Period: 2004-2012
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
