My research focuses on stress eco-physiology, and various aspects of primary producers’ responses to the environment, aiming to reveal traits that permit cryptogams (mainly lichens and mosses) to exist and persist in extreme terrestrial habitats. In my research I investigate fundamental questions in the biology of lichens, such as their acclimation potential to changing environmental conditions. I am working on research projects in both poles (Arctic and Antarctic) in collaboration with Antarctica New Zealand, the Spanish Antarctic Programme and the British Antarctic Survey and the British Ecological Society. In particular, my research aims to assess:
- long-term changes in vegetation cover in response to a changing climate.
- temperature thresholds for locally adapted vegetation and their acclimation potential.
Projects:
NERC Tundra Time TundraTime
Darwin Fund: Evidence-based conservation of biodiversity in the South Shetland Island Zavodovski Expedition
NERC Eco Snow Antarctica http://www.snowalgae.org
BES small research grant – Tundra vegetation response to recent climate warming
Resilience in Antarctic Biota and Ecosystems Project, funded by the New Zealand Antarctic Research Institute (NZARI 2016-2)
Publications (selected)
Stanton, D.E., Ormond, A., Koch, N.M., Colesie C. (2023). Lichen ecophysiology in a changing climate. The American Journal of Botany
Colesie, C., Walshaw, C. V., Sancho, L. G., Davey, M. P., & Gray, A. (2022). Antarctica's vegetation in a changing climate. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, e810.
Gemal, E. L., Green, T. G., Cary, S. C., & Colesie, C. (2022). High Resilience and Fast Acclimation Processes Allow the Antarctic Moss Bryum argenteum to Increase Its Carbon Gain in Warmer Growing Conditions. Biology, 11(12), 1773.
Porada, P., Bader, M. Y., Berdugo, M. B., Colesie, C., Ellis, C. J., Giordani, P., ... & Weston, D. J. (2022). A research agenda for non‐vascular photoautotrophs under climate change. New Phytologist. 237, no. 5 (2023): 1495-1504.
Ma, Y., Weber, B., Kratz, A., Raggio, J., Colesie, C., Veste, M., ... & Porada, P. (2022). Key drivers of the annual carbon budget of biocrusts from various climatic zones determined with a mechanistic data-driven model. Biogeosciences Discussions, 1-31.
Colesie, C., Pan, Y., Cary, S. C., Gemal, E., Brabyn, L., Kim, J.‐H., Green, T.G.A., Lee, C. (2022). The longest baseline record of vegetation dynamics in Antarctica reveals acute sensitivity to water availability. Earth's Future, 10 (8), e2022EF002823.
Gutt, J., Isla, E., Xavier, J. C., Adams, B. J., Ahn, I. Y., Cheng, C. H. C., Colesie, C ... & Wall, D. H. (2021). Antarctic ecosystems in transition–life between stresses and opportunities. Biological Reviews, 96(3), 798-821.
Colesie, C., Stangl, Z.R., Hurry, V. (2020). Differences in growth-economics of fast vs. slow growing grass species in response to temperature and nitrogen limitation individually, and in combination. BMC Ecology, 20:63
Sancho, L., de los Ríos, A., Pintado, A., Colesie, C., Raggio, J., Ascaso, C., & Green, A. (2020). Himantormia lugubris, an Antarctic endemic on the edge of the lichen symbiosis. Symbiosis, 1-10.
Colesie, C., Büdel, B., Hurry, V., Green, T.G.A. (2017) Can Antarctic lichens acclimatise to changes in temperature. Global Change Biology 24: 1123–1135.
Colesie, C., Williams, L., Büdel, B. (2017) Internal thallus water status in the soil crust lichen Psora decipiens is optimised via a high phenotypic plasticity. The Lichenologist 49: 483–492.
Williams, L., Colesie, C., Ullmann, A., Westberg, M., Wedin, M., Büdel, B. (2016) Lichen acclimation to changing environments: Photobiont switching vs. climate-specific uniqueness in Psora decipiens. Ecology and Evolution 7: 2560-2574.
Affiliations/Membership
British Ecological Society (BES)
British Lichen Society (BLS)
Further information