PlantClimate Lab Represents Trinity at IPSAM 2025 in Galway
Planting Knowledge, Cultivating Insight - PlantClimate Lab at IPSAM
Our PlantClimate Lab had an outstanding presence at this year’s Irish Plant Scientists’ Association Meeting (IPSAM 2025) in Galway on 16–17 June. Across five talks and two posters, our team shared research spanning paleoenvironmental chemistry, epigenetic stress responses, ecosystem water balance, restoration ecology, and climate-focused tree monitoring.
Talks
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Ailbhe Brazel presented “Understanding the role of histone methylation in plant hypoxia responses”, exploring how epigenetic mechanisms help plants adapt to low oxygen stress conditions.
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Emma Blanka Kovács delivered “Mercury analyses of modern and fossil plant substrates as indicators of atmospheric Hg loading”, highlighting how modern and historical plant material can trace mercury pollution through time.
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Sate Ahmad shared “On Weather, Water & Willows: Stomatal Response to Meteorological Forcings in Salix viminalis”, examining the effects of meteorological variability on plant water use and ecosystem balance.
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Miriam Slodownik presented findings from the Witness Tree Project, which uses mature trees at Trinity Botanic Garden to monitor environmental change. Her talk focused on long-term tracking of physiological responses—such as stomatal conductance and particulate capture—to air pollution and climate stressors.
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Christos Chondrogiannis gave an evolutionary perspective in his talk on the origins and evolution of CAM (Crassulacean Acid Metabolism) photosynthesis, using cycads as a model. His research contributes to understanding how ancient plant lineages adapted to arid environments, providing insight into the evolutionary drivers of water-use efficiency in plants.
Posters
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Siddiq Muhammad presented “How Atmospheric Change Influences Elemental Composition in Woody Plants Across Global Biomes”, a global-scale study leveraging herbarium collections to assess how rising CO₂ and nitrogen deposition have shifted leaf nutrient profiles across biomes.
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Sate Ahmad also presented “The Role of Landscape Ecology in Ecosystem Restoration”, outlining a multidisciplinary project that combines ecological data, spatial analysis, and long-term field monitoring to assess restoration outcomes across Irish landscapes.
It was a fantastic two days of science, collaboration, and connection. We’re incredibly proud of our team for representing PlantClimate Lab with such energy and excellence, and for contributing to important conversations on how plants respond to a changing planet.
Representing Our Research at the 42nd Mid-Continent Paleobotanical Colloquium
Representing Our Research at the 42nd Mid-Continent Paleobotanical Colloquium
This past month, two of our very own PhD students, Catarina (me!) and Antonietta, travelled to Middletown, Connecticut, to present at the 42nd Mid-Continent Paleobotanical Colloquium, hosted by Wesleyan University (Go Cardinals!).
Antonietta delivered a well-received talk titled “Regional Plant Ecological Turnover and Diversity Loss at the End-Triassic Mass Extinction at the Jameson Land Basin, East Greenland” and fielded more questions than any other speaker!
Catarina, despite battling jetlag, presented a poster titled “Sampling Strategies and Their Influence on Paleoecological Interpretations at the Triassic–Jurassic Boundary”, a follow-up to her earlier IGRM presentation.
Reflecting on the experience, Antonietta shared, “Visiting the palaeobotany collections at museums of such importance as the Yale Peabody Museum was an absolutely amazing experience.” Catarina added, “It was great getting to meet everyone and share the work we’ve been doing with our American peers — and to see what they’ve been working on as well!”
by Catarna Barbosa
Christos attends 2nd European Congress on Photosynthesis Research
2nd European Congress on Photosynthesis Research
After the success of the first edition, the European Congress for Photosynthesis Research came back in 2024. From June the 25th to the 28th 2024, experts in the field of natural and artificial photosynthesis gathered in the historic city of Padova (Italy), the cradle of the scientific method developed by Galileo, for an exciting second edition of this scientific event.
The conference started on the 24th of June with the ePS Young Session, tailored for PhD candidates and early-career postdocs. This session fostered an informal and interactive setting, encouraging discussions and idea exchanges among young participants from diverse institutes.
The main conference started with the opening talks in the impressive Aula Magna, the most impressive room of Palazzo Bo, where the great Galileo gave his lectures. The conference continued with numerous sessions on structure, acclimation and evolution of the photosynthetic apparatus, photosynthesis in microbes like algae and cyanobacteria, and new perspectives and technologies of photosynthesis like artificial photosynthesis. The attendees had the opportunity to enjoy a serene evening filled with delectable Italian cuisine and fine wine at the conference’s gala dinner. The conference was a huge success, and the participation exceeded the organizers’ expectations.
Dr. Christos Chondrogiannis presented his research on the presence of CAM activity in the ancient group of cycads. He proposed two species as potential candidates for facultative CAM activity. This project carried out in collaboration with Trinity College Botanic Gardens and National Botanic Gardens in Dublin, generated a lot of interest and led to in-depth discussions about the significance of the findings and the prospects of the project. The conference also provided an opportunity to establish future collaborations and rekindle friendships from previous conferences.
by Dr. Christos Chondrogiannis
XV. International Palynological Congress (IPC) XI. International Organisation of Palaeobotany Conference (IOPC)
Terraform researchers take part in IPC/IOPC Conference in Prague, Czechia
The emerging field of trait-based paleoecology suffers from the siloing of its practitioners along multiple dimensions including the availability of infrastructure and materials, and structure-specific focus. To promote the development of a more cohesive and collaborative ‘paleo-trait’ network Will Matthaeus and Jenny McElwain led a workshop on behalf of the ERC-TERRAFORM project at IPC/IOPC 2024. Following the recent publication by McElwain et al. (2024, New Phytologist, Tansley Reviews), 28 scientists from around the world and across career stages participated in a collaborative evaluation of the potential for utilizing plant functional traits in the fossil record. Attendees gave positive feedback and new collaborations were established in the discussions that followed.
Members of the TERRAFORM project participated in IPC/IOPC field trips. One trip was made to the Pecínov, a quarry in the late Cretaceous Bohemian Basin, circa 50 km west of Prague. The locality offers a transgressional set of sedimentary bodies that allow clear identification of the paleo-coastal area, moving inland through a salt marsh, swamp, and finally into a freshwater braided river. The Cenomanian flora from Pecínov has been extensively described, with an assemblage consisting of gymnosperm and angiosperm taxa. A PhD student from our team was able to collect plant macrofossil material from this locality for future research and was eager to recount her pleasant experience, meeting senior paleobotanists in the field and listening to their epic (and very-niche) plant-fossil tales of yore.
TERRAFORM’s two PhD students, Antonietta Knetge and Catarina Barbosa, presented their first major conference talk at IPC/IOPC in a session focused on the biotic crises of the Mesozoic. Stepping up the plate immediately after lunch, Catarina refused to let conference attendees take a nap by showing them a cool graph and talking about it a bunch. Her talk on paleoecology and turnover in the T/J boundary of East Greenland featured carefully developed visualizations of community composition through time at South Tancrediakløft. Antonietta then took to the stage to deliver a rousing presentation on diversity and taphonomy, using rarefaction curves to compare that same locality and Astartekløft, historically one of the most important sites for the Greenland T/J. Both talks garnered interest, lots of questions, and collaboration requests. A great success!
