Belinda Medlyn started her career working in a merchant bank after completing an Honours degree in Applied Mathematics at the University of Adelaide.
She heard of mathematical ecology from Hugh Possingham and returned to study a PhD in theoretical biology from University of NSW.
[1] Medlyn's work combines experimental ecology with mathematical modelling to develop evidence-based models that predict how plants will respond to rising carbon dioxide levels, increasing temperatures and drought, and so how species composition and ecosystem productivity will be affected by climate change.
[5] Through her research at the Eucalyptus Free-Air CO2 Enrichment (EucFACE) experiment - "The world’s only Free-Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment experiment in a mature, warm temperate forest ecosystem"[6] - her team has identified that, in contrast to most trees which are growing faster due to increased atmospheric CO2, Australian eucalypts are not.
This appears to be due to soil microbes using the phosphorus they produce to aid their own metabolism rather than releasing it to be used in photosynthesis and so tree growth.