Eucalyptus urnigera is a Tasmanian endemic eucalypt in the
alpine white gum complex. While the main core of the species
range in south-eastern Tasmania is well protected, there are many
outlying populations of the species which appear to be
morphologically deviant from core populations and their genetic
affinities are not well understood. Many of these outlying
populations occur in state forest and some are in regions of
forestry activity.
I will examine the genetic and morphological variation between
E. urnigera populations in Tasmania, and how this fits
into the broader evolutionary and ecological context of the alpine
white gums, especially E. gunnii, which co-occurs with
E. urnigera in some areas and with which it shares some
morphological affinities.
This project will allow me to assess whether further taxonomic
treatment of the species is required and the conservation
significance of the outlying E. urnigera populations. It
will clarify the distribution of the species and provide
information for the management of the genetic resource. This
research will contribute to the CRC’s Biodiversity
Sub-projects 4.2.5 and 4.2.7.
My supervisors are
Dr Robert Wiltshire,
Professor Brad Potts and Associate
Professor René Vaillancourt (School of
Plant Science, University of Tasmania).
