47th New Phytologist Symposium programme

Pre-event: Monday 1 June
19:00–21:00	Informal gathering at the Mercado Victoria (https://www.mercadovictoria.com/), we have reserved an area. Drinks and food will be available to purchase.
Day 1	Tuesday 2 June
Approx. 9am	Free visit to the Mosque of Cordoba, a World Heritage Site Details confirmed directly with those that signed up.
From 11am	Registration - please collect your name badge and lunch tickets Poster presenters should put up their posters during this time.
From 12 noon	Lunch – Rectory café (please provide waiting staff with your lunch ticket)
13:00–13:30	Welcome from the University of Cordoba Vice-Rector for Sustainable Campus, Amanda Penélope García Marín Welcome from the organising committee Owen Atkin and Rafael Villar
Session 1: Heatwaves and plant life – when and where Chair – Owen Atkin, Australian National University, Australia Co-Chair - Alice Gauthey, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
13:30	1.1 Extreme heat across the soil, plant, animal, atmosphere continuum Michael R. Kearney, University of Melbourne
14:00	1.2 The heat is on: plant and soil relationships with temperature in Earth's hottest terrestrial landscapes Sasha Reed, US Geological Survey, USA
14:30	1.3 Panel discussion Owen Atkin (Facilitator): Mike Kearney: microclimate and surface‑temperature modelling perspective. Sasha Reed: empirical insights from the hottest terrestrial environments. Adrienne Nicotra: connect variability in heat exposure to biological consequences. Rocio Hernandez-Clemente: place‑based perspective on recurrent extreme heat.
15:15–15:50	Refreshment break – Rectory café
Session 2: Eco-evolutionary responses to extreme heat Chair – Cristina C Bastias, University of Cordoba, Spain Co-Chair – Renee Prokopavicius, Western Sydney University, Australia
16:00	2.1 Constrained thermal tolerance and the future of ecosystem services Joanne Bennett, Charles Sturt University, Australia
16:30	2.2 *The upper thermal limit of photosynthetic function in 26 Eucalyptus* and Corymbia species depends more on leaf size than climate-of-origin** Kristine Crous, Western Sydney University, Australia
16:40	2.3 Extending the thermal limits of life: thermal tolerance and life history of grasses from extremely hot geothermal areas Aelys Humphreys, Stockholm University, Sweden
16:50	2.4 Rethinking thermal vulnerability: from population trade-offs to community context Cleber Chaves, State University of Campinas, Brazil
17:00	2.5 Coping with extreme heat: drivers of variation in plant physiological tolerance Andy Leigh, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
17:30–18:15	2.6 Flash talks See the full list in the abstract book
18:15–19:30	Poster session – odd numbered posters
19:30–20:15	Drinks reception – in the courtyard (weather permitting)

This programme is subject to change, last updated 3 June 2026

Day 2	Wednesday 3 June
08:55	Morning announcements
Session 3: Adapting plant metabolism to heatwaves Chair – Carl Ng, University College Dublin, Ireland Co-Chair – Surbhi Mali, CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (IHBT), India
09:00	3.1 Priming for heat stress resilience: decoding underlying signalling mechanisms Annapurna Allu, IISER Tirupati, India
09:30	3.2 When heat breaks photosynthesis: enzymes, diffusion, and the hidden bottleneck Demi Sargent, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Australia
09:40	3.3 Defining the limits and trade-offs of plant photosynthetic heat tolerance under extreme heat Bradley Posch, Desert Botanical Garden, USA
09:50	3.4 Exposure time, not temperature alone, determines the thermal limits of leaf respiration under heat stress across thermally contrasting biomes Daniel Cowan-Turner, Australian National University, Australia
10:00	3.5 Why and how? Quantitative determination of plant programmed cell death induced by extreme heat Joanna Kacprzyk, University College Dublin, Ireland
10:30	Refreshment break - in the courtyard (weather permitting)
11:00–12:30	3.6 Discussion session – data and collaboration Chaired by Pieter Arnold, Australian National University, Nicole Bison, The University of British Columbia, Dan Noble, Australian National University, & Brad Posch, Desert Botanical Garden To ensure the session is as productive as possible, we are asking participants to complete a short survey in advance: https://lancasteruni.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_578jpFgLjEwO3J4
12:30–13:30	Lunch – Rectory café (please provide waiting staff with your lunch ticket)
Session 4: Water to mitigate heat stress Chair – Charlotte Grossiord, EPFL & WSL, Switzerland Co-Char - Yan Moraes, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
13:45	4.1 Heat stress or high VPD? Towards disentangling thermal effects and atmospheric drought effects on vegetation Dani Way, Australian National University, Australia
14:15	4.2 An interaction of stomatal signal transduction pathways confers heat-stress-induced stomatal opening Nattiwong Pankasem, University of California San Diego, USA
14:25	4.3 Hydraulic stress limits thermal acclimation in trees under chronic drought Alyssa Kullberg, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
14:35	4.4 Flower bud cooling: sepal specific enhancement of transpiration protects pollen development and improves fertility during heatwaves Martijn Jansen, Radboud University, the Netherlands
14:45	4.5 How did the plants learn to buffer hotter and drier conditions? Celia Rodriguez-Domiguez, CSIC - IRNAS Seville, Spain
15:15	Refreshment break – Rectory café

Session 5: Modelling impacts of heatwaves Chair – Rich Norby, University of Tennessee, USA Co-Chair –Camille Sicangco, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Australia
15:45	5.1 The kinetic basis of photosynthetic heat tolerance Sean Michaletz, The University of British Columbia, Canada
16:15	5.2 Dry air, hotter land: how vegetation responses amplify future warming Julia Green, University of Arizona, USA
16:25	*~~5.3 Plant vulnerability to heat and drought stress in the hottest places on Earth: evidence from Vachellia erioloba* in the Kalahari~~** ~~Kerry-Anne Grey, University of Oxford, United Kingdom~~
16:35	5.4 Paleo-ecosystem simulations of deep time heating episodes are a tool for studying trait-environment influences on plant survival and biogeography in a heating Earth William Matthaeus, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
16:45	5.5 A stocktake: how well can we predict effects of extreme heat on plant photosynthesis, water use and growth? Belinda Medlyn, Western Sydney University, Australia
17:15–18:15	5.6 Breakout sessions Smaller groups will meet to further address data and collaboration Feedback to be shared in the final session Chaired by Pieter Arnold, Australian National University, Nicole Bison, The University of British Columbia, Dan Noble, Australian National University, & Brad Posch, Desert Botanical Garden
18:15–19:30	Poster session – even numbered posters
19:30–20:15	Drinks reception – courtyard (weather permitting)

Day 3	Thursday 4 June
08:55	Morning announcements
Session 6: Plant-biotic interactions during heatwaves Chair – Mike Kearney, University of Melbourne, Australia Co-Chair – Inmaculada Criado-Navarro, Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible (IAS-CSIC), Spain
09:00	6.1 Thermal limits of plant reproduction: when pollen sets the boundary of life Sergey Rosbakh, Leibniz University Hannover, Germany
09:30	6.2 Soil microbial diversity decline amplifies heat stress impacts on plant metabolism and productivity Uttam Kumar, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
09:40	6.3 Exploring and mitigating the effects of extreme heat on blueberry pollination and pollinators Rufus Isaacs, Michigan State University, USA
09:50	6.4 The effect of heat shock on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus growth and nutrient transport Victoria Terry, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands
10:00	6.5 Root-microbial decoupling under climate extremes Madhav Thakur, University of Bern, Switzerland
10:30	Refreshment break – in the courtyard (weather permitting)

Session 7: Ecosystem responses to a future, hotter world Chair – Adrienne Nicotra, Australian National University, Australia Co-Chair – Milagros Rodriguez-Caton, IANIGLA-CONICET, Argentina
11:00	7.1 Temperature-driven changes to forest functioning Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
11:30	7.2 Water availability modulates the thermal sensitivity of tree growth responses to climate variability in the Amazon Kathelyn Paredes Villanueva, Universidad Autónoma Gabriel René Moreno, Bolivia
11:40	7.3 Atmospheric heat stress outweighs rainfall in regulating herbaceous biomass production in a Mediterranean shrubland Marcelo Sternberg, Tel Aviv University, Israel
11:50	7.4 Tropical forests are facing increasing risks of exposure to critical temperature thresholds Mukund Rao, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, USA
12:00	7.5 Effects of extreme high temperature on carbon exchange in three typical ecosystems Hua Lin, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
12:30–12:40	Group Photo – on the steps at the main entrance to the Rectory
12:40–13:45	Lunch – Rectory café (please provide waiting staff with your lunch ticket)
Session 8: Designing food systems and landscapes for a hotter world Chair – Tracy Lawson, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA Co-Chair – John Mackenzie, Australian National University, Australia
14:00	8.1 Achieving sustainable crop productivity in a hotter world Elizabete Carmo-Silva, Lancaster University, United Kingdom
14:30	8.2 Evidence for adaptation to heat stress in cropping systems Aidan Farrell, The University of the West Indies- St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago
14:40	8.3 Genome-wide association analyses show distinct genetic architecture for photosynthetic heat tolerance in wheat and barley Hanna Amoanimaa-Dede, University of New England, Australia
14:50	8.4 Extreme cooling enables extreme heat survival in plants Joanna Feehan, Michigan State University, USA
15:00	8.5 Designing urban landscapes to cope with a hotter world Kevin Hultine, Desert Botanical Gardens, Phoenix, USA
15:30	Refreshment break – Rectory café
16:00 – 17:00	8.6 Breakout sessions – Discussing solutions to the challenges of extreme heat Natural and urban ecosystems – Chaired by Adrienne Nicotra and Kevin Hultine Agricultural systems – Chaired by Owen Atkin, Elizabete Carmo-Silva, Tracy Lawson and Dani Way
17:00	Close of sessions for Thursday
19:15 – 22:30	Symposium dinner Bodegas Campos (Calle Lineros 32. 14002 Córdoba) Arrive 19:15 for a drinks reception and appetisers followed by a three-course dinner and a Flamenco show.

Day 4	Friday 5 June
08:55	Morning announcements
Session 9: Remote sensing of heatwaves Chair – Belinda Medlyn, Western Sydney University, Australia Co-Chair – Antonio J. Pérez-Luque, Institute of Forest Sciences (ICIFOR) INIA-CSIC, Spain
09:00	9.1 Impacts of heat on plants as seen from space Andrew Feldman, NASA / University of Maryland, USA
09:30	9.2 Resilience and recovery from an extreme heatwave: impacts of the June 2021 heat dome on trees and forests of the US Pacific Northwest Christopher Still, Oregon State University, USA
09:40	9.3 Canopy temperature drivers across ecosystems and remote sensing measurement challenges Jen Diehl, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA
09:50	9.4 Unravelling drivers of heat and drought stress across genotypes and seasons using optical-thermal-spectral and fluorescence indicators in sorghum Spoorthi Nagaraju, The University of Queensland, Australia
10:00	9.5 Remote sensing of stress impacts on plant metabolism Rocio Hernandez Clemente, University of Córdoba, Spain
10:30	Refreshment break – in the courtyard (weather permitting) All poster votes to be submitted by at the end of the break
Session 10: Closing Plenary Chair – Sasha Reed, US Geological Survey, USA Co-Chair - Kali Middleby, French National Institute for Research and Development, France
11:00	10.1 Plant life in a hotter planet: can they manage alone? Fernando Valladares, CSIC, Madrid
11:30	10.2 Closing panel discussion This closing panel discussion will integrate insights from across the symposium to reflect on what extreme heat means for the future of plant life Sasha Reed (Facilitator): Fernando Valladares Elizabete Carmo Silva Sergey Rosbakh Belinda Medlyn
12:30	Closing and prizes *The Organising Committee and Maarja Öpik, New Phytologist* Editor-in-Chief**
12:45 – 14:00	Lunch – Rectory café (please provide waiting staff with your lunch ticket)
Approx. 15:00	Visit to the Mosque of Cordoba, a World Heritage Site Limited to delegates who have signed up. Exact timings to be confirmed.

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