Alexandra Catling

Dr Alexandra Catling is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC), affiliated with the Tropical Forests and People Research Centre and School of Science, Technology and Engineering. She holds a B.Sc. (Advanced Honours) from Australian National University (ANU) and completed her PhD at the University of Queensland (UQ), focusing on plant demographic responses to environmental gradients.

Her research interests include understanding how environmental changes—particularly drought and thermal stress—affect plant communities. Key areas of study involve plant-plant interactions, functional ecology, and community ecology. She has conducted fieldwork across Australia, including studies on Eucalyptus trees in Tasmania and annual plant population dynamics in Western Australia.

Her publication record spans 9 peer-reviewed articles and preprints between 2021–2025, addressing topics like soil microbial contributions to forest restoration, plant thermal tolerance mechanisms, and phenotypic plasticity in alpine species. She is a member of the Ecological Society of Australia and actively contributes to interdisciplinary research on climate change impacts.

Dr Catling’s work emphasizes the importance of integrating multiple ecosystem metrics for restoration success and cautions against using single vital rates as proxies for population fitness. Her methodologies include innovative approaches like chlorophyll fluorescence imaging and common garden experiments to assess plant resilience.