FREW LAB
bio
I’m interested in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, how they affect plants, and what influences their diversity and composition.
I obtained my PhD from the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment in 2017, where I studied the impacts of the soil environment on root-feeding insects. I was then awarded an independent research fellowship at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga where I continued to pursue my interests in belowground ecology by exploring aspects of how arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi affect plant performance and responses to insect herbivory. After this fellowship I took up an ongoing faculty position at the University of Southern Queensland teaching into a variety of environmental and sustainability subjects while continuing my research into mycorrhizal ecology.
I was awarded an ARC DECRA that explores how agricultural management shapes mycorrhizal fungal diversity and how community composition impacts plant defences against insect herbivores. At this point, I returned to the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment to build my research group to better understand this amazing group of symbiotic fungi.