About the event

Trees have never been more essential for urban inhabitants. As the climate warms and weather becomes increasingly extreme, trees are among the most effective tools available in preserving the liveability of cities. But which species should be planted to face these future challenges? And how diverse should urban forests be?

This webinar uses Brisbane as a case study to explore the mounting evidence that trees are not only vital for future urban comfort, wellbeing and the survival of the most vulnerable citizens. Associate Professor John Dwyer will discuss the benefits of increasing overall canopy cover and tree species diversity, and highlighting the exceptional opportunity that the 2032 Olympics presents in transforming Southeast Queensland's urban forests – creating a legacy that extends well beyond infrastructure.

Drawing from his team's recent research on Australian subtropical rainforests, dry rain forests, and vine thickets, Associate Professor Dwyer will reveal how climate soils shape tree assemblages in nature and expand on how election of tree species can meet future urban demands. He'll explore how few species from these diverse ecosystems have been selected for urban uses and, more importantly, why. He will also highlight the enormous diversity of climate-resilient tree strategies (and unique evolutionary histories) that forests have to offer by discussing methods to systematically select, trial and integrate these species into cities.

The goal of this webinar is to inspire designers, policy makers, land managers and tree growers to bravely move beyond the familiar to embrace the enormous untapped biodiversity in our own backyard. We hope to see you there!

This event will run off Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) and will run for 1 hour. The webinar will be recorded and a link to the webinar will be sent to all registered attendees in the days after the webinar.

Meet the speaker

Associate Professor John Dwyer is a plant ecologist who hails from Bundaberg, the jewel of Queensland’s Wide Bay region. After training and working as a landscape architect in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he retrained as a botanist and worked as an ecological consultant in Brisbane before commencing a PhD in 2006 (the brigalow years). After a brief stint in Switzerland and a postdoc in Western Australia (the wildflower years), he secured a teaching and research position at The University of Queensland in 2013. He teaches urban ecology, rainforest ecology, functional ecology and statistics within undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In recent years, John has redirected research efforts towards his first ecological passion, subtropical rainforests. His team uses a range of approaches to better understand how climate and soils dictate which tree species grow where, and to understand the trade-offs that underpin species’ differences in growth, survival and reproduction.

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