Dr Everard Edwards: sustaining grapevine performance

Dr Everard Edwards is investigating the long-term effects of deficit irrigation on grapevines with the aim of improving irrigation management.

• 5 August 2008 | Updated 14 October 2011

Overview

• Current activities
• Background
• Academic qualifications

Current activities

Dr Everard Edwards investigates long term effects of deficit irrigation on the sustainable performance of grapevines, with the aim of improving irrigation management to achieve acceptable yield, grape composition and wine quality.

This work is field-based and uses a whole vine and crop approach, from roots to leaves to fruit to wine. He is particularly interested in interactions between the vine and its environment.

Dr Edwards is also involved in a large project through the Wine Innovation Cluster in Adelaide, South Australia, which aims to integrate the water and carbon economies of the vine.

Background

After completing a doctorate in post-harvest physiology, Dr Edwards spent eight years as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of York, United Kingdom (UK), and The Australian National University, working on climate change aspects of plant ecophysiology. 

This included below ground responses to soil warming and the role of nutrient limitation in determining plant growth responses to elevated CO₂.

Dr Edwards has experience of many areas of plant physiology, having worked on:

• photosynthesis
• respiration
• water relations
• growth analysis
• nutrition
• secondary metabolites.

Dr Edwards joined CSIRO in mid-2006 as a research scientist to study water relations of grapevines.

Academic qualifications

Dr Edwards was awarded a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Plant Science from The University of Sheffield, UK, in 1992.

He completed his Doctor of Philosophy on 'The Accumulation of Chlorophylls and Glycoalkaloids in Stored Potato Tubers' from The Nottingham Trent University, UK, in 1997.

Dr Edwards has also been awarded a Diploma in Computing from The Open University, UK, in 2000.

See a list of scientific papers published by Dr Edwards in his publishing history.