Staff profile

Patrick is using his expertise in plant biology, climate science and systems modelling to improve climate decisions in agricultural and forest systems. He is particularly interested in delivering solutions that inform risk management and adaptation under under climate variability and global change. His current research in the climate decisions in agriculture team includes:

• Understanding and communicating climate-based risks in forest and agricultural systems

• Delivering climate-smart solutions for grains and other sectors including enhanced weather and seasonal climate forecasting.

• Building risk and reward information tools that combine climate, systems modelling and environmental data for farmers and agribusiness.

His previous work at CSIRO Land and Water looked at unravelling and quantifying climate-based stresses such as drought and heat in forest ecosystems. He also has used his strong back ground in ecohydrology to deliver basin-level assessments of water impacts from mining.

Before starting work at the CSIRO, Dr Mitchell was a Postdoctoral Researcher at The University of Melbourne where he was involved in projects looking at forest water use in mixed-species forests and ecohydrological responses of resprouting forest types to wildfire.

Dr Mitchell completed his Doctoral thesis in 2009 which focused on plant water use in functionally diverse communities in south-western Australia. This work provided an intergrated picture of how we might improve agro-ecosystems to better mimic the water balance of native ecosystems. He has also been involved in projects related to tree-site interactions and water use of salt-tolerant tree species in both natural and managed settings.