Ana Krsteska
I'm a second year Master's student in the Adaptive Evolution Lab, studying what makes annual ryegrass—a costly weed for Australian farmers—a real pain in the grass. I'm investigating whether ryegrass has what it takes to become a 'superweed', using insights from Grime's Competition, Stress, and Ruderal (CSR) framework to categorise plant life-history strategies.
My project examines how ryegrass responds—genetically and phenotypically—to various weed control strategies in crop fields. In a long-term outdoor 'evolve and re-sequence' experiment, I track plant traits and analyse genetic variation using pool-ddRADSeq. By linking said traits and genetic variation to CSR strategies, we aim to refine how ryegrass populations are identified, better assess their adaptive potential, and further strengthen integrated weed management efforts.