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School of Plant Biology Matterse - bulletin

Head of School

The School is actively seeking participation from Alumni and community members for their donations for research scholarships through the Kwongan Foundation and though the UWA Office of Developmenthttp://www.plants.uwa.edu.au/foundation

School Manager

Upcoming Events

Australasian Forest Genetics Conference

20-22nd of April 2009

To be held at the Esplanade Hotel, Fremantle. UWA is a silver sponsor of the conference.

Website: www.forestgenetics.com.au

ASReml Statistics Course

Just prior to the conference above; for details go tohttp://www.forestgenetics.com.au/about/professional_development.aspx

TechNet 2009 National Conference

To be held at UWA from the 25th to 27th of November 2009. Please ask Elizabeth Halladin for information.

Plant Biology Seminar Series

http://www.plants.uwa.edu.au/page/13134

News

Happy Birthday to Hans for the 16th December

Steve Burgess will be working at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna as a consultant for 6 months. He will be working on a project studying maize water use in China and developing

November – December 2008

http://www.plants.uwa.edu.au/page/13134

http://www.forestgenetics.com.au/about/professional_development.aspx

http://www.forestgenetics.com.au/about/professional_development.aspx

http://www.forestgenetics.com.au/

http://www.plants.uwa.edu.au/foundation



a general frame-work for improving catchment-wide water management.

26th of November – 2nd of December: Elizabeth Halladin through Silkway Travel, hosted a group of students from the Raffles Institution, Singapore. Elizabeth developed the program which was delivered by a number of UWA staff and included laboratory and field work about unique Western Australian environments.

New Staff Joining Plant Biology

Dr Paul Greenwood has joined the West Australian Biogeochemistry Centre, housed in the Botany building, as a de Laeter Senior Research Fellow in organic geochemistry. Paul has extensive experience in environmental organic geochemistry and forensic applications and will be focussed on development of a new laser micropyrolysis GC-MS facility supported by ARC LIEF funding.

Dr Rohan Sadler has commenced a new postdoctoral position with the Ecosystems Research Group, working on modelling patterns of fuel loads and fire behaviour at Worsley's mine site at Boddington.

Stuart Pearse has returned as a Research Associate working with Hans Lambers after completing a two year Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Japan International Research Centre for Agricultural Sciences. Stuart is working on a project titled ‘Susceptibility to

Phytophthora cinnamomi and sensitivity to phosphorous in native Australian plants: why are they linked?’

Elizabeth Halladin has joined Plant Biology staff. She is in the Undergraduate Teaching Laboratories.

Robert Creasy has returned to Plant Biology as the Chief Technician of the Plant Growth Facilities Complex.

Xuanli Ma, although not a new face, has taken on a new position as Research Associate working on the Susceptibility to Phytophthora cinnamomi and sensitivity to phosphate in native Australian plants: why are they linked?

New Postgraduate Students Joining Plant Biology

Hazel Gaza has commenced her PhD studies with Patrick Finnegan’s group to study mitochondrial biogenesis. Hazel holds an Assistant Professorship at the University of the Philippines.

Mr Shahidul Islam has commenced his PhD on the Proteomics of Wheat and Lupin with Guijun Yan.

People Leaving Plant Biology

Jaymie Norris has accepted a position with the Department of Agriculture in Victoria working with their carbon accounting and modelling team - we wish him well for his new pursuits in Melbourne.




Jovelyn Pocsidio who was working as the Administrative Assistant to the Purchasing Officer, now works at the City of Stirling.

Many staff in the marine group have left Plant Biology to work in the new Centre for Marine Futures led by Jessica Meeuwig: Peter Barnes, Dianne Watson, Alex Grochowski, Antony Payne, Ben Piek, Heather Taylor and Kris Waddington.Mark Westera is now working full time for Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM).

Marie Claire Castello and Nader Arymaneshs are now working on a casual basis in CLIMA and Plant Biology.

Siti Hidayati is no longer working for Plant Biology with David Turner.

Fabiano Scarpa has finished his short term contract with Erik Veneklaas and Hans Lambers and he has returned to Brazil.

Visitors to the School

Dr Long Li, a Plant Nutrition Professor from China Agricultural University, Beijing, visited the School for four months, supported financially by an Endeavour Executive Award. Long’s research field has focused on rhizosphere processes in plant community with diverse plant species. During his visit he developed two papers, one review and one research paper, both in collaboration with Professor Hans Lambers and other

colleagues in USA and China. The review paper entitled “Biodiversity and Overyielding: Insights from Intercropping in Agriculture” deals with mechanisms underlying the positive relationship between the productivity and the plant diversity in an ecosystem. The research paper focused on symbiotic nitrogen fixation in legume/cereal intercropping. Both papers will be published in peer-reviewed international journals. He also gave a presentation in the Plant Biology Seminar Series during his visit. He returned to China Agricultural University on the 15th November.

Dr Long Li

Chi Yingjun is a visiting PhD student from Nanjing Agricultural University China, who will be visiting Patrick Finnegan for 18 months.




Baoshan Wang is an academic staff member of Shandong Normal University visiting Plant Biology for six months to work on phosphate toxicity in Australian native plants.

Dr Xiangwen Fang, Dr Guijun Yan, Professors Neil Turner, Kadambot Siddique and Mathew Tonts, Ms Li Lihua, Dr Yu Jia, and Professor

Wang Yong are collaborating on a ‘111 Project’ that may lead to long term strategies

for adapting to climate change.

Dr Fang, funded by an Endeavour Fellowship and the ‘111 Project’ is studying chickpea reproductive physiology under drought, supervised by Professors Siddique and Turner, Dr Yan and Dr Jairo Palta, CSIRO.

Professor Yong, funded by Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, is assessing how water stress affects grain filling in barley and especially the contribution of awns, supervised by Drs Palta and Yan and Professors Siddique and Turner.Title First Surname Institute

Name

Dr Katsuhiro Shiono University of Tokyo

A/Prof Nakazono Mikio University of Tokyo

Mr Takahashi Hirokazu University of Tokyo

Mr Struthers CarlMuseum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

Dr Zintzen VincentMuseum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

Staff/Student Travel

Pauline Grierson and Greg Skyrzpek presented posters at The 6th International Conference on Applications of Stable Isotope Techniques to Ecological Studies, held in Honolulu, Hawaii at the end of August and came back armed with new ideas and techniques to assist users of the WABC when it re-opens for business in 2009.

Rebecca McIntyre presented a talk on biogeochemical dynamics of semi-arid streams at Soils 2008, held at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand in December. Rebecca also submitted her PhD dissertation for examination in the same week - congratulations!

Gerald Page presented a talk on some of his PhD findings on mulga physiology at the Plant Functioning in a Changing Global Environment meeting in Creswick, Victoria in December.




Burak Pekin presented a talk on changes in forest structure in relation to fire and aridity at the Ecological Society of America conference in Sydney, December.

Paul Greenwood was invited to the Wuxi Institute of Petroleum Geology (Wuxi, China) for a week in early November to assist with their laser micropyrolysis GCMS set-up. The Institute, funded by the Chinese petroleum major SINOPEC, is developing analytical capability to analyse the molecular composition of oil bearing fluid inclusions within sedimentary settings. During this visit, Paul also gave several presentations on different aspects of his research at UWA.

Matthias Boer gave a talk at the International Conference on Fire, Environment and Society, 1-3 September, Adelaide, and attended two remote sensing conferences in the UK to learn about Lidar applications: 1) Remote Sensing & Photogrammetry Society UK Annual Meeting, 14-17 September 2008, Univ. Exeter, Cornwall Campus, 2) SilviLaser Conference, 17-19 September 2008, Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh. In November, Matthias gave an invited presentation at the ARC-NZ Vegetation Function Workshop on Fire and Carbon Budgets, Australian National University, Canberra.

Elizabeth Halladin attended the TechNet 2008 National Conference held at the University of Wollongong, NSW during the 3rd-5th of December. The conference

was very well attended with nearly 200 delegates representing technical and general staff from Australian, New Zealand and Fijian Universities. Elizabeth delivered a presentation “TechNet 2009 – Sustain: People Places Resources” about TechNet WA (which she chairs).Month Name Destination

November Boer, Matthias Canberra, ACT

Colmer, Tim China

Colmer, Tim Sydney

Greenwood, Paul China

He, Xinhua France

He, Xinhua China

Lambers, Hans China

Minkey, David Melbourne

Yan, Guijun Moumea

December Abd Manan Malaysia

Bradbury, Donna Canberra, ACT

Ooi, Jillian Malaysia

Plummer, Julie Melbourne

Smithson, Ann Canberra, ACT

Tan, Diane Manila

ResearchDr Chris Jones, Research Associate, will be working with A/Prof Julie Plummer and A/Prof Emilio Ghisalberti of the Chemistry department on further elucidation of the factors involved in regulation of essential oil production in Sandalwood, Santalum spp. This is a joint project between UWA and the University of British Columbia, Canada. The research is funded by the




Forest Products Commission of WA and the Australian Research Council.

Wallace Cowling gained radio airplay on the WA Country Hour as part of Canola Breeders WA. He said he was excited by the State Government's announcement on GM canola because Canola Breeders WA has good access to Roundup Ready technology.

Monsanto is the company involved in the stewardship arrangement with the Department of Agriculture and Food. Canola Breeders WA has a research agreement with Monsanto to trial and test their Roundup Ready canola hybrids in small plot trials. It is hard to achieve good yielding hybrids. Some paddocks need Atrazine to clean up weeds.

There is now a choice between TT hybrids and Roundup Ready hybrids.

Cowling explains that in a scenario of commercialization of GM canola in WA, he will sell the seed and the farmer signs a licence with Monsanto.

Louise Cullen and Pauline Grierson have recently published a reconstruction of rainfall since 1655 for the Lake Tay region of southern Western Australia in the journal Climate Dynamics.

The study examined tree rings of Callitris columellaris and growth response to the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI), the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) as well as surface sea temperature (SST) anomalies in the southern Indian Ocean. The chronology revealed that rainfall has

varied over recent centuries from relatively dry periods lasting 20-30 years to 15-year long periods of above average rainfall. This variability in rainfall likely reflects low-frequency variation in the El Niño-Southern Oscillation rather than the effect of SAM or SSTs.

The study, funded by the Hermon Slade Foundation (www.hermonslade.org.au), has attracted a great deal of interest both locally and abroad as it is the first study of its kind for continental Australia. For more detail, see: Cullen L and Grierson PF. (2008). Multi-decadal scale variability in autumn-winter rainfall in south-western Australia since 1655 BP as reconstructed from tree rings of Callitris columellaris. Climate Dynamics DOI 10.1007/s00382-008-0457-8.

ECOMOD Seminar and Discussion Group

A seminar and discussion group has been formed for plant biologists and ecologists with an interest in things quantitative and computational. The group aims to meet once a month for some informal presentation of research ideas, problems and questions, interspersed and followed by plenty of informal discussion and usually a few drinks. The equations and mathematical jargon are kept to a minimum (although it must be said that Rohan and Lalith need to be kept in line with their statistical modelling discussion). Anyone is




welcome to join the group, and if you’d like to be on the mailing list, contact Michael [email protected] or Rohan [email protected]. Some of the recent work presented in the group included Rohan talking about modelling grass structural patterns with spatial point processes, Sudheesh talking about herbicide resistance modelling, Michael talking about an agricultural land-use simulation optimisation model (LUSO) and Lalith talking about approaches for tackling a complex spatial data set on perennial legume seedling germination, survival and growth.

Future presentations will include efforts for analysing and simplifying a complex agricultural production simulation model (Padmaja), simulating wind-spread dispersal of plant pathogens (Dave), modelling optimal rooting strategies for phosphorus acquisition (Sanju), modelling weed seedbank dynamics (George), improving visualisation of root growth simulations (Mike), a decision-support tool for nitrogen application in wheat crops (Fumie) and plenty more exciting topics!

International Centre for Plant Breeding, Education and

Research (ICPBER)

Our first short course, “Mixed Models for Plant Improvement” was held November 3rd-5th 2008. There were 30

national and international participants (representing Canada, Germany, Phillipines, Malaysia, Singapore, India). The workshop demonstrated the leading role played by Australian biometricians (Brian Cullis, David Butler, Simon Diffey, Mario D’Antuono), in developing world-leading design and analysis processes for plant breeding programs.

The value of the workshop was well recognized. It was attended by Ed Roumen who is the leader of the world's largest hybrid rice breeding program at Bayer Crop Science. There were also many Australian breeders who came to improve the efficiency and output from their breeding programs.

The workshop would not have been possible without the generous support of QDPI, NSW DPI, GRDC, and UWA. The International Centre for Plant Breeding Education and Research (ICPBER) at UWA was pleased to host such a workshop, and we are already planning future workshops with David, Brian and others, which surely will attract even more attention from international and national plant breeders.

The web address for ICPBER is: www.icpber.plants.uwa.edu.au

Email: [email protected]

Turf

Welcome to Leon Hodgson who recently joined the UWA Turf Research Program as a Research Officer. He will be


mailto:[email protected]




responsible for co-ordinating the field-based activities within the “Water-Repellent Turfgrass Project‟. You will have an opportunity to meet Leon, and get an update on the “Water-Repellent Turfgrass‟ at our forthcoming Workshop (see below for details).

Salt-tolerant Turfgrass: Project Update

The town of Wagin, like several other wheatbelt towns, is threatened by rising saline groundwater. Three bores are pumping up to 650 kL per day to de-water areas of the town. A 2-year study, conducted by PhD student Ghazi Abu Rumman, has demonstrated the potential to use this saline groundwater (~1/4 sea water) to irrigate halophytic turfgrasses.

The ARC-Linkage Project is a partnership between the Shire of Wagin, the Rural Towns - Liquid Assets Program of DAFWA, and UWA.

Four turfgrass species were evaluated in plots at Wagin. Three of the species were halophytic grasses being saltgrass, marine couch and seashore paspalum, with the fourth being kikuyu. Halophytes are “salt-loving” plants; these plants grow naturally in salt-affected soils.

Colour retention was excellent in saltgrass, marine couch and seashore paspalum after imposing saline water irrigation. By contrast, kikuyu turned brown. Seashore paspalum produced almost four times more clippings than the

slowest-growing species whereas marine couch had the slowest growth. Daily water use was also measured. Saline water use was highest in saltgrass at 75% of net evaporation while it was lowest in kikuyu at 64%.

In conclusion, halophytic turfgrasses could be used in salt-affected areas. Use of saline water, however, will require a well integrated management plan that includes drainage to dispose appropriately of any excess water and salts, so as to prevent impacts on adjacent areas.

Open-air Workshop: Water-repellent Soils & Turfgrass

Renovations

You are invited to an “Open-Air‟ Workshop at the UWA Turf Research Facility to discuss the project “Identifying and Managing Water Repellency in Turfgrass Grown in Sandy Soils‟. The workshop will be of particular interest to turfgrass managers and others, involved in turfgrass renovation and the management of non-wetting soils in turfgrass. The morning will provide you with an opportunity to:

Learn about the aims and outcomes of the “Identifying and Managing Water Repellency in Turfgrass Grown in Sandy Soils” project.

Examine the techniques for measuring soil water repellency.




View the turfgrass plots, and the equipment used for assessing turfgrass quality.

Assess for yourself how well the different turfgrass renovation treatments are fairing after 3 years.

This is an opportunity for the individual to learn more about our current research projects, and to catch up with colleagues. When: 10:00am–12:30pm, Wednesday 26th November. Brief presentations will commence at 10:15 am sharp. Where: UWA Research Station, Underwood Avenue (entrance opposite Grovedale Rd)

Please remember to wear sturdy footwear. For more information please contact Dr Louise Barton, 6488 2543 or [email protected]

Family NewsMegan Ryan had a 9lb baby boy on 3rd

November.

Roslyn Owen had a little girl, Sadie, on 1st December.

Kwongan FoundationThe Kwongan Foundation for the Conservation of Australian Native Plants was established in March 2006.

The objectives are to:

implement the gathering and sharing of knowledge about our unique flora

enable planning on a long-term basis for conservation of these plant species

attract world-class researchers to WA

facilitate conservation objectives of the community, industry and Government

help provide a secure basis for the State's tourist industry

discover many valuable compounds for medicine and industry

involve community groups helping with this challenge

The Foundation provides essential income to support promising young researchers in this urgent field of community need.

All this cannot be achieved without your valuable support. All donations make a measurable difference. Please consider a contribution (tax deductible) to the Foundation. All donations of $5000 and above will entitle you to become a Patron of the Kwongan Foundation.

For more information please contact Prof Hans Lambers [email protected]





Contact InformationPlease email articles for the next E-Bulletin to the Plant Biology Administrative [email protected]

PLEASE LET US KNOW ANY CHANGES TO YOUR ADDRESS OR EMAIL DETAILSDo you have something interesting to share? Please let us know.

If you would like further information on any of the articles, please contact the Plant Biology Administrative Assistant [email protected] or phone 6488 2206.

Alumni

All Alumni are invited to share their success stories with Plant Biology Staff and Students. Please email information [email protected] look forward to hearing from our Alumni!





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