School of Plant Biology Matters
e - bulletin
November – December 2008
Head of School
ASReml Statistics Course
Just prior to the conference above; for
details go to
http://www.forestgenetics.com.au/about/profe
ssional_development.aspx
TechNet 2009 National Conference
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
Development
http://www.plants.uwa.edu.au/foundation
School Manager
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
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
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
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maize water use in China and developing
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
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November – December 2008
him well for
Melbourne.
his
new
pursuits
in
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.
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.
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,
Dr Long Li
Chi Yingjun is a visiting PhD student
from Nanjing Agricultural University
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China, who will be visiting
Finnegan for 18 months.
Patrick
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.
Palta and Yan and Professors Siddique
and Turner.
Title
First
Name
Surname
Institute
Dr
Katsuhiro
Shiono
University
Tokyo
of
A/Prof
Nakazono
Mikio
University
Tokyo
of
Mr
Takahashi
Hirokazu
University
Tokyo
of
Mr
Struthers
Carl
Museum of New
Zealand Te Papa
Tongarewa
Dr
Zintzen
Vincent
Museum of New
Zealand Te Papa
Tongarewa
Staff/Student Travel
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
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
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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
Abd Manan
Malaysia
Bradbury, Donna
Canberra, ACT
Ooi, Jillian
Malaysia
Plummer, Julie
Melbourne
Smithson, Ann
Canberra, ACT
Tan, Diane
Manila
December
Research
Dr 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
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November – December 2008
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/s00382008-0457-8.
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
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November – December 2008
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 mrenton@cyllene.uwa.edu.au
or Rohan ropo.sadler@gmail.com.
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 landuse 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 decisionsupport 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 worldleading 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.
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The web address for ICPBER is:
www.icpber.plants.uwa.edu.au
Email: icpber@cyllene.uwa.edu.au
Turf
Welcome to Leon Hodgson who recently
joined the UWA Turf Research Program
as a Research Officer. He will be
responsible for co-ordinating the fieldbased activities within the “WaterRepellent 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: Waterrepellent 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
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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
lbarton@cyllene.uwa.edu.au
Kwongan Foundation
The 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
Family News
 involve community groups helping with
this challenge
Megan Ryan had a 9lb baby boy on 3rd
November.
The Foundation provides essential
income to support promising young
researchers in this urgent field of
community need.
Roslyn Owen had a little girl, Sadie, on
1st December.
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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 hans.lambers@uwa.edu.au
Contact Information
Please email articles for the next EBulletin
to
the
Plant
Biology
Administrative Assistant
plantbio@plants.uwa.edu.au
PLEASE
LET
US
KNOW
ANY
CHANGES TO YOUR ADDRESS OR
EMAIL DETAILS
Do 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
plantbio@plants.uwa.edu.au or phone 6488
2206.
Alumni
All Alumni are invited to share their
success stories with Plant Biology
Staff and Students. Please email
information to
plantbio@plants.uwa.edu.au
We look forward to hearing from our
Alumni!
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