Reducing environmental footprint by improving phosphorous use efficiency. While modern agriculture relies heavily on the use of phosphorous fertilizers, most of them are not used by plants and lost in runoff, resulting in a massive environmental damage through contamination of waterways (termed eutrophication). This project takes advantage of an untapped resource - a unique collection of Tibetan wild barley genotypes, to reveal key traits that confer superior phosphorus use efficiency in wild ba ....Reducing environmental footprint by improving phosphorous use efficiency. While modern agriculture relies heavily on the use of phosphorous fertilizers, most of them are not used by plants and lost in runoff, resulting in a massive environmental damage through contamination of waterways (termed eutrophication). This project takes advantage of an untapped resource - a unique collection of Tibetan wild barley genotypes, to reveal key traits that confer superior phosphorus use efficiency in wild barley and identify appropriate candidate genes and their position on chromosomes for further incorporating these traits into commercial barley cultivars. This will reduce the environmental footprint of modern agricultural practices on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems without compromising food security.Read moreRead less
Development of a risk management system for systemic downy mildew of poppies. Development of a risk management system for systemic downy mildew of poppies. This project aims to identify the critical inoculum sources of systemic downy mildew—a new disease threat to the Australian poppy industry, which produces over half the world’s medicinal opiates. It will assess these sources’ relative importance and interaction with agronomic site factors in epidemics; and also intends to understand the syste ....Development of a risk management system for systemic downy mildew of poppies. Development of a risk management system for systemic downy mildew of poppies. This project aims to identify the critical inoculum sources of systemic downy mildew—a new disease threat to the Australian poppy industry, which produces over half the world’s medicinal opiates. It will assess these sources’ relative importance and interaction with agronomic site factors in epidemics; and also intends to understand the systemic progression in planta, an area poorly understood in all downy mildew pathosystems. The project expects the data will form the basis of a disease risk index tool to educate growers and guide disease management strategies essential to this industry’s long term viability.Read moreRead less
Devising ecologically sustainable restoration programs for degraded rural landscapes by integrating landscape ecology, genetics and ecophysiology. Concern about tree decline in rural landscape is widespread, and disturbingly climate change is predicted to exacerbate this problem. Past ill-considered tree plantings have proven to be economically wasteful, achieved limited ecological resilience and negligible improvement of biodiversity values. Using Tasmania as a 'model system', we will advance t ....Devising ecologically sustainable restoration programs for degraded rural landscapes by integrating landscape ecology, genetics and ecophysiology. Concern about tree decline in rural landscape is widespread, and disturbingly climate change is predicted to exacerbate this problem. Past ill-considered tree plantings have proven to be economically wasteful, achieved limited ecological resilience and negligible improvement of biodiversity values. Using Tasmania as a 'model system', we will advance this problem by undertaking research to determine how seedling establishment, tree growth, carbon storage and water use are influenced by landscape setting, management history, climate change, species type and local varieties. This research will provide a much needed evidence to devise ecologically sustainable tree-plantings in southern Australia.Read moreRead less