uws.edu.au/hie

HAWKESBURY INSTITUTE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

SUCCESS SHOWCASE – QUARTER ONE 2015

UWS Careers Advisers’ Day – 9 February 2015

Careers Advisers offer a valuable role in influencing decisions made

as students leave school and decide on where to study and what kinds of study pathways exist. UWS

hosted its Hawkesbury campus tour for Careers Advisers on

February 9th, and we were pleased to provide a rotating showcase of

our Institute. We aimed to show the diversity of opportunities available in sciences and STEM disciplines,

including opportunities beyond the traditional career science pathway.

We always say there’s no better way to see the potential of life at

UWS than by seeing it for yourself.

Institute Research Symposium Day – 26 March 2015With a rapidly growing Institute of around 50 scientists and more than 40 students, more than ever we need to find ways to share knowledge and updates about the diverse research programs underway. Our annual Research Symposium provided a speed-tour of research, with 49 different presentations ranging from one minute up to 12 minutes. It was a highly enjoyable event that will foster ongoing collaborations and connections for our increasingly large cohort of staff, students, interns, international visitors and guests.

Tour for guests from Otaka, Japan – 3 February 2015We had the pleasure of showing guest students from Japan through EucFACE as part of their stay with UWS Sustainability. This was a great opportunity to share with them our experimental journey, while they gave us some fantastic insights into some of the very innovative agricultural technology evolutions being created in Japan.

COMMUNITY

2 uws.edu.au/hie

RESEARCH

STUDENT RESEARCH WITH A DIFFERENCE

Showcase for the ARC Centre of Excellence In Translational

Photosynthesis – 25 February 2015UWS joins a number of other leading institutions as part of the new ARC Centre of Excellence in

Translational Photosynthesis (CETP), a multi-million dollar collaboration to increase the yield

of important food crops to address global food shortages in a changing world climate. With a wide network of partners in Australia

and internationally, the CETP uses advanced molecular and genetic tools to modify the

physiology of carbon capture so that crops can cope in future climatic conditions.

Biology Of Tephritid Fruit Flies Research Community Meeting – 2 April 2015 Tephritid fruit flies include a range of fly species that normally consume fruit as their main food source. This includes the Drosophila fruit fly that is widely used as a model for genetic and breeding analysis as well as the destructive fruit flies that destroy fruit by laying their eggs into ripening crops. Of major importance and concern to horticulture is the Queensland Fruit Fly, a species that has traditionally been managed mostly with systemic insecticides. Researchers are making progress with alternative techniques, of which UWS has made several important discoveries in recent years. These techniques centre on manipulating the ability of fruit flies to breed effectively and include mass release of male-only flies, manipulation of sex-determination processes in flies and use of non-systemic protectants to trap or prevent fly activity.

Image credit Mr John Morrow.

Adam FrewHow soil fungi might control underground cane grubs in sugar cane.

Anita WesolowskiSelecting stronger eucalypts as part of our SIEF project.

Andrew GherlendaHow elevated CO2 impacts on insect communities.

3uws.edu.au/hie

Tracey Steinrucken Wins Fulbright Student Scholarship Tracey Steinrucken has been awarded a 2015 Fulbright Student Award and will travel to the University of California, Berkeley. This is a wonderful achievement for an aspiring student and will open up connections and opportunities with our colleagues and collaborators in the United States and more broadly. Tracey’s achievement follows on from her recent successes in UWS’ Three Minute Thesis rounds.

Image: Ms Tracey Steinrucken (second from left) and Prof Anthony Maeder (SCEM, third from left).

Nicholas Colman and Chris Gordon Awarded 2014 John Cairney Award for Outstanding Student Publication PhD students Nicholas and Chris have been awarded this very prestigious award for their article about the important ecological role of apex predators, more specifically the effects of dingo removal on Australian animal assemblages and ecosystems. This article was published in the prestigious Proceedings of the Royal Society B in March 2014 and has already obtained 10 citations (including a commentary within the same journal). It has also attracted significant media coverage and contributes to an important broader debate. Prof John Cairney was Director of the former Centre For Plants And The Environment, the precursor to the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment and this award celebrates his legacy and passion for fostering new scientific talent.

Image Mr Nicholas Colman.

STAFF AND STUDENTS

Jessica Mowle Wins Travel Grant to Rhizosphere 4 Conference Rhizosphere 4 is the fourth in a series of international conferences to examine the root-soil interface (‘rhizosphere’) where a significant research effort is underway to enhance plant and crop productivity. PhD student Jessica Mowle has successfully won a travel grant that will support her journey to Maastricht in June 2015 as part of her study on Wollemi Pines.

4 uws.edu.au/hie

Nguyen Duong Wins Laurence

Mound FellowshipDuong won recently the

prestigious Laurence Mound Fellowship, in the form of a travel

scholarship in order to attend and present her work at the Xth

International Symposium on Thysanoptera & Tospoviruses in

Asilomar, California, in May 2015.

Jules Wright Wins W S Pender Award For Advancement

Of Beekeeping Pender & Beekeeping goes back

to 1892, where Pender Bros started out in Maitland NSW

with a small timber yard and mill producing timber for the local

community, supplying bee keeping supplies to the local bee keepers and later supplying bee keepers

Australia wide. This award is in recognition of Jules’ studies on native bee habitats and the

prevalence of native bees across Sydney’s golf courses.

Kylie Brice Wins American Society for Microbiology Travel Award PhD student Kylie Brice has been awarded a travel grant to support her poster presentation at the American Society for Microbiology Conference in New Orleans. Kylie’s work on the microbial biomes within koalas’ digestive systems is an important area of research.

5uws.edu.au/hie

As always, the Institute hosts a large number of visitors, collaborators and new colleagues through our various programs. » Professor Fernando Maestre

Gil has arrived via the Institute’s Research Exchange Program to work with Professor Braj Singh and colleagues.

» Dr Rosana Lopez won a prestigious Marie Curie Fellowship and is working with Dr Brendan Choat, Professor David Ellsworth and colleagues for two years.

» Ms Carrie Ramig – Technical Assistant (Plant Chemistry) providing technical assistance on our SIEF project.

» Mr David Fidler is undertaking his professional training year placement as part of his degree at Cardiff University, training with Dr Scott Johnson.

» Ms Wen Shi is a PhD student from Yunnan University working with Prof David Tissue and colleagues.

» Mr Paul Coraggio is about to enrol in a Master’s Degree at the University of Göttingen and is undertaking a working holiday with Dr Paul Rymer and colleagues.

» Ms Valentina Arca is undertaking a Bachelor’s degree in natural sciences and environment at the University of Sassari. She is undertaking training with Dr Raul Ochoa Hueso.

NEW PEOPLE

Prof Fernando Maestre Gil

Dr Rosana Lopez

Ms Wen Shi

6 uws.edu.au/hie

» Judith de Jager join us as part of our Cotutelle agreement with the University of Aberdeen – this program provides a PhD qualification from both UoA and UWS by spending time at both unis. She is working with Assoc Prof Sally Power.

» Leah Koloadin join us from UNSW and is working with Dr Brendan Choat.

» Katie Howard is based at the Victorian Department of Primary Industries and HIE, and is working with Dr Ricky Spencer (School-Based Researcher).

» Laura Castaneda Gomez joins us from Colombia and is working with Dr Yolima Carillo.

» Namraj Dhami is from Nepal and is working with Dr Chris Cazzonelli.

» Desi Quintans continues his studies following completion of Honours First Class at HIE and is working with Dr Paul Rymer.

» Coline Deveautour joins us from France and is working with Dr Jeff Powell.

» Jonathan Finch joins us from the United Kingdom and is working with Prof James Cook.

» Elle McDonald continues her studies following completion of Honours First Class at HIE and is working with Dr Chris Turbill.

NEW PHD STUDENTS

Elle McDonald

Judith de Jager Leah Koloadin

Katied Howard Laura Castaneda Gomez

Namraj Dhami Desi Quintans

7uws.edu.au/hie

CONTACT DETAILSHawkesbury Institute for the Environment University of Western Sydney Locked Bag 1797 Penrith NSW 2751 Australia

Bourke Street Richmond NSW 2753 Australia Phone: +61 2 4570 1125 Email: hieinfo@lists.uws.edu.au

HIE

5534

04/

2015

uws.edu.au/hie

MEET DR STEPHANIE STUART – VISITING FELLOW, MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY AND UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

Dr Stephanie Stuart: Why do plants invest in stems?We welcome Dr Stephanie Stuart to the Institute as she spends time in Australia to uncover how and why plants in different ecosystems construct their stems to make the most of their habitats.

When you look at an ecosystem, you’ll see that there is a wide variety of plants ranging from tiny mosses right up to enormous hardwood trees. How do plants decide what the best structure will be? And will they still make these same decisions under a climate of rising CO2?

Dr Stephanie Stuart completed her PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. She joins us in the second year of a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology, after spending the first year in at Ulm University in Germany. Her work at HIE is in partnership with Macquarie University.

Her project, entitled “Why be woody? Costs and benefits of stem construction” aims to understand how plants allocate resources towards stem construction, a process that uses energy that plants might otherwise use for processes like reproduction. Dr Stuart’s project asks: » What do plants get out of building a stronger stem, and why are multiple strategies successful?

» How do variations in stem design contribute to stem strength per unit investment?

» How do changes in climate interact with costs of stem construction, leading to grassland to forest transitions?

We had a chat with Dr Stuart as she settles into her stay at the Institute:

What led you to explore these questions?“If you look at the world around us, you’ll see a huge variety of different species. But we really don’t understand yet what makes plant species different, or why there are so many of them. If you think about it, large trees are growing right next to small shrubs and even tiny plants like flowers and grasses. They are all experiencing the same conditions, so how is it possible that such different adaptations can be successful?

“For people who study plants, there is a lot of interest in understanding how plants use finite resources available to

them – like light, water and nutrients – and decide how they will use those resources within the environments in which they grow. I want to understand how plants can come up with so many different answers to what seems, at first, like a really simple question.

“Many researchers have noticed that there is an increasing trend towards the growth of more woody plants. In many places around the world – the US, South Africa, and Australia, to name a few – graziers have been complaining that they are losing pastureland because more and more trees are growing in the fields where they graze their animals. There are many different theories as to why, but I suspect it is because rising CO2 makes it much easier for trees to build their big, woody stems. In other words, more carbon, more trees. Part of my project will be trying to find evidence of this in Australian pastures.

‘‘ For people who study plants, there is a lot of interest in understanding how plants will use resources within the environments in which they grow…’’

What will you work on while you are at the Hawkesbury Institute?I’m doing a mixture of modelling-based and field-based work including some analysis of climate suitability. I’m working with other researchers here as part of their ongoing projects such as how eucalypts from different parts of Australia will cope with rising temperatures and CO2.

I am also keen to find out about some of the observations from experiments in the Whole Tree Chambers that concluded in 2014. The trees inside those chambers grew very tall and thin because they were never exposed to the wind that would otherwise make them strong – it will be interesting to compare their stem structures with trees grown in the open.

‘‘ Usually, I would have to wait until I got to a conference to see so many of my colleagues in the same place at the same time…’’