Programme One conferences and seminars July-December 2007

Dr Alieta Eyles and Dr Libby Pinkard attended EcoFizz 2007 in Sydney in late September, and presented a poster. Download the poster.

Caroline Mohammed attended the 16th Biennial Australasian Plant Pathology Society Conference (Back to Basics: Managing Plant Disease) in South Australia (24-27 September 2007) and presented four talks and eight posters:

Barry KM, Pinkard EA, Mohammed CL (2007) Assessing eucalypt health via physiological indicators with spectral reflectance. In '16th Biennial Australasian Plant Pathology Society Conference, Adelaide. Talk.
Francis A, Mohammed CL, Beadle C, Glen M, Rimbawanto A, Widyatmoko A, Puspitasari D, Hidayati N, Agustini L, Irianto R, Gafur A, Tjahjono B, Hardiyanto E, Junarto E (2007) Causal agents and disease distribution in Acacia mangium plantations affected by root rot. 16th Biennial Australasian Plant Pathology Society Conference, Adelaide. Talk.
Glen M, Mohammed CL (2007) Molecular identification of fungi – how useful is the rDNA ITS? 16th Biennial Australasian Plant Pathology Society Conference, Adelaide. Talk.
Glen M, Yuan Z-Q, Dunstan B, Wardlaw TJ, Rudman T, Mohammed CL (2007) Identification of a Fusarium sp. associated with crown rot of Xanthorrhoea spp. in Tasmania. 16th Biennial Australasian Plant Pathology Society Conference. Back to Basics: Managing Plant Disease. Adelaide. Poster, 219.
Horton BM, Glen M, Close D, Davidson N, Wardlaw TJ, Mohammed CL (2007) Forest health, fungi and fire and: Ectomycorrhizal community ecology of Tasmanian Eucalyptus delegatensis forest. In '16th Biennial Australasian Plant Pathology Society Conference. Back to Basics: Managing Plant Disease. Adelaide. Poster, 218.
Potter KJB, Glen M, Irianto R, Beadle C, Agustini L, Barry K, Rimbawanto A, Mohammed CL (2007) Genetic diversity and dispersal of root rot pathogens at the Wonogiri family trial, Central Java. 16th Biennial Australasian Plant Pathology Society Conference. Back to Basics: Managing Plant Disease. Adelaide. Poster, 217.
Prihatini I, Smith AH, Gonnet J-M, Wardlaw TJ, Beadle C, Glen M, Mohammed CL (2007) Linking environmental stress in pine plantations to fungal attack 16th Biennial Australasian Plant Pathology Society Conference. Back to Basics: Managing Plant Disease. Adelaide. Poster, 216.
Quentin A, Pinkard EA, Beadle C, Mohammed CL (2007) Can we use artificial defoliation to simulate the effects of Mycosphaerella Leaf Disease on Eucalyptus globulus physiology? 16th Biennial Australasian Plant Pathology Society Conference. Back to Basics: Managing Plant Disease. Adelaide. Poster, 222.
Quentin A, Pinkard EA, Beadle C, Mohammed CL (2007) Do Phaeophleospora eucalypti and Mycosphaerella leaf spot have similar effects on Eucalyptus grandis physiology? 16th Biennial Australasian Plant Pathology Society Conference. Back to Basics: Managing Plant Disease. Adelaide. Poster, 211.
Smith AH, Wardlaw TJ, Pinkard EA, Wotherspoon K, Mohammed CL (2007) Effects of Mycosphaerella leaf disease on the growth of Eucalyptus globulus. 16th Biennial Australasian Plant Pathology Society Conference. Back to Basics: Managing Plant Disease. Adelaide. Talk, 92.
Trang T-T, Glen M, Mohammed CL (2007) Resistance screening to fungal diseases for plantation eucalypts in Vietnam; molecular tools to assist fungal detection and identification. 16th Biennial Australasian Plant Pathology Society Conference. Back to Basics: Managing Plant Disease. Adelaide. Poster, 221.
Wardlaw TJ, Glen M, Mohammed CL (2007) Rotation-length spread of decay from branches in pruned E. nitens: Implications for pruning specifications. In '16th Biennial Australasian Plant Pathology Society Conference. Back to Basics: Managing Plant Disease. Adelaide. Poster, 213.

PhD student Audrey Quentin attended the IUFRO natural enemies and other multi-scale influences on forest insects conference, (September 2007, Vienna) and presented a poster "Physiological capacity of Eucalyptus globulus. Labill to recover following moderate defoliation". Download the poster.

Tom Baker and Michael Battaglia presented "Long-term growth responses of Eucalyptus globulus to soil ripping, weed control and fertiliser application at establishment on a former agricultural site in south-eastern Australia" at IUFRO WP 2.08.03 Improvement and Culture of Eucalypts 'Eucalypts and diversity:balancing productivity and sustainability', 22 - 26 October 2007, Durban South Africa. Download paper.

Mila Bristow attended two conference in Canada:

IUFRO working group 4.01.02 Growth models for tree and stand simulation conference Complex Stand Structures and Associated Dynamics: Measurement Indices and Modelling Approaches, July 29 – August 2 2007, Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, Canada. Keynote speaker Professor Jerry Vanclay of Southern Cross University presented some of the empirical growth modelling work from Programme One. Discussion at the meeting were around characterising vertical, horizontal and spatial heterogeneity in stands and the requirement for more than one index of complexity. Mila says: "there are many complexity indices which are themselves complex and diverse. The challenge for forest science in modelling complex forests is that the public want timber/fibre at monoculture prices from forests that look, or are, complex."
IUFRO group 8.01.11 impact of wind on forests titled: International Conference on 'Wind and Trees', 05 - 09 Aug 2007, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The focus of this conference was the mechanics of wind interactions with trees, the biology of acclimative growth, and the ecological impacts of wind on forest ecosystems.

The following papers were presented at the Forestsat 07 conference in November (Montpellier, France):

Verbesselt, J., Newnham, G., Opie, K., Sims, N., Barry, K., Stone, C., Mohammed, C., Wardlaw, T. and Culvenor, D (November 2007) “Improving 8-daily MODIS time-series to monitor forest canopy dynamics in P. radiata plantations”. Oral presentation . Download the paper from the Forestsat 2007 conference website.
Barry, K., Pinkard, L.., Battaglia, M. Stone, C. and Mohammed, C. (November 2007) Estimating light use efficiency and leaf area index in eucalypt plantations with hyperspectral reflectance. Download the paper from the Forestsat 2007 conference website.
Musk R., Osborn J. (November 2007) Calibrating LiDAR derived canopy metrics to account for data acquisition parameters and forest condition in Radiata pine plantations. Download the paper from the Forestsat 2007 conference website.

E. A. Pinkard, A. Quentin, M. Battaglia T. J. Wardlaw and C. L. Mohammed presented the paper "The physiology of host responses to pest attack in E. globulus plantations" at IUFRO WP 2.08.03 Improvement and Culture of Eucalypts 'Eucalypts and diversity:balancing productivity and sustainability', 22 - 26 October 2007, Durban South Africa. Download the paper presented by Libby Pinkard.

Libby Pinkard and Caroline Mohammed attended a two-day qualitative modelling workshop in Hobart in October.

A workshop “Sustaining plantation production: a review” was held in Perth on 5 December, which was followed by Project Steering Committee/Programme Coordinating Committee meeting on 6 December.