Welcome to Phytogen for August 2021. Here is an article summarising many National Science Week events throughout August. Thank you all for your contributions and hard work.

National Science Week has officially wrapped up for 2021. This year, the theme for ASPS events was “Plant Science Safeguarding Our Future Food Security”. ASPS kicked off with a “Meet a Plant Scientist” video series, with ASPS members at diverse career stages and representing a wide array of fields of plant science submitting 30s videos introducing themselves and their research – you can still see them all here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCjVjret6uSjalUbDCO8a8jjuJesKZ8y3.

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Frances Sussmilch UTAS,  Prof. Uli Mathesius ANU, and Sabrina Davies UWA, among many in the “Meet a Plant Scientist” video series.

 

 

 

In South Australia, Dr Megan Shelden, Dr Beth Loveys and Dr Georgia Koerber organised a very successful face-to-face event on 22nd August at the Waite Campus, University of Adelaide, with a series of engaging talks and tours explaining the pivotal role plant scientists and agriculturalists play in feeding and clothing us all. This included talks by Megan, Prof. Martin Cole, Prof. Rachel Burton, and PhD candidate Ali Gill, with Sciren running sessions for people to extract DNA from strawberries and make terrariums, and tours of the Waite Arboretum, Plant Accelerator, and TERN Plant and Soil Library.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prof. Martin Cole talking about Food Security and Dr. Megan Shelden explaining why cereal crops are important.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prof. Rachel Burton and Dr. Beth Loveys showing people in Adelaide how long their digestive systems are and Ali Gill explaining why hemp is special.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stalls for University of Adelaide’s School of Agriculture, Food and Wine and TERN, Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network, University of Adelaide’s Postgraduates Association at the Waite, the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility and the STEM academy.

In Victoria, Dr. Kim Johnson and Dr. Janet Wheeler shifted events online. They ran an interactive session called “Project Feed 10 billion” with 80 Virtual Schools Victoria, year 8-9 students and 10 teachers on 19th August. The session covered the challenges of feeding the future population with sustainable nutritious foods. Kim and Janet also ran a demonstration to 45 students and 5 teachers from Reservoir Views Primary School where they showed a healthy and less healthy meal going through the digestive system.

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Kim Johnson with “Project Feed 10 billion” from La Trobe University and survey results from interactive session with 80 Virtual Schools Victoria, year 8-9 students.

 

 

In Sydney, Dr. Claudia Keitel, in collaboration with the University of Sydney’s Plant Science and Agriculture academics, staff from the Sydney Institute of Agriculture (SIA) and the University’s Outreach Team, organised a series of talks and interactive activities online on the 20th August, with around 200 participants from 22 schools joining on the day. Talks from Prof. Brent Kaiser, Prof. Daniel Tan, Assoc. Prof. Brian Jones, Prof. Robert Park and Dr. Floris van Ogtrop focused on topics such as future opportunities for products and businesses based on plant protein, the future of cotton production, CRISPR as a 21st century breeding tool, genetic approaches to control plant diseases, and urban agriculture. The activities gave attendees the opportunity to learn how plants grow to produce vegetables we eat, how genetics and environmental conditions influence plant traits, how to fingerprint wheat chromosomes and identify chromosomal fragments introduced from wild relatives with Assoc. Prof. Mary Byrne, Assoc. Prof. Marcus Heisler, Dr. Claudia Keitel, Assoc. Prof. Rosanne Quinnell and Dr. Peng Zhang. You can find more information about this event here: https://www.sydney.edu.au/science/news-and-events/events/future-plants-for-food-security.html.

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Claudia Keitel, addressing 206 participants from 22 schools, in Sydney and Prof. Daniel Tan giving a talk about the future of cotton production.

 

Prof. Brent Kaiser talking about the power of plant protein.

 

 

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) offered a virtual tour of the biology labs – you can check them out here: https://cdn.qut.edu.au/media/qut-science-experience-anz/ and https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=cEBNvWzjjw7.

Researchers from other universities and states recorded videos of talks and lab tours for our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4-hDpe7OR3kwpMxy4ES6ng). The ACT was represented with fantastic talks from CSIRO and ANU researchers including our President Dr. Peter Ryan, Jess Hyles, Dr. TJ Higgins AO, Dr. Di He, Prof. Uli Mathesius and Dr. Ricky Milne, and Ryan Ruddick from Geoscience Australia (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCjVjret6uSh67u7d2U2B1mGRFARal9mt).

The Byrt Lab at ANU walked us through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation using the floral dip method (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj0iM3zi6_E&list=PLCjVjret6uSg1pLNehyuIm01NTuIQH7PM). Early career researchers at Southern Cross University, including Dr. Jay Anderson, Master of Science candidate Janelle Schafer, and Dr Priyakshee Borpatra Gohain, each gave great talks about their research (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCjVjret6uSjLV-oQh-iMEwaixzbn1zLm).

Prof. Ros Gleadow from Monash University talked about her research on how plants including sorghum and cassava make cyanide (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6egOt1qNo58&list=PLCjVjret6uSgZYVZ_DhQ8KZq8Vh5NIC9e).

Prof. Tim Brodribb from University of Tasmania showed us why leaves die during drought stress with a video depicting what happens during this process (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M-sZETVoQ8&list=PLCjVjret6uShxXJbRyx1HIJZbEtyS8tK-).

ASPS President Dr. Peter Ryan in the introduction for the ASPS Science Week 2021 YouTube channel.

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Priyakshee Borpatra Gohain’s talk, within a series from ECRs at Southern Cross University and Prof. Tim Brodribb from UTAS explaining why leaves die during drought.

Members of the Byrt Lab at ANU demonstrating floral dipping for Agrobacterium-mediated transformation.

We will keep the ASPS Science Week 2021 YouTube channel up, so you still have the opportunity to check out any videos you missed.

 

 

 

Registration is now open for our 2021 ASPS hybrid conference on the 25th of November.

 

Hello ASPS members,

The latest  Phytogen is available HERE!

• National Science Week in coming up. See what ASPS has on offer.
• Raise your national profile by submitting a 30 sec video

The latest GPC e-bulletin is available HERE!

 

Welcome to Phytogen for July 2021. Our thoughts are with all of you as COVID-19 is still quite a challenge. On a positive note, the Olympics will be underway tonight with the opening ceremony and for the next couple of weeks, athletes will be striving to be the best in the World.

Next month, several events will be happening for National Science Week from the 14th-22nd August 2021. To reiterate Peter Ryan’s email: Sydney, some regional areas in NSW and possibly Melbourne and Adelaide will be in lockdown during Science Week. We now encourage all speakers to record their talks and maybe even do virtual tours of the labs etc. Please send all files to this email address prior to Science Week: ausplantsci@gmail.com. They will be curated into groups and themes and placed on a YouTube site that has been prepared for everyone to access.

This weekend, while watching the olympics, take a break and record your 30 second video that will be compiled with others into a promotional video for all our events. In your 30 second video please tell us

(1) your name,

(2) your institution,

(3) the piece of plant science research that you are most proud of and

(4) the most pressing plant science research question you want to resolve in the future.

We need your 30 second video files by 25^th July.

Instructions for the 30 sec videos (PowerPoint recording is another option):

–  Log into Zoom and create a new meeting.

–  Select ‘record’. Record yourself (as if in a meeting) explaining the four items above.

–  Then stop the recording and stop the meeting (the file should be on your computer).

–  Open the file location and make sure it is 30 seconds or less. Check the size and clarity – 30 sec video files should be <4 MB so they are easy to email.

–  NB: Zoom allows you to chose a background image relevant to your work (your favorite plant, field site, lab equipment, figure file) – this will make your content more engaging.  Email your video files to ausplantsci@gmail.com  (if it is too large try sending it to Peter.Ryan@csiro.au). Thank you!

– Contact Caitlin Byrt for assistance (Caitlin.Byrt@anu.edu.au)

We are hopeful for in person events and ASPS now has a website to direct people for booking tickets. Click here. Organisers, remember to send details of your events to Janet (Janet.Wheeler@latrobe.edu.au) as they come together.

The theme for all the events we are organising is: “Plant Science Safeguarding Our Future Food Security: By the middle of the century there will be almost 10 billion people on Earth – an awful lot of mouths to feed, especially when a warming climate makes agriculture more challenging. Scientists may save the day by helping crop species adapt and thrive as growing conditions change.

The Australian Society of Plant Scientists is organising visits to laboratories and field sites across the country. Through talks, displays and demonstrations they give rare insight into the challenges faced by farmers, and how food scientists are working to help.”

In the coming weeks, look out for ASPS events posted to the “Find an Event” page on the National Science Week webpage, and also posted to ASPS’s twitter account (@asps_ozplants), which hopefully you are all following. Please be part of the action and post your events too.

Events

registration details for our hybrid meeting in 2021 soon………

Please login and check your ASPS membership is up to date. Encourage your colleagues and students to join ASPS. Go to: https://www.asps.org.au/members/join

Tweet to @asps_ozplants your news and upcoming events.

 

Dear ASPS Members,

June Phytogen can be accessed HERE.

GPC May e-bulletin can be accessed HERE.

Our Society is organising activities during Science Week (14-22 August) to highlight Australian plant science. The theme of our activities is around “Plant Science Safeguarding our Future Food Security”. A series of short, fun and engaging talks and tours will be organised around the country to explain the pivotal role plant scientists and agriculturists play in feeding and clothing us all. We will present some of our research and explain how it will help meet the challenges posed by a growing world population and a changing climate. We’ll emphasise the diversity of plant science. The fact that some of us wear lab coats and rarely grow a plant in soil, while others conduct field trials or predict yields by satellite. The aim of these sessions is to explain what we do, to highlight its importance to society and hopefully to inspire more young people to consider plant science as an exciting career.

 

The purpose of this email is two-fold:

1. to prompt members from universities not listed below to consider organising an event. Contact me for details if you’re tempted.
2. to encourage ASPS members to contact the Science Week coordinators at their own university (below) and offer your assistance. Helpers and speakers do not need to be ASPS members.

 

Contact me if you have questions. Thanks, Peter Ryan

 

Once you have your National Science Week event organised please email Phytogen editor Georgia Koerber  (georgia.koerber@adelaide.edu.au) with a link to your event, a picture and dates  for inclusion in the July issue of Phytogen. June Phytogen can be accessed HERE.

 

Queensland University of Technology – Brett Williams

University of Newcastle – Joseph Pegler (hopefully)

University of Sydney (separate events at the Camperdown and Camden campuses) – Mary Byrne, Brent Kaiser, Robert Park, Marcus Heisler, Claudia Keitel

Australian National University/CSIRO Agriculture and Food – Peter Ryan, Caitlin Byrt, Uli Mathesius

La Trobe University – Kim Johnson, Janet Wheeler

University of Melbourne – Mike Haydon, Michelle Watt

Monash University – Ros Gleadow

University of Adelaide – Megan Sheldon, Beth Loveys, Georgia Koerber, Steve Tyerman, Rachel Burton

Flinders University – Kathy Soole

 

 

 

____________________________________

Dr Peter R Ryan

President, Australian Society of Plant Scientists

Honorary Fellow, CSIRO Agriculture and Food

PO Box 1700

Canberra ACT 2601, Australia

 

Email: Peter.Ryan@csiro.au

Mob: 0468671565

Welcome to Phytogen for June 2021. Plans are well underway for a National ASPS Hybrid meeting on Thursday and Friday 25th and 26th November 2021. More details soon. Meanwhile, in this issue:

• Report from 2020 Jan Anderson Award joint recipient, Dr Kristine Crous, Western Sydney University.

• National ScienceWeek 2021 – 14th-22nd August

• Events

 

 

 

In 2020, we had joint recipients for the Jan Anderson Award. I hope you will enjoy reading about the wonderful work by Kristine Crous from Western Sydney University.

2020 Jan Anderson Award joint recipient – Dr. Kristine Crous, Western Sydney University.

Fig.1: Kristine in tropical rainforest in Australia.

Globally, the average temperature has increased by about 1°C since the Industrial revolution, and Australia has experienced a sustained period of warmer climate over the past 10 years including several of the hottest summers on record. While Australia is one of the drier continents in the world, there is also a lot of biodiversity with a unique set of plant and animal species. We all depend on plant species and their ecosystem services in several ways (i.e. food, clean air, ecotourism) but it is still unclear to what extent these services will change in a future warmer world. Understanding how plant function adjusts to these warmer conditions, in part caused by commensurate increases in atmospheric CO2 has been the focus of my research effort.

The Jan Anderson Award recognised the contributions that I made to understand plant responses to both elevated CO2 and climate warming, insights that contributed to several global datasets (Atkin et al., 2015; Kumarathunge et al., 2019; Smith et al., 2019) and to improve climate feedbacks represented in models (De Kauwe et al., 2013; Jiang et al., 2020).

I have conducted several experiments on Eucalyptus species to understand their physiological responses of photosynthesis (Crous et al. 2013) and respiration to climate warming (Crous et al. 2011, 2017). In an experiment using temperate and tropical provenances of two broadly distributed Eucalyptus species, I discovered that photosynthesis operates closer to the temperature optimum in tropical provenances than temperate provenances (Crous et al. 2018).

Given that there are large uncertainty regarding the temperature responses of rainforest species, I have measured the temperature response curves of photosynthesis and respiration in tropical and temperate rainforests to understand how close they are operating to their thermal optimum and how vulnerable these species are to further climate warming, as part of a DECRA award (Fig. 1).

Not only are Australian rainforests biodiverse, they have a direct link to the past, as many rainforest species have a Gondwanan lineage. So while these rainforests have seen some climate change in the past, the question is how will they cope with future climate warming?

To explore future climate conditions, my work has involved experimental set-ups such as the whole-tree chamber experiment (Fig. 2) or the Eucalyptus free-air CO2 enrichment experiments (EucFACE) (Fig. 3, 4), where elevated atmospheric CO2 or atmospheric warming treatments can be applied on large trees. Because trees have long lifespans, their ability to acclimate will likely be an important factor in determining their future.

Fig. 2: The whole-tree chamber experiment at Western Sydney University in Richmond after completing diurnal measurements (left) and measurements on saplings outside the chambers (right).

Fig. 3. Getting ready to do measurements in the Eucalyptus canopy at the EucFACE experiment at Western Sydney University (above) and measuring photosynthesis (right).

 

Fig. 4. EucFACE, two out of the six plots, view from above.

These large-scale experiments enable many collaborations examining different parts of an ecosystem in an attempt to understand the bigger picture including feedbacks of nutrients on the carbon cycle. While we are developing some understanding on how plants adjust to warmer temperatures, there are still many questions that are unclear, especially around temperature limits and plasticity among different plant species. Most models currently do no account for thermal acclimation of respiration and/or photosynthesis, with the risk of overestimating future responses of carbon uptake.

Recently, I have been elected as a ASPS representative for NSW in the discipline of whole plants. I hope that we can continue to link plant responses from molecular to ecosystem scales back to the whole plant and what it means for its survival, function and growth. Changes in response to biotic and abiotic factors in a plant’s environment drive natural selection which is part of how plants adapt to new conditions.

References

Atkin, O.K., Bloomfield, K.J., Reich, P.B., Tjoelker, M.G., Asner, G.P., Bonal, D., et al. (2015). Global variability in leaf respiration in relation to climate, plant functional types and leaf traits. New Phytologist 206(2), 614-636. doi: 10.1111/nph.13253.

Crous, K.Y., Drake, J.E., Aspinwall, M.J., Sharwood, R.E., Tjoelker, M.G., and Ghannoum, O. (2018). Photosynthetic capacity and leaf nitrogen decline along a controlled climate gradient in provenances of two widely distributed Eucalyptus species. Global change biology 24:4626-4644. doi: 10.1111/gcb.14330.

Crous, K.Y., Quentin, A.G., Lin, Y.S., Medlyn, B.E., Williams, D.G., Barton, C.V.M., et al. (2013). Photosynthesis of temperate Eucalyptus globulus trees outside their native range has limited adjustment to elevated CO2 and climate warming. Global Change Biology 19(12), 3790-3807. doi: 10.1111/gcb.12314.

Crous, K.Y., Wallin, G., Atkin, O.K., Uddling, J., and af Ekenstam, A. (2017). Acclimation of light and dark respiration to experimental and seasonal warming are mediated by changes in leaf nitrogen in Eucalyptus globulus. Tree Physiology 37(8), 1069-1083. doi: 10.1093/treephys/tpx052.

Crous, K.Y., Zaragoza-Castells, J., Loew, M., Ellsworth, D.S., Tissue, D.T., Tjoelker, M.G., et al. (2011). Seasonal acclimation of leaf respiration in Eucalyptus saligna trees: impacts of elevated atmospheric CO2 and summer drought. Global Change Biology 17(4), 1560-1576. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2010.02325.x.

De Kauwe, M.G., Medlyn, B.E., Zaehle, S., Walker, A.P., Dietze, M.C., Hickler, T., et al. (2013). Forest water use and water use efficiency at elevated CO2: a model-data intercomparison at two contrasting temperate forest FACE sites. Global Change Biology 19(6), 1759-1779. doi: 10.1111/gcb.12164.

Jiang, M., Medlyn, B.E., Drake, J.E., Duursma, R.A., Anderson, I.C., Barton, C.V.M., et al. (The fate of carbon in a mature forest under carbon dioxide enrichment). 2020. Nature accepted on Feb 5th 2020.

Kumarathunge, D.P., Medlyn, B.E., Drake, J.E., Tjoelker, M.G., Aspinwall, M.J., Battaglia, M., et al. (2019). Acclimation and adaptation components of the temperature dependence of plant photosynthesis at the global scale. New Phytologist 222(2), 768-784. doi: 10.1111/nph.15668.

Smith, N.G., Keenan, T.F., Colin Prentice, I., Wang, H., Wright, I.J., Niinemets, U., et al. (2019). Global photosynthetic capacity is optimized to the environment. Ecology Letters 22(3), 506-517. doi: 10.1111/ele.13210.

 

National Science Week 2021

Many events (August 14th-22nd 2021) are happening nationally and the ASPS is part of the action.

The theme for all the events we are organising is: “Plant Science Safeguarding Our Future Food Security: By the middle of the century there will be almost 10 billion people on Earth – an awful lot of mouths to feed, especially when a warming climate makes agriculture more challenging. Scientists may save the day by helping crop species adapt and thrive as growing conditions change.

The Australian Society of Plant Scientists is organising visits to laboratories and field sites across the country. Through talks, displays and demonstrations they give rare insight into the challenges faced by farmers, and how food scientists are working to help.”

In coming weeks, look out for events posted to the “Find an Event” page on the National Science Week webpage, and also posted to ASPS’s twitter account (@asps_ozplants), which hopefully you are all following. Please be part of the action and post your events too.

Tweet to @asps_ozplants
July Phytogen will aim to provide a list of the ASPS events happening during August 2021.

 

 

Events

details soon………

Please login and check your ASPS membership is up to date. Encourage your colleagues and students to join ASPS.

Tweet to @asps_ozplants your news and upcoming events.

Hello ASPS members.

The April edition of Phytogen is out now and can be accessed HERE.

Hello ASPS members.

The April edition of Phytogen is out now and can be accessed HERE.

Welcome to Phytogen for April 2021,

Presidents note.  Phytogen April/May 2021

One of my priorities as President of ASPS is to address the falling enrolments at schools and universities in plant science and agriculture-related subjects. This trend is especially alarming considering the unprecedented challenges looming as we endeavour to feed and clothe an extra two billion people by the middle of the century.

This task is already difficult but several additional constraints make it even more daunting. This leap in production needs to occur rapidly, sustainably, in a changing climate and while most countries attempt to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to zero. Furthermore, the burgeoning middles classes in Asia, Africa and South America will demand more animal-based foods which are resource-intensive and inherently less efficient at generating calories. Perhaps most sobering of all, the area of land that we can use to grow these crops and the farm animals cannot increase. It is essential that the remaining natural forests, woodlands and coastal ecosystems are conserved to maintain habitats, protect biodiversity and sustain planetary cycles.

Therefore, the sustainable intensification of current production systems is the only alternative. Plant scientists will clearly play a pivotal role. Hence, it is imperative that we encourage more bright and enthusiastic students to choose plant science as a career.

To this end, ASPS applied for funding from the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources to highlight plant science during Science Week (14-22 August 2021). We were successful and now the planning begins.

The basic idea is that ASPS members around Australia will coordinate visits by the public to their universities and research institutes. There will be introductory presentations to explain the challenges of the future, highlight the excellence of Australian science in these areas and explain how it’s contributing to food security in a changing climate. The introduction will be followed by shorter presentations from younger scientists and research students from a range of topics. The topics will vary from institution to institution depending on the expertise of the scientists but examples will be presented of very applied projects as well as more fundamental research areas. In all cases the talks will be relevant, engaging and place the science into a real-life context that all can understand. An open discussion and question time will hopefully be followed by some simple activities or “show and tells”, or even tours through laboratories and other facilities.

In the end, we hope to emphasise that plant science involves a range of topics and skills. We are not all men, not all in lab coats, not (all) quirky and, surprisingly, not even all biologists. We want to impress how critical plant science is to the future and to inspire young adults to get on board. This is something we can all agree on.

A core group of ASPS members from about 12 universities from around the country have already put up their hands to coordinate this event. We will soon distribute their names to you all. After another meeting or two they will be looking for helpers. I encourage you all to contribute where you can to this important activity.

Dr Peter Ryan (President, Australian Society of Plant Scientists)

 

For your calendars: Science week is 14th – 22nd August 2021. Follow this link to read about ASPS’s event under the ACT plus many others too.

Science Meets Parliament 2021

Diana Ramirez Garces, Australian National University

During March, I attended Science Meets Parliament (SmP).   I am happy I did, and I am thankful for ASPS support. This year, except for the gala dinner and the speech of the Chief Scientist Dr. Cathy Foley at the National Press Conference, the event was online.  Although this format imposed some challenges, it permitted to extend the program with workshops prior and after the main two-day event. All sessions were recorded and accessible on demand, which made easier to accommodate the SmP in a busy schedule. In addition, networking and meeting of delegates was facilitated by implementing an ‘open zoom bar’ setting on different days.  I particularly enjoyed the pre-workshops ‘Understanding Machinery of Government’ and ‘How to Marie Kondo’ your writing’. During the session ‘How to engage with advisors’, Anna-Maria Arabia (The Australian Academy of Science CEO) and Harry Godber (a policy advisor of senior ministers) provided interesting insights into the advisory role and this motivated me to seriously consider a career change. Most sessions were organised as conversations and the speakers integrated discussions and questions from the audience. One of the highlights of SmP is the meeting of delegates with a Parliamentary. But no panic! To help you prepare the meeting, the organisers devoted an entire session to deliver key points to build your pitch, to rehearse it and get professional feedback. I participated in SmP because, over the past years, I became more appreciative of the role of policy makers and the impact of evidence-based decisions in our daily lives. The Covid-19 pandemic changed transcendentally my awareness towards science policy and made me reflect on my role as scientist.  I wanted, therefore, to begin to understand policy processes and how science peak bodies and other organisations articulate with public service and Parliamentary activities. The event promised to be an excellent opportunity to picture the Australian science landscape, its leading voices, and institutions. I also hoped SmP woud be a good place to start exploring the idea of a career transition. The program met all these expectations. But you don’t need to wait to have a plethora of reasons to attend nor any prior knowledge. I had a wonderful experience and I highly encourage you to participate. If you are slightly curious about SmP, like I was a few years back when I first heard about it, then you must attend.   All you need is a desire to get inspired by incredible people!

Photo: ‘New to Canberra’ session where experts explained how media, public service and advocacy groups engage to influence policy priorities. Top left panel: Misha Schubert (CEO, Science and Technology Australia); top right panel: Feyi Akindoyeni (Partner and Office Head, New Gate Communications); lower left panel: Rachel Obradovic (Director CT Group); lower right panel: David Fredericks (Secretary Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources).

Joseph Pegler, The University of Newcastle

In my opinion, an inherent quality of a scientist is the desire to leave things better than when they found them. Regardless of the field of research, pushing the envelope of knowledge forward not only satisfies one’s curiosity for answers but drives society towards addressing the issues faced by current and future generations.

As the issues we face globally require cross-discipline and cross-sector collaboration, I felt privileged to be selected as one of the ASPS delegates for Science meets Parliament 2021. Traditionally run as a two-day event hosted annually in Canberra, this year’s event was alternatively hosted online because of COVID-19. While the format had been modified, the concept of facilitating the interaction of STEM professionals and politicians remained unhindered. The benefit of the virtual attendance format resulted in sessions to be run from mid-March until its conclusion on the 31^st of March. I found the sessions to be extremely beneficial, with the virtual sessions largely centred around expert panels providing their wealth of knowledge on all things policy, networking, media engagement, effective communication and the importance of cross-sector collaboration particularly strengthening the ties between STEM professionals, politicians and political staffers.

Focusing on the content of the two main days and while there were many more highlights, I will touch on three. When attending a session on ‘How to be a great ambassador for the STEM sector’, it comes as no surprise Corey Tutt, founder and CEO of Deadly Science, was an ideal panellist. It was great to hear from Corey who highlighted the importance and the role we all have in ensuring inclusivity in science. Given the nature of this event I was eager to hear from Nobel Laureate and ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Brian Schmidt on ‘Preparing to meet a parliamentarian’, and as expected his insight into effective science communication was extremely valuable. The final highlight I will touch on was from Dr. Sarah Pearce, Deputy Chief of CSIRO, who highlighted the importance of diversifying one’s skillset and embracing opportunities.

While the nature of sitting weeks for Federal Parliament resulted in the unfortunate termination of the meeting with my selected Federal Member of Parliament, this by no means dampened what I considered to be a tremendously beneficial and informing experience.

I would again like to thank ASPS for the opportunity and strongly encourage others to participate in future years as this is an ideal opportunity to learn from and network with a diverse number of STEM and policy experts.

Hank Greenway – an inspiring life (1926-2021)

Hank Greenway had an enduring influence on plant science in Australia and made a profound contribution to the global understanding of plant stress biology. Hank passed away in Perth in February 2021 and we celebrate here his remarkable career, particularly in research on salinity and waterlogging tolerance, and his dedication to teaching.

Hank was a founding member of the Australian Society of Plant Physiologists and was present at their first AGM in 1958. He contributed to our society of plant scientists well into his ‘retirement’ and was awarded Life Membership by the Australian Society of Plant Scientists.

Hank Greenway was born Hendrick Groenewegen in Rotterdam in 1926, bearing the guttural dialect that distinguishes that industrial port city throughout his life. His teenage years were marked by the Second World War and, with the German invasion, he de-camped to become a farm worker in the country’s north where he developed what became a lifelong fascination with agriculture and plant survival. The Netherlands has over the centuries been reclaimed from the North Sea, with the agricultural impacts of the twin perils of salinity and flooding annealed into the national psyche, and into Hank’s teenage curiosity. After the war, Hank served time in the Dutch Army in Indonesia during the independence struggle. It was in Kalimantan that he developed his interest in rice, the pre-eminent crop of South-East Asia. Years later, he would refer to the inspiration he took from the seminal work of MH van Raalte at the Bogor Botanical Gardens, demonstrating that rice roots oxygenated their tissues through internal air spaces.

On returning to The Netherlands, he studied agriculture at the Wageningen Agricultural University and graduated in 1951. He then emigrated to Australia where he first worked as a soil scientist in South Australia and, after 1952, at CSIRO Irrigation Station in Griffith NSW. Field work in the Riverina soon revealed that salt was a major impediment to crop performance and piqued his interest in the mechanisms by which salt damaged crops such as grapes while saltbush and other halophytes withstood its effects. With these observations from the field, his curiosity to discover mechanisms drew him to a PhD candidature at the University of Adelaide in 1962 under the supervision of the venerable Professor Rutherford (Bob) Robertson, a world expert in membrane transport in plants. Bob Robertson remained a great mentor for Hank, who quoted him frequently throughout his career: one notable example was Hank quoting to students Robertson’s exhortation that ‘if you are told you have ten minutes to give a talk on your work, stop after ten minutes!’. Robertson was also prescient in encouraging collaboration in research, something Hank pursued for decades to follow and of course nowadays, an essential aspect of any researcher’s success. To commemorate Bob Robertson who died in 2001, Hank instigated the ASPS RN Robertson Travelling Fellowship for early career researchers, keeping alive the principles of intellectual curiosity that Bob Robertson espoused.

While a PhD student in Adelaide, Hank added vital information to the regulation of salt tolerance in higher plants, revealing the importance of tissue level and whole-plant perspectives. Rigorous measurements of rates of ion transport showed that sodium transport was tightly controlled in barley and that ion exclusion was an important aspect of salt tolerance. Reproductive organs in particular were ‘protected’ from some of the absorbed sodium and chloride. He also demonstrated the importance of potassium:sodium ratios in salinity responses, a theme that would return many times in his later research career.

Hank returned to CSIRO in Griffith, now directing his interests to ion transport in halophytes, particularly Old Man Saltbush (Atriplex nummularia). The puzzle of how salt could enter halophytes in such large quantities without impairing function, and even accelerate growth when at low salt levels, intrigued him. From 1966, the first of a series of papers appeared on the topic, followed by a publication with Barry Osmond in 1972 showing that the enzymes of halophytes were not especially tolerant to salt. Further publications in the 1980s on the role of solutes and osmotic relations in halophytic plants have paved the way for many contemporary publications revealing molecular aspects of tolerance to very high salt loads.

In 1967, Hank took up an academic position in the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Western Australia, where he set about a tremendously productive research program on the effects of salt on plants, complementing this with growing contributions to waterlogging tolerance, largely based on tolerance mechanisms known from rice. He was always so well aware of the fact that these stresses were widely represented in the agricultural regions of Western Australia, particularly the WA ‘wheatbelt’ with its extensive subsoil salinity exacerbated by tree clearing over this period, thanks to the inevitable waterlogging of valleys. To his students’ amusement, many coming from farms, Hank’s Dutch sensibilities prevented him from entering these remote parts of the state, too far from the ocean.

Legions of Honours and PhD students, research fellows and visiting scientists came through the group over the next 25 years. One key to this period was the arrival of Tim Setter, an itinerant American who drifted into Perth and worked alongside Hank first as research assistant then PhD student and for many years as Research Fellow. Hank was his supporter and mentor, but these roles were reversed in later life.

Hank’s research on salt tolerance took many directions: ‘physiological health’ was always at the forefront of his experimental thinking, and the distinction between growing tissues and non-growing tissues occupied much of the planning phase of experiments. He showed that changes in respiration and sugar metabolism were the result of reductions in growth caused by salinity-induced water deficits, and not its cause.

Hank’s research focussed increasingly on cell-level processes and in vitro studies, with the sensitivity of enzymes from halophytes to salt highlighting the importance of vacuolar compartmentation to keep the salt concentrations in the cytosol below toxic levels. He realised that the unicellular freshwater alga, Chlorella emersonii, would make an ideal model for deeper understanding of osmotic regulation in salty media. Using a glucose analogue that could not be catabolised, he demonstrated that sucrose and proline played a role in turgor/volume maintenance. Furthermore, he used these algal cells to draw analogies with meristematic cells and how such non-vacuolated cells ‘manage’ salts and minimise metabolic damage. He calculated the energy costs involved in using organic solutes versus Na⁺ and Cl^– in expanding cells and also in fully expanded and vacuolated cells. These ideas were presented in a series of highly cited reviews including the Annual Review of Plant Physiology (1980) with his (then) young research colleague Rana Munns.

During the 1970s, Hank’s fascination with Asia and rice from much earlier times found its way into his second great research interest – oxygen deficits and flood tolerance – principally examined using rice as a model species but later extending to dryland cereals. These topics occupied his attention until his official retirement in 1992 and for decades longer post-retirement. Laboratory studies supported by research assistants, students and post-docs contributed to spectacular advances in the effects of oxygen deficits on tissues. Roots and coleoptiles were the prime targets of course because they had obviously evolved tolerance to hypoxia and in the case of rice coleoptiles, were virtually unique for being able to grow in anoxia. Major research findings on anaerobic metabolism came from the PhD studies of Brian Atwell followed by Susan Morrell’s work on the regulation of pyruvate decarboxylase in anoxia-tolerant rice coleoptiles, revealing an exquisitely adapted organism for growth underwater. Tim Colmer and Irene Waters also contributed to this work, which challenged the popular view that the ethanol synthesised by alcoholic fermentation was relatively toxic, instead showing that these highly anoxia-tolerant coleoptiles were vigorous producers of ethanol! Paradoxically though, he speculated that survival in the absence of oxygen was improved by down-regulating ethanol production, conserving carbohydrates for more critical uses. This curiosity about plants surviving in challenging environments led him to collaborate with his old friend Professor Bill Armstrong from England, whose expertise in the biophysics of oxygen diffusion allowed Hank to link evidence for anoxic deficits in the stele of maize roots with the induction of anaerobic metabolism and inhibition of ion delivery to the xylem.

In the early 2000s, Hank’s interests turned strongly to the implications of low oxygen supply on intracellular pH regulation and energetics, publishing two seminal reviews in Functional Plant Biology with Jane Gibbs and then a series of publications with a new generation of PhD students and early-career researchers on the transport and retention of ions in excised rice tissues. Never to rest with familiar technologies, he teamed with chemists using ³¹P-NMR to investigate sub-cellular pH regulation through arrest of ion transport and biochemical pH stats in anoxic tissues. These questions culminated in his last major reviews, focussing on anaerobic events as ‘crises’ in cell energetics and the role that pyrophosphate plays in mitigating the effects of an energy crisis in higher plants. His mentoring of students and his collaborations with younger colleagues and visiting scientists from Asia continued throughout his ‘retirement’.

Hank Greenway with Hirokazu Takahashi (right, Nagoya University) and Tim Colmer (left, UWA) in 2010. Hank enjoyed long-standing international collaborations as well as supporting emerging researchers.

Hank’s research output was prodigious – he published 150 papers which attracted over 7,000 citations (Web of Science). The last paper was written when he was 93. This could lead to a conclusion that teaching was a secondary priority but nothing could be further from the truth. Always enthusiastic and energised about the beauty of how plants functioned, he inspired generations of undergraduate and postgraduate students with methodologies that were at the time considered rather ‘left field’. Readings were following by problem solving in student groups, with students themselves considered by Hank as central to the teaching as to the learning process. This problem-based approach to learning was almost revolutionary in the 1970s but is now coming into vogue as educationalists review the efficacy of the past structured teaching model of lectures, practicals and set-piece assignments. In the 1970s, he had students digging shallow ponds and planting cereals for later analysis of fermentative enzyme activities – not something they ever thought they had signed up to! This approach to learning was celebrated in the 2020 ASPS Teaching Award for Hank’s own account of his methods in teaching. Here is a link to an inspirational video by his colleagues: link. The feature Essay 3.1 – Using thought experiments to strengthen critical thinking at universities is laid out in fine detail in the society’s textbook ‘Plants in Action’: link.

Apart from his many domestic Honours, Masters and PhD students, Hank threw himself into research and teaching in SE Asia, running an ACIAR project with Tim Setter and subsequently Crawford Fund training courses in Thailand and Vietnam with his colleagues, including Mike Jackson, Tim Colmer and Tim Setter. Hank’s nurturing and patience with these students was always apparent — their expectations of protocols, instructions and professorial authority were always met with a very unexpected experience of alternative interpretations and coaxing towards explanations to explain the findings, with every conclusion only likely to survive until the next experiment. These field studies in Asia answered vital practical questions, especially the demonstration that complete submergence of rice after sudden rainfall led to carbohydrate starvation and thus, the importance of underwater sheath elongation for survival.

A research team led by Hank Greenway screening deep water rice in the field in Ayutthaya, Thailand (photo courtesy Tim Setter, 1985).

Hank leaves a towering legacy in science, with publications that will endure by their insights and the foundations they have laid for understanding abiotic stresses in plants. He also leaves a generation of proteges who continue his enthusiasm for discovery, and it would doubtless delight him to see the many new ways that his seminal discoveries and theoretical insights can be built upon with new technologies. And finally, we say farewell to a humanist whose love of his wife Tricia and family, the Indian Ocean and his large scientific community leaves us all much better for having known him.

Brian Atwell and many others

Please keep your ASPS membership up to date and encourage your colleagues and students to join ASPS.

Tweet to @asps_ozplants your news and upcoming events.

Plus… save the date for Thursday and Friday 25th and 26th November 2021 for our ASPS hybrid conference. Details soon.

Welcome to Phytogen for March 2021.

On the Wednesday 17th March 2021, Australia’s chief scientist Dr Cathy Foley spoke at the National Press Club. If you haven’t watched this yet, I hope you can find time this weekend or over the Easter break.  You can watch on:

The title of the talk was “What next for science and research in Australia?”

 

Here is an article by the ASPS Environmental and Ecophysiology: Global Change Representative Dr Georgia Koerber from the University of Adelaide. email: georgia.koerber@adelaide.edu.au

Last year, I decided to upskill. I have always been alright at statistics therefore I went for an online Masters in Data Science. This nice article by open universities describes up-skilling well. At the beginning of 2021, many universities are having increased demand for postgraduate courses such as 6 to 12 month certificates and masters offered online. There were government initiatives too for subsidised university courses so that we could upskill while working from our homes last year.

Even though, I don’t think I had many more hours, I did feel niggling to attempt to get ahead of the curve as described in this Conversation article: What should we do with 1 billion hours of time? Australian’s COVID-19 opportunity.

Below are slides from my presentation (online of course :)) of my python project. I had taken photos of the tree canopies from 2013 to 2019 and calculated the leaf area index (LAI). I aimed to explore if LAI related to normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI), enhanced vegetation index (EVI) calculated from satellite data I downloaded, and how much carbon dioxide the mallee forest was storing as carbon, the net ecosystem production (NEP) recorded by the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) Calperum tower during the same time period. In the future, and probably not too much distant into the future; it will be much more powerful to monitor how forest canopies are tracking with NEP than having to carry out laborious field measurements and calculations of leaf area index. Later this year will be my next subject in python and I look forward to adding in data from other sites around Australia and maybe even sites from other countries.

Having a look online, there are also plenty of great opportunities to upskill in plant science, such as those written about in this article: Agriculture degrees are having their moment in the sun. The FAO is concerned about food demand in the future, which means those in the agriculture sector have a pivotal role to play in the production of food (FAO, 2017).

Reference: FAO. 2017. The future of food and agriculture – Trends and challenges. Rome. http://www.fao.org/3/i6583e/i6583e.pdf

Events

This weekend is Earth Hour.

 

Science week is 14th – 22nd August 2021. ASPS have been awarded funding to run events. 

Please also remember to encourage your colleagues and students to apply for ASPS society awards:

ASPS Education and Outreach Award

Applications for the ASPS Education and Outreach Award should be lodged with the Honorary Secretary, ASPS Inc. secretary@asps.org.au Applications for the 2021 ASPS Education and Outreach Award are now open. The closing date for the 2021 award is April 16th 2021.

RN Robertson Travelling Fellowship

Up to $4000 is available to award in 2021 to support domestic or international travel for an early career researcher to undertake a research visit outside their host institution. More than one award can be made if the total requested funds are less than $4000.

Applications for the R.N. Robertson Travelling Fellowship should be forwarded in electronic form to the Hon Secretary of ASPS (secretary@asps.org.au). Applications for the 2021 Fellowship are now open. The closing date is 16th April 2021. To be eligible for this fellowship round some fraction of the planned work must take place in 2021.

Please also make sure your ASPS membership is up to date and encourage your colleagues and students to join ASPS. Remember to tweet to @asps_ozplants if you have news and have upcoming events.

Plus… save the date for Thursday and Friday 25th and 26th November 2021 for our ASPS hybrid conference. Details soon.

Hello ASPS members,

The latest edition of Phytogen is out now, access HERE.

The February edition of the Global Plant Council e-bulletin can be accessed HERE.

ASPS award nominations and applications are closing in a few weeks. Review these opportunities HERE.