Safeguarding Australia

Australian scientists, including a team at CSIRO, were first to identify a fungus as the cause of mass frog declines in Australia and Panama.

Thrips are often little known by most people, but some species are considered major agricultural pests.

‘Science and technology’ is the theme for a visit to the Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) this afternoon (Friday 13 October) by participants in the Leaders for Geelong program.

One of the world’s worst aquatic weeds, water hyacinth, has been controlled in many places around the world using biological control agents.

The introduced weed, Emex, which costs A$40 million a year in crop losses and production costs in Western Australia alone, has been the target of a biolgical control program.

This grouping of research papers relating to CSIRO bushfire research are available from several journals including the International Journal of Wildland Fire.

This article from Farming Ahead is an overview of host plant resistance, the natural ability of plants to resist attack from pests, in Australian grain crops. (2 pages)

Read the full terms and conditions for CSIRO's Australian Animal Health Laboratory's Quarantine and Import Testing Service. (2 pages)

Dr Sharon Downes will use her Australian Government Science and Innovation Award for Young People in Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry to investigate, through careful mating and DNA fingerprinting, whether female bollworms choose which of their sexual partners father their offspring.

In this video find out how CSIRO's Rust Resistance Team has discovered genes that determine whether a plant can develop immunity to the harmful rust fungus. (2:30)

Design for bushfire to be included as a normal part of designing in bushfire-prone areas is encouraged by this book. It will assist planning and building regulatory authorities to improve and administer regulatory requirements and guidelines.

CSIRO scientists have made a major breakthrough in better understanding how the deadly Hendra virus spreads from infected horses to other horses and humans.

Collaborative research involving scientists in Australia, China and the US concludes, in a paper published in Science, that bats are highly likely to be the natural host of the virus responsible for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

This 20-page technical report by CSIRO’s Dr Edward Campbell is about an application of Bayesian hierarchical modelling to a delayed action oscillator model for the El Niño-Southern Oscillation. The report assesses the model and examines the issues involved in forecasting.

Dr Kemal Kazan researches model and crop plants to analyse signalling processes regulating plant defence responses.

Australasia’s major annual livestock industries’ science conference – Horizons in Livestock Sciences – will be held in Christchurch, New Zealand, from 28-30 October.

This two page information sheet is about CSIRO's research into finding protection against a devastating insect that reduces yields in the important sub-Saharan African crop of cowpeas.

Dr Hazel Parry works in the Bioeconomics and Risk team developing novel simulations of pest population dynamics and migration under current and projected future environmental conditions. 

This 70-page CSIRO report assessed the potential value of land management practices that can sequester carbon or change emissions regimes on indigenous lands.

This document outlines details of a report on alert and sleeper weed species that were assessed for their change of potential distribution due to climate change in Australia.

This two-page information sheet outlines work being carried out by the Water for a Healthy Country Flagship to reduce the uncertainty of both water supply and demand in the face of climate change.

Read Issue 3 of the Breech Strike Genetics newsletter. It is intended to provide information to Merino breeders and wool growers about selective breeding for breech strike resistance. (5 pages)

CSIRO Entomology's gene research contributes to an understanding of the impact of insects on our environment and agriculture.

The Centre for Environment and Life Sciences draws together the capabilities of seven CSIRO research areas to provide solutions to environmental management problems and to improve the health of Australians.

In the search for effective, broad-spectrum resistance to aphids in a range of legume crops, CSIRO researchers are trying to isolate major aphid resistance genes and identify the key genes that are activated when the plant recognises an aphid attack.