Events and Seminars

Events, visits and seminars - bringing people and research together

events-seminars

Special Guest Visits
Research Seminar Series
Professional Masterclasses
2012 Launch
Past Seminar Topics

Special Guests At The Hawkesbury Institute

The Hawkesbury Institute sees regular visits and tours by high-profile people and organisations from right around the world. They come to find out more about the unique, groundbreaking work of the Institute and its people and facilities.

In the coming months, we are privileged to have visits by:

Major General Michael Jeffery (Thursday 22nd August) is the newly appointed Advocate for Soil Health. Major General Jeffery was formerly the Governor-General and now champions approaches to soil management that enhance soil and environmental health.
Guests from the Institute of Forestry Australia (IFA) are also scheduled to visit the Institute as part of their regular program of site visits (Wednesday 28th August).

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Research Seminar Series

The Institute runs a regular program of research seminars by our own researchers and special guests from Australian and international partners and collaborators.

These seminars provide an ideal environment for sharing research approaches and findings. Please join us in the L9 Lecture Theatre on ground floor from 3pm unless otherwise marked.

Upcoming seminars in this series are:

Monday, 12 August 4.00 pm - Dr Mark Hassall, University of East Anglia. "Perception and Reality: Harvesting Polar Bears in the Face of Climate Change"
Wednesday, 14 August - Dr Anya Salih , School of Science & Health UWS
Wednesday, 21 August - Prof Sharon Robinson, University of Wollongong
Wednesday, 28 August - Assoc. Prof. David Eldridge, UNSW
Wednesday, 4 September - Dr Martin de Luis, University of Zarazoga (Visiting Fellow, HIE)

Wednesday, 14 August 3.00 pm - Plant-coral host symbiosis: light modulation to optimize photosynthesis and reduce photostress at microcellular scales and during coral bleaching

Dr Anya Salih Diving for Coral

Dr Anya Salih, Confocal Bio-Imaging Facility & School of Science and Health, University Western Sydney

Coral tissues are strikingly patterned by a multitude of fluorescent proteins (FPs). I will describe my research into the photobiological function of FPs in light energy amplification, dissipation and regulation via morphological, cellular and molecular adaptations and their effects on photosynthetic efficiency.

Corals depend on sunlight for the photosynthesis of their intracellular microalgal symbionts and evolved to be highly efficient at capturing solar energy. Underwater solar intensities vary strongly by orders of magnitude and the lensing effect of waves can produce extremely powerful light flashes. Under conditions of too much light the photosynthetic activity of symbiotic microalgae leads to the build-up of oxidative stress, but when light is limited, corals are deprived of energy.

Coral bleaching, or the loss of the endosymbionts due to the build up of oxidative stress during periods of seawater warming, is an ecologically devastating global phenomenon occurring on coral reefs in response to climatic changes. Cellular and PSII damage was less severe in fluorescent coral phenotypes of the Great Barrier Reef and Lord Howe Island reefs following experimental and natural mass bleaching.

By forming dynamic photoregulating systems, FPs reduced photoinhibition and cellular damage from the stressful effects of elevated temperature, exacerbated by high light. Nature has produced a dazzling array of outstanding optical and molecular properties of FPs and a variety of photobiological functions that are only becoming apparent in the last decade. The evolutionary pressures that led to the origin of FPs in marine organisms can be explored in designing novel biophotonic and solar cell devises.

I will briefly describe several biomimetic applications of FPs based on their light tuning properties within the biophotonic system made up of the coral–algal symbiotic association.

Wednesday, 21 August - Detecting climate change impacts on Antarctic terrestrial communities

Prof Sharon Robinson, University of Wollongong

Antarctica has experienced major changes in temperature, wind speed and stratospheric ozone levels over the last 50 years. However until recently continental Antarctica appeared to be little impacted by climate warming, thus biological changes were predicted to be relatively slow.

Detecting the biological effects of Antarctic climate change has been hindered by the paucity of long-term data sets, particularly for organisms that have been exposed to these changes throughout their lives. We have shown that radiocarbon signals preserved along shoots of the dominant Antarctic moss flora can be used to determine accurate growth rates over a period of several decades, allowing us to explore the influence of environmental variables on growth and providing a dramatic demonstration of the effects of climate change.

This work has revealed evidence of a drying trend in several of the extensive moss beds in the Windmill Islands region of East Antarctica. Free water is critical for moss growth and the length of the summer growing season is predominantly influenced by the length of time that water is available (a function of both snow bank inputs and the extent and severity of seasonal melt).

Developing methodologies to monitor key environmental drivers such as water availability and moss health parameters as well as species composition across larger spatial scales is a key aim of our research. Long-term monitoring of vegetation communities along a moisture gradient at two sites in East Antarctica commenced in 2003 using three complementary sampling regimes; turf water content, digitally determined broad scale percent cover of vegetation and finer scale relative abundance of species, but these methodologies are labour intensive and limited to relatively small-scale plots.

Recently we have also incorporated the use of unmanned aerial vehicles and high spatial resolution imaging spectroscopy to develop efficient methodologies to monitor Antarctic vegetation health and composition at a larger scale. These technologies could be invaluable in the development of an Antarctic terrestrial observing network.

Scheduled and potential seminars can be obtained by contacting a member of the HIE Seminar Committee:

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Soils Masterclass - 13-14 August 2013

soil-masterclass Please join us on Tuesday 13 and Wednesday 14 August 2013 for a new Soil Biology Masterclass. In this masterclass, leading Institute researchers will show you the very latest in soil biology research and how correct management of the soil can optimise plant productivity and better manage soil nutrients, water and energy inputs.

Please note that this masterclass is by invite only. To request an invite to this or future classes, please email Dr Jasmine Grinyer on j.grinyer@uws.edu.au.

Download the flier(opens in a new window).

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Launch Of The Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment - April 2012

The University of Western Sydney's Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment was officially opened on 4 April 2012 by Senator Chris Evans, Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research.

The Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment's extensive facilities, in Richmond NSW, are dedicated to researching the impact of climate change on Australia's precious land resources - native forest ecosystems, managed forests and agricultural lands.

The Institute's research facilities were developed as a result of a $40 million grant from the Australian Government as part of its Education Investment Fund, together with funding from the University of Western Sydney.

Read more about the HIE launch and the research of the Institute in the UWS media release or check out the Launch Image Gallery.

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Past Seminars From 2013 and 2012

2013 Talks

Associate Professor Alison Specht, University of Queensland/TERN - "Promoting trans-organisational and trans-disciplinary thinking [in ecosystem science and management]"
Winthrop Professor Hans Lambers, University of Western Australia - "Extremely high efficiency of phosphorus acquisition and phosphorus use in Australian plants: can this knowledge be applied to cropping systems?"
Prof Feibo Wu, Institute of Crop Science, Zheijang University - "Heavy Metal Toxicity and Accumulation in Plants: A Case Study on Cadmium Tolerance in Barley"
Prof Jizhong Zhou, University of Oklahoma - ''Microbial Ecology in Genomics Era: Challenges and Opportunities'
Dr Alison Bennett, James Hutton Institute, Scotland - 'The influence of species and genetic level variation on the outcome of above-below ground interactions'
Dr John Drake, HIE - 'Combining ecosystem and physiological ecology to study the effects of climate change on forests'
Dr Lucas Cernusak, Future Fellow, ANU College of Medicine, Biology and Environment - 'Physiological responses of tropical forests to increasing [CO₂]: an overview of current knowledge and opportunities for future research'
Dr Teresa Gimeno, HIE - 'Impact of global change on water-limited forest ecosystems: a multi scalar approach'
Dr Steve Chapman, James Hutton Institute, Scotland - 'Lessons from a national soil survey'
A/Prof David Warton, School of Mathematics and Statistics and the Evolution & Ecology Research Centre, UNSW - 'Models, multivariate analysis and Rick Astley'
Prof Chris Dickman, The Institute of Wildlife Research, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney - 'Population and community dynamics of Australia’s small desert mammals'
Dr Michael G Ryan, Natural Resource Ecology Lab and the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology at Colorado State University - 'Mys-trees in Whole tree ecophysiology: Why all of our terrestrial carbon balance models are wrong and how to fix them'
Dr Annegret Kohler, INRA-France - 'Exploring the Genome Diversity of Mycorrhizal Fungi to Understand the Evolution and Functioning of Symbiosis'
Dr Benjamin A Sikes - University of Kansas - 'Deciphering the dirt: Understanding microbes, their role in ecosystems and potential application'
Dr Sara Hortal-Botifoll, HIE - 'Plant-plant facilitation in arid environments: what about the role of soil microbes?'
Professor Jizheng (Jim) He, Research Centre for Eco-environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing - 'New mechanisms of nitrification in acid soils'
Dr Jonathan Plett, HIE - 'Dark Dealings: The In's and Out's of Power Brokering in the Rhizosphere'
Honorary Professor Ross McMurtrie, University of NSW - 'I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree.’ The mathematical beauty of trees.
Dr Ian Dickie, Landcare Research, Lincoln, New Zealand - 'Mycorrhizas in changing ecosystems'
Associate Professor Chengrong Chen, Griffith School of Environment, Griffith University - 'Soil phosphorus in response to land use change'
Associate Professor Elise Pendall, University of Wyoming, USA - 'Unexpected carbon cycle - climate feedbacks: The importance of rhizosphere mechanisms'
Dr Christopher Turbill, HIE - 'Using telomeres to detect a physiological cost of life history trade-offs'
Dr Josu G Alday, the Universities of Liverpool and the Basque Country - 'The need to overcome resistance and resilience of invaded community: Bracken control in the UK'
Dr Katinka Ruthrof, State Centre of Excellence for Climate Change and Woodland and Forest Health, Murdoch University - 'Drought-induced canopy collapse in Mediterranean-type Eucalyptus forests in south-western Australia: impacts, recovery and implications'

2012 Talks

Dr Uffe Nielsen, HIE - 'The ecology of pulse events: insights from an extreme climatic event in a polar desert ecosystem'
Dr Christopher Turbill, HIE - 'The ecological significance of mammalian dormancy: torpor, survival and life histories'
Prof Peter Reich, HIE - 'Impacts of Biodiversity Loss Escalate Through Time as Redundancy Fades'
Dr Ladislav Nedbal, Global Change Research Centre, Academy of Sciences of Czech Republic - 'International Networks for Global Change Research'
A/Prof Sally Power, HIE - 'Impacts of global change on terrestrial ecosystems: Nitrogen, too much of a good thing?'
Dr Ellen Fry, HIE - 'The DIRECT experiment, DIversity, Rainfall and Elemental Cycling in a Terrestrial ecosystem'
Dr Víctor Resco de Dios, HIE - 'The persistence of memory - How Dalí's soft clocks help us understand photosynthetic fluxes
A/Prof Charles Warren, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Sydney - 'Re-thinking nitrogen nutrition of plants'
Dr Lindsay Hutley, School of Environmental & Life Sciences, Charles Darwin University - 'Carbon and water resources of north Australia: ancient lands, new ideas'
Prof Nina Buchmann from ETH Zürich (Institute of Agricultural Sciences) - 'The C balance of mountain forests: responses to natural and human impacts'
Dr Robert Sharwood, HIE - 'Influence of Rubisco in C3 and C4 photosynthesis'
Prof Mark Tjoelker, HIE - 'Plant respiration in a warming world: A runaway train?'
Dr BriAnne Addison, School of Science and Health UWS - 'Life history immunology and maternal effects (a hodgepodge of where I’ve been and where I’m going)'
Dr Clare McArthur, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, - 'The foraging tight-rope between predation risk and plant toxins: A matter of concentration'
Dr Ricky Spencer, Senior Lecturer, School of Science and Health, UWS - 'Changing faster than the climate? The role of temperature in the evolution, ecology and extinction of reptiles'
Professor James Cook, HIE - 'Figs and fig wasps: ecology and evolution of a keystone tropical symbiosis'
Dr Eva Van Gorsel, CSIRO – Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Canberra - 'A forest holds its breath… (and how to quantify carbon and water exchange anyway)'
Dr Margaret Barbour, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, University of Sydney - 'New laser-based stable isotope techniques to understand biosphere-atmosphere exchange'
A/Prof Christian Stauffer, BOKU-University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria - 'Population differentiation in forest insects – the molecular ecology of two prominent bark beetle species' and Dr Deborah Kent, Honorary Associate, Macquarie University - 'Exploring the dark depths of the ambrosia beetle underworld – the Australian platypodids'
Dr Nick Coleman, School of Molecular Bioscience, University of Sydney - 'Biodegradation of dichloroethane at the Botany Industrial Park'
Dr Julianne O’Reilly-Wapstra, School of Plant Science, University of Tasmania - 'Eucalypt genetic influences: biotic interactions, extended effects and stability in variable environments'
Prof Mark Blows, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland - 'Evolution of genetic variance under selection'
Prof Evan DeLucia, School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois - 'An Ecological Perspective on the Promise and Challenges of Biofuels'
A/Prof Charles Morris, School of Science and Health, University of Western Sydney - 'From the macro to the micro: issues around Cumberland Plain Woodland, and germination of Grevillea seeds'
Dr Karolina Janitz, HIE - 'Next-generation sequencing services at the HIE – an overview of the operative progress within the last eight months'
Prof Ary Hoffman, Department of Genetics and Department of Zoology, University of Melbourne - 'Persisting under climate change: can evolutionary adaptation help?'
Dr Zhong-Hua Chen, School of Science and Health, UWS - 'Combining Electrophysiology, Molecular Biology, and Systems Modelling for Research in Plant Abiotic Stress Tolerance'
Dr Kevin Simonin, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, University of Sydney - 'Hydraulic architecture, water use efficiency and water balance: leaf to ecosystem'
A/Prof Mike Manefield, Centre for Marine Bio-Innovation, Faculty of Science, UNSW - 'Bioremediation solutions for organochlorine contaminated aquifers in Australia'
Professor Xavier Lambin, Professor of Ecology, The University of Aberdeen, UK - 'Trophic interactions in water vole metapopulations'
A/Professor Angela Moles, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UNSW - 'Global patterns in plant defence: are tropical plants nastier?'
Dr Lachlan Ingram, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, University of Sydney - 'Cattle moooments in the High Country – when, where and why?'
Dr Tim Cavagnaro, Biological Sciences, Monash University - 'Soil ecology in a changing world'

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Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment