Fungal Planet description sheets: 281-319

Novel species of fungi described in the present study include the following from South Africa: Alanphillipsia aloeicola from Aloe sp., Arxiella dolichandrae from Dolichandra unguiscati, Ganoderma austroafricanum from Jacaranda mimosifolia, Phacidiella podocarpi and Phaeosphaeria podocarpi from Podocarpus latifolius, Phyllosticta mimusopisicola from Mimusops zeyheri and Sphaerulina pelargonii from Pelargonium sp. Furthermore, Barssia maroccana is described from Cedrus atlantica (Morocco), Codinaea pini from Pinus patula (Uganda), Crucellisporiopsis marquesiae from Marquesia acuminata (Zambia), Dinemasporium ipomoeae from Ipomoea pes-caprae (Vietnam), Diaporthe phragmitis from Phragmites australis (China), Marasmius vladimirii from leaf litter (India), Melanconium hedericola from Hedera helix (Spain), Pluteus albotomentosus and Pluteus extremiorientalis from a mixed forest (Russia), Rachicladosporium eucalypti from Eucalyptus globulus (Ethiopia), Sistotrema epiphyllum from dead leaves of Fagus sylvatica in a forest (The Netherlands), Stagonospora chrysopyla from Scirpus microcarpus (USA) and Trichomerium dioscoreae from Dioscorea sp. (Japan). Novel species from Australia include: Corynespora endiandrae from Endiandra introrsa, Gonatophragmium triuniae from Triunia youngiana, Penicillium coccotrypicola from Archontophoenix cunninghamiana and Phytophthora moyootj from soil. Novelties from Iran include Neocamarosporium chichastianum from soil and Seimatosporium pistaciae from Pistacia vera, Xenosonderhenia eucalypti and Zasmidium eucalyptigenum are newly described from Eucalyptus urophylla in Indonesia. Diaporthe acaciarum and Roussoella acacia are newly described from Acacia tortilis in Tanzania. New species from Italy include Comoclathris spartii from Spartium junceum and Phoma tamaricicola from Tamarix gallica. Novel genera include (Ascomycetes): Acremoniopsis from forest soil and Collarina from water sediments (Spain), Phellinocrescentia from a Phellinus sp. (French Guiana), Neobambusicola from Strelitzia nicolai (South Africa), Neocladophialophora from Quercus robur (Germany), Neophysalospora from Cotymbia henryi (Mozambique) and Xenophaeosphaeria from Grewia sp. (Tanzania). Morphological and culture characteristics along with ITS DNA barcodes are provided for all taxa.

Developments in controlled green-water larval culture technologies for estuarine fishes in Queensland, Australia and elsewhere

Since 1989, researchers with the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (DPI&F) in Queensland, Australia, have successfully used controlled low-water exchange green-water cultures to rear the larvae of estuarine fishes and crustaceans through to metamorphosis. High survivals and excellent fry condition have been achieved for several commercially important endemic species produced for various projects. They include barramundi or sea bass, Lates calcarifer, Australian bass, Macquaria novemaculeata, dusky flathead, Platycephalus fuscus, sand whiting, Sillago ciliata, red sea bream or snapper, Pagrus auratus, banana prawn, Fenneropenaeus merguiensis, and others. The consistent success of our standardised and relatively simple approach at different localities has led to it being incorporated into general fingerling production practices at several establishments in Australia. Although post-metamorphosis rearing methods have differed for each species investigated, due to various biological and behavioural traits and project requirements, these larval rearing methods have been successful with few species-specific modifications. Initially modelled on the Taiwanese approach to rearing Penaeids in aerated low-water exchange cultures, the approach similarly appears to rely on a beneficial assemblage of micro-organisms. Conceptually, these micro-organisms may include a mixture of the air-borne primary invaders of pure phytoplankton cultures when exposed to outdoor conditions. Whilst this would vary with different sites, our experiences with these methods have consistently been favourable. Mass microalgal cultures with eco-physiological youth are used to regularly augment larval fish cultures so that rearing conditions simulate an exponential growth-phase microalgal bloom. Moderate to heavy aeration prevents settlement of particulate matter and encourages aerobic bacterial decomposition of wastes. The green-water larval rearing approach described herein has demonstrated high practical utility in research and commercial applications, and has greatly simplified marine finfish hatchery operations whilst generally lifting production capacities for metamorphosed fry in Australia. Its potential uses in areas of aquaculture other than larviculture are also discussed.

Floating row covers and pyriproxyfen help control silverleaf whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) Biotype B (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) in zucchini

In zucchini, the use of row covers until flowering and the insect growth regulator (IGR) pyriproxyfen are effective methods of reducing the number of insects, especially silverleaf whitefly (Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) Biotype B), on plants. We compared floating row covers (FRCs) up until flowering with silverleaf whitefly (SLW) introduced (FRC + SLW), or not introduced (FRC-only), or with introduction of SLW in open plots (SLW-only), or with introduction of SLW in open plots with IGR (SLW + IGR). FRC increased temperature and humidity compared with the uncovered treatments. Average fruit weight was less (P < 0.01) for the FRC + SLW treatment compared with the other treatments and the percentage of marketable fruit was less for the FRC + SLW than for the other three treatments. This result indicates that the use of either row covers or IGR controls whiteflies, reduces fruit damage and increases the size, weight, and quality of fruit, and may also control other sap-sucking insects. However, if SLW are already present on plants, the use of FRC may reduce predation and favour build up of SLW. Thus, FRC and IGR, if used judiciously, may provide an effective alternative to broad-spectrum pesticides in small-scale cucurbit production.

Stakeholder expectations for environmental assurance in agriculture: Lessons from the pastoral industry

This paper outlines the expectations of a wide range of stakeholders for environmental assurance in the pastoral industries and agriculture generally. Stakeholders consulted were domestic consumers, rangeland graziers, members of environmental groups, companies within meat and wool supply chains, and agricultural industry, environmental and consumer groups. Most stakeholders were in favour of the application of environmental assurance to agriculture, although supply chains and consumers had less enthusiasm for this than environmental and consumer groups. General public good benefits were more important to environmental and consumer groups, while private benefits were more important to consumers and supply chains. The 'ideal' form of environmental assurance appears to be a management system that provides for continuous improvement in environmental, quality and food safety outcomes, combined with elements of ISO 14024 eco-labelling such as life-cycle assessment, environmental performance criteria, third-party certification, labelling and multi-stakeholder involvement. However, market failure prevents this from being implemented and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. In the short term, members of supply chains (the people that must implement and fund environmental assurance) want this to be kept simple and low cost, to be built into their existing industry standards and to add value to their businesses. As a starting point, several agricultural industry organisations favour the use of a basic management system, combining continuous improvement, risk assessment and industry best management practice programs, which can be built on over time to meet regulator, market and community expectations.

Parthenium hysterophorus L. (Asteraceae)

Parthenium is a serious problem in several tropical and sub-tropical areas around the world and particularly an emerging problem in southern Africa. It is a Weed of National Significance in Australia. The chapter summarises current knowledge about the taxonomy, biology, distribution, ecology, impacts and biological control of the weed worldwide. Queensland has led attempts to achieve biological control of parthenium since it first began foreign exploration in 1977. Since then nine insects and two rusts have been released in Queensland. Some of these have since been, or will be, used by other countries. The program has brought significant benefits to Queensland through an increase in grass biomass in some areas. Instances of non-target attack by one agent, particularly in India, are discussed with the conclusion that the effects were ultimately negligible and possibly due to parthenium pollen lodging on the leaves of non-target plants. The insects introduced for parthenium have also given a measure of control for the very closely related weeds, ragweed and Noogoora burr. The paper draws a conclusion that local climatic conditions are very important when considering whether a successful agent in one country will be useful in a second country.

Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids in Crotalaria Taxa from Northern Australia: Risk to Grazing Livestock.

Crotalaria species containing hepatotoxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids grow widely in pastures in northern Australia and have sporadically poisoned grazing livestock. The diverse Crotalaria taxa present in these pastures include varieties, subspecies, and chemotypes not previously chemically examined. This paper reports the pyrrolizidine alkaloid composition and content of 24 Crotalaria taxa from this region and assesses the risk of poisoning in livestock consuming them. Alkaloids present in C. goreensis, C. aridicola subsp. densifolia, and C. medicaginea var. neglecta lack the esterified 1,2-unsaturated functionality required for pyrrole adduct formation, and these taxa are not hepatotoxic. Taxa with high levels of hepatotoxic alkaloids, abundance, and biomass pose the greatest risk to livestock health, particularly C. novae-hollandiae subsp. novae-hollandiae, C. ramosissima, C. retusa var. retusa, and C. crispata. Other species containing moderate alkaloid levels, C. spectabilis and C. mitchellii, also pose significant risk when locally abundant.

Commercial application of polychaete sand filters for wastewater remediation and broodstock feeds

Summary Prototype sand-worm filtration beds were constructed at two prawn farms and one fish farm to assess and demonstrate their polychaete (marine worm) production and wastewater remediation capacities at semi-commercial scale. Wastewater treatment properties were monitored and worms produced were assessed and either sold for bait or used by the farms’ hatcheries as broodstock (prawn or fish breeder) feed. More than 34 megalitres of prawn- and fish-pond water was beneficially treated in the 116-319-d trial. The design of the polychaete-assisted sand filters (PASFs) constructed at each farm affected their water handling rates, which on average ranged from 315 to 1000 L m-2 d-1 at the three farms. A low profile design incorporating shallow bunded ponds made from polyethylene liner and timber stakes provided the easiest method of construction. This simple design applied at broad scale facilitated the highest quantities of treated water and the greatest worm production. Designs with higher sides increased the head pressure above the sand bed surface, thus increasing the amount of water that could be treated each day. Most water qualities were affected in a similar way to that demonstrated in the previous tank trials: dissolved oxygen, pH, total suspended solids and chlorophyll a levels were all consistently significantly lowered as pond water percolated through the sand bed, and dissolved forms of nitrogen and phosphorus were marginally increased on several occasions. However, unlike the previous smaller-scale tank trials, total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) levels were both significantly lowered by these larger-scale PASFs. The reasons for this are still unclear and require further research. Maximum TN and TP removals detected in the trial were 48.8% and 67.5%, respectively, and average removals (in unfed beds) at the three farms ranged from 20.0 to 27.7% for TN and from 22.8 to 40.8% for TP. Collectively, these results demonstrate the best suspended solids, chlorophyll and macronutrient removal capacities so far reported for any mariculture wastewater treatment methodology to date. Supplemental feeding of PASFs with fish meal was also investigated at one farm as a potential means of increasing their polychaete biomass production. Whilst fed beds produced higher biomass (152 ± 35 g m-2) compared with unfed beds (89 ± 17 g m-2) after 3.7 months of operation, the low number of replicates (2) prevented statistically significant differences from being demonstrated for either growth or survival. At harvest several months later, worm biomass production was estimated to be similar to, or in slight excess of, previously reported production levels (300-400 g m-2). Several qualities of filtered water appear to have been affected by supplemental feeding: it appeared to marginally lower dissolved oxygen and pH levels, and increased the TN and TP levels though not so much to eliminate significant beneficial water treatment effects. Periodic sampling during an artificial-tide demonstrated the tendency for treated-water quality changes during the first hour of filtration. Total nitrogen and ammonia peaked early in the tidal flow and then fell to more stable levels for the remainder of the filtration period. Other dissolved nutrients also showed signs of this sand-bed-flushing pattern, and dissolved oxygen tended to climb during the first hour and become more stable thereafter. These patterns suggest that the routine sampling of treated water undertaken at mid-inflow during the majority of the wider study would likely have overestimated the levels of TN and dissolved nutrients discharged from the beds, and hence underestimated the PASFs treatment efficacies in this regard. Analyses of polychaete biomass collected from each bed in the study revealed that the worms were free from contamination with the main prawn viruses that would create concerns for their feeding to commercial prawn broodstock in Australia. Their documented proximal and nutritional contents also provide a guide for hatchery operators when using live or frozen stock. Their dry matter content ranged from 18.3 to 22.3%, ash ranged from 10.2 to 14.0%, gross energy from 20.2 to 21.5 MJ kg-1, and fat from 5.0 to 9.2%. Their cholesterol levels ranged from 0.86 to 1.03% of dry matter, whilst total phospholipids range from 0.41 to 0.72%. Thirty-one different fatty acids were present at detectable (≥0.005% of dry matter) levels in the sampled worm biomass. Palmitic acid was by far the most prevalent fatty acid detected (1.21 ± 0.18%), followed by eicosapentaenoic (EPA) (0.48 ± 0.03%), stearic (0.46 ± 0.04%), vaccenic (0.38 ± 0.05%), adrenic (0.35 ± 0.02%), docosadienoic (0.28 ± 0.02%), arachidonic (AA) (0.22 ± 0.01%), palmitoleic (0.20 ± 0.04%) and 23 other fatty acids with average contents of less than 0.2% of dry matter. Supplemental feeding with fish meal at one farm appeared to increase the docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) content of the worms considerably, and modify the average AA : EPA : DHA from 1.0 : 2.7 : 0.3 to 1.0 : 2.0 : 1.1. Consistent with previous results, the three most heavily represented amino acids in the dry matter of sampled worms were glutamic acid (8.5 ± 0.2%), aspartic acid (5.5 ± 0.1%) and glycine (4.9 ± 0.5%). These biomass content results suggest that worms produced in PASF systems are well suited to feeding to prawn and fish broodstock, and provide further strong evidence of the potential to modify their contents for specific nutritional uses. The falling wild-fishery production of marine bloodworms in Queensland is typical of diminishing polychaete resources world-wide and demonstrates the need to develop sustainable production methods here and overseas. PASF systems offer the dual benefits of wastewater treatment for environmental management and increased productivity through a valuable secondary crop grown exclusively on waste nutrients.

Responses of tribolium castaneum to olfactory cues from cotton seeds, the fungi associated with cotton seeds, and cereals

We tested, in an olfactometer, whether or not Tribolium castaneum Herbst (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) responds preferentially to the volatiles that emanate from the fungi associated with cotton [Gossypium hirsutum L. (Malvaceae)] seed over those that emanate from cereals, because cereals are usually portrayed as the primary resources of these beetles. Pairwise comparisons were conducted between cotton seed, wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), and sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] (both Poaceae); volatiles were tested from intact seeds and from both water and ethanol extracts. The results demonstrate that T. castaneum is attracted more strongly to cotton seeds with its lint contaminated with fungi, than to the conventional resources of this species (i.e., wheat and sorghum). Further tests prove that it is the fungus on the lint that produces the active volatiles, because the beetles did not respond to sterilized cotton lint (i.e., without the fungi typically associated with it when cotton seed is stored). Tests with five fungal cultures (each representing an unidentified species that was isolated from the field-collected cotton lint) were variable across the cultures, with only one of them being significantly attractive to the beetles. The others were not attractive and one may even have repulsed the beetles. The results are consistent with the beetles having a strong ecological association with fungi and suggest it would be worth investigating the ecology of T. castaneum from this perspective. © 2012 The Netherlands Entomological Society.

Generalised growth models for aquatic species with an application to blacklip abalone (Haliotis rubra)

This paper presents a maximum likelihood method for estimating growth parameters for an aquatic species that incorporates growth covariates, and takes into consideration multiple tag-recapture data. Individual variability in asymptotic length, age-at-tagging, and measurement error are also considered in the model structure. Using distribution theory, the log-likelihood function is derived under a generalised framework for the von Bertalanffy and Gompertz growth models. Due to the generality of the derivation, covariate effects can be included for both models with seasonality and tagging effects investigated. Method robustness is established via comparison with the Fabens, improved Fabens, James and a non-linear mixed-effects growth models, with the maximum likelihood method performing the best. The method is illustrated further with an application to blacklip abalone (Haliotis rubra) for which a strong growth-retarding tagging effect that persisted for several months was detected. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Native Phloem and Wood Borers in Australian Mediterranean Forest Trees

Native Mediterranean forests in Australia are dominated by two tree genera, Eucalyptus and Acacia, while Pinus and Eucalyptus dominate plantation forestry. In native forests, there is a high diversity of phloem and wood borers across several families in the Coleoptera and Lepidoptera. In the Coleoptera, cerambycid beetles (Cerambycidae), jewel beetles (Buprestidae), bark, ambrosia and pinhole beetles (Curculionidae) and pinworms (Lymexelidae) are some of the most commonly found beetles attacking eucalypts and acacias. In the Lepidoptera, wood moths (Cossidae), ghost moths (Hepialidae) and borers in the Xyloryctidae (subfamily Xyloryctinae) are most common. In contrast to native forests, there is a much more limited range of native insects present in Australian plantations, particularly in exotic Pinus spp. plantations, although eucalypt plantations do share some borers in common with native forests. This chapter reviews the importance of these borers in Australian forests primarily from an economic perspective (i.e. those species that cause damage to commercial tree species) and highlights a paucity of native forest species that commonly kill trees relative to the large scales regularly seen in North America and Europe.

Molecular Breeding for Complex Adaptive Traits: How Integrating Crop Ecophysiology and Modelling Can Enhance Efficiency

Progress in crop improvement is limited by the ability to identify favourable combinations of genotypes (G) and management practices (M) in relevant target environments (E) given the resources available to search among the myriad of possible combinations. To underpin yield advance we require prediction of phenotype based on genotype. In plant breeding, traditional phenotypic selection methods have involved measuring phenotypic performance of large segregating populations in multi-environment trials and applying rigorous statistical procedures based on quantitative genetic theory to identify superior individuals. Recent developments in the ability to inexpensively and densely map/sequence genomes have facilitated a shift from the level of the individual (genotype) to the level of the genomic region. Molecular breeding strategies using genome wide prediction and genomic selection approaches have developed rapidly. However, their applicability to complex traits remains constrained by gene-gene and gene-environment interactions, which restrict the predictive power of associations of genomic regions with phenotypic responses. Here it is argued that crop ecophysiology and functional whole plant modelling can provide an effective link between molecular and organism scales and enhance molecular breeding by adding value to genetic prediction approaches. A physiological framework that facilitates dissection and modelling of complex traits can inform phenotyping methods for marker/gene detection and underpin prediction of likely phenotypic consequences of trait and genetic variation in target environments. This approach holds considerable promise for more effectively linking genotype to phenotype for complex adaptive traits. Specific examples focused on drought adaptation are presented to highlight the concepts.