The biology of Australian weeds: Volume 3

Over the past decade, The biology of Australian weeds series has presented summary chapters about the biology, taxonomy, significance and control of most of Australia's most problematic weeds. Many of these chapters first appear in Plant Protection Quarterly and are then updated and revised for the book. Dane Panetta was also an editor of the second volume. This volume contains chapters of a further sixteen weed species including several of interest to Queensland.

Cocowood processing manual: from coconut wood to quality flooring.

This manual describes best practice for producing high-value flooring products from coconut ‘wood’—or cocowood. It meets international standards for flooring products and accounts for the recognised, specific, local conditions of the Pacific Islands. The information is intended for operators skilled in timber processing, who need to work with the unusual properties of cocowood, and specifies where cocowood processes differ from standard practice for timber. For other processes, refer to the relevant standards set by the importing country. These technical guidelines are based on the research outcomes of the ACIAR project, 'Improving value and marketability of coconut wood'. The manual is divided into three chapters. Each chapter adds to different aspects of primary and secondary processing. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the best practice steps for harvesting and processing cocowood. There is also a glossary of terms specifically associated with processing cocowood and a section on managing processing risks. Chapter 2 covers cocowood’s unique properties and how they relate to critical processing techniques. This is followed by sections that set out the processing methods in more detail, explaining why these practices are essential when working with cocowood. Chapter 3 provides more information, including contacts, current timber standards and some useful publications.

Insect pests in tropical forestry

The layout of this second edition follows that of the first, though the content has been substantially rewritten to reflect 10 years of research and development, as well as the emergence of new pest species. Chapter 1 presents an overview, from a somewhat entomological perspective, of tropical forestry in its many guises. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 then discuss the 'pure' biology and ecology of tropical insects and their co-evolved relationships with the trees and forests in which they live. Chapter 5 is necessarily the largest chapter in the book, looking in detail at a selection of major pest species from all over the tropical world. Chapters 6, 7, 8 and 9 then discuss the theory and practice of insect pest management, starting at the fundamental planning stage, before any seeds hit the soil. Nursery management and stand management were considered in Chapters 7 and 8. Chapter 9 covers the topics of forest health surveillance, quarantine and forest invasive species, topics which again have significance at all stages of forestry but for convenience are presented after nursery and forest management. This, in fact, we attempt to do in the final chapter, Chapter 10, which combines most of the previous nine chapters in examples illustrating the concept of integrated pest management. ©CABI Publishing CABI Publishing