asmania

the future of food University of T

regional innovation

devil vaccine clue protecting our native pollinators Research to Reality May 2013 – Edition 15

carbon capture There is a bit of a buzz around the University of ’s research in the areas of environment and sustainability at the moment – and I am not just referring to the native bees that make an illuminating appearance in this issue. Part of the excitement is being generated by the new Centre for Food Innovation at Launceston, headed by Professor Roger Stanley, and the associated tripartite research agreement between UTAS, CSIRO and the Defence Science and Technology Organisation. The latter will link Tasmania to national food research networks and initiate joint research projects. It’s a partnership that aims to help diversify Tasmania’s economic base by growing exports of high-quality, nutritious and value-added food products. Elsewhere in this, the first of three themed issues to be published this year, you will find a breadth of articles investigating environmental and sustainability issues. They range from the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture’s involvement in the National Biochar Initiative and the development of a new cultivar that could turn bare, low-lying dunes into productive grazing areas to School of Plant Science and School of Zoology PhD student Nicholas Fountain-Jones’ study of nearly 300 beetle species, which shows that they are a great indicator of how logging affects biodiversity in our forests. A special feature of this issue is an essay by Professor Greg Woods that details the discovery of an important clue towards the development of a vaccine to save the Tasmanian devil from facial tumour disease.

Professor Paddy Nixon CFI Director Prof Roger Stanley: Tasmania is the right Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) place to produce, process and package quality food. The Centre for Food Innovation is base-funded by UTAS and the DSTO and operated in collaboration with CSIRO Animal, Food and Health UTAS Centre for Food Innovation collaborative agreement signatories, from left, CSIRO Chief of Animal, Food and Health Sciences delivering research projects. Sciences Professor Martin Cole, UTAS Vice-Chancellor Peter Rathjen and DSTO’s Chief Defence Scientist Dr Alex Zelinsky.

“This university has the ability to reach the producers through its Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, and then pull in areas such as the Australian Maritime College with its New focus logistics expertise and the School of Human Life Sciences with its knowledge of nutrition and exercise physiology. "I’m also aiming to involve the School of Art to provide knowledge of visual communication and to make the products we develop stand out,” he said. on the future of food Research projects driven by industry needs will include: By Lana Best • Increasing export market access for fresh produce by extending shelf life using From freeze-dried pears and pressure-packed fruit juice to ration packs for soldiers and innovative processing and packaging technologies. energy foods for athletes, the new Centre for Food Innovation based at the UTAS Newnham • Developing key technologies to make and test specialised foods that could find dual campus will be about finding innovative ways to value-add to what Tasmanian farmers already use in defence and civilian markets such as sports performance nutrition, aged care grow to the highest standards. feeding and shelf-stable foods for emergency response. The signing of a collaborative agreement last month between UTAS, the Australian • Characterising and communicating the benefits of regional foods and local heritage Government’s Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) and the Commonwealth cultivars to promote appreciation of our unique environment and products to Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) ensures the best nutritionists and differentiate and brand Tasmanian foods. food technologists in the country can join forces to improve the future of food. CSIRO Chief of Animal, Food and Health Sciences Prof Martin Cole said of the food UTAS Vice-Chancellor Peter Rathjen, CSIRO Chief of Animal, Food and Health Sciences security challenges that lie ahead, locally and globally: “Innovative processing will be Professor Martin Cole and DSTO’s Chief Defence Scientist Dr Alex Zelinsky were the crucial to delivering safe and nutritious food to an increasingly urbanised population". signatories who put the wheels in motion for a centre that is also designed to link Tasmania DSTO’s Chief Defence Scientist Dr Alex Zelinsky added: "DSTO plays a key role in to national food research networks and initiate joint research projects. supporting innovation in defence and the Centre for Food Innovation provides us with the Foundation director Professor Roger Stanley said that there is a widespread belief that Tasmania perfect mechanism to conceive and transition our innovative ideas into products that will is the right place to produce, process and package quality food that can feed the nation. feed our troops”.

Research to Reality 1 The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens has funded this Tassie’s food and flowers research project from a bequest from Ms Amelie Rauner. rely on flight of the native bee

By Lana Best Most people think there is only one native bee in The RTBG grows a number of threatened plant species Tasmania, quietly buzzing about taking a backseat to as seed orchards to secure conservation collections in the bigger, louder and more high-profile honey bees and their seed bank, but had been experiencing very poor bumble bees. seed set – they needed to find out whether they could But there are 101 known native bee types in the State, encourage native pollinators into the nursery. and one UTAS researcher is just starting to discover So far she has identified about 60 native bee species what effective pollinators they are and how important and determined that the magnificent gardens do not they could be to sustaining one of our major tourist appear to have enough nesting sites, and there may be attractions as well as future food production. too much human disturbance. On calm, sunny days (when the bees are about) School of “Perhaps the most unusual finding is that native bees Geography and Environmental Studies honours student strongly prefer blue, yellow or white flowers, rather than the bright reds and oranges,” she said. Melanie Bottrill can be found visiting several sites from Huntingfield to Tunbridge to conduct a bee survey. According to Ms Bottrill’s supervisor, Dr Peter McQuillan, her research could also add weight to the growing evidence Armed with net and brightly coloured trays of detergent that suggests farms in Tasmania’s Midlands will need to she replicates the attractive qualities of a flower for the find ways to protect and encourage native bees. native bees and either waits for them to land or sneaks up on them on a shrub. “Native bees are attracted to the nectar and pollen on some weeds like dandelions, and remnant native shrubs The little bee bodies end up back in the lab where like prickly box and banksia are also important nectar they’re identified and studied, with one observation sources – farmers will need to keep some of those being they are incredibly good at carrying pollen plants in their area to make sure the bees are about compared with other bees. and local councils will need to consider cutting back “Basically they’re messy feeders,” she said. on roadside spraying.” “They end up with pollen everywhere on their underside Her bee research is showing that some native bees only and hind legs and consequently they transfer a lot of go to certain plants and that weather conditions also it to other plants, whereas the honey bees and bumble affect which type of bee will operate. bees carry a neat little amount that is not as effective “The major threat to our native bees is habitat loss and for pollination purposes.” competition from other bees, along with climate change, Main image: Melanie Bottrill and Dr Peter McQuillan in the field at Tunbridge. Last year the 22-year-old approached the Royal Tasmanian pesticides, herbicides and monocultures,” she said. Inset images: Two of the 101 known native bee species – left, Lasioglossum lanarium heavily dusted with pollen; right, Lasioglossum helichrysi taking Botanical Gardens (RTBG) in Hobart offering to “The message here is that we need to look after our nectar at a dandelion flower. volunteer but was instead given a research project. native bees – they can do a job that no other bee can.”

2 Research to Reality Having a butcher’s at the future of the King Island food brand By Anna Osborne

In her own words, PhD candidate Lea Coates has come a long way in her food career spanning more than 20 years. “I’ve got to be the most over-qualified butcher’s wife I know,” she quips. Mrs Coates is set to graduate this year with her thesis, King Island and a Sustainable Agri-food Future. Her research has looked at the viability and sustainability of King Island’s internationally renowned food brand. She has aimed to address the dilemma facing the small, isolated and peripheral economy, which was dominated until recently by two multi-national food companies. “Food systems are political systems,” she said. “King Island was built on dairy and beef industries, both of which have faced upheavals over the years, most recently with JB Swift closing the island’s abattoir. “It is a very resilient community, but how do you plan for a future that is not reactionary to global market forces, but planned and owned by the community?” A farmer’s daughter, Mrs Coates moved with her family to King Island, where her father became a dairy farmer, from Victoria when she was 14 years old. She left at the age of 18 when she married Raymond, a smallgoods butcher from King Island. Together they have spent the past 20 years operating and owning successful butcheries in Hobart, Forth and now Ulverstone. A bookkeeper by trade, she began her tertiary studies seven years ago studying a Bachelor of Regional Resource Management at the UTAS Cradle Coast campus. Her interest in socio-economic innovation and enterprise surrounding the food industry underpinned her honours thesis, Tasmania: Food Bowl or Commodity Ghetto? She received a UTAS Elite Scholarship in 2009 to pursue her PhD studies through the Institute for Regional Development at the Cradle Coast campus. “My father went broke during the ‘80s when the dairy industry faced major upheaval, so I’ve seen first-hand how communities react to hard times,” she said. “With the abattoir closing last year, all the literature said it was inevitable. Yet the disappointing aspect is no one was prepared for it.” Through using regional development theory, she looked at what policy platforms regional development could offer a community so it could proactively shape a sustainable economic, environmental and social future. She suggests that the designing of a locally owned and operated regional innovation system, which is a collective of local economy, governance, knowledge, infrastructure, community and culture, would enable a regional advantage that is competitive, sustainable and, most importantly, local. “When you are looking at a place like King Island and turning its constraints of PhD candidate Lea Coates in the Ulverstone shop … “I’ve got distance, isolation, etc., into opportunities, local ownership of economic assets to be the most over-qualified butcher’s wife I know”. is very important,” she said. Research to Reality 73 Path to a devil’s vaccine

By Professor Greg Woods turns on an ‘invisibility’ gene

We know that human cancer is not contagious – you just don’t catch it! But devil facial tumour disease (known as DFTD) is different. It breaks this ‘rule’. DFTD is a transmissible cancer that devils pass on to each other by biting. The process of devil-to-devil ‘DFTD transmission’ has continued for more than 15 years and has now affected approximately 85 per cent of the Tasmanian devil population, highlighting the possibility of extinction in the wild. DFTD is similar to an organ transplant. The DFTD cancer cells from one devil are transplanted to another devil. Unless you are an identical twin giving tissue to your other twin the human immune system will recognise the transplant as foreign and try and reject or destroy it. This same ‘rejection’ does not occur in devils where the transplanted cancer cells grow without rejection by their immune systems. There are no exceptions. All devils appear to be susceptible. Why devils fail to reject the cancer cells could be due to a poor immune system or that devils (like twins) are genetically similar. Our research has shown that devils have a very good immune system. Therefore they should respond to the foreign DFTD tumour cells. There must be something missing from DFTD cancer cells to avoid rejection by the devil’s immune system. Researchers from the Menzies Research Institute collaborated with researchers from the School of Zoology at the , Tasmania DPIPWE’s Animal Health Laboratory, the University of Sydney, the University of Cambridge (UK) and the University of South Denmark. The research investigated whether the DFTD cancer cells were invisible to the devil’s immune system. On the surface of nearly every cell are major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules. These molecules are ‘immune recognition molecules’ that enable the immune system to determine if a cell is healthy, diseased (e.g. infected by a virus or a cancer cell) or foreign (e.g. from another individual). If the cell is healthy, no action is needed. If the cell is not healthy, an immune response is activated. Our research reveals that DFTD cancer cells lack these ‘immune recognition molecules’. DFTD cancer cells are therefore invisible to the devil’s immune system allowing them to develop into the disfiguring cancers, eventually causing the death of the devil. The discovery that DFTD cancer cells do not display the ‘immune recognition molecules’ on their cell surface is a major advance in our understanding of how this cancer can be transmitted between devils without inducing an immune response. A limited genetic difference between devils may contribute, but lack of expression of these molecules is the main reason for transmission.

4 Research to Reality Path to a devil’s vaccine turns on an ‘invisibility’ gene

Unfortunately for the devil, the cancer cells This project is funded by the are ‘invisible’ to the devil’s immune system. Australian Research Council (a The devil has no chance of responding unless the DFTD cancer cells are made Linkage Project grant of $490,000), ‘visible’ to the devil’s immune system. Dr Eric Guiler Tasmanian Devil The good news is that the genes that code for the ‘immune recognition molecules’ Research Grants of $164,000 are still present and it should be possible and $US70, 000 from the Turner to turn them back on. Our research Foundation. discovered that by treating the DFTD cancer cells in the laboratory with natural chemicals produced by the devil’s immune system these ‘immune recognition molecules’ can be turned back on. This would make the DFTD cancer cells become visible to the devil’s immune system, resulting in an immune response to these foreign cells. The ability to turn on these ’immune recognition molecules’ provides an important clue towards the development of a vaccine. But it is a clue, not an answer. There are no guarantees as there are many challenges to convert this clue into an effective vaccine. An immediate challenge is to turn these genes back on long enough to induce a response. Our research aims to overcome such challenges with the primary objective to protect the Tasmanian devil in the wild. Should a safe and effective vaccine be developed it could initially be used to protect devils in the insurance population before they are re-introduced into the wild. It could also be used in physically isolated areas where an intensive trapping and vaccination program could be undertaken.

Above: The author, Professor Greg Woods … the ability to turn on these ‘immune *This is an edited version of an article recognition molecules’ provides an important clue towards the development of a that originally appeared in the Sunday vaccine; left: a devil affected by DFTD. Tasmanian.

Research to Reality 5 Regrowth forests shown to be crawling with beetles By Lana Best Beetles are sensitive little creatures, so it made sense to UTAS He has studied the boundaries of old growth forests and forests that School of Plant Science and School of Zoology PhD student Nicholas were clear-felled in the 1960s, 1980s and 2000s to get a long-term Fountain-Jones that they would be a great indicator of how logging picture of how beetles re-colonise. affects biodiversity in our forests. “After 10 years, there was very little re-colonisation into the regrowth, For more than two years he has been collecting, counting and after 20 years there was an increase and after 40 years the beetle identifying beetles around the edges of forest coupes near numbers and species were similar in the regrowth to what you would Geeveston – concentrating on managed landscapes where expect in old growth habitat, ” he said. old growth meets regrowth. Forestry Tasmania has, for the past 20 years at least, created a vast The information being gathered for his thesis will determine forest insect collection that Mr Fountain-Jones has been able to use if beetles recolonise regrowth forests or if they to help identify his own captives. He also uses DNA sequences to help remain on an “island” of untouched bushland. him identify the really challenging species. It appears that beetles are happy to set up home Using high-tech equipment – antifreeze in a beer cup and some PVC in a regrowth area – Mr Fountain-Jones has tubing sunk into the ground – a total of 330 beetle pit-fall traps are collected more than 12,000 beetles from nearly set and the contents collected after a month in the forest. Most of the 300 species, including many species from the beetles are less than 2mm in length but make an impressive image family Staphylinidae (commonly known as rove when they’re magnified and photographed. beetles) that have yet to be described. In what to every young boy must appear like a dream job, he is “This research is about variable retention continuing to add to his beetle collection, and he admits he has a soft forestry (VR forestry) or ecological forestry, spot for the Cryptorynchinae group, a type of weevil that has proven where instead of clear-felling entire coups, to be a “good little indicator” of life in old-growth forests. remnants of mature forest within the coupe “They look like a little stone, they don’t have wings so they have to are retained to protect organisms that rely on crawl everywhere, they also love living in mature forest litter – they’re old-growth habitat,” he said. a great beetle for tracking a forest’s health,” he said. “These remnants act as ‘life boats’ that enable old “Luckily our beetles appear to adapt very well to disturbance, maybe growth species to re-colonise the harvested area. because of our history of bushfires. As long as we maintain significant “While it works well short-term, no-one was sure if this patches of mature forest throughout our landscape, it is possible to log method of forestry will work well over the long-term.” ecologically knowing that biodiversity will return relatively quickly.”

PhD student Nicholas Fountain-Jones collecting forestry beetles near Geeveston. Inset images: some of the more than 12,000 beetles found by Nicholas.

6 Research to Reality NRM North contributed $12,875 ‘Lost’ legume creeps from island to to help TIA establish the Waterhouse resilient pasture demonstration site on Tim Tasmania – tomorrow the world? Gunn’s Tomahawk property.

By Lana Best

The field trial site at Tomahawk. Pictured far left are Eric Hall (right) and Dr Rowan Smith from TIA. The KI Creepa is pictured in flower second from the right.

More than 10 years ago Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture lucerne, to which he gave the rather sinister-sounding but in the region, at the same time emphasising that traditional (TIA) senior technical officer and herbage development appropriate name of KI Creepa. grass types were not always the best. program leader Mr Eric Hall travelled to the central Asia Not only does it thrive in sandy soil and have increased “In the past grazing systems in low rainfall regions of country of Kazakhstan with two lucerne breeders from grazing, drought and cold tolerance, but it will “creep” up to Tasmania have relied heavily on the traditional perennial South , looking for a perennial legume with half a metre per year and live for more than 20 years. ryegrass and white clover to provide year-round cover, “magical” properties. The first commercial seed crops of KI Creepa are now in the however over the past 10 to 15 years changing rainfall He sought a yellow-flowering Siberian lucerne that he ground and the seed is expected to be in demand throughout patterns have meant that these traditional species are no suspected would not just cope with everything from water- Australia and around the world. longer adapted,” he said. logged, acidic soils in southern Australia to the dry, cold, For Tasmania’s coastal farmers it could be the key to turning “The failure of these species to persist and the resulting lack coastal dunes of Tasmania – but thrive and spread with the bare, low-lying dunes into productive grazing areas and of perennial vegetation cover across the region has become help of its rhizomatous roots. the amazing abilities of TIA’s new cultivars are becoming a major threat to the sustainability of the land and agriculture. However, what he was looking for he eventually found much evident through a Waterhouse Discussion Group trial “Landowners can now choose from a completely new closer to home, when he stumbled upon a 50-year-old stand funded by NRM North established on Tim Gunn’s property selection of species developed by TIA, which can fare of lucerne on King Island. at Tomahawk in spring 2012. better and be productive in this changing environment.” The single hybrid plants he found, some up to 10 m wide, Late last year local farmers met at the site to inspect 18 A bare dune at Tomahawk now covered in green KI Creepa were survivors from a CSIRO-bred variety called Cancreep, grass varieties and several herbs that were cross-sewn with is helping farmers get the message. which over time had taken hold and spread across the dunes. legumes in four different soil types so they could compare “These plants have the ability to tolerate the harsh Mr Hall spent the next seven years crossing the plants and judge how they were growing. conditions that pasture is subject to in the target areas he selected as vegetative material from King Island and, Mr Hall and junior research fellow Dr Rowan Smith outlined including drought, low soil pH, cold winters and hot through phenotypic selection, improved the resulting plants the experiment and gave advice on what would grow best summers, wind, pasture grubs and extensive grazing.” until he had a more productive and higher seed yielding Research to Reality 7 Biochar initiative seeks to bring carbon capture down to earth By Aaron Smith The University of Tasmania is contributing to the federally a soil amendment, so as a geo-engineering tool it’s quite to produce the biochar. From that wheat straw and funded National Biochar Initiative, which is currently in its effective. What we are trying to establish is how much of the woodchips were selected as the two most effective. In second phase of research. This project is being conducted carbon added to the soil as char is stable for long periods of the second phase Dr Boersma said, ‘’We are trying to under the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry’s time, when it does and doesn’t work, and how it influences understand how a eucalypt feed stock performs in different Carbon Farming Futures program, targeting greenhouse gas nitrous oxide emissions.’’ soils and climate zones. We have standardised what we reduction and carbon storage in land use systems. CSIRO, The typically very low nutrient content of biochars, use. To allow comparison to our trial sites in NSW we have NSW Department of Primary Industries and University of the highly stable forms of carbon and a high degree of selected a single source of Eucalypt green waste to use Sydney are also collaborating with this research, which has aromaticity suggest that an increase in crop productivity across all of the trial sites. Our calculations are based on potential positive implications for sequestering carbon as may not be caused by a single biochar characteristic but a 100-year time frame which is a requirement of the Climate well as improving agricultural soil productivity. rather due to (bio)chemical reactions between the soil, Futures Initiative methodology.’’ Biochar is a stable form of charcoal produced from heating biochar and microbial activity. Commencing in July 2012, three research sites have been natural organic materials (crop and other waste, woodchips, Biochar production and utilisation could potentially contribute established in Tasmania. The one at Elliot Research Station, poultry manure) in a high-temperature, low- or zero- to climate change mitigation through several processes: has microplots of soil (600 mm diameter) supplied with oxygen process known as pyrolysis. The result is a product 13C carbon-labelled biochar. “This potentially allows us • biomass carbon stabilisation, which delays CO2 chemically and biologically more stable than the organic emission from decomposition to track the fate of the carbon we add to the system, how matter from which it is made. much of it is going into the atmosphere and how much is • bioenergy production to displace fossil energy sources being captured in the soil and how much is leaching through Horticultural scientist and UTAS Research Fellow • reducing nitrous oxide emissions from soil Dr Mark Boersma (pictured) is the Chief Investigator for the soil profile. From that we are able to model how much • reducing farming operations’ fuel use the Tasmanian component of the National Biochar Initiative will be left after 100 years and to know whether • stabilising native soil organic matter and reducing II. “There are two main drivers of the interest in biochar. it will last hundreds or thousands of years. its rate of decomposition. Firstly it’s an effective way to sequester carbon from the However, it’s still too early to draw any precise atmosphere in a stable form that can be buried into the soil. The first phase of this project investigated the conclusions,’’ Dr Boersma said. It also has potential benefits to mainstream agriculture as performance of 70 different types of feedstock used

This collaborative project is funded by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry; funding totals $1,050,411.

8 Research to Reality AMC helps steer shipping This project has received total funding of $90,000 from the Australian Shipowners’ Association, Fremantle Ports, Newcastle Ports Corporation, North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation Limited, Port Hedland Port industry towards a Authority, Port Kembla Port Corporation, Port of Melbourne Corporation renewable-fuel future and Port of Townsville Ltd.

By Kirsten Woolley

More than 90 per cent of the world’s goods are carried by Dr Goldsworthy, along with his son Brett, also from NCMEH, stringent requirements on ship emissions,’’ he said. sea. More than $202 billion of international exports passed has quantified the emissions that are coming from ships in “This includes special Emission Control Areas (ECAs), through Australian ports in 2008-2009 alone. That’s about Australia using a year’s worth of ship movement data from where ships have to run on very low sulphur content fuel. 10 per cent of the world’s tonnage. the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA). Even though ships operating in any part of the world will be It’s big business. He says that there are numerous options available to assist required to use lower sulphur content fuel by 2020, in ECAs the requirements are more stringent and come into play But in this era of environmental awareness and emissions the shipping industry in its quest to lower emissions, but the sooner. In ECAs, emissions of another pollutant, oxides trading schemes, the shipping industry recognises the need crucial factor is economics. of nitrogen, are required to be greatly reduced. to be a good global citizen and play its part in reducing “To be economical, the shipping industry needs cheap fuel, emissions to the atmosphere. but cheap fuel has a lot of sulphur in it compared with what “We don’t know whether ship emissions in Australia have significant health impacts or whether introduction of an However, there is currently limited knowledge about both is being used in other forms of transport. Sulphur emissions ECA is justified,’’ Dr Goldsworthy said. “We would need to the emissions from ships in coastal regions and ports in are one of the biggest causes of health problems,’’ he said. develop a thorough quantification of all emissions and use Australia, and the effects of these emissions on air quality Alternative fuels include low-sulphur petroleum diesel, LNG public health models to clarify the health benefits, before and the atmosphere in coastal urban regions. As part of and renewables, though cost and availability are limitations. considering an ECA. The study that we are doing is one of the Australian National Ship Exhaust Emissions Inventory, According to Dr Goldsworthy it’s not just a matter of the first steps. It is a chance to be proactive and learn from Dr Laurie Goldsworthy of the National Centre for Maritime providing alternatives. It’s about setting the legislative the experiences of others.” Engineering and Hydrodynamics (NCMEH) at the Australian frameworks that encourage the technological developments. Maritime College is studying ways to quantify and potentially “In Australia we have options under the International reduce the emissions from ship exhausts in Australia. Maritime Organisation conventions to implement more Research to Reality 9 asmania

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