The Fungal Jungle

My career as a Plant Pathologist has primarily required me to work on soil-borne (or stubble-borne) pathogens, such as  Verticillium dahliae ,  Pyrenophora tritici-repentis , Blackspot disease complex ( Mycosphaerella pinodes, Phoma medicaginis var. pinodella, Phoma koolunga  and  Ascochyta pisi ) and a number of Fusarium species. In my research on soil microbiology and systems, I have become quite interested in the role of 'Soil Organic Matter' (SOM) and 'Soil organic carbon' (SOC) in Microbial ecology and nutrient cycling. What are SOM and SOC? 'Soil Organic Matter' (SOM) refers to the fraction of soil which is organic in origin and usually refers to larger particulates such as, leaves, bark, branches, dead or decaying insects, animals and microbes. 'Soil organic carbon' (SOC) refers to the carbon fraction of the SOM and generally refers to the smallest fraction of carbon-based molecules. Soil organic carbon can also be decomposed organic matter, ...

For me being a greenie, hippie, for conservation and sustainability has never been about locking things away or abandoning our technology and advancements to live like the dark ages. Our society makes pariahs out of people who seek to improve the economy and the environment at the same time. Many who are comfortable with the status quo will argue the two things are mutually exclusive. You can’t seek to improve the economy and the environment at the same time. But why not? I am a scientist, and I see that the world around us is what we make of it, so much so that we have entered the era of the Anthropocene. Humans have etched themselves into the geological record by fundamentally influencing the global ecosystem. We all know why, whether you choose to acknowledge climate change, and the pollution of natural environments or remain ignorant of it. Science has brought us far from its inception, we have marvelled in its success and relished in the technology it has provided. Yet we sh...

I derive a sadistic satisfaction in making my computer work hard to run my code. When the peripheral applications lag, the cooling fan ramps up, and the CPU load goes to 100%. I love making my computer work hard. The project My latest research project requires me to improve models which are used to predict 'Black Spot' spore dispersal from infested crop residue following field peas . This model will be used to assess the timing and risk of spore showers for growers wanting to plant field peas so they can either 'dodge' heavy spore showers by shifting the planting window or apply a fungicide. Needless to say, simulating millions, billions, trillions, quadrillions, perhaps even over octillion spores and their movements need a hefty amount of computing power. I translated an old model built for running in the Mathematica programming language which used seemingly a lot of, ' for'  loops. After many errors, mainly due to data formatting changes I managed...