Zero-tolerance biosecurity protects high-conservation-value island nature reserve.

Barrow Island, north-west coast of Australia, is one of the world's significant conservation areas, harboring marsupials that have become extinct or threatened on mainland Australia as well as a rich diversity of plants and animals, some endemic. Access to construct a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant, Australia's largest infrastructure development, on the island was conditional on no non-indigenous species (NIS) becoming established. We developed a comprehensive biosecurity system to protect the island's biodiversity. From 2009 to 2015 more than 0.5 million passengers and 12.2 million tonnes of freight were transported to the island under the biosecurity system, requiring 1.5 million hrs of inspections. No establishments of NIS were detected. We made four observations that will assist development of biosecurity systems. Firstly, the frequency of detections of organisms corresponded best to a mixture log-normal distribution including the high number of zero inspections and extreme values involving rare incursions. Secondly, comprehensive knowledge of the island's biota allowed estimation of false positive detections (62% native species). Thirdly, detections at the border did not predict incursions on the island. Fourthly, the workforce detected more than half post-border incursions (59%). Similar approaches can and should be implemented for all areas of significant conservation value.

Reducing insecticide use in broad-acre grains production: an Australian study.

Prophylactic use of broad-spectrum insecticides is a common feature of broad-acre grains production systems around the world. Efforts to reduce pesticide use in these systems have the potential to deliver environmental benefits to large areas of agricultural land. However, research and extension initiatives aimed at decoupling pest management decisions from the simple act of applying a cheap insecticide have languished. This places farmers in a vulnerable position of high reliance on a few products that may lose their efficacy due to pests developing resistance, or be lost from use due to regulatory changes. The first step towards developing Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies involves an increased efficiency of pesticide inputs. Especially challenging is an understanding of when and where an insecticide application can be withheld without risking yield loss. Here, we quantify the effect of different pest management strategies on the abundance of pest and beneficial arthropods, crop damage and yield, across five sites that span the diversity of contexts in which grains crops are grown in southern Australia. Our results show that while greater insecticide use did reduce the abundance of many pests, this was not coupled with higher yields. Feeding damage by arthropod pests was seen in plots with lower insecticide use but this did not translate into yield losses. For canola, we found that plots that used insecticide seed treatments were most likely to deliver a yield benefit; however other insecticides appear to be unnecessary and economically costly. When considering wheat, none of the insecticide inputs provided an economically justifiable yield gain. These results indicate that there are opportunities for Australian grain growers to reduce insecticide inputs without risking yield loss in some seasons. We see this as the critical first step towards developing IPM practices that will be widely adopted across intensive production systems.

Bean alpha-amylase inhibitors in transgenic peas inhibit development of pea weevil larvae.

This glasshouse study used an improved larval measurement procedure to evaluate the impact of transgenic pea, Pisum sativum L., seeds expressing a-amylase inhibitor (AI)-1 or -2 proteins on pea weevil, Bruchus pisorum L. Seeds of transgenic 'Laura' and 'Greenfeast' peas expressing alpha-(AI)-1 reduced pea weevil survival by 93-98%. Larval mortality occurred at an early instar. Conversely, in nontransgenic cultivars, approximately 98-99% of the pea weevils emerged as adults. By measuring the head capsule size, we determined that larvae died at the first to early third instar in alpha-(AI)-1 transgenic peas, indicating that this inhibitor is highly effective in controlling this insect. By contrast, transgenic Laura and 'Dundale' expressing alpha-(AI)-2 did not affect pea weevil survival, but they did delay larval development. After 77 d of development, the head capsule size indicated that the larvae were still at the third instar stage in transgenic alpha-(AI)-2 peas, whereas adult bruchids had developed in the nontransgenic peas.

Response to water deficit and high temperature of transgenic peas (Pisum sativum L.) containing a seed-specific alpha-amylase inhibitor and the subsequent effects on pea weevil (Bruchus pisorum L.) survival.

The effects of water deficit and high temperature on the production of alpha-amylase inhibitor 1 (alpha-AI-1) were studied in transgenic peas (Pisum sativum L.) that were developed to control the seed-feeding pea weevil (Bruchus pisorum L., Coleoptera: Bruchidae). Transgenic and non-transgenic plants were subjected to water-deficit and high-temperature treatments under controlled conditions in the glasshouse and growth cabinet, beginning 1 week after the first pods were formed. In the water-deficit treatments, the peas were either adequately watered (control) or water was withheld after first pod formation. The high-temperature experiments were performed in two growth cabinets, one maintained at 27/22 degrees C (control) and one at 32/27 degrees C day/night temperatures, with the vapour pressure deficit maintained at 1.3 kPa. The plants exposure to high temperatures and water deficit produced 27% and 79% fewer seeds, respectively, than the controls. In the transgenic peas the level of alpha-AI-1 as a percentage of total protein was not influenced by water stress, but was reduced on average by 36.3% (the range in two experiments was 11-50%) in the high-temperature treatment. Transgenic and non-transgenic pods of plants grown at 27/22 degrees C and 32/27 degrees C were inoculated with pea weevil eggs to evaluate whether the reduction in level of alpha-AI-1 in the transgenic pea seeds affected pea weevil development and survival. At the higher temperatures, 39% of adult pea weevil emerged, compared to 1.2% in the transgenic peas grown at the lower temperatures, indicating that high temperature reduced the protective capacity of the transgenic peas.