Sowing The Seeds

Illawarra Mercury

Tuesday November 8, 2005

Mark Ooi , a PhD candidate at the University of Wollongong (Institute for Conservation Biology) has transferred his love of nature into the study of Australian fauna.

IHAVE always loved nature and the coast and this has transferred into an interest in ecology.

Broadly, my research aim is to gain a better understanding of the ecology of plants in the Australian bush. A lot of work I've done has concentrated on threatened species conservation and the effects of bushfires.

Lately, I've been focussing more specifically on seeds and germination. The most fundamental processes - such as what makes a plant germinate - remain unknown for so many species, even in our local area.

This information is essential, most importantly for understanding and managing the bush, and also for successful revegetation. The fact that we live in a fire-prone environment, where vegetation has to periodically re-establish after being burnt, makes this knowledge particularly important. It's interesting from a horticultural perspective as it could increase the variety of native plants available for cultivation.

This interest in the germination side of things led to a recent trip to do some work with the Millennium Seed Bank Project (MSBP) in the UK.

This project is run by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and involves researching and storing seeds as part of a global conservation effort.

The MSBP is an international conservation initiative which aims to collect and safely store seeds of 24,000 plant species from around the world. Although it is understood that plants should ideally be preserved in their natural habitats in situ, pressures on the environment do not always make this possible.

Banking seeds is considered to be an effective complementary strategy to preserving natural habitats, by providing ex situ collections for future reintroduction and restoration.

Understanding the seed biology of this myriad of species is essential to the MSBP. Research into storability, dormancy and germination is a particular focus. Because seed collections are made from all over the world, collaborative research at an international level is a crucial part of the MSBP.

Q&A

Best part of your research? Discovering new things about the environment that surrounds you and knowing that some application of your work will contribute, at least in part, to maintaining the bush and biodiversity in general.

Personally, it's rewarding because you get to use your mind as well as get to work outside, sometimes in some beautiful locations.

Funniest moment: Sometimes the moments of adversity are the funniest bits. I'd often assist on research conducted out in the arid zone and in summer the heat and flies can drive you insane.

I remember counting the number of flies on one of my workmates' backs - I think there were something like 150 flies!

Ugliest moment: I'd been monitoring a population of rare plants in the national park after fire to see how long it took to recover, and had tagged about 200 seedlings by placing a metal stake with a unique number next to each seedling.

About 18 months into the project I turned up at the site to find that somebody had ripped out every single tag and thrown them all over the place. Heartbreaking for all that work to go to waste.

Have you had a true "Eureka! I've found it!" experience? Ecological research is quite a slow process, so it's rare that a result will land on you in a blinding flash.

However, when an idea that you've been investigating for a while, and all the experiments and readings finally gel in your mind, there is a definite happy warm glow.

Has your career followed a straight line? No. Like a lot of people in this field, I started off by volunteering. My first volunteer job was conducting surveys for native animals in remnant bush on farms on the South Coast.

I then worked at the University of Wollongong doing more animal survey work for consultancies. Jobs over the next few years included hostel manager, ice-cream salesman, photographer, waiter, storeman, filing clerk, technical officer with the National Parks and Wildlife Service, barman, chef, freelance travel photographer and writer, data entry officer, then a project officer (again with NPWS).

Advice for young researchers: It sounds simplistic, but try and find a project that really interests you. You don't necessarily have to know all about it, as that'll come over the course of the study, but a genuine curiosity can give you real enthusiasm, something which may be needed during the long haul.

© 2005 Illawarra Mercury

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