The International Botanical Congress (IBC) takes place once
every six years and was last hosted by Australia 30 years
ago. A contingent of seven CRC staff (
Prof Brad Potts,
Assoc Prof René Vaillancourt,
Dr Neil Davidson from UTAS and Dr Merv Shepherd
from SCU), two PhD students (Ms
Christina Borzak and Mr
Matthew Larcombe, both from UTAS), two former CRC directors
(Prof. Jim Reid and Prof. Rod Griffin) attended “IBC
2011” at the Exhibition and Conference Centre at Docklands,
Melbourne, 24-30 July 2011.
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UTAS/CRC delegation at IBC: Back row, L to R:
René Vaillancourt, Dorothy Steane, Chris Blackman (now at
Macquarie University), Joe Bailey (now University of Tennessee),
Jen Schweitzer (now University Tennessee), Mark Genung (University
of Tennessee). Middle row: Brad Potts, Rod Griffin, Matt Larcombe,
Meisha Holloway-Phillips, Scott McAdam. Front: Jim Reid,
Anthony Koutoulis, Julianne O’Reilly-Wapstra, Paddy Dalton,
Christina Borzak, Greg Jordan.
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The congress embraced all aspects of plant sciences, from
classification and nomenclature, through paleobotany,
phylogenetics, biogeography, conservation, ecology and ethnobotany,
to genetics, physiology and mathematical modelling of plant
systems. Because of financial constraints resulting from the global
financial crisis, the event was not as well attended as the
organisers had hoped, but there were still over 2000 people from 73
countries. The Congress boasted 171 general symposia, eight
keynote symposia, eight plenary sessions, 951 oral presentations,
722 "eposters" (see below), 112 "traditional" posters and five
public lectures. The opening ceremony on Sunday evening was highly
entertaining for Australians and international visitors alike
(
view pictures of the opening
ceremony).
Dr Julianne O'Reilly-Wapstra and
Dr Dorothy Steane organised and chaired symposia.
Julianne's session on "Community and ecosystem genetics: the
extended genetic effects of plant species" [symposium
abstract] featured Brad Potts as an invited speaker who
presented a comprehensive summary of the research to date on the
"Extended genetic effects of a forest dominant: the case of
Eucalyptus globulus" [abstract]. The
session also showcased a range of international speakers who
examined frontier questions in the field of community genetics.
These speakers included Dr Jennifer Rowntree from the University of
York, Dr Mark Genung, Dr Joseph Bailey and Dr Jennifer Schweitzer
from the University of Tennessee. Prof Tom Whitham from Northern
Arizona University wrapped up the session by placing the field of
community genetics in the context of conservation and restoration
ecology and made a call for researchers to set up large scale,
multiple common gardens across wide ranging gradients (such as
altitudinal and latitudinal gradients) to identify tree genotypes
of native species that are best able to survive climate change and
support the greatest biodiversity. A comprehensive review of
the symposium will soon be published:
Bailey, J.K., Genung, M.A., O’Reilly-Wapstra, J.M. Potts,
B.M., Rowntree, J., Schweitzer, J.A., Whitham, T.G. (in press) New
frontiers in community and ecosystem genetics for theory,
conservation and management. New Phytologist.
Dot's session on "Patterns and processes of evolution in
Eucalyptus" (symposium
abstract) was well-received by a surprisingly large
audience. The first speaker, Maria Gandolfo (Cornell
University) presented fabulous images of the world’s oldest
Eucalyptus macrofossils that were found recently in
Patagonia. Dot had the fortunate opportunity to give an unscheduled
presentation in lieu of an invited speaker who did not attendthe
conference. She introduced the topics of evolution and
phylogenetics, with emphasis on the application of a new technique
(DArT) to studies of evolution in Eucalyptus. Mike
Bayly (UMelb) spoke about reconstructing phylogeny of eastern
Australian monocalypts and he was followed by Brad Potts (UTAS)
whose explanation of the role of hybridisation in
Eucalyptus evolution received a lot of interest from the
audience (abstract).
Dr Paul Nevill (UWA) reported on historic
interspecific relationships among three closely related species of
Eucalyptus from southeastern Australia. The session
was rounded off with an overview of mating systems in eucalypts,
given by Dr Margaret Byrne (Dept. Environment and
Conservation, WA).
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The International Botanical Congress 2011 was
held at the Melbourne Convention Centre that adjoins (to the right)
the Melbourne Exhibition Centre (the long white roof in this
picture).
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In addition to these sessions, the CRC received fabulous publicity
vicariously through Prof. Zander Myburg (U. Pretoria) (left).
Zander, who collaborates with the CRC Program 2 via René
Vaillancourt, gave the CRC an excellent wrap in his Keynote address
on the recently released
Eucalyptus genome sequence.
As a result of Zander's talk, Eucalyptus genetics hit the headlines
- "
Eucalyptus genetic secrets unlocked" - in the
conference's daily newspapers (
view article).
Because of the large number of people at the conference, only a
small proportion were able to give oral presentations. Hence,
a large number of delegates prepared “eposters”
for the IBC. “E-posters” were promoted to
delegates as a fantastic new concept, comprising 3-4 powerpoint
slides that would be available on lots of huge computer screens,
and would be downloadable to iphones etc. In reality, there
were 722 e-posters that could be viewed on only two very large
touch-screen computers (see image) and about a dozen normal
computers that also served as the internet cafe for some 2500
conference delegates. People had to identify in advance (from
a book of poster abstracts) which posters they wanted to look at
and then navigate their way to them on a computer. Unlike the
few paper posters that were presented on boards in the traditional
way, the eposters were impossible to browse quickly. The
students who had eposters had the opportunity to give a 5 minute
talk about their research, but more senior researchers did
not. There was much disgruntlement among the delegates about
this issue, as most people received no feedback on their eposter
presentations. On the bright side, the eposters are still
available on the IBC2011 conference website, so we can
browse them at our leisure. Neil Davidson wisely took a
"traditional" poster to the conference but, as luck would have it,
nobody had the pleasure of viewing it because Neil spent the week
in a near-coma on the floor of his daughter's flat in suburban
Melbourne, having been struck down by a nasty flu virus the day
after he arrived in Melbourne. Poor Neil!
The most enjoyable part of IBC2011 - as with any conference -
was catching up with old colleagues and meeting new ones from
interstate and overseas. It's always fun to be able to put faces to
famous names whose research has influenced a particular field for
years or even decades. The social scene was lubricated by
Melbourne's numerous watering holes and feeding stations. Each
evening, many happy IBC delegates could be found wining and dining
in the secret bars and interesting restaurants across the
city. And, from the point of view of a Tasmanian person who
hates shopping ... the shopping in Melbourne is actually not
bad!
Biobuzz issue fifteen, December 2011
