Unit Outline

Plant Biosecurity

AGRO514

School of Environmental and Rural Science

The University of New England
2020
Introduction

Australia and the world faces growing challenges in the area of plant biosecurity due to the
increase in trade, travel and tourism which increases the risk of problems associated with
plant diseases and pests and weeds. The introduction of such organisms has the potential to
have serious consequences for our agricultural industries. Furthermore, natural ecosystems
and the natural resource base may be under threat from the introduction of pests and disease
with the potential to decimate unique flora. This unit aims at covering issues relevant to
biosecurity of plant-based industries and natural ecosystems. While much of the focus is on
Australia, students are welcome to explore plant biosecurity issues from other countries and
indeed on a world-wide scale. Topics covered include pathogens and crop bioterrrorism,
insect pests, noxious weeds, transgenic plants, quarantine, border security, phyto-sanitary
regulations and risk assessment, depending on the interests of students.

Learning outcomes
Upon completion of this unit, students will be able to:
1. demonstrate an advanced and integrated understanding of the subject by identifying
important issues surrounding plant biosecurity;
2. analyse critically and assess risks attached to the introduction of plants and plant based
products (e.g. fruits, vegetables and flowers), communicating the outcome to others using
written and verbal formats;
3. critically evaluate the options to regulate and manage the movement of plants, plant pests
and pathogens; transmit knowledge to others using verbal and written formats;
4. demonstrate an advanced and integrated understanding of the subject by describing, in
detail, biosafety issues related to food security; and
5. demonstrate an ability to undertake research and apply established theories to a body of
knowledge or practice within the discipline.

Learning materials
Learning materials have been provided for you on the Moodle unit website. These include:

 A copy of this Unit Outline document.

 An introductory document to Plant Biosecurity and some of its major concepts. This
is very useful general reading material to help you become more familiar with the
topic and includes a large number of potentially useful websites.

 A range of documents that cover specific areas of Plant Biosecurity. You should
make yourself familiar with the concepts covered in each of these documents, and
while you may not read each in detail, they can be used for future reference as well as
being sources of information for your assignments, depending on the topics on which
you choose to focus. You are likely however, to need to refer to other information as
well for your assessment tasks.

2
  The National Plant Biosecurity Status Report 2018, a large and comprehensive
document about the status of plant biosecurity measures and issues in Australia and
the most recent report of its kind. While you are not expected to read this report
through from cover to cover, it provides an excellent overview of plant biosecurity in
Australia and can be a good initial source of ideas and reference material for your two
assignments.

Teaching staff
Professor Brian Sindel (Unit Coordinator)
Agronomy and Soil Science
Telephone: 02 6773 3747
Email: bsindel@une.edu.au

Dr Shriwantha (Buddhi) Vithana

Agronomy and Soil Science
Email: svithana@une.edu.au

Associate Professor Paul Kristiansen

Agronomy and Soil Science
Telephone 02 6773 2962
Email: paul.kristiansen@une.edu.au

Unit inquiries
If you wish to contact someone about course content or assessment, please contact in the
first instance:

Dr. Buddhi Vithana

Agronomy and Soil Science
Email: svithana@une.edu.au

Inquiries of an administrative nature should be addressed to:

Student Success
University of New England, Armidale, NSW, 2351
0267732000

Student Success provides you with a focal point of contact for all your administrative
enquiries during your study at UNE, including selecting units and managing your enrolment.
If you have administrative enquiries relating to your study at UNE, go to the Student Central
page at https://www.une.edu.au/current-students/support/student-support

Alternatively, you can go to AskUNE http://www.une.edu.au/contact-us and submit a

question.

You can also find information on all aspects of studying at UNE on the Current Students page
at http://www.une.edu.au/current-students/home.

3
Assessment schedule
There are no lectures, practicals, exams or intensive schools associated with this unit of work.
It is a postgraduate program in which you need to drive yourself to gain maximum advantage
from it. There are just two assessable tasks, as described below, a Literature Review and a
Case Study, both of which should be in areas that are of interest to you and/or relevant to your
current or future work and which specifically relate to the subject of plant biosecurity (i.e. not
animal biosecurity).

The rationale in the two assessment tasks is for you to firstly read widely for the Literature
Review to gain a broad understanding of the extent of plant biosecurity issues and particularly
on a topic of your choice, and then for the Case Study, to develop expertise as you investigate
in greater detail the specifics of a particular plant biosecurity issue and make
recommendations about it.

Important!! You must complete both assessment tasks to be eligible for passing the unit.
Otherwise, your result will be recorded as ‘failed incomplete’. Please note the
information below on plagiarism. What this means is that the assignments need to be
your own work (not copied from elsewhere) and not previously submitted (in whole or
part) as an assignment by you or someone else at UNE or elsewhere. It is also NOT
acceptable to simply use someone else’s text and just change some of the words. The
text should be composed by you. If you have questions about this, please contact the unit
co-ordinator.

Assessment task Weighting Due Date

1. Literature Review (3000 words) 50% Saturday 18 April 2020

2. Case Study (3000 words) 50% Saturday 30 May 2020

Late assignments will receive a late penalty of 5% per working day. After 10 days no
marks will be awarded. Consideration will be given for extenuating circumstances but
evidence must be supplied. Grounds for extension include a medical certificate or obvious
illness, or other extenuating circumstances with supporting evidence. If you are going to
have a problem meeting the deadline, please contact the unit coordinator EARLY and
discuss it with him! Due dates represent the dates your assignments are expected to be
received.

1. Literature Review

This assignment is to be based on a broad or general area of plant biosecurity of interest to

you, for example, Quarantine, Plant Biosecurity and International Trade, or Prevention of
Disease Spread or a particular group of pest organisms e.g. plant diseases or weeds, and
involves primarily a review of the literature in this area.

Literature used can include the study materials that we have supplied for you on Moodle, but
should also include additional material from scientific journal articles (in particular), books
and the web. The number of references cited is not fixed, but 15 would be a minimum.
While the Literature Review is essentially utilising the work of others, you should do your

4
best to analyse or critique the literature and draw your own conclusions about the topic at the
end of the Review. You need to discuss your proposed topic with one of the Staff before
commencing. It is up to you to initiate that process.

Marks (a total of 100) will be awarded as per follows.

 Logic (25 marks) - Logical structuring of the Review (e.g. where you provide a
rationale or background to the Review topic and identify the aim/s of the Review in
the Introduction; address the issues you identified in the Introduction in the body of
the Review in a logical order; and draw appropriate, well-reasoned conclusions at the
end of the Review that relate to your original aims.

 Research (25 marks) – The extent, depth, currency and quality of research of the
literature evident in your Review.

 Insights (25 marks) – Insights that you provide into the plant biosecurity topic you
have chosen that may show the importance, complexity or implications of the topic.

 Presentation (25 marks) – Presentation of your Review that enables it to be easily

read and understood with accurate citation of references, helpful formatting, correct
spelling, clear sentence construction and appropriate illustrations.

All sources of information should be properly cited in the text and referenced at the end of the
Review. Some sample sentences showing the citation of scientific references is given below,
as well as appropriate formatting and details to be included in a reference list for a variety of
publication types e.g. on-line, journal article, conference paper, book, chapter in an edited
book, and PhD thesis.

Example of citing and listing references for your Review

Despite the high conservation value and isolation of Antarctica, the region has not
escaped the impacts of human activity. Non-native plants have been introduced and
established on the Antarctic Peninsula (Hughes et al. 2015), with over 100 non-native
vascular plant species also established on the sub-Antarctic islands (Frenot et al. 2005). Most
of these have limited impact due to restricted distributions but highly invasive species
threaten sub-Antarctic ecosystems (Bergstrom and Smith 1990) by occupying large areas,
displacing native species and impacting broadly on the conservation status of the islands
(Shaw 2013).
The proximity of Macquarie Island to the Polar Frontal Zone produces a cool, wet,
windy climate that is relatively uniform due to the moderating effects of the ocean (Selkirk et
al. 1990). Understanding possible off-target impact for any control method is vital. While the
behaviour and fate of herbicides in sub-Antarctic conditions has been little studied (Williams
2016), work in the northern hemisphere (e.g. Ranft et al. 2010) suggests increased persistence
at lower temperatures. Risk of leaching and groundwater contamination is associated with the
freeze thaw cycles (Barnes 2017).
In general, the ecological feasibility of weed eradication depends upon the number,
area and spatial distribution of infestations, weed detection, seed bank persistence, time to
reproduction and germination rate (Groves and Panetta 2002).

5
References
Barnes, D. (2017). ‘Attenuation of Herbicides in Subarctic Environments, Phase 2.’
(University of Alaska: Fairbanks.) Available at:
http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/projects/attenuation-of-herbicides-in-subarctic-environments-
phase-2/ (accessed 16 August 2017).
Bergstrom, D.M., and Smith, V.R. (1990). Alien vascular flora of Marion and Prince Edward
Islands: new species present distribution and status. Antarctic Science 2, 301—308.
Frenot, Y., Chown, S.L., Whinam, J., Selkirk, P.M., Convey, P., Skotnicki, M., and
Bergstrom, D.M. (2005). Biological invasions in the Antarctic: extent, impacts and
implications. Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 80, 45—72.
Groves, R. H., and Panetta, F. D. (2002). Some general principles for weed eradication
programs. In: ‘Proceedings of the 13th Australian weeds conference’. (Eds H. Spafford
Jacob, J. Dodd and J.H. Moore.) pp. 307—310. (Plant Protection Society of WA Inc:
Perth.)
Hughes, K., Pertierra, L., Molina-Montenegro, M., and Convey, P. (2015). Biological
invasions in terrestrial Antarctica: what is the current status and can we respond?
Biodiversity and Conservation 24, 1031—1055.
Ranft, R.D., Seefeldt, S.S., Zhang, M., and Barnes, D.L. (2010). Development of a soil
bioassay for triclopyr residues and comparison with a laboratory extraction. Weed
Technology 24, 538—543.
Selkirk, P.M., Seppelt, R.D., and Selkirk, D.R. (1990). ‘Subantarctic Macquarie Island:
Environment and Biology’. (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.)
Shaw, J.D. (2013). Southern Ocean Islands invaded: Conserving biodiversity in the world's
last true wilderness. In: ‘Plant Invasions in Protected Areas: Patterns, Problems and
Challenges’. (Eds L. Foxcroft, P. Pysec, D.M. Richardson and P. Genovesi) pp. 449—
470. (Springer: New York and London.).
Williams, L.K. (2016). Ecology and management of non-native Poa annua on sub-Antarctic
Macquarie Island. PhD Thesis, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia

2. Case Study

The second assignment is to be a Case Study report where you narrow in to examine in detail
a more specific example of a biosecurity issue. It could, for example, be a particular organism
e.g. the weed bitou bush and the threat it poses to ecosystems along the New South Wales
coast line, or a process that poses a particular plant biosecurity threat e.g. disease risks from
the importation of grain into Australia, or an assessment of a risk management protocol at
Australian borders, or an analysis of the risks of introducing a particular plant into the country
or of a particular pathogen spreading from one country or area to another. The Case Study
may be related to your current or future work. Structure and present the report as if
presenting it to a government department. The Case Study should therefore conclude with a
series of recommendations on how the plant biosecurity risk should best be managed or
regulated. You may also consider it necessary to include appendices of supporting
information that don’t form part of the 3000 words.

This second assignment is not a review of literature per se, though it should include citation of
appropriate literature. It may include other forms of research such as personal interviews or
use of work that might not normally be regarded as scientific literature e.g. newspaper articles
and certain websites.

6
Marks (a total of 100) will be awarded as per follows.

 Logic (25 marks) - Logical structuring of the Case Study (e.g. where you provide a
rationale or background to the topic and identify the aim/s of the report in the
Introduction; address the issues you identified in the Introduction in the body of the
report in a logical order; and make appropriate, well-reasoned recommendations at the
end of the report that relate to your original aims.

 Research (25 marks) – The extent, depth, currency and quality of research in your
report.

 Insights (25 marks) – Insights that you provide into the plant biosecurity topic you
have chosen that may show the importance, complexity or implications of the topic.

 Presentation (25 marks) – Presentation of your report that enables it to be easily read
and understood, helpful formatting, correct spelling, clear sentence construction and
appropriate illustrations.

As an alternative for the Case Study, you may prepare a poster in PowerPoint that
summarises and conveys the key messages of the Case Study for either a general or more
technical audience and reduce the number of words in the report to 1500. Posters are a
common way of presenting information at conferences and being able to prepare a poster is a
useful skill to have.

If you decide to do the poster, then half your allocated marks will be given to the shortened
report and half to the poster.

The poster will be marked primarily on:

the content of the key Insights or messages that it seeks to communicate from the
report (50%), and

its Presentation, in being able to grab a person’s attention and communicate the key
insights clearly and effectively for someone who might stop to look at the poster for
just a couple of minutes (50%).

You need to select your topic for the Literature Review quickly and liaise with one of the
staff to have your topic approved. Likewise, you will need endorsement from Staff for your
Case Study when you come to do it. START on your Review NOW!

Submission method and plagiarism

Assessment tasks for this unit must be submitted electronically via the Moodle unit website.
Files MUST BE submitted in MS Word format!

Please make yourself aware of the student coursework plagiarism and misconduct policy
on the UNE website. http://www.une.edu.au/current-students/resources/academic-
skills/plagiarism. Your work will be checked automatically when you submit if for originality

7
and if it is not found to be new and original, then you could be penalised and even fail the unit
if the case warrants it.

UNE grading system

Grade (Code) Explanation

HD Excellent performance indicating complete and comprehensive understanding and/or

High Distinction application of the subject matter; achieves all basic and higher-order intended unit
85% and above objectives and graduate attributes linked to the assessment tasks; minimal or no errors
of fact, omission and/or application present; clear and unambiguous evidence of
possession of a very high level of required skills; demonstrated very high level of
interpretive and/or analytical ability and intellectual initiative; very high level of
competence.

D Very good performance indicating reasonably complete and comprehensive

Distinction understanding and/or application of the subject matter; achieves all basic and most
75 to 84% higher-order unit objectives and graduate attributes linked to the assessment tasks;
some minor flaws; clear and unambiguous evidence of possession of a high level of
required skills; demonstrated high level of interpretive and/or analytical ability and
intellectual initiative; high level of competence.

C Good performance indicating reasonable and well-rounded understanding and/or

Credit application of the subject matter; achieves all basic but only a few higher-order
65 to 74% intended unit objectives and graduate attributes linked to the tasks; a few more serious
flaws or several minor ones; clear and unambiguous evidence of possession of a
reasonable level of most required skills; demonstrated reasonable level of interpretive
and/or analytical ability and intellectual initiative; reasonable level of competence.

P Satisfactory performance indicating adequate but incomplete or less well-rounded

Pass understanding and/or application of the subject matter; achieves many basic but very
50 to 64% few or none of the higher-order intended unit objectives and graduate attributes linked
to the assessment tasks; several serious flaws or many minor ones; clear and
unambiguous evidence of possession of an adequate level of an acceptable number of
required skills; demonstrated adequate level of interpretive and/or analytical ability and
intellectual initiative; adequate level of competence.

N Unsatisfactory performance indicating inadequate and insufficient understanding

Fail and/or application of the subject matter; achieves few or none of the basic and higher-
Less than 50% order intended unit objectives and graduate attributes linked to the assessment tasks;
numerous substantive errors of fact, omission and/or application present; clear and
unambiguous evidence of non-possession of most or all required skills; insufficiently
demonstrated level of interpretive and/or analytical ability and intellectual initiative;
fails to address the specific criteria; inadequate level of competence.

NI One or more mandatory requirements for the completion of the unit (as detailed in the
Fail-Did not satisfy Unit Requirements) were not fulfilled.
unit requirements

S or US In some units, the grading system is organised on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory

Satisfactory or (pass/fail) basis. When this grading system is used the appropriate interpretive
Unsatisfactory descriptors to apply will be those for the grade of at least Pass or Fail.

W The student withdrew from the unit without academic penalty.

Withdrawn

8
Communicating with You!
The main way that I will communicate important information to you will either be via email
or on the unit website on Moodle, so make sure you check the website and your email often to
avoid missing out on important information. The website is where assessment results will be
posted.

If your questions might be relevant to other students undertaking the unit then please post
them on Moodle for all to see, along with any answers.

With kind regards

Professor Brian Sindel (Unit Coordinator)