Ralph D. B. (Wal) Whalley AM
Adjunct Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, School of Environmental and Rural Sciences
Qualifications
BScAgr (Hons2) (Syd), PhD (Calif)
Contact
| Email: | rwhalley@une.edu.au |
| Room: | Botany (S2) 197 |
| Phone: | 02 6773 2477 (or +61 2 6773 2477 overseas) |
| Fax: | 02 6773 3283 |
Area of Expertise
Grassland Ecologist
Affiliations
Senior Fellow, Robb College, UNE
Chair, Robb College Foundation
Awards
- 2011 - Elected Fellow of the Australian Rangeland Society
- 2007 - Named in the agriculture category of The Bulletin Bayer Smart 100 list ‘for pioneering the study of native grasses at the University of New England since the mid-1960s. His work has made farmers rethink management to incorporate livestock-suitable native grasses in their pastures’.
- 2007 - Awarded Member of the Order of Australia (AM) 'for service to conservation and the environment, particularly through research into Australian native grasses and the promotion of their use for pasture, lawn, and revegetation of degraded natural landscapes'.
- 1988 - First Quinney Visiting Research Fellow to the Department of Range Science, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, U.S.A.
- 1972 - Australian-American Educational Foundation (Fulbright) Travel Grant to the U.S.A.
- 1962-1965 - Fulbright travel grant to the U.S.A. for postgraduate study.
- 1951, 1952, 1954 - Martin McIlrath scholarship in agriculture.
Areas of Post Graduate Supervision
I assist in the supervision of Masters and PhD students in aspects of grassland ecology including general grassland management, autecology of grassland and other species, weed management, and systematics of grasses and other species. I have been supervisor or co-supervisor of 20 successful Masters students and 24 successful PhD students in the past and am currently co-supervisor of two PhD students.
Other Activities
Australian Rangeland Journal – The Rangeland Journal
- 2011 - Associate Editor
- 1999-2011 - Editor-in-Chief
- 1990-1998 - Associate Editor
- 1976-1978 - Chair, Editorial Committee
NSW Native Vegetation Conservation Act 1997
- 2003-2004 - Invited member of the Border Rivers/Gwyder Catchment Management Authority Local Establishment Team
- 2002-2003 - Chair of the Moree Plains Regional Vegetation Committee
- 2000 - Member of the Independent Scientific Group to assess the exemptions under the NVC Act
- 2000 - ESA nominee as plant ecologist on the DLWC Independent Committee to review the Staff Guidelines for Assessment of Clearing Applications
- 1998-2003 - Ecological Society of Australia (ESA) representative on the Moree Plains Regional Vegetation Committee
Meat and Livestock Australia’s Sustainable Grazing Systems Key Program
- 1997-2004 - Invited scientist on the Northern Tablelands Regional Committee, comprising mostly producers
Research Activities
Early ecological and physiological studies of Australian grasses concentrated on their value to the grazing industry but by the 1950s, the general consensus among agronomists was that they should be replaced over as wide an area as possible, by high-producing exotic grasses. The result was that for some 20 years an overwhelming proportion of the research on grasses in Australia dealt with introduced species. Only a handful of botanists and ecologists had any interest in our native grasses. I was among that group and started working on them when I came to Armidale in 1965.
My early work concentrated on the adaptations of native grasses to arid environments. In addition, a study of ecotypic variation in wild oats throughout the wheat belt of New South Wales provided the first information about ecotypic differentiation among these important weed species in Australia. This paper has since been widely quoted in the wild oats literature.
Native grasses have remained important components of Australian pastures even in higher rainfall areas despite the concerted efforts to replace them with introduced species through the 1950s and 1960s. For more than 40 years I have been emphasising the need for study of the autecology of native grasses in these pastures if they are to be properly managed. In 1978 we attempted to set out the state of knowledge of natural pastures and grazing on the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales. This paper (Whalley et al. 1978) has since been used by many as the starting point for further work.
One of the least desirable native grasses on the Slopes and Tablelands (from the perspective of the grazing industry) is Aristida ramosa. We have produced several papers on the autecology and population biology of this species, as well as comparisons between it and more valuable grasses such as Danthonia spp.
The differences between these species encouraged us to continue to study aspects of seed germination and seedling establishment and other aspects of their autecology and value for grazing. These studies led to the formulation and testing of a grazing management system aimed at reducing the abundance of A. ramosa and increasing the abundance of D. linkii in native pastures through strategic resting and heavy grazing. This grazing system was then successfully demonstrated on a commercial scale and was widely adopted in the Barraba-Manilla district. It was the first to successfully modify species composition of pastures in the higher rainfall regions of Australia using strategic rests alternating with heavy stocking. The principle of resting pastures from grazing at critical periods in the life cycles of perennial grasses was widely tested across southern Australia in the Temperate Pastures Sustainability Key Programme run by the then Meat Research Corporation. This grazing management principle then became the basis for the succeeding Sustainable Grazing Systems Key Programme funded by Meat and Livestock Australia and has been widely adopted across southern Australia.
Over the last 20 years the realisation has grown that in addition to their intrinsic value, Australian grasses also have considerable commercial value to the grazing industry by virtue of their drought survival characteristics and lower nutrient requirements. My work has made a major contribution to this progressive realisation and my approach is being extended in other regions by other workers.
There are of the order of 300 species of native and naturalised grasses recorded for the Northern Tablelands and Northern Slopes of NSW but there were only a limited number of people in the region who are competent in their identification or recognition. Recognition of the different species is important if pastures are to be managed to produce specific species assemblages. I have run a number of grass recognition and identification schools for graziers and others over the last 30 years which have attracted widespread interest. These workshops and schools have been commissioned by agencies including the Department of Land and Water Conservation, NSW Agriculture and various community groups such as the Society for Growing Australian Plants, and Landcare Groups. These workshops and the teaching of grass identification to students at UNE led directly to the production of Grasses of New South Wales, extending so far to four Editions and now widely used as a text for grass identification throughout New South Wales. Parts of it are also used overseas. A further small field guide for livestock producers containing 70 grassland species has also been produced and extends to two Editions.
Further studies have been undertaken to better understand the autecology and population biology of species ranging from the grasses inhabiting different parts of paddocks including sheep camps to Spinifex sericeus on coastal sand dunes. In addition, the autecology of introduced weedy grasses with efficient reproductive systems have been studied with a view to being better able to manage these species as components of grassland ecosystems. Some of the introduced weedy species studied have included giant Parramatta grass (Andrews et al. 1996, 1997), Chilean needle grass (Gardener et al. 2003, 2005), Coolatai grass (Chejara et al. 2008, 2012) and lippia Price et al. 2010, 2012). These studies have led to the realisation that grazing management is the most useful tool available to the livestock producer for the management of pasture weeds.
A major project was the commercialisation of the yearlong green native perennial grass, Microlaena stipoides for turfgrass, amenity and forage purposes. The commercial seed production of these varieties has been delayed because of difficulties with sowing the seed through commercial seeding equipment. These difficulties have now addressed by the commercial partner in the venture and commercial seed production is in progress.
The company that now holds the rights for the marketing of our Microlaena varieties, Native Seeds Pty. Ltd. is also conducting research in conjunction with a number of Universities and RIRDC into aspects of native grass seed production and uses. The Second Native Grass Researchers’ Workshop was held in Melbourne in November, 2010 and I was invited to present the keynote address at the beginning of the Workshop, and with a colleague, present the summary of the findings at the end.
Work with the breeding systems of both common and endangered native grasses has lead to a greater understanding of the extremely complex breeding systems that are common among Australian native grasses. It is essential to understand the breeding system of individual species when collecting seed for grassland regeneration or for the commercial production of seed of any native grass. I was invited in 2006 to attend the 5th Eastern Native Grass Symposium, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA and presented the Banquet address on “The sex life of grasses”.
The knowledge gained from investigations into the autecology, population biology and distribution of the species in grasslands in which native grasses are important components, enhances our ability to manage these important vegetation resources. I have been associated with a number of community groups interested in the sustainable management of grassland vegetation including the Moree Plains Regional Vegetation Committee and the subsequent Gwyder/Border Rivers Catchment Management Authority, and the Northern Tablelands Producer Committee of the Sustainable Grazing Systems Key Programme funded by Meat and Livestock Australia.
The Rangeland Journal has continued to publish papers of a high standard on a wide range of topics associated with rangeland management (sensu lato). A contract between the Australian Rangeland Society and CSIRO Publishing was signed in late 2004 for the publication of the Journal. I remained as Editor-in-Chief at the time and the resultant increased publicity has been followed by an upturn in the number of papers submitted. All the back numbers are now available in electronic format from the CSIRO web site and ‘in press’ papers are also available electronically before their paper publication date. The number of issues per year has increased from two in 2007, three in 2008 and four in 2009 and 2010 and into the future with plans to increase it to six per year. The impact Factor of The Rangeland Journal increased from about 0.6 to about 1.1 in recent years. I resigned as Editor-in-Chief in August 2011 and remain as an Associate Editor.
I hope to continue my research into aspects of native grass and weed ecology in the future.
Publications
Recent Publications
Chejara, V. K., Kristiansen, P., Sindel, B. M., Whalley, R. D. B., and Nadolny, C. (2012). Seedbank and seedling dynamics of Hyparrhenia hirta as affected by management factors. The Rangeland Journal 34, (in press).
Price, J. N., Whalley, R. D. B., van Klinken, R. D., Duggin, J. A. and Gross, C. L. (2011). Periodic rest from grazing provided no control of an invasive perennial forb. The Rangeland Journal 33, 287–298.
Bruhl, J. J., and Whalley, R. D. B. (2011). Walwhalleya jacobsiana (Poaceae, Paniceae), a new, rare species of grass from South Australia. Telopea 13, 77–92.
Whalley, R. D. B., Price, J. N., Macdonald, M. J., and Berney, P. J. (2011). Drivers of change in the Social-Ecological Systems of the Gwydir Wetlands and Macquarie Marshes in northern New South Wales, Australia. The Rangeland Journal 33, 109–119.
Price, J. N., Berney, P. J., Ryder, D., Whalley, R. D. B., and Gross, C. L. (2011). Disturbance governs dominance of an invasive forb in a temporary wetland. Oecologia DOI 10.1007/s00442-011-2027-8
Price, J. N., Macdonald, M. J., Gross, C. L., Whalley, R. D. B. and Simpson, I. H. (2011). Vegetative reproduction facilitates early invasion of Phyla canescens in a semi-arid floodplain. Biological Invasions 13, 285–289.
Price, J. N., Wright, B. D., Gross, C. L. and Whalley, R. D. B. (2010). Comparison of seedling emergence and seed extraction techniques for estimating the composition of soil seed banks. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 1, 151–157.
Price, J. N., Gross, C. L., and Whalley, R. D. B. (2010). Prolonged summer flooding switched dominance from the invasive weed Lippia (Phyla canescens) to native species in one small ephemeral wetland. Ecological Management and Restoration 11, 61–63.
Chejara, V. K., Kriticos, D. J., Kristiansen, P., Sindel, B. M., Whalley, R. D. B. and Nadolny, C. (2010). The current and future potential geographical distribution of Hyparrhenia hirta. Weed Research 50, 174–184.
Lewis, T., Reid, N., Clarke, P.J., and Whalley, R.D.B. (2010). Resilience of a high-conservation-value, semi-arid grassland on fertile clay soils to burning, mowing and ploughing. Austral Ecology 35, 464–481
Lewis, T., Clarke, P. J., Whalley, R. D. B., and Reid, N. (2009). What drives plant biodiversity in the clay floodplain grasslands of NSW? The Rangeland Journal 31, 329–351.
Lewis, T., Clarke, P. J., Reid, N. and Whalley, R.D.B. (2008). Perennial grassland dynamics on fertile plains: is coexistence mediated by disturbance? Austral Ecology 33, 128-139.
Chejara, V. K., Kristiansen, P., Whalley, R. D. B., Sindel, B. M. and Nadolny, C. (2008). Factors affecting germination of Coolatai Grass (Hyparrhenia hirta). Weed Science 56, 543-548.
Jacobs, S.W.L., Whalley, R.D.B., and Wheeler, D.J.B. (2008) Grasses of New South Wales (4th ed.) Botany, University of New England, Armidale
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