Tracey Steinrucken

• BSc. Hons (AppSci). BCom. MSc. PhD.
• Research Scientist at The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation

Background and aims Dieback is pervasive in many populations of invasive woody weeds globally. Previous studies on dieback have focused on specific potential causative biotic agents, but most cases remain unexplained. The potential role of endophytic microbial communities in dieback, including the relative importance of endophytes with pathogenic o...

Dieback causes a progressive reduction in plant population health, resulting in the death of plant parts and often plant death. It is prevalent in many invasive woody weeds in Australia and has been suggested as a potential mechanism for biocontrol of these species. Parkinsonia aculeata one such invasive tree in northern Australia. It has naturalis...

In Australia, several well-established invasive plant species have experienced unexplained dieback. To investigate this issue, we used internal transcribed spacer (ITS) amplicon pyrosequencing to characterise fungal communities within stems (endophytes) and soils associated with dieback-affected and healthy plants from populations of five exotic in...

There are five closely related Sporobolus species, collectively known as weedy Sporobolus grasses (WSG) or the rat’s tail grasses. They are fast growing, highly competitive, unpalatable weeds of pastures, roadsides and woodlands. An effective biological control agent would be a welcomed alternative to successive herbicide application and manual rem...

In Australia there are five weedy Sporobolus grass (WSG) species that heavily impact agricultural industries and native biodiversity. WSG have been the subject of several efforts to find host-specific pathogens with potential for classical and inundative biocontrol. Most of these studies are only discussed in unpublished reports or theses, so in th...

Background and aims Tree dieback is increasing worldwide, threatening the biodiversity and functioning of many terrestrial ecosystems. Tree dieback is associated with multiple interconnected changes in community composition and ecosystem processes. These changes affect plant, fauna and soil microbial communities, and soil physical and chemical proc...

Novel species descriptions based on DNA sequence comparisons: Catharinaea doerrieniae Y.P. Tan, Vitelli & Steinrucken, gen. et sp. nov. Catharinaea Y.P. Tan, Vitelli & Steinrucken Floraea campbelliae Y.P. Tan, Vitelli & Steinrucken, gen. et sp. nov. Floraea Y.P. Tan, Vitelli & Steinrucken Aureobasidium aurantiacum Y.P. Tan, Vitelli & Steinrucken, s...

Novel species of fungi described in this study include those from various countries as follows: Australia , Agaricus albofoetidus , Agaricus aureoelephanti and Agaricus parviumbrus on soil, Fusarium ramsdenii from stem cankers of Araucaria cunninghamii , Keissleriella sporoboli from stem of Sporobolus natalensis , Leptosphaerulina queenslandica and...

Novel species of fungi described in this study include those from various countries as follows: Australia, Agaricus albofoetidus, Agaricus aureoelephanti and Agaricus parviumbrus on soil, Fusarium ramsdenii from stem cankers of Araucaria cunninghamii, Keissleriella sporoboli from stem of Sporobolus natalensis, Leptosphaerulina queenslandica and Pes...

Novel species of fungi described in this study include those from various countries as follows: Algeria, Phaeoacremonium adelophialidum from Vitis vinifera. Antarctica, Comoclathris antarctica from soil. Australia, Coniochaeta salicifolia as endophyte from healthy leaves of Geijera salicifolia, Eremothecium peggii in fruit of Citrus australis, Micr...

Phytophthora species have caused the decline and dieback of multiple tree species in Australia and around the world. Dieback in invasive trees in Australia has been observed for decades, motivating research into the potential causes of dieback to be used for biological control of these invasive species. Despite wide-ranging and ongoing research int...

This overview describes work in progress. We compare the microbial community composition of various plant parts of dieback-affected and healthy parkinsonia plants, and native trees to determine if there is a relationship with the occurrence of dieback in parkinsonia. A relationship between the microbial endophyte communities and the dieback phenome...

Mexican Palo Verde (Parkinsonia aculeata L) is a thorny Fabaceae, tree invasive to Australia •Introduced from Venezuela in 18601 and now covers 3.5 million ha of land in northern Australia •Palo verde impacts biodiversity and water access, and also costs the pastoral industry around US$60 million per year in weed management •Dieback has been observ...

Dieback is prevalent in many populations of invasive woody weeds globally. There are many preventative and contributing biotic and abiotic factors related to dieback occurrence. Previous dieback studies have focused on specific potential causative biotic agents, but the majority remain unexplained. Parkinsonia aculeata L. (parkinsonia), an invasive...