An Australian grains scientist, Adjunct Professor Jairo Palta, has been elected a Fellow of the Crop Science Society of America (CSSA) – one of the highest honours conferred by the prestigious body.

Adjunct Professor Palta was recognised for his contributions to global efforts to improve crop adaptation to key environmental stresses. These include water deficits, waterlogging, heat, hostile soils and climate change.

His work has a strong focus on root systems, including his development of new root phenotyping methods for use both in the field and under controlled conditions.

“We demonstrated that vigorous and deep wheat root systems increase the capture of water and nitrogen, which improves  early growth and yield in wheat grown in water-limited Mediterranean-type climates,” he says.

We also pioneered methods to study the impact on wheat growth and yields of terminal drought, heat and elevated carbon dioxide. Using radioactive carbon to trace its uptake and movement within the plant, we found that carbon is transferred from secondary tillers to the mainstem ear to maintain grain size at the expense of grain number.

This work led to improvements in crop management practices and breeding targets within Australia. It also impacted practices across arid and semi-arid regions of Europe, North Africa and China.

Adjunct Professor Palta has had a long association with GRDC. He led, contributed to and participated in several national R&D initiatives to improve nitrogen uptake and nitrogen-use efficiency in wheat and lupins. He also contributed to efforts to better adapt these crops to early and terminal drought, to improving early vigour root growth and to improving wheat protein content.

He is based at the Institute of Agriculture at the University of Western Australia. Previously, he spent 27 years at CSIRO Agriculture and Food in Perth.

CSSA is a scientific and professional society of plant biologists and crop scientists founded in 1956 with a vision to improve the world through crop science.

More information: Jairo Palta,  jairo.palta@uwa.edu.au