EIANZ ACT – Division Field Trip, organised by SESL ACT’s Manager

By Kelly Lee

As ACT Manager, I’m part of the committee for environmental professional associations including the ACT Division of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand (EIANZ), and ACT Branch for Australasians Land and Groundwater Association.  

In March 2017, EIANZ ACT hosted a field trip for the ACT and surrounding region that focuses on renewable energy facilities. With the assistance from the committee, I had the privilege to organise the Sun, Wind and Wine field trip on the 9^th March.

EIANZ ACT – Division Field Trip, organised by SESL ACT’s Manager was originally published to: Fertile Minds blog by SESL Australia

Simon Leake at the Singapore CUGE Soil Training Program

As a part of the Singapore Centre for Urban Greenery and Ecology’s (CUGE) training program, our director Simon Leake presented a workshop last week at the Singapore Botanical Gardens titled “Soils and Substrates for Green Infrastructure”. CUGE is a section of the National Parks Board of Singapore whose aim is research and training in all aspects of urban greening. Singapore has already achieved 20% green cover and is aiming at up to 40% over the next 20 years.

The 2-day workshop and field trip was focused on soil as an essential and sustainable component of horticulture in the urban setting.  Both in-situ soil and artificial growing media were discussed. Soils for Landscape Development (Leake and Haege 2014) was used as the basis for specifying soils and AS 3743 –Potting Mixes was introduced as a means of assessing growing media.

Field trips included some massive 35 story public housing towers containing several floors of green roof. Almost exclusively the local yellow sandy clay subsoil is used as growing media both in-ground and on green roofs as there is no weight restriction. The nutritional properties of this soil are not well understood so SESL is arranging for samples to be imported so more specific advice can be given to the Singapore CUGE and National Parks officers.

The following blog post Simon Leake at the Singapore CUGE Soil Training Program was originally seen on: SESL Australia Blog

Red wine or Blue wine?

We recently had an interesting enquiry from a customer, when their red wine turned blue!

 

They were rinsing their wine glass that contained residual red wine with some tank water, and upon contact the water and the residual wine in the glass turned blue.

This phenomenon is easily explained with chemistry. Wines are generally acidic, with a pH around 3-4. In red wine, the red colour comes from pigment in grape skins called anthocyanin. Anthocyanins are water soluble vacuolar pigments that may appear red, purple or blue, depending on its pH. Therefore, they also function as an acid base indicator as the colour changes with the pH. This is the same chemistry behind the litmus paper for pH test.

When we tested the tank water used for rinsing, the water was highly alkaline (pH >10). The water was stored in a new concrete tank, and is likely to been impacted by leached lime from the concrete, causing the water to be highly alkaline. When mixed with the acidic red wine residue, the water turned blue due to presence of anthocyanins, indicating an alkaline condition.

There is a simple test you can do at home to observe this condition, by mixing bicarbonate soda into red wine, and observe if the colour of the wine will blue. This is also handy in removing red wine stain.

Red wine or Blue wine? was originally seen on: http://sesl.com.au/

Expanded SESL Capabilities – Hydrogeological Modelling

SESL Australia Pty Limited has strong hydrogeological capabilities with experience in a variety of projects in contaminated land, mining and minerals, oil and gas, natural resource management, groundwater resource investigation and hydrogeological inputs in geotechnical engineering. SESL can conduct hydrogeological modelling (numerical and conceptual), field program design, aquifer test and analysis, development of groundwater monitoring and management plan, groundwater resource investigation and licensing, and dewatering assessment for mining and civil construction.

Expanded SESL Capabilities – Hydrogeological Modelling is courtesy of: SESL Australia Pty Ltd

LNAPL – What it means and what you can do about it

Many sites that have had underground storage tanks or pipes that have leaked, or above ground storage tanks that have leaked and seeped into the soil, have a layer of contaminant liquid sitting either on top of the groundwater table, or at the base of the aquifer depending on the contaminant liquids density in relation to water. These contaminant liquids are called non aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs).

A light non-aqueous phase liquid (LNAPL) is a groundwater contaminant that is not immediately soluble in water and is less dense than water (like an oil sheen), in contrast to a DNAPL (dense non-aqueous phase liquid) which has higher density than water and will migrate to the bottom of the aquifer. Once a LNAPL infiltrates the ground, it will stop at the height of the water table because the LNAPL is less dense than water.

LNAPL – What it means and what you can do about it was first seen on: SESL Australia Pty Ltd

Pathogen hunting wet weather and plant decline

As a longstanding SESL Soil Consultant I have seen an emerging seasonal trend in requests for our testing services in the area of urban tree health. The end of winter and beginning of spring leads to nutritional assessment of soil to determine what is required for the coming growing season. Summer brings tree stress from drought and heat and unfortunately many instances of deliberate tree deaths, due often to blocked neighbour views. Which takes us to Autumn when its warm and wet. A perfect combination for pathogenic fungi and bacteria to attack already stressed trees.

Pathogens are present year-round however under the right conditions (warm and wet) can become even more virulent. Since our last autumn was a particularly “warm and wet” season it seems very fitting to write this article. There are many different pathogens however this article looks specifically at Armillaria as it’s a particularly damaging pathogen and can be easily spotted at this time of year if you know what to look for.

Armillaria sp. is a fungal root rot caused by several different members of the genus Armillaria. Armillaria affects a wide range of woody species, usually trees, since it is one of the white wood-rotting basidiomycetes. The symptoms are variable depending on the host infected, ranging from stunted leaves to chlorotic growth and dieback. The extent of these symptoms varies with the degree of infection as well as the susceptibility of the host.

The blog post Pathogen hunting wet weather and plant decline is republished from: SESL Australia

Rose Leake discusses Simon Leake awarded Australian Horticulturist of the Year 2016

In December of last year our director and founder Simon Leake was presented with the AIH Award of Horticulturist of the Year, a distinguished award for outstanding contribution to the Australian industry of horticulture. Below is the citation from the Australian Institute of Horticulture outlining the purpose of the award and Simon’s distinguished contribution to the industry. SESL Australia along with the rest of the Australian horticultural industry are proud of Simon’s achievement and congratulate him on his award.

 

The Award criteria:

The AIH Award of Horticulturist of the Year (HOY) is an annual event offering a unique opportunity to publicly recognise an outstanding AIH member. By profiling the excellence of AIH members in this way it is hoped to both inspire and challenge horticulturists in their practice and to promote their skills and achievements to the public. This Award is to be presented for their outstanding contribution to a horticultural project of merit, including horticulture education or horticulture media

 

CITATION     

Simon Leake

Simon began his industry career back in 1981 having graduated with first class honours in agricultural science majoring in soils science.  Even though Simons first choice was a joint Horticulture and Soil Science major being keen to follow Production and Amenity Horticulture the university would not allow him to do a joint major and so soil science won out.

After nine disillusioned months of a PhD in an analytical chemistry laboratory he established the Sydney Environmental and Soil Laboratory in 1984.

Providing much needed testing and scientific advice to the amenity horticulture industry; landscape architects, nurseries and potting mix manufacturers Simon soon built a sound reputation for the diagnosis of plant ill-health and causes of failure.

Simon’s most recent project was providing the detailed design and technical advice and practice for the highly successful plantings at Barangaroo, Sydney.

Some of his other major projects include Darling Harbour, Sydney Olympic Park, Millennium Parklands, Dubai Island World

His work as a writer and lecturer in the soil sciences is in demand and is regularly invited as a guest speaker at TAFE and Universities, Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra botanic gardens, industry magazines, garden clubs’ television and radio.

Simon is co-author of the book that won the 2015 AIH Secretary’s Literature Award ‘Soils for Landscape Development’, a book dedicated to improving the technical specification and manufacture of landscape soils. 

 

Fitzpatrick & Insurance Brokers are sponsors of the Australian Horticulturist of the Year Award.

(Citation used from The Australian Institute of Horticulture Inc. 2016)

 

The post Simon Leake awarded Australian Horticulturist of the Year 2016 appeared first on SESL Australia.

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