I am a Agroecologist at CSIRO. I specialise in modelling pest and diseases in agriculture and horticulture for using in decision support tools.
Read about my recent research below, and if you are interested in collaborating on a research topic, visit my CSIRO profile page.




Recent work

UQ Agronomy student workshop on decision support tools

10 October 2024

A workshop to introduce the benefits of consulting decision support tools (DSTs) in Agriculture.
Class resources



GRDC Soil-borne disease workshop

August 2024

Early this month I visited Sydney to talk at the GRDC soil-borne diseases workshop. There were some interesting discussions about the complexity to manage soil and stubble borne diseases in grain crops. A primary concern was, despite heroic efforts by our Aussie plant pathologists, that past research was not easily able to translate to measurable impact.
Additionally growers are not aware of the increasing chronic disease impact as a result of increased stubble retention and zero till farming in Australia.

Overwhelmingly there seems to be strong support for digital tools to help translate research to impact and simplify disease management options with decision support tools. However, will the rest of the GRDC research managers and regional panels agree???

Thank you to Colare group for the invitation to talk.



Starting a new job at CSIRO!!!

July 2024

I am super excited to start a new role back with CSIRO as a Senior Research Scientist. I will be working in a wider capacity on insect pests and diseases, engaging with the horticultural industry and agri-tech platforms to integrate spatial models as decision support tools.

I am working in the agroecology team with the Pest READI and the canola allies project.

Update: A short blog post on myself and Jessa Thurnman, starting with the agroecology team at CSIRO.



Australian Spors Turf Managers Association conference

June 2024

What a treat giving a presentation on ERI diseases to a packed room at the ASTMA Conference in Brisbane.

Giving a presentation on ERI
Giving a presentation on ERI




weatherOz: API client for weather and climate data in R

13th International Epidemiology Workshop

April 2024

What a fantastic workshop hosted by the Socidedade Brasileira de Gitopatologia (Brazilian Phytopathological Society). The workshop took place in Iguasu and was a great opportunity to meet plant epidemiologists from around the world.
I was able to speak on the first day of the workshop introducing the idea that farmers might not be interested in JAFAs (Just another F___ ?fone? App) and that using APIs to serve decision support tools to farm management software could reach more stake-holders.
I will look forward to the next workshop and seeing many of the same good folk and new friends.

Presenting at the International Epidemiology Workshop in Brazil
Presenting at the International Epidemiology Workshop in Brazil

GRDC updates - Goondiwindi and Dubbo

February/March 2024

I presented a talk at “Efficiently limiting yield loss from net-blotch in barley – a meta-analysis” at the GRDC updates in Goondiwindi and Dubbo. This described the results of a meta-analysis of fungicide trials across Australia to determine the best fungicide timing to maximise yield protection.

Read about the results in the GRDC GroundCover article.

Presenting the findings from a meta-analysis of netblotch trials in barley at the Goodiwindi GRDC updates on 5th of March
Presenting the findings from a meta-analysis of netblotch trials in barley at the Goodiwindi GRDC updates on 5th of March



Extract from nested lists in R

November 2023

Extracting from lists and nested lists using the “[[” function is always a bit of syntax I forget and can never seem to google the answer to easily. So I post it here for myself to easily reference in the future. Edit - more information can be obtained from ?Extract.

Wearing my programming and data-science hats, lists can be a extremely useful way to store and organise data. This is especially true for epidemiological model outputs. Yet newcomers will find lists can be difficult to understand and find it even more difficult to easily retrieve data from especially for nested lists. This is a short-hand way to easily retrieve the same element within a nested list.

First lets create a nested list.

# set random seed for reproducibility
set.seed(28)
nested_list <- lapply(1:3, function(x) {
  return(list(
    capitals = sample(LETTERS),
    smallcaps = sample(letters),
    numbers = sample(1:50)
  ))
})

#head(nested_list)

Here we have created a list with a length of 3 with three lists nested inside each list with names “capitals”, “smallcaps” and “numbers”.

Frequently we only want to pull all of one nested list. To do this we use two opening square brackets "[[" as the function, followed by the name of the list.

lapply(nested_list,"[[", "capitals")
## [[1]]
##  [1] "Q" "Z" "I" "Y" "B" "N" "K" "A" "H" "C" "S" "W" "L" "X" "O" "G" "M" "T" "J"
## [20] "F"
##  [ reached getOption("max.print") -- omitted 6 entries ]
## 
## [[2]]
##  [1] "E" "H" "Z" "B" "F" "J" "N" "V" "W" "C" "O" "P" "U" "Y" "I" "Q" "K" "G" "D"
## [20] "T"
##  [ reached getOption("max.print") -- omitted 6 entries ]
## 
## [[3]]
##  [1] "M" "T" "C" "K" "S" "B" "Y" "W" "Z" "R" "I" "H" "G" "A" "V" "P" "X" "U" "O"
## [20] "J"
##  [ reached getOption("max.print") -- omitted 6 entries ]

This also works by indicating the integer of the nested list i.e lapply(list1,"[[", 2).



OnPrime

November 2023

Through October and November I had the opportunity to develop my industry engagement skills. The OnPrime program run by CSIRO provides researchers with coaching on how to improve their engagement with industry and ensure improved outcomes for researchers and industry investors. This program taught me how to develop a research project that is tailored to the needs of industry to ensure research gains are focused on what is novel and needed.

Our team researched the opportunity for developing a turf breeding program to support the turf industry.

I was surprised on the importance of turf in our culture, society and economy. We learned it can cost approximately $700k to import new varieties to Australia from the US. These varieties may not even be suitable for Australia’s varied and harsh climate.
Sporting turf surfaces are at capacity, and with the rise in women’s sport, demand is still growing placing a lot of pressure on sporting surfaces. We could save sporting clubs money by developing a wear tolerant grass which reduces the chance of cancelled games. In addition a more tolerant turf for stadiums might increase the opportunity for more frequent games, concerts and events. Boosting revenue for the stadiums, local businesses and tourism.

Contact our team for more infomation about this project

The Performance sports turf team: Dr Paul Melloy, Dr Bradley Campbell and Catherine Sweeney
The Performance sports turf team: Dr Paul Melloy, Dr Bradley Campbell and Catherine Sweeney



International Conference of Plant Pathology (ICPP)

August 2023

It was a long time coming but this was my first International conference overseas. The ICPP was held in Lyon and it was a scorcher! The city was experiencing a heat wave which placed a topical spin on the conference and how to manage plant diseases in a future experiencing the effects of climate change.
Centre de Congrès de Lyon
Centre de Congrès de Lyon

The highlight for me was the episense satellite meeting held on the preceding weekend. The air-conditioning could barely cope with the temperatures outside and despite the amazing talks, my attention could not help to wander to the Rhone river visable through the window behind the speakers.

The attendees of the Episense satellite meeting were genuinely good company and not only provided stimulating phytopathological discussions, but also extended a collaborative effort into robust research of the Lyonnaise cultural pursuits.
Episense satelite meeting with the Rhone river in the background Episense colleagues sampling Lyonnaise culture

The conference was well attended by Aussies with the close of the meeting providing an opportunity to reflect on the conference insights and how they could be applied in Australia. A small Aussie contingent



UQ Agri-Food Innovation Alliance grant

May 2023

A quick visit to Cauldron Distillery and Winery to take soil and leaf samples for the UQ Industry Kick-starter project.

While it was late in the season and the vines entering dormancy, we found, (Left) possible phosphorus deficiency in the ferrosol soils, and (Right) Possible downy mildew.

Possible phosphorus deficiency in the ferrosol soils Possible downy mildew


Leaf samples revealed downy mildew Plasmopara viticola. Below: (Left) Sporangiophore, (Right) Sporangia

Downy mildew conidia on the end of a conidiophore Downy mildew sporangia



UQ Agri-Food Innovation Alliance grant

April 2023

I am extremely excited to announce Dr Anthony Young and myself were successful in an Industry Kickstarter grant to develop a “Decision support tool to support speciality smallholders and farm-gate producers.”

We are working with Cauldron Distillery and Winery in Mt Tamborine, south of Brisbane, to assess the efficacy of organic and synthetic fungicide timing on foliar grape vine diseases, powdery mildew and downy mildew. The field trial will assist in refining a decision support tool which will help smaller farm gate producer manage disease with lower costs and fungicide applications.



Sampling Ascochyta rabaeii for field experiment

February 2023

Following the Goondiwindi GRDC updates I drove home via the Eastern Darling Downs to collect some Ascochyta infested chickpea stubble. This will be used for inoculum in a field trial we are planning later this year.
Ascochyta lesion on stubble
Ascochyta lesion on stubble

Stay tuned!!!


The influence of temperature and vapour pressure deficit on conidial germination and germ tubes production in an Australian Podosphaera xanthii isolate.

November 2022

I am pleased to share a pre-print of a paper I have been assisting with, titled, “The influence of temperature and vapour pressure deficit on conidial germination and germ tubes production in an Australian Podosphaera xanthii isolate.” The paper has been submitted for review at the European Journal of Plant Pathology. The work was undertaken as part of Zaiton Sapak’s PhD and furthers our understanding on the temperature and vapour pressure conditions which influence germination rate and infection success of P. xanthii on cucurbit leaves.

Powdery mildew is at a high risk of evolving fungicide resistance and improper applications can be costly, hastening the evolution of fungicide resistance. Understanding the conditions at which the crop is at risk of infection will lead to the development of models and decisions support tools which increase the lead time to prepare for fungicide applications and timing sprays for maximum efficacy, reducing excessive spray applications or the immediate cost of applying ineffective poorly timed sprays.

The results from this paper show the optimum conditions for rapid conidia germination and the production of secondary and tertiary germ-tubes (a proxy for successful infection) was 28°C at saturated vapour pressure. Germination was prevented at temperatures above 34°C and below 8°C and reduced at other temperatures. As vapour pressure deficit increased germination and germ tube production decreased in a non-linear relationship and never completely prevented conidial germination or germ-tube production.

I assisted with statistical analysis and final drafts of the paper. If you wish to read the pre-print, you can download it from Zenodo. DOI

You can also find the full statistical analysis and code at the research compendium here..



National Pulse Pathology Meeting & Ascochyta blight Workshop

October 2022

An amazing week of presentations and discussions around pulse pathology and ascochyta blight research in chickpea. I had a great time learning about chickpea breading efforts and disease epidemiology research. I came away with some excellent insights that I wish to apply as improvements to the ascotraceR model. Watch this space.



GRDC Update - Miles - Pitsworth - Goondiwindi

July 2022

At the end of July, I travelled around South East Queensland to the GRDC Updates to present the decision support tools which have been developed on the GRDC funded project I am involved with. A second la nina at the start of 2022 has provided a lot of moisture which are likely to lead to heavy losses to foliar diseases if crops are not managed well for disease.

The main apps we were presenting for the Northern grains region were StripeRustWM and YellowSpotWM.

There was a lot of interest in the applications and many were not yet familiar with the available suit of decision support tools (DST). With a full moisture profile across many of the cropping areas those who were able to sow had more options. With seemingly more growers from the Goondiwindi region going into canola. Some farm managers were therefore interested in the canola DSTs SclerotiniaCM, and UCI BlackLegCM.



Farms Advice - Plant disease modelling interview

June 2022

I had a great chat with ABC rural trailblazer Jack Cresswell on his Farms Advice pod-cast.

Follow this link to the interview.

Or search for ‘Farms Advice’ in your pod-cast app.



Simulation model for ascochyta blight

May 2022

ascotraceR is an R package which simulates ascochyta blight epidemics in chickpea crops. You can find ascotraceR on CRAN, and a resource announcement in Phytopathology.

ascotraceR: An R Package Resource to Simulate the Spatiotemporal Spread of Ascochyta Blight in a Chickpea Field Over a Growing Season



Is UniSuper’s Defined Benefit Division fund worthwhile Shiny App

May 2022

Choice of superannuation is not the first type of research people like to do when starting a new job. Most people want to finish the induction paperwork and financial forms as quickly as possible so they can commence diligently working for their new employer. Therefore I gather most people would not fully dedicate their time to trying to understand ‘What is a defined benefit division?’ and ‘Is it the best super product for me?’. I certainly did not when I started work with the University of Southern Queensland almost four years ago. I was coerced into UniSuper’s DBD and only 3 years down the track I realise it was not for me.

When checking up on my super balance, shortly after starting work at The University of Queensland, I noticed that the total contributions I made from my salary after tax exceeded the fund balance. Suffice to say, I liken the DBD to a pyramid scheme which only benefits people who are over the age of 50. In fact it is almost impossible to have a positive net return if you exit the fund before the age of 46.

To help people understand how the DBD is calculated I created a shiny app which can be found at the following link https://paulmelloy.shinyapps.io/UniSuperDBD/



2022 Election shiny app

May 2022

I have been working on a shiny app to help a political party I am a member of, the Fusion Party, Science, Pirate, Secular and Climate Emergency Parties
The shiny app was made to easily convert electoral boundaries data from shape file to KML file so they could be uploaded on a shared Google maps. Needless to say the app expanded monstrously when I found more data on the AEC website.

I included some analysis of voting preferences by division and voting booth, including expected voter turnout to booths.
Check out the app at https://paulmelloy.shinyapps.io/22_electoralboundaries/



Estimating leaf temperature from NASA satellite data

April 2022

I wrote a blog, published on OpenPlantPathology’s website, for how to use R to estimate leaf temperatures from data retrieved using the nasapower R package. Then plugging the data into functions from the R package tealeaves. The result is being able to estimate the leaf temperature for any where on the planet.

Click here to read the blog post



Efficient control of powdery mildew in mungbeans

November 2021

This paper uses meta-analytic methods to examine 16 field trials over eight seasons assessing fungicide spray timing for control of powdery mildew.

Read the paper in Plant Disease.

Recreate the analysis by following the research compendium.