FIVE of the country’s brightest minds in agriculture will gather in Manjimup next week for the Ag Institute of Australia’s National Science Award.
Representing WA is Charlotte Jones, who was honoured with the State award for her presentation on research into links between ecological restoration and human health.
Charlotte grew up in Kalgoorlie and spent time in her childhood on the Jones’ family pastoral station, before moving to Perth to complete her high school education as a boarder at Santa Maria College.
After graduating in 2008, Charlotte completed a science degree, majoring in environmental management and conservation biology and an arts degree, majoring in political science, international relations and French at the University of Western Australia (UWA).
Since finishing her undergraduate degree in 2013, Charlotte has worked as a project officer at Sustainable Development Facilitation (SDF) Global in Mandurah.
The company conducts a wide range of economic, social, cultural and environmental projects across Australia and overseas.
“It’s a super variable job, typically we’ll have about four or five projects on the go that I’m working on,” Charlotte said.
“I do a lot of research, data analysis, workshops, interviews and also work on reports, read a lot of documents and write tenders for new work.”
While working full time, Charlotte has continued her studies and achieved a Masters of Environmental Science, specialising in environmental management with distinction.
As part of her master’s degree, she completed a thesis paper exploring the relationship between ecological restoration and human health, and whether the vital ecosystem service of disease regulation can be restored through restoration interventions.
“I focused on ticks and tick-borne diseases and completed fieldwork at six different sites,” Charlotte said.
“Among those sites, I had areas within the site that I used a classification system to say – this is a degraded part, this is a more pristine part and then this is a part that was degraded and has been restored.
“Then I measured the number of ticks that we found, measured the vegetation condition, vegetation structure and indicators of how many other vertebrate species were present.
“I looked at all of the statistics, looking at what were the links among all of those variables.”
Charlotte’s trial results found that there was no significant difference in areas that had been restored from areas that were not.
However, evidence collected found that ticks were more likely to be present under particular conditions.
“There was a difference in that ticks were more likely to be found at higher temperatures, higher humidity and also in more horizontally dense vegetation,’’ she said.
“They need vegetation, they need humidity, they need a certain temperature range to survive and to go looking for hosts.”
She said although the focus of her research was on human health, tick-borne disease also affected animal health.
“The research was looking at the ecological aspects that affect ticks, which then affect human health,” she said.
“So because ticks also have negative impacts on animal health and economic implications for agriculture, there is also some relevance to agriculture.”
Charlotte was among three WA finalists selected to submit her research paper and deliver a presentation of her tertiary studies at the Young Professionals in Agriculture Forum in Perth in March.
The award was presented by the Department of Agriculture and Food (DAFWA) and the WA division of the Ag Institute Australia.
After taking out the top honours, the 25-year-old will present her research at next week’s Science and Innovation in South West Agriculture conference in Manjimup, run by the Ag Institute of Australia and the South West Science Council.
She will focus on linking the relevance of her project to agricultural sustainability at the national conference, delving into the economic impacts of tick-borne disease on livestock production.
It is estimated that 30 per cent of cattle herds in Australia have tick-borne disease, the majority of which are grazing herds in Queensland, the Northern Territory and WA.
Common diseases include Theileriosis, Babesiosis, Anaplasmosis and Cowdriosis (Heartwater).
Charlotte said more research into tick-borne diseases and the ecological aspects that affect them was needed in Australia to better inform ecosystem management actions that could benefit agricultural sustainability and human health.
She said the potential for ecosystem restoration and management actions to improve tick control in agricultural systems would be of great benefit, much like they could be for human health.
“It’s such a huge area and everything within it is so complex,” she said.
“I’m looking forward to the conference, it has given me a great opportunity to be more informed about the relevance my research has to the agricultural industry.”
