CANBERRA, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Australia's peak scientific body has revealed its plan to eradicate an invasive South American weed from the nation's rainforests using fungus.
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) announced on Friday that it will release a fungus from Brazil, Kordyana brasiliensis, into the forests as a biocontrol agent to kill the wandering trad weed.
Native to South America, wandering trad forms a dense carpet on the forest floor, significantly reducing native vegetation's access to sunlight and nutrients. A CSIRO study has found that Kordyana brasiliensis only infects the weed and not other plants.
"Weeds are one of the biggest threats to Australia's unique environment. In many areas across Australia they are damaging native vegetation, which threatens whole ecosystems including native wildlife," CSIRO senior research scientist Louise Morin said in a media release.
"Last year, Australia spent almost 30 million Australian dollars (21.33 million U.S. dollars) protecting the natural environment from weeds. In the agriculture sector, weeds cost the industry more than 4.8 billion Australian dollars (3.4 billion U.S. dollars) per year," Morin said.
"The fungus is spread through spores and needs the leaves of the wandering trad to survive. If there is no wandering trad to infect, the fungus dies," Morin said.
Wandering trad has been found in rainforests on Australia's east coast from the Dandenong Ranges in Victoria, where the biocontrol agent will first be released, to those in south-east Queensland, a spread of more than 1500 km.
It has been recognized by Queensland's Department of Agriculture and Fisheries as a major environmental weed.
Ben Gooden, who is coordinating the rollout of the program, said using the fungus was the most environmentally sustainable option.
"Scientifically tested biocontrol agents like this fungus provide a longer term, environmentally sustainable way of controlling weeds like wandering trad, without harming Australian plants or animals," he said.
"Currently, the only tools available to the community and local councils against the weed are hand-pulling and chemical herbicides, which only bring short-term control and have the unintended consequence of killing native plants and disrupting complex rainforest ecosystems," Gooden said.
