Dr Olivia Reynolds
BSc (Hons), PhD (UNE)
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PositionResearch Lead, cesar. Adjunct Associate Research Professor, Charles Sturt University. Jinshan Scholar Fujian Agriculture & Forestry University, Fuzhou, China.
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Campus
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Location293 Royal Parade, Parkville, Victoria, 3052
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Phone/Fax(03) 9349 4723
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Dr Olivia Reynolds (née Kvedaras) is the Research Lead, cesar based in Melbourne. Previously, Dr Reynolds was a Principal Research Scientist based at the Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute near Sydney.
Olivia completed a postdoctoral fellowship in 2006 with the University of Witwatersrand and the South African Sugarcane Research Institute and a PhD in 2002 with the University of New Englan
Olivia’s research themes include landscape ecology/area wide integrated pest management, fruit fly management and silicon-based plant defence. Olivia applies ecological knowledge to elucidate pest problems through the development and implementation of sustainable, low environmental impact approaches that are both relevant to the wider research community and embraced by applicable stakeholders, including growers. For example, the development of novel means (e.g. semiochemical, probiotic) by which to enhance fitness and performance of sterile male Queensland fruit fly (Qfly).
Olivia collaborates broadly, both nationally and internationally. This includes her current posts as a Jinshan Scholar with Fujian Agricultural and Forestry University, and an Adjunct Associate Research Professor with Charles Sturt University. Olivia also recently advanced her executive level leadership capabilities, graduating the Women in Leadership Australia, Advanced Leadership Program with the Macquarie School of Graduate Management.
Research
- Landscape ecology to support beneficial arthropods on vegetable farms (Hort Innovation, Australia)
- Innovation Center for Ecologically Based Pest Management of Subtropical Crops (‘111’ Program, China)
-Silicon and plant defence, habitat management and ecosystem services - Area wide management incorporating the sterile insect technique for the Queensland fruit fly Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt) (Hort. Innovation Australia)
-Understanding microbial communities to improve tephritid pest management
- In-field area wide management program - Adaptive area-wide management of Qfly using SIT: Guidelines for efficient and effective pest suppression and stakeholder adoption (Rural Research and Development for Profit, CSIRO lead)
- Synergistic interaction of sterile insect technique and parasitoids (Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation, Australia)
- Improved population management system for Queensland fruit fly (Hort Innovation, Australia; Plant & Food NZ lead)
- Get tough, get toxic and get a bodyguard: using silicon to augment direct and indirect anti-herbivore defences in cereals (Australian Steel Mill Services and University of Western Sydney, Australia)
- How can silicon protect our crops?: elucidating the signalling pathways and defence mechanisms underpinning silicon enhanced resistance to insect herbivores (Charles Sturt University, Australia)
Teaching
Dr Reynolds actively supervises and co-supervises postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the areas of fruit fly ecology and management, and silicon and plant defence.
Dr Reynolds is a member of:
- International Steering Committee on Fruit Flies of Economic Significance, AUSTRIA
- SITPlus Technical Committee, AUSTRALIA
- Domestic Quarantine and Market Access Working Group, AUSTRALIA
- Australian Bio-Protection Initiative, AUSTRALIA
- Editor, Insects
- Editor, international bulletin, Fruit Fly News
Dr Reynolds is a scientific referee for a number of journals including: Scientific Reports, PLOSOne, Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata, Journal of Pest Science and Journal of Environmental and Experimental Botany.
- Silicon and plant defence against arthropod stressors
- Landscape ecology/habitat management
- Area wide-integrated pest management
- Integrated pest management
- focus on behaviour and ecology of fruit flies and their parasitoids - Sterile insect technique; particularly improving sterile insect rearing and release techniques including enhancing sterile male performance traits using proteins, semiochemicals and microbial symbionts
Read more on CSU Research Output CRO
(Selected publications)
Coskun D, Deshmukh R, Sonah H, Menzies JG, Reynolds O, Ma JF, Kronzucker HJ and Bélanger RR. 2018. The controversies of silicon’s role in plant biology. Tansley review, New Phytologist.
Gurr GM, Reynolds OL, Johnson AC, Desneux N, Zalucki MP, Furlong MJ, Li Z, Akutse K, Chen J and You M. 2018. Landscape ecology and expanding range of biocontrol agent taxa enhance prospects for diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) management: A review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development.
Deutscher A, Burke CM, Darling AE, Riegler M, Reynolds OL# & Chapman TA#. 2018. Near Full-length 16S rDNA Next-Generation Sequencing Revealed Asaia as a Common Midgut Bacterium of Wild and Domesticated Queensland Fruit Fly Larvae. Microbiome, 6:85. # joint senior authors
Frew A, Weston A, Reynolds OL & Gurr GM. 2018. The role of silicon in plant biology: a paradigm shift in research approach. Annals of Botany, doi: 10.1093/aob/mcy009.
Khan, MAM, Manoukis N, Gurr GM, Osborne T, Barchia I & Reynolds OL (2017). Raspberry ketone increases survival and reduces sterile male Bactrocera tryoni Froggatt response to cue-lure: implications for sterile insect technique programs. Scientific Reports, 7:13366.
Liu J, Zhang P, Zhu J, Han L, Reynolds OL, Wu J, Shao Y, Zeng R, You M & Gurr G (2017). First evidence of silicon supplementation altering plant herbivore induced plant volatiles to enhance attraction of parasitoids. Frontiers in Plant Science, 8:1265.
Deutscher A, Reynolds OL & Chapman T (2017). Yeast: an Overlooked Component of Bactrocera tryoni (Diptera: Tephritidae) Larval Gut Microbiota. Journal of Economic Entomology, 110: 298-300.
Reynolds OL, Padula M, Zeng RS & Gurr GM (2016). Silicon: potential to promote direct and indirect effects on plant defence against arthropod pests. Frontiers in Plant Science, 7, article 744. eBook: Crop Traits for defense against pests and disease: durability, breakdown and future prospects. Eds: Alison J. Karley, Scott N. Johnson, Rex Brennan and Peter J. Gregory. Frontiers in Plant Science, 241-253.
Reynolds OL, Orchard BA, Collins SR and Taylor PW (2014). Yeast hydrolysate supplementation increases field abundance and persistence of sexually mature sterile Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni (Froggatt). Bulletin of Entomological Research 104: 251-261.
Gurr GM and Kvedaras OL (2009). Synergizing biological control: Scope for sterile insect technique, induced plant defences and cultural techniques to enhance natural enemy impact? Biological Control 52: 198-207.