Research interests

• Remote assessment of forest health in plantations and native forests
• Integration of forest health assessment into strategic and operational inventory systems
• Modelling of forest health disorders (e.g. Bell Miner Associated Dieback)
• Soil – applied systemic insecticides for eucalypt plantation establishment

Background

Dr Christine Stone is a Principal Research Scientist in DPI’s Science and Research Division. She leads the Forest Health Management research program in the Forest Resources Research unit. The Forest Health Management program undertakes research and develops management options that aim to minimise the impact of damaging agents of plantations and forests within the current commercial, environmental and regulatory framework.

Christine has a background in forest entomology and has research experience with most of the commercially damaging agents and processes affecting commercial plantations and forests in NSW.  She is recognised as a national authority in the application of remote sensing technologies for assessment of forest health and is currently a key researcher in Program 1 of the Forestry CRC and a founding member of the Subtropical Forest Alliance.

Qualifications

• B. Agric. Sci. – University of Tasmania, 1980 
• MSc. (Applied Entomology) –Imperial College, London, 1982
• PhD (Forest Entomology) – Macquarie University, 1990

Current and recently completed projects

• Remote assessment and spatial modelling of Bell Miner Associated Dieback
• Remote assessment of pine plantation productivity and health
• Soil-applied insecticides for young eucalypt plantations
• Relationships between the damaging Creiis psyllid, abiotic factors and young Eucalyptus dunnii plantations

Recent Publications

Henery ML, Stone C and Foley WJ (2009) Differential defoliation of Eucalyptus grandis arises from indiscriminant oviposition and differential larval survival. Agricultural and Forest Entomology 11: 107 – 114.

Weggler K, Carney C and Stone C (2008) Effect of fertiliser and water supply on the growth, nutrient status and photochemical efficiency of Eucalyptus pilularis seedlings in a phosphorus-deficient soil. Australian Forestry 71: 54-63.
 
Henery ML, Henson M, Wallis IR, Stone C and Foley WJ (2008) Predicting canopy defoliation of Eucalyptus grandis by Paropis atomaria with direct and indirect measures of leaf composition. Forest Ecology and Management 255: 3642-3651.
 
Carnegie A, Lawson S, Smith T, Pegg G, Stone C and McDonald J (2008) Healthy hardwoods – A field guide to pests, diseases and nutritional disorders in subtropical hardwoods. Published by the Subtropical Forest Health Alliance and Forest & Wood Products Australia.
 
Stone C, Turner R, and Verbesselt J (2008) Integrating plantation health surveillance and wood resoutce inventory systems using remote sensing. Australian Forestry 71: 245-253.
 
Stone C, Kathurial A, Carney C and Hunter J (2008) Forest canopy health and stand structure associated with bell miners (Manorina melanophrys) on the central coast of new south wales. Australian Forestry 71 (4) 294 – 302.
 
Angel PL, Nicholas JD, Stone C (2008) Biology of Creiis lituratus Frogatt: (Hemiptera: Psyllidae), pest on Eucalyptus dunnii Maiden in plantations: morphology, life cycle and parasitism. Australian Forestry 71: 311 – 316.
 
Henery ML, Walis IR, Stone C and Foley WJ (2008) Methyl jasmonate does not induce changes in Eucalyptus grandis leaves that alter the effect of constitutive defences on larvae of a specialist herbivore. Oecologia 156: 847-859.
 
Barry KM, Stone C and Mohammed CL (2008) Crown-scale evaluation of spectral indices for defoliated and discoloured eucalypts. International Journal of Remote Sensing 29: 47-69.

Sims NC, Stone C, Coops NC and Ryan PJ (2007) Assessing the health of Pinus radiata plantations using remote sensing data and decision tree analysis. New Zealand Journal of Forest Science 37(1): 57-80.

Carnegie AJ, Stone C, Lawson S & Matsuki M (2006) Can we grow certified  eucalypt plantations in subtropical Australia? New Zealand Journal of Forestry Science 35: 223-245.

Coops NC, Goodwin N and Stone C (2006) Predicting Sphaeropsis sapinea damage on Pinus radiata stands using CSAI-2 derived spectral indices and spectral mixture analysis. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing 72: 405-416.

Coops NC, Goodwin N, Stone C and Sims N (2006) Application of narrow-band digital camera imagery to plantation canopy condition assessment. Canadian Journal Remote Sensing 32: 1-14. 

Pietrzykowski E, Stone C, Pinkard E and Mohammed C (2006) Effects of Mycosphaerella leaf blight on the spectral reflectance properties of juvenile Eucalyptus globulus. Forest Pathology 36: 334-348.

Stone C and Haywood A (2006) Assessing canopy health of native eucalypt forests. Ecological Management and Restoration 7: S24-S30.

Stone C and Simpson JA (2006) Comparison of leaf, tree and soil properties among mature Eucalyptus saligna in a moist sclerophyll forest exhibiting canopy decline. Cunninghamia 9: 507-520

Professional associations and activities

Member Australian Entomological Society and Australian Ecological Society

Fields of Research

• 070505 Forestry Pests, Health and Diseases
• 070504 Forestry Management and Environment

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

Keyword/phrase list of research interests

• Forest health 
• Forest entomology
• Remote sensing of forests