School of Botany - Theses

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    Collected papers submitted for the degree of Doctor of Science in the University of Melbourne
    Neales, Tom Finnis. (University of Melbourne, 1978)
    The two major themes of this thesis of published work reflect my interest in the function of the trace element boron in plant nutrition and also my later, and present, involvement with the whole-plant aspects of photosynthesis and carbon nutrition, including that of crop species. In the 1950's there was,in Australia, great interest in the plant physiology of the plant trace elements - Mn, Zn, Cu, Mo and B. This interest derived from the findings of the 1940's that the correction of trace element deficiencies (in plants, cattle and sheep) increased agricultural production in existing pastoral areas, and also allowed hitherto unproductive regions to be cultivated (see, Anderson, 1971 and Underwood, 1962). My interest in the function of boron in plant nutrition originated under these influences in 1956, when I arrived in Melbourne University on an appointment whose brief was to teach plant and crop physiology to Agricultural Science students. This research interest widened in the early 1960 ' s in include aspects of the photosythetic and gas-exchange behaviour of leaves and intact plants. This was prompted by several influences including an interest in the physiological aspects of crop production and plant adaptation, the horizons that were opened by Gaastra's (1959) pioneering paper, and the availability of infrared absorption instruments (IRGAs) that allowed the accurate and instantaneous measurement of carbon dioxide and water vapour in an air stream. These involvements were much stimulated by the, initially apparently disparate, work of the 1960's on the physiology and biochemistry of photosynthesis in which some intellectual coherence was achieved in 1969-1970. This was the realisation that there existed in plants at least three distinct 'modes' of photosynthesis - C^, C4 and CAM (see: Bj�rkmann, 1973). My continuing association with Agricultural Science, and with its students and problems, also lead to work in crop physiology, mainly using the ideas and techniques associated with the investigation of photosynthesis and growth.