About us: Dr Scott Laidlaw

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	About us: Dr Scott Laidlaw

Investigating Sludge
drying bay, Werribee

Dr Scott Laidlaw
wlaidlaw@unimelb.edu.au

Name:Dr Scott Laidlaw
Position:
Research Fellow
Group Manager

Postal: School of Botany
University of Melbourne
VIC 3010 Australia

Natural and industrial disturbance ecology, Disturbance abatement ecology, Restoration Ecology, Ecosystem nutrient cycling, Mammal/Plant/Pathogen Interaction

Collaborative research projects with industry (Alcoa World Alumina Australia/Portland Aluminium) and government organizations (Melbourne Water / Parks Victoria / DSE)

Phytoremediation

· Phytoremediation of biosolids and effluent contaminated land at the Western Treatment Plant, Werribee.

Melbourne Water www.melbournewater.com.au is responsible for the supply of water and treatment of sewage for the city of Melbourne. The Western Treatment Plant covers 11000 hectares and processes 52% of Melbourne's sewage, or about 485 million litres a day. This serves about 1.6 million people in the central, northern and western suburbs of Melbourne. About 30% of the raw sewage is derived from industrial sources and past activities resulted in a significant metal loading at the treatment plant. Our research has been investigating the use of plants to extract the heavy metal contaminants in the biosolids. Extraction will reduce the level of contamination and allow reuse of the biosolid stockpile in agriculture or land rehabilitation programs. Current research trials have included willows and, to a lesser extent poplars. Outcomes from this project so far indicate that irrigation is essential to maximize survival and biomass production in willows. The willow and poplar species trialed to date vary in biomass production. There is variation in plant tissue metal concentrations between species and these concentrations are linked to the availability of the metals in the biosolids. Cadmium, nickel and zinc are the most readily extracted heavy metals from biosolids and soils at the WTP. Future trials will determine the sustainability of metal extraction from biosolids by willows and poplars and the suitability of treatment plant wastewater for irrigation of willow and poplar. We envisage scaling up our trials to a Short Rotation Coppice system that will phytoextract heavy metals from the biosolid stockpiles annually

Ecosystem Regeneration Using Fire
· Controlling invasive shrubs with fire in the heathlands at Wilson's Promontory, Victoria.

Industrial impacts on ecosystem processes
· Natural and industrial sources of acidification in natural ecosystems surrounding a coal-fired power station
· Sulphate adsorption in duplex soils

Utilisation of waste water in agroforestry
· Growth of Blue Gums (Eucalyptus globulus) irrigated with domestic effluent.

Minesite rehabilitation
· Growth of Blue Gums (Eucalyptus globulus) in an amended coalmine overburden.
· Growth of heathland shrubs in an amended coalmine overburden.

· Research Fellow, School of Botany, University of Melbourne
· Associate Lecturer, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Deakin University

Publications

Laidlaw, W. S. and Wilson, B. A. (2003)
"Floristic and structural characteristics of a coastal heathland exhibiting symptoms of Phytophthora cinnamomi infestation in the eastern Otway Ranges, Victoria".
Australian Journal of Botany, 51:,283-293

Laidlaw, W. S., Hutchings, S. and Newell, G. R. (1996).
"Home range and movement patterns of Sminthopsis leucopus (Marsupialia: Dasyuridae) in coastal dry heathland, Anglesea, Victoria". Australian Mammalogy 19: 1-9..

Laidlaw, W. S. and Wilson, B. A. (1996)
"The home range and habitat utilisation by Cercartetus nanus (Marsupialia: Burramyidae) in coastal heathland, Anglesea, Victoria". Australian Mammalogy 19: 63-68.

Wilson, B.A., Newell, G., Laidlaw, W.S. and Friend, G., (1994).
"Impact of plant disease on animal ecology". Symposium on Plant Diseases in Ecosystems: threats and impacts in south-western Australia, The Royal Society of Western Australia and the Ecological Society of Australia, Murdoch University, April 1994.

Wilson, B. A., Robertson, D., Moloney, D. J., Newell, G. R. and Laidlaw, W. S. (1990).
"Factors Affecting Small Mammal Distribution and Abundance in the Eastern Otway Ranges, Victoria". Two Hundred Years of exploitation, utilisation and degradation. Proceedings of the Ecological Society of Australia. 16: 379-396.

Wilson, B. A. and Laidlaw, W. S. (1990).
"Small mammals and habitat disturbance in the eastern Otway Ranges". In: The Otways, Flora, Fauna, Conservation and Management, Proceedings of Conference, Deakin University, July 1990.

Laidlaw, W. S. and Wilson, B. A. (1989).
"Distribution and Habitat Preferences of Small Mammals in the Eastern Section of the Angahook-Lorne State Park". Victorian Nat. 106(6):224-236.