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Government of South Australia SARDI - South Australian Research and Development Institute

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Rob Stevens

Senior Research Scientist, Irrigation and Salinityrstevensphoto2

BSc(Hons), MSc(Agric)

Phone: +61 8 83039449

Email: rob.stevens@sa.gov.au

Roles and expertise:
Improve the management of both poor and good quality water used for irrigated horticulture

Experience:

  • Field experimentation into the use of irrigation and rootstock genotype to manage fruit quality.
  • Field and glasshouse experimentation into the use of irrigation, variety and rootstock genotypes to manage the production of irrigated annual and perennial crops and native trees with poor quality water.
  • Use of  gas analysers to measure water use and carbon fluxes at levels of individual leaves and whole of vineyard/orchard.
  • Leading tri-state Riverlink Sustainable Horticulture Program

Current and recent projects:

  • Managing soil salinity in groundwater irrigated vineyards
  • Developing reliable model of drainage production from irrigated horticulture at the farm and district level 
  • Managing horticultural production under a more saline environment 
  • Improving the quality of Cabernet Sauvignon grown in warm and hot region

Selected recent publications and communications:
Stevens, R.M., Pech, J.M., Gibberd, M.R., Walker, R.R., and Nicholas, P. (2010).  Reduced irrigation and rootstock effects on vegetative growth, yield and its components, and the leaf physiological responses of Shiraz.  Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research (Accepted April 2010)

Pitt, T.R., Stevens, R.M, and Nicholas P (2010) Sustaining perennial horticultural production under supplementary irrigation drawn from saline groundwater. NPSI Research Bulletin. NPSI, Narrabri NSW. 6 pp

Williams, C., Ewenz, C., Stevens, R., Styles, J., Grigson, G., and Pech, J. (2010). Relationships between normalised crop water use (ET:ETo), satellite derived NDVI, and Ks, the water stress coefficient (poster).  In the Proceedings of the 14th Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference.  Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference Inc, Adelaide, SA.

Ewenz, C., Stevens, R., Grigson, G., Schrale, G.  and Conner, S. (2009) Water use across an entire almond orchard (oral). 10th Irrigation Australia Ltd Conference, Swan Hill, Victoria.

Pech, J.M., Stevens, R.M., & Grigson, G.J., (2008).  Screening Vitis Genus for Tolerance to Boron and Salinity (poster).  2nd National Rootstock Research Forum, Mildura, Victoria.

Stevens, R.M., Pech, J.M., and Grigson, G.J. (2008). Improving yield of vegetables grown with over-canopy, saline irrigation Acta Horticulturae 792, 639-646

Skewes, M., Adams, T., and Stevens, R. (2007) Managing salinity with restricted allocations in the South Australian Riverland.  Primary Industry and Resources South Australia Fact sheet 04/07.  Agdex 200/561

Stevens, R.M., Jones, J.A., Nicholas, P.R. and Pech, J.M. (2005).  Factors affecting Cabernet Sauvignon Quality in warm to hot climates. In the Proceedings of the Twelfth Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference. R.J. Blair, P Williams, and S. Pretorius (Eds.).  Winetitles, Adelaide pps 62-67.

Recent affiliations and sources of recent collaborators
Flinders University
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
Wine Innovation Cluster
CRC Irrigation Futures
CSIRO Plant Industry
DPI Victoria
NSW Agriculture
Various corporate vignerons and orchardists