Groundwater ecosystems
Hornwort hits South Island waterway
Carnivorous sponges add to seamount biodiversity
Marine Invasives Taxonomic Service
We are nearing the end of the first year of a four-year FRST programme on groundwater ecosystems. This research aims for better understanding of the natural ecosystems of cave and gravel aquifers. These systems are important water sources for humans, but also support a unique assemblage of animals.
Glowworm food
Glowworm feeding threads. [Photo: Waitomo Glowworm Caves.]
As part of this programme, we recently completed a preliminary survey of aquatic invertebrates in Waitomo Stream.
NIWA’s Rohan Wells with a hornwort find.
One of the worst water weeds in New Zealand, hornwort represents a major threat to the ecology and biodiversity of South Island lakes and rivers if it spreads. Hornwort can grow much deeper than other invasive species, displacing native vegetation to at least 16 m.
This foreign barnacle Austromegabalanus psittacus can grow to 20 cm long.
NIWA is now handling all identifications of marine species for Biosecurity New Zealand under a four-year contract. This includes non-urgent identifications of specimens from contracted surveys, plus urgent identifications of suspected invasive species from diverse sources.
The project involves receiving, identifying, cataloguing, and dispatching specimens to taxonomists in New Zealand and overseas, as well as storing large volumes of both data and specimens for Biosecurity New Zealand projects.
Abyssocladia sp., a new species of carnivorous sponge found on the Brothers Seamount, Kermadec Arc. [Photo: Dr Shinji Tsuchida, JAMSTEC.]
New species of deep-sea carnivorous sponge have been identified as part of NIWA’s Seamounts Programme. Early indications are that New Zealand seamounts may harbour the greatest biodiversity of these species in the world.
Carnivorous sponges, first discovered in 1995, are unlike any other sponge. Small and feather- or dandelion-shaped, they often lack the usual sponge filtering system.
