Atlas of foot-and-mouth risk
The little things that hold wetlands together
Sticky Beaks
Copper shows promise for didymo control
Styela checks continue
NIWA student Phillip Jellyman examining fish in didymo biocide trials at Monowai Power Station. [Photo: Neil Blair, NIWA]
NIWA has identified a copper-based compound as a potentially effective and safe weapon against the invasive alga didymo, although further tests are needed to determine its effectiveness in rivers.
Recent laboratory trials for Biosecurity New Zealand have shown that the compound successfully killed didymo without harming juvenile rainbow trout.
Part of a Risk Atlas map for Canterbury, showing pig densities within a 10 km radius of piggeries and the frequency of conditions favourable to airborne spread of FMD (yellow, orange, and red segments indicate highest risk conditions).
NIWA scientists have produced a ‘Climatological Risk Atlas’ for foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), based on an analysis of weather conditions that would favour the airborne spread of the virus.
While New Zealand has never experienced an FMD outbreak, Biosecurity New Zealand commissioned the Atlas to better prepare for such an event.
Squid beaks found in the stomachs of Antarctic toothfish from the Ross Sea.
NIWA is examining the stomach contents of thousands of fish from the Ross Sea and Chatham Rise to help understand feeding relationships in these ecosystems. Correct identification of prey species is vital, but often difficult to discern because key features are digested and unrecognisable.
Cephalopods (squid, octopus, and cuttlefish) are particularly difficult to identify when digestion is advanced, but can often be identified from their beaks.
Diver examing pile during port survey.
Over the winter, NIWA conducted surveys for the invasive sea squirt Styela clava (clubbed tunicate) at five new sites for Biosecurity New Zealand.
Styela was not found at any of these sites, which included Timaru Port, Auckland’s Onehunga Port, and three marinas in greater Wellington.
In addition, we re-surveyed Opua Marina in Northland, where Styela was found on a boat in May, and Nelson Port, following the discovery of Styela on a fishing boat in July. No Styela was found at Opua.
NIWA scientist Brian Sorrell surveys a fen in the upper Freshwater Valley, Stewart Island. [Photo: Alastair Suren, NIWA]
Around 90% of New Zealand’s wetlands have been drained or otherwise destroyed in the last 150 years. To protect the remaining 10%, we need to understand what makes our wetlands tick and, conversely, what damages them.
Little is known about life in our wetlands – which include swamps, bogs, and marshes – and how the small aquatic organisms drive these systems. Algae underpin wetland food webs and are important indicators of environmental stress.
