New Zealand hosts major biodiversity meetings

Four international biodiversity meetings will convene in Wellington and Christchurch in October 2004. Known by their acronyms, these are GB9, GTI, TDWG, and CHAH.

GB9 (Wellington, 4–8 October) is the Ninth Governing Board meeting of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), which exists to make the world’s primary data on biodiversity freely and universally available via the Internet.The Governing Board (including New Zealand) and associates meet twice each year to discuss technical and scientific aspects of GBIF.

A large part of biodiversity data comprises millions of specimens held in natural history collections and the geographic and ecological observations based on them – the kinds of data not readily available to those who have to make decisions about managing biodiversity.

Using digital technologies, GBIF aims to remedy this problem through four programmes:

• DADI – Data Access and Database Interoperability,
• DIGIT – Digitisation of Natural History Collections,
• ECAT – Electronic Catalogue of Names of Known Organisms, and
• OCB – Outreach and Capacity Building.

ECAT is being achieved primarily through Species 2000, which itself underlies OBIS (Ocean Biogeographic Information System), the main GBIF data contributor for the marine environment. NIWA is closely involved in both OBIS and Species 2000 (see page 20).

Parallel with GB9 will be a meeting of the Pacific Biodiversity Information Forum (PBIF), which provides a medium for collaborative science, management, and education about biodiversity in the Pacific. For small island states especially, there is a lack of knowledge about and capacity to manage biodiversity in the face of limited biological resources and their loss, invasive species, and effects of climate change. GBIF cooperates with several other international biodiversity activities, including the Global Taxonomy Initiative (GTI), an arm of the Convention on Biological Diversity. By focusing on remedies at regional levels, GTI aims to overcome the the shortage of trained taxonomists and curators, gaps in taxonomic knowledge of biodiversity, and the inadequacy of existing natural history collections and bioinformatics in some parts of the world.

The 2nd Regional GTI Workshop (Asia–Oceania) will be 9–10 October in Wellington. It will review current programmes and look for ways of engaging the commitment of more nations (especially from the Pacific). This will be an opportunity to formulate proposals for joint activities that will advance taxonomic research in the region and so further the goals of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The third and fourth meetings are of the Taxonomic Databases Working Group (TDWG) and the Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria (CHAH). TDWG, affiliated with the International Union of Biological Sciences, aims to develop and promote the use of standards, provide an international forum for biological data projects, and facilitate data exchange. These are being held 11–18 October in Christchurch.

NIWA is organising the GTI workshop with support from BioNET-INTERNATIONAL, the Department of Conservation, and the Royal Society of New Zealand. Landcare Research is organising GB9, TDWG, and CHAH with funding from MoRST.

For further information about the GTI workshop, contact: Dennis Gordon, NIWA, Private Bag 14901, Wellington (ph 04 386 0300, fax 04 386 2153, d.gordon@niwa.co.nz)

Winning ways at the NIWA Science and Technology Fairs

Part of the science scene at the Bay of Plenty fair.

Simon McVeagh discusses his project with Dr Lionel Carter of NIWA. (Photo: A. Blacklock)

“Why girls should not swim in Evans Bay” is the catchy title for 13-year-old Simon McVeagh’s winning entry in this year’s NIWA Science and Technology Fair in Wellington. Simon is a student at Rongotai College.

Simon wanted to know whether the marine life in Wellington Harbour had improved since New Zealand banned the use of anti-fouling paints containing organotin or TBT. He collected dogwhelks (small shellfish) from Wellington and Porirua harbours and analysed them for imposex (a condition where the females develop male sex organs) because this is a good indicator of TBT in the water. Simon found that the rate of imposex is dropping in Porirua Harbour compared to rates in earlier published work, but in Wellington Harbour the rate has not dropped as much as he expected. He thinks this is because ships with TBT on their hulls still visit Evans Bay.

NIWA is a major sponsor of the Wellington, Waikato, and Bay of Plenty fairs, which all ran in August, as well as the Auckland and Nelson fairs, which will be held in October.

“The fairs give students a great chance to participate in science and be recognised for their achievements,” says Dr Clive Howard-Williams, NIWA’s General Manager, Education. “Naturally, NIWA hopes that many of the students exhibiting at this year’s fairs will take up careers in science. Young scientists and technologists will be vital to maintaining New Zealand’s prosperity and our remarkable environment in future.”

The Wellington fair attracted 372 entries from 33 schools. There were 487 entries in Waikato, including 136 scientific wall charts, observational drawings and scientific photographs. Bay of Plenty received 173 entries.

The winners of the Waikato fair were Daniel Hodder (Hillcrest High School, Hamilton) with an exhibit on “Mapping Geothermal Resources” and runner-up Timothy Walmsley (Church College of NZ, Hamilton) with “On Cue”. Timothy also won the NIWA work experience scholarship. The overall winners of the Bay of Plenty fair were Brendon Locheart and Daniel Osborne (Reporoa College) with their exhibit “Bale Feed Out Pad”, which was entered under the Technology section.

These students have been nominated to represent their regions in December in the national sciences and technology event “Realise the Dream”.

Measuring climate volatility in the New Zealand region

Climate time series shows types of variation from current climate (solid black line). (a) change (decrease) in mean without change in variance (dashed line); (b) increase (red) or decrease (blue) in variance without change in mean. (Click to enlarge.)

Recent severe floods in the Manawatu and Bay of Plenty regions have led many to ask whether New Zealand climate is becoming more variable. As a first attempt to answer this question, MAF Policy asked NIWA to undertake a preliminary study of New Zealand climate “volatility”.

Volatility is not a technical climate term, but we use the term to refer to the variance about the mean climate – for example, the day-to-day variation within a month, or the month-to-month variation within a year. The graph shows types of variation from current climate. Of particular interest is whether the volatility of our climate has changed over time – either making our climate swing between larger extremes (red line) or making it steadier and less variable (blue line).

For the MAF Policy study, we needed to look at volatility on two levels:

• What’s happening at individual locations where climate is measured?
• What’s happening to global or regional climate that might be causing local changes?

We found several changes in climate variance in the New Zealand region, although the ultimate causes of these changes have not been firmly identified in this preliminary study. One finding was that the monthly variation of sea surface temperatures has decreased in the New Zealand region since the 1950s. Another result was that the day-to-day variability of west–east winds has increased since the 1960s over southern New Zealand (with more extreme westerlies and more extreme easterlies). Trends at individual climate stations were more complicated, with decreased day-to-day variation in temperature at some locations, and increased variation at other places. Changes in extreme daily rainfall (and drought) at individual locations were also mixed.

It is known that the mean speed of westerly winds in the southern ocean has increased, and we attribute this trend both to greenhouse gas changes and to the ozone hole. Models of future climate predict considerable further strengthening of the westerlies over and south of New Zealand during this century. An increase in the frequency with which very heavy rainfall occurs is also likely. Further research is required to explore the full implications for future climate volatility in the New Zealand region, and identify the causes of variance changes.

You can see preliminary results of the study on this website.

For more information, contact:

Jim Renwick, NIWA, Private Bag 14901, Wellington (ph 04 386 0300, j.renwick@niwa.co.nz) or Georgina Griffiths, NIWA, PO Box 109 695, Newmarket, Auckland (ph 09 375 2050, g.griffiths@niwa.co.nz)

Recent publications by NIWA staff

Lists of the most recent publications by NIWA staff are compiled each month and posted on the NIWA website. These lists include papers published in refereed journals, proceedings, books and book chpters, as well as conference and seminar presentations and popular articles.