#lincolnuniversitynz — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #lincolnuniversitynz, aggregated by home.social.
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Here's some good news about local birds here in NZ.
Today I've been editing the final draft of a MSc thesis by Stacey Lewthwaite. Stacey has been applying her data skills to my 20+ year dataset of species counts between Christchurch and Lincoln. The bulk of her thesis has focused on looking at the phenology shifts (in abundance, flowering, singing) associated with climate change.
I don't want to steal much of Stacey's thunder just yet but I wanted to share these two good news graphs. These are the numbers of korimako (NZ bellbirds) and ducks (mallards/greylard hybrids) that I've counted per bike ride over the past two decades.
Both species have got *considerably* more abundant over this time period.
For korimako, we think it's because of the forest regeneration and mammalian predator control in their breeding grounds in the nearby Port Hills, done by City Council rangers and Summit Road Society volunteers. For the ducks, we think it's the planting of flood retention wetlands around the fringes of the city plus the increase in farm irrigation.
So, while we hear a lot of scary doom and gloom about nature in the media, some species are thriving because of our actions. Let's do more of that.
#EcologicalMonitoring #nz #nature #birds #LincolnUniversityNZ
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Bellbirds are back, baby!
The first korimako, NZ bellbird, was spotted today back on campus at #LincolnUniversityNZ. I got a photo and one of the postgrads recorded it singing.
About this time of year korimako have finished breeding in the forest reserves of the Port Hills and some birds go roaming out across the less suitable habitats of the Canterbury Plains. A few find the university campus. It's usually the male birds that get this far out, as was the case today.
https://www.inaturalist.nz/observations/349975490
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I spent this week up in the Craigieburn Forest Park of the NZ Southern Alps helping to teach our Masters level Conservation Biology course at #LincolnUniversityNZ.
This is the first year we've run the course field trip at this location. We did so to better understand how nature is recovering after the big December 2024 fire in the area.
We were joined by retired restoration ecologist and pine expert Nick Ledgard, who spent much of his career working at the site. Nick now has a set of restoration trials set up to learn how to increase the native cover in the burnt area. The worry is that if left alone it will transition to a largely weed dominated vegetation.
@frankashwood joined us for the first days of the trip to help us monitor the soil invertebrates establishing in the burnt areas, which we're comparing with the unburnt areas.
@TimCurran was also with us for a day to better understand how the fire spread through the area, and why a lot of the mountain beech forest did not burn.
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It's a weird time to be working at #LincolnUniversityNZ.
We've bounced back from the earthquakes and covid lockdowns and there's been an optimistic buzz in the air. The earthquake damaged buildings are mostly replaced and in the last few years Lincoln has had some of its highest enrolments ever. Last year it graduated the highest number of graduates in its 147 year history.
Ironically, getting more enrolments than expected has been bad because that doesn't equate to more government funding, which instead continues to decline in real terms. NZ universities receive about *a third* less funding than the OECD average.
The solution, we learned from the Vice Chancellor Grant Edwards yesterday, is that the university is going to have to lose 40 of it's about 700 staff. Presumably those that remain will, once again, need to pick up the slack.
This kind of austerity is squeezing the life out of NZ's universities. The same thing is happening to the science sector. NZ's newly combined Bioeconomy Science Institute also going through redundancies so it can survive on less government funding.
Please remember this at the upcoming election. Investing tax dollars in research and higher education is *good* for the country.
😔
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/590629/lincoln-university-to-cut-40-full-time-equivalent-jobs
https://insidegovernment.co.nz/record-graduation-for-lincoln-university/
#LincolnUniversityNZ #jobcuts #austerity #science #universities #AcademicChatter
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I've just returned from our three day annual Biodiversity Coast-to-Coast field trip with our second year ecology course at #LincolnUniversityNZ. We traversed NZ's South Island east to west and back again. The students surveyed birds, plants, invertebrates, and mushrooms in 10 m by 10 m plots at seven sites along the way. The students have the time to explore and document the myriad of species they find.
This is now the 12th year we've been running this field trip, at the same sites with the same survey methods. We use the data in a lab later in the course to describe and discuss the patterns and trends in biodiversity.
I now have a pile of photos to sort and upload to our course project on #iNaturalist, as do our students. Here's a quick taste of the trip (which was excellent fun).
Big thanks to Lincoln Uni. lecturers @GodsoeWilliam and @frankashwood for coming along for the first time. It was *terrific* having them there sharing their expertise with the course.
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Earlier this week I had the good fortune to help #LincolnUniversityNZ ecology Masters student Heidi Allan with her field work.
Heidi's got an ambitious big-scale discovery project going, looking at the beetle communities in native NZ beech forest canopies all the way from Kaikoura on the east coast to Punakaiki on the west coast, and from the lowlands up into the Southern Alps.
The beetle community in NZ's beech canopies is largely unexplored, and has never been sampled at anything close to this scale before. Heidi's bound to find lots of new things. She'll also greatly increase our knowledge of how this community is affected by climate.
Here are some photos from our trip. Along with Heidi are John Marris, the curator of our university entomology museum, and our university's herpetologist (and lover of creepy crawlies) Jennifer Gillette.
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One of the highlights of my day was when William Harland, a talented ecology undergrad here at #LincolnUniversityNZ, stopped by my office to show me his photos of temnocephalid flatworms. These distinctive squat tentacled flatworms live in colonies on NZ's freshwater crayfish, koura, and eat scraps left over when the koura feed. They apparently cause no bother to the koura.
William found these at Poolburn Reservoir in central Otago.
Amazing!
The photo is CC-BY William Harland: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/341041723
Here are more photos of these crazy flatworms on #iNaturalistNZ: https://inaturalist.nz/observations?verifiable=true&taxon_id=868829&place_id=6803&preferred_place_id=6803#invertebrates #flatworms #NaturalHistory #NZ #Freshwater #crayfish #crustaceans #nature #crayfish
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One of the highlights of my day was when William Harland, a talented ecology undergrad here at #LincolnUniversityNZ, stopped by my office to show me his photos of temnocephalid flatworms. These distinctive squat tentacled flatworms live in colonies on NZ's freshwater crayfish, koura, and eat scraps left over when the koura feed. They apparently cause no bother to the koura.
William found these at Poolburn Reservoir in central Otago.
Amazing!
The photo is CC-BY William Harland: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/341041723
Here are more photos of these crazy flatworms on #iNaturalistNZ: https://inaturalist.nz/observations?verifiable=true&taxon_id=868829&place_id=6803&preferred_place_id=6803#invertebrates #flatworms #NaturalHistory #NZ #Freshwater #crayfish #crustaceans #nature #crayfish
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One of the highlights of my day was when William Harland, a talented ecology undergrad here at #LincolnUniversityNZ, stopped by my office to show me his photos of temnocephalid flatworms. These distinctive squat tentacled flatworms live in colonies on NZ's freshwater crayfish, koura, and eat scraps left over when the koura feed. They apparently cause no bother to the koura.
William found these at Poolburn Reservoir in central Otago.
Amazing!
The photo is CC-BY William Harland: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/341041723
Here are more photos of these crazy flatworms on #iNaturalistNZ: https://inaturalist.nz/observations?verifiable=true&taxon_id=868829&place_id=6803&preferred_place_id=6803#invertebrates #flatworms #NaturalHistory #NZ #Freshwater #crayfish #crustaceans #nature #crayfish
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One of the highlights of my day was when William Harland, a talented ecology undergrad here at #LincolnUniversityNZ, stopped by my office to show me his photos of temnocephalid flatworms. These distinctive squat tentacled flatworms live in colonies on NZ's freshwater crayfish, koura, and eat scraps left over when the koura feed. They apparently cause no bother to the koura.
William found these at Poolburn Reservoir in central Otago.
Amazing!
The photo is CC-BY William Harland: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/341041723
Here are more photos of these crazy flatworms on #iNaturalistNZ: https://inaturalist.nz/observations?verifiable=true&taxon_id=868829&place_id=6803&preferred_place_id=6803#invertebrates #flatworms #NaturalHistory #NZ #Freshwater #crayfish #crustaceans #nature #crayfish
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I spent part of my summer on Banks Peninsula with a team from #LincolnUniversityNZ monitoring lizards, invertebrates, and birds. We also, optimistically, put out a set of bat recorders.
Native bats haven't been reliably sighted on Banks Peninsula in many decades but there's always hope that there's a colony or two out there somewhere. If you know the Peninsula, we put our recorders out at Tutakakahikura, Ellangowan, Panama Rock, Mount Pearce, Hay Reserve, and Montgomery Reserve. All have areas of old growth forest with some gnarly old trees where bats could roost.
Sadly, the results are in and we detected no bats.
:ablobsigh:
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I just got back from the first lab for my Biological Diversity course at #LincolnUniversityNZ. Today's lab was about the local butterfly species, plus we began to teach students the local birds. Near the end of lab we went out for a walk across campus to practise and see what we could find.
I took the students to see the butterfly host plants on campus, including the one small patch of planted Muehlenbeckia complexa on campus.
I stood next to the plant talking about how it was a host plant for the Canterbury winter copper butterfly, but how those have very rarely been seen on campus (sighted in just two years of the past two decades). One of the students, Mieke, interrupted me to point and said, "there's one there". And, yes, there was!
So here it is, the 16th observation of the Canterbury winter copper butterfly from Lincoln University campus.
😀
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I've been up in the North Canterbury mountains this week, helping to teach our third-year undergraduate field ecology research course at #LincolnUniversityNZ. It was great fun, as always, helping students to carry out their first ecology research projects.
I'm collapsed back home, and very tired, after a week of long days outside then nights spent at the moth light. I've got a small mountain of photos to sort out and upload. That can wait until another day but here's a small taste.
#ecology #fieldwork #fieldTrip #nz #BoyleRiverOutdoorEducationCentre #Boyle
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For the past week four of us from #LincolnUniversityNZ were based at Hinewai Reserve on Banks Peninsula, NZ. We visited a set of monitoring sites in and out of the predator control area of the Predator Free Banks Peninsula project. Predator Free Banks Peninsula is primarily targetting brush-tailed possums at the moment and we're interested in how that is affecting birds, lizards, and invertebrates.
We've been doing this for several years so we're also interested in what the general trends are in these animals in this amazing landscape.
We counted, weighed, and photographed all the lizards in our lizard shelters (mostly geckos). Jennifer Gillette is using the unique patterns on geckos' backs and irises to track individuals over the years.
We also brought in our audio recorders, which monitored birds and, optimistically, bats. Bats haven't officially been detected on Banks Peninsula in decades. There's still hope so we put out bat recorders in several of the areas of oldest forest.
We also brought in our invertebrate pitfall traps.
We've got three more days on the Peninsula this coming week, then we can get stuck into identifying the specimens, processing the data, and finding our what the patterns and trends are.
#ecology #fieldwork #EcologicalMonitoring #BanksPeninsula #NZ
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@rnzbot_nz The venomous noble false widow spider was first detected in NZ by people uploading photos of it to #iNaturalist. The earliest find was a photo uploaded from Porirua back in 2020, identified this year.
The first Christchurch observations were made this year by Dustin Edmundson, a postgrad at #LincolnUniversityNZ who is about to start his PhD on NZ spiders. Dustin wrote a handy journal post on #iNaturalistNZ about how to identify the noble false widow in NZ and separate it from other similar looking spiders.
As the RNZ article mentions, it's surprising that more of these have not been reported given the media attention it's had this year. Maybe they are just beginning to spread in NZ. It would be useful if more people were looking out for them.
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I spent yesterday at Travis Wetland, Ōruapaeroa, which is a large wetland restoration site in eastern Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ. One of my MSc students, Tommy, is embarking on an invertebrate survey of the wetland, and we spent the day setting up Malaise traps (to catching flying insects) and pitfall traps (to catch invertebrates on the ground).
Tommy is repeating a survey done back in 1995–1996, when the wetland (then mostly wet farmland) was being purchased from a housing developer by the City Council.
We expect a lot to have changed (hopefully mostly for the better) as the vegetation of the wetland is much more diverse and native than it was.
Stay tuned over the summer for insect discoveries.
#entomology #wetland #restoration #InsectSurvey #insects #nz #LincolnUniversityNZ #research
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I spent yesterday at Travis Wetland, Ōruapaeroa, which is a large wetland restoration site in eastern Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ. One of my MSc students, Tommy, is embarking on an invertebrate survey of the wetland, and we spent the day setting up Malaise traps (to catching flying insects) and pitfall traps (to catch invertebrates on the ground).
Tommy is repeating a survey done back in 1995–1996, when the wetland (then mostly wet farmland) was being purchased from a housing developer by the City Council.
We expect a lot to have changed (hopefully mostly for the better) as the vegetation of the wetland is much more diverse and native than it was.
Stay tuned over the summer for insect discoveries.
#entomology #wetland #restoration #InsectSurvey #insects #nz #LincolnUniversityNZ #research
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I spent yesterday at Travis Wetland, Ōruapaeroa, which is a large wetland restoration site in eastern Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ. One of my MSc students, Tommy, is embarking on an invertebrate survey of the wetland, and we spent the day setting up Malaise traps (to catching flying insects) and pitfall traps (to catch invertebrates on the ground).
Tommy is repeating a survey done back in 1995–1996, when the wetland (then mostly wet farmland) was being purchased from a housing developer by the City Council.
We expect a lot to have changed (hopefully mostly for the better) as the vegetation of the wetland is much more diverse and native than it was.
Stay tuned over the summer for insect discoveries.
#entomology #wetland #restoration #InsectSurvey #insects #nz #LincolnUniversityNZ #research
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I spent yesterday at Travis Wetland, Ōruapaeroa, which is a large wetland restoration site in eastern Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ. One of my MSc students, Tommy, is embarking on an invertebrate survey of the wetland, and we spent the day setting up Malaise traps (to catching flying insects) and pitfall traps (to catch invertebrates on the ground).
Tommy is repeating a survey done back in 1995–1996, when the wetland (then mostly wet farmland) was being purchased from a housing developer by the City Council.
We expect a lot to have changed (hopefully mostly for the better) as the vegetation of the wetland is much more diverse and native than it was.
Stay tuned over the summer for insect discoveries.
#entomology #wetland #restoration #InsectSurvey #insects #nz #LincolnUniversityNZ #research
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I spent yesterday at Travis Wetland, Ōruapaeroa, which is a large wetland restoration site in eastern Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ. One of my MSc students, Tommy, is embarking on an invertebrate survey of the wetland, and we spent the day setting up Malaise traps (to catching flying insects) and pitfall traps (to catch invertebrates on the ground).
Tommy is repeating a survey done back in 1995–1996, when the wetland (then mostly wet farmland) was being purchased from a housing developer by the City Council.
We expect a lot to have changed (hopefully mostly for the better) as the vegetation of the wetland is much more diverse and native than it was.
Stay tuned over the summer for insect discoveries.
#entomology #wetland #restoration #InsectSurvey #insects #nz #LincolnUniversityNZ #research
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One of the fun things about working in an ecology department at a university is being surrounded by people who are *really, really good* at finding interesting critters.
On Thursday we took our annual first year ecology course field trip to Ōtamahua/Quail Island. That's a reserve in the middle of Lyttelton Harbour, where the pest mammals (except mice) have been removed and lots of trees have been planted. It was a great day.
Here's entomology Masters student George Gibbs, a genius at finding insects, with one of a pair of mating stick insects that he found.
And, here's Jennifer Gillette, our talented herpetologist, with two native geckos she found. (Don't pick up geckos. Jennifer has training and a permit from the Department of Conservation to handle these.)
#LincolnUniversityNZ #nature #insects #geckos #NZ #CanterburyNZ #QuailIsland #Ōtamahua
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NEWS FLASH: We have CLAMS living on campus!
As part of last week's Sustainability Week at #LincolnUniversityNZ, our freshwater ecology tutor Elysia Harcombe did some kick sampling along a farm ditch. Yes, she found clams!
It's the first record on #iNaturalist of clams on campus, or anywhere in Lincoln (and we've been kick sampling in the Liffey Stream through Lincoln for several years in my biodiversity class).
There are records of some clams living in the Yarrs Lagoon wetland reserve to the south of campus, but that's about 3 km to the south (which is downstream and is not connected to campus).
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/316195607
[Edit: “Sustainability Week”, not “Sustainability Weed”, which would be a bad thing. ]
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NEWS FLASH: We have CLAMS living on campus!
As part of last week's Sustainability Week at #LincolnUniversityNZ, our freshwater ecology tutor Elysia Harcombe did some kick sampling along a farm ditch. Yes, she found clams!
It's the first record on #iNaturalist of clams on campus, or anywhere in Lincoln (and we've been kick sampling in the Liffey Stream through Lincoln for several years in my biodiversity class).
There are records of some clams living in the Yarrs Lagoon wetland reserve to the south of campus, but that's about 3 km to the south (which is downstream and is not connected to campus).
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/316195607
[Edit: “Sustainability Week”, not “Sustainability Weed”, which would be a bad thing. ]
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NEWS FLASH: We have CLAMS living on campus!
As part of last week's Sustainability Week at #LincolnUniversityNZ, our freshwater ecology tutor Elysia Harcombe did some kick sampling along a farm ditch. Yes, she found clams!
It's the first record on #iNaturalist of clams on campus, or anywhere in Lincoln (and we've been kick sampling in the Liffey Stream through Lincoln for several years in my biodiversity class).
There are records of some clams living in the Yarrs Lagoon wetland reserve to the south of campus, but that's about 3 km to the south (which is downstream and is not connected to campus).
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/316195607
[Edit: “Sustainability Week”, not “Sustainability Weed”, which would be a bad thing. ]
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NEWS FLASH: We have CLAMS living on campus!
As part of last week's Sustainability Week at #LincolnUniversityNZ, our freshwater ecology tutor Elysia Harcombe did some kick sampling along a farm ditch. Yes, she found clams!
It's the first record on #iNaturalist of clams on campus, or anywhere in Lincoln (and we've been kick sampling in the Liffey Stream through Lincoln for several years in my biodiversity class).
There are records of some clams living in the Yarrs Lagoon wetland reserve to the south of campus, but that's about 3 km to the south (which is downstream and is not connected to campus).
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/316195607
[Edit: “Sustainability Week”, not “Sustainability Weed”, which would be a bad thing. ]
-
NEWS FLASH: We have CLAMS living on campus!
As part of last week's Sustainability Week at #LincolnUniversityNZ, our freshwater ecology tutor Elysia Harcombe did some kick sampling along a farm ditch. Yes, she found clams!
It's the first record on #iNaturalist of clams on campus, or anywhere in Lincoln (and we've been kick sampling in the Liffey Stream through Lincoln for several years in my biodiversity class).
There are records of some clams living in the Yarrs Lagoon wetland reserve to the south of campus, but that's about 3 km to the south (which is downstream and is not connected to campus).
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/316195607
[Edit: “Sustainability Week”, not “Sustainability Weed”, which would be a bad thing. ]
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We had a couple of interesting ecology and conservation seminars this week at #LincolnUniversityNZ. The first, on Monday, was by Lou Sanson, ex-Director General of the NZ Department of Conservation.
Lou is now involved in the 30x30 initiative to protect 30% of Earth's land area and 30% of its marine area. 30x30 is an international effort, driven by 122 of the world's countries, which have all signed up to be part of the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People.
Lou gave a tour of some of the amazing projects happening around the world to protect the planet's wild places, as part of 30x30.
Is New Zealand part of this? No, of course not. We'd need a change of government for NZ to show leadership on conservation and environmental issues.
We do already have 30% of our land in reserves. Almost all of that is in the highest and wettest parts of the country, where English settlers couldn't farm. NZ hasn’t made a national park or a world heritage area in 25 years, and many of our reserves are struggling under pressure from pests and weeds. We have only 2% of our oceans protected.
We can do a lot better. As Lou concluded, “We’re seen as a world leader but we're not acting as a world leader at the moment.”
https://hacfornatureandpeople.org/
https://earthshotprize.org/winners-finalists/high-ambition-coalition-for-nature-and-people/
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We just brought in six audio recorders from across campus at #LincolnUniversityNZ, which students had laid out as part of our long-term monitoring of campus birds.
To our surprise, and annoyance, some pesky varmint has done its best to gnaw right through one of them. I've not seen anything like it before, and we've had these units left out in all sorts of wild places.
Either it's one very hungry rat, or a rat that particularly likes the taste of plastic. Maybe if we can catch it and breed it, there's a potential for plastic recycling rat farms.
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An undergraduate student here at #LincolnUniversityNZ, Shuizetinglan, was interested in exploring tide pools so we suggested he visit Inainatu/Pile Bay in Lyttelton Harbour. It has an extensive rocky platform that's exposed at low tide where various intertidal creatures can be found.
Shuizetinglan visited there on the weekend and found several interesting things, like the 5th observation on #iNaturalist from Banks Peninsula of a dwarf brittle seastar, the 1st observation on iNaturalist from Banks Peninsula of a Jewel Anemone, and this, the 1st observation on iNaturalist from Banks Peninsula of a sea spider.
When it comes to local intertidal biodiversity, there's a lot still to document.
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/306719391
#marine #intertidal #tidepool #nz #Christchurch #BanksPeninsula #iNaturalistNZ #nature
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An undergraduate student here at #LincolnUniversityNZ, Shuizetinglan, was interested in exploring tide pools so we suggested he visit Inainatu/Pile Bay in Lyttelton Harbour. It has an extensive rocky platform that's exposed at low tide where various intertidal creatures can be found.
Shuizetinglan visited there on the weekend and found several interesting things, like the 5th observation on #iNaturalist from Banks Peninsula of a dwarf brittle seastar, the 1st observation on iNaturalist from Banks Peninsula of a Jewel Anemone, and this, the 1st observation on iNaturalist from Banks Peninsula of a sea spider.
When it comes to local intertidal biodiversity, there's a lot still to document.
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/306719391
#marine #intertidal #tidepool #nz #Christchurch #BanksPeninsula #iNaturalistNZ #nature
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An undergraduate student here at #LincolnUniversityNZ, Shuizetinglan, was interested in exploring tide pools so we suggested he visit Inainatu/Pile Bay in Lyttelton Harbour. It has an extensive rocky platform that's exposed at low tide where various intertidal creatures can be found.
Shuizetinglan visited there on the weekend and found several interesting things, like the 5th observation on #iNaturalist from Banks Peninsula of a dwarf brittle seastar, the 1st observation on iNaturalist from Banks Peninsula of a Jewel Anemone, and this, the 1st observation on iNaturalist from Banks Peninsula of a sea spider.
When it comes to local intertidal biodiversity, there's a lot still to document.
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/306719391
#marine #intertidal #tidepool #nz #Christchurch #BanksPeninsula #iNaturalistNZ #nature
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An undergraduate student here at #LincolnUniversityNZ, Shuizetinglan, was interested in exploring tide pools so we suggested he visit Inainatu/Pile Bay in Lyttelton Harbour. It has an extensive rocky platform that's exposed at low tide where various intertidal creatures can be found.
Shuizetinglan visited there on the weekend and found several interesting things, like the 5th observation on #iNaturalist from Banks Peninsula of a dwarf brittle seastar, the 1st observation on iNaturalist from Banks Peninsula of a Jewel Anemone, and this, the 1st observation on iNaturalist from Banks Peninsula of a sea spider.
When it comes to local intertidal biodiversity, there's a lot still to document.
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/306719391
#marine #intertidal #tidepool #nz #Christchurch #BanksPeninsula #iNaturalistNZ #nature
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An undergraduate student here at #LincolnUniversityNZ, Shuizetinglan, was interested in exploring tide pools so we suggested he visit Inainatu/Pile Bay in Lyttelton Harbour. It has an extensive rocky platform that's exposed at low tide where various intertidal creatures can be found.
Shuizetinglan visited there on the weekend and found several interesting things, like the 5th observation on #iNaturalist from Banks Peninsula of a dwarf brittle seastar, the 1st observation on iNaturalist from Banks Peninsula of a Jewel Anemone, and this, the 1st observation on iNaturalist from Banks Peninsula of a sea spider.
When it comes to local intertidal biodiversity, there's a lot still to document.
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/306719391
#marine #intertidal #tidepool #nz #Christchurch #BanksPeninsula #iNaturalistNZ #nature
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It's always a treat to find earthstars and today was the first time I'd found some on the campus of #LincolnUniversityNZ where I work.
They come out of the ground like little brown flowers and their central balls puff out spores when the rain hits them. And, then, they're gone again.
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Today I was teaching a lecture about environmental weeds, for our Applied Ecology and Conservation course at #LincolnUniversityNZ. I showed the class the "Environmental weeds in New Zealand" project on #iNaturalist. That was made by staff at the #DepartmentofConservation to gather observations of DOC's 386 weed species.
These are the plants that DOC has assessed as being fully naturalised wild exotics, already present in natural ecosystems, and likely to be having more than minor impacts on NZ ecosystems. iNat currently has 199,588 observations of 379 of these species.
On a whim, in class I decided to see how many of these environmental weeds were present on the university campus.
Was it 10? Maybe 20?
No, 109 species.
Like a lot of urban and rural areas in NZ, our campus is a reservoir of weeds.
https://inaturalist.nz/projects/environmental-weeds-in-new-zealand
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Today I was teaching a lecture about environmental weeds, for our Applied Ecology and Conservation course at #LincolnUniversityNZ. I showed the class the "Environmental weeds in New Zealand" project on #iNaturalist. That was made by staff at the #DepartmentofConservation to gather observations of DOC's 386 weed species.
These are the plants that DOC has assessed as being fully naturalised wild exotics, already present in natural ecosystems, and likely to be having more than minor impacts on NZ ecosystems. iNat currently has 199,588 observations of 379 of these species.
On a whim, in class I decided to see how many of these environmental weeds were present on the university campus.
Was it 10? Maybe 20?
No, 109 species.
Like a lot of urban and rural areas in NZ, our campus is a reservoir of weeds.
https://inaturalist.nz/projects/environmental-weeds-in-new-zealand
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Today I was teaching a lecture about environmental weeds, for our Applied Ecology and Conservation course at #LincolnUniversityNZ. I showed the class the "Environmental weeds in New Zealand" project on #iNaturalist. That was made by staff at the #DepartmentofConservation to gather observations of DOC's 386 weed species.
These are the plants that DOC has assessed as being fully naturalised wild exotics, already present in natural ecosystems, and likely to be having more than minor impacts on NZ ecosystems. iNat currently has 199,588 observations of 379 of these species.
On a whim, in class I decided to see how many of these environmental weeds were present on the university campus.
Was it 10? Maybe 20?
No, 109 species.
Like a lot of urban and rural areas in NZ, our campus is a reservoir of weeds.
https://inaturalist.nz/projects/environmental-weeds-in-new-zealand
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Today I was teaching a lecture about environmental weeds, for our Applied Ecology and Conservation course at #LincolnUniversityNZ. I showed the class the "Environmental weeds in New Zealand" project on #iNaturalist. That was made by staff at the #DepartmentofConservation to gather observations of DOC's 386 weed species.
These are the plants that DOC has assessed as being fully naturalised wild exotics, already present in natural ecosystems, and likely to be having more than minor impacts on NZ ecosystems. iNat currently has 199,588 observations of 379 of these species.
On a whim, in class I decided to see how many of these environmental weeds were present on the university campus.
Was it 10? Maybe 20?
No, 109 species.
Like a lot of urban and rural areas in NZ, our campus is a reservoir of weeds.
https://inaturalist.nz/projects/environmental-weeds-in-new-zealand
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Today I was teaching a lecture about environmental weeds, for our Applied Ecology and Conservation course at #LincolnUniversityNZ. I showed the class the "Environmental weeds in New Zealand" project on #iNaturalist. That was made by staff at the #DepartmentofConservation to gather observations of DOC's 386 weed species.
These are the plants that DOC has assessed as being fully naturalised wild exotics, already present in natural ecosystems, and likely to be having more than minor impacts on NZ ecosystems. iNat currently has 199,588 observations of 379 of these species.
On a whim, in class I decided to see how many of these environmental weeds were present on the university campus.
Was it 10? Maybe 20?
No, 109 species.
Like a lot of urban and rural areas in NZ, our campus is a reservoir of weeds.
https://inaturalist.nz/projects/environmental-weeds-in-new-zealand
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Here are a couple of the invertebrate finds from our three-day field trip into the mountains this weekend with our Field Ecology Methods course at #LincolnUniversityNZ
The weevil somehow ended up in the hair of student Emilie while she was walking through the Boyle beech forest. She put it in a vial and brought it back to the lodge for photographing. It's the NZ endemic weevil Eurynotia enysi and this is the 16th record on #iNaturalist and the species isn't even on GBIF.
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/303365453
The springtail was found under a log in beech forest by staff member Jennifer Gillette. We were looking for giant springtails and instead found this wee cutie. @frankashwood helped us to identify it on #iNaturalistNZ as genus Platanurida, one of the Short-legged Springtails. This is the 20th observation of this genus on iNat globally (there are 2 records on GBIF).
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/303359336
So little is known about most NZ invertebrates that making useful finds like this is easy. We need more people with macro attachments for their phones out exploring NZ's mountains.
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This weekend I've been up at the Boyle River Outdoor Education Centre helping to teach our field ecology methods course at #LincolnUniversityNZ.
That's our second-year undergraduate ecology course that gives students practical experience with a lot of common ecology field methods, and teaches them the background on how and when to use them.
Here's one of our students, Kate, demonstrating the difficult skill of photographing a kakaruai (South Island robin).
Some ecology methods are harder than others. 😄
#birds #nz #ecology #forest #BoyleRiverOutdoorEducationCentre
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Today my Biological Diversity class at #LincolnUniversityNZ toured the Allan Herbarium at #ManaakiWhenua. It is NZ's largest pressed plant collection, a treasure trove of hundreds of thousands of botanical marvels.
Botanist Sue Gibb talked about how the herbarium works and showed us some amazing plants, including type specimens used to describe new species, extinct plants and first collections of new weeds, and some of the plants collected on Captain Cook's voyages.
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Today my Biological Diversity class at #LincolnUniversityNZ toured the Allan Herbarium at #ManaakiWhenua. It is NZ's largest pressed plant collection, a treasure trove of hundreds of thousands of botanical marvels.
Botanist Sue Gibb talked about how the herbarium works and showed us some amazing plants, including type specimens used to describe new species, extinct plants and first collections of new weeds, and some of the plants collected on Captain Cook's voyages.
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Today my Biological Diversity class at #LincolnUniversityNZ toured the Allan Herbarium at #ManaakiWhenua. It is NZ's largest pressed plant collection, a treasure trove of hundreds of thousands of botanical marvels.
Botanist Sue Gibb talked about how the herbarium works and showed us some amazing plants, including type specimens used to describe new species, extinct plants and first collections of new weeds, and some of the plants collected on Captain Cook's voyages.
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Today my Biological Diversity class at #LincolnUniversityNZ toured the Allan Herbarium at #ManaakiWhenua. It is NZ's largest pressed plant collection, a treasure trove of hundreds of thousands of botanical marvels.
Botanist Sue Gibb talked about how the herbarium works and showed us some amazing plants, including type specimens used to describe new species, extinct plants and first collections of new weeds, and some of the plants collected on Captain Cook's voyages.
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Today my Biological Diversity class at #LincolnUniversityNZ toured the Allan Herbarium at #ManaakiWhenua. It is NZ's largest pressed plant collection, a treasure trove of hundreds of thousands of botanical marvels.
Botanist Sue Gibb talked about how the herbarium works and showed us some amazing plants, including type specimens used to describe new species, extinct plants and first collections of new weeds, and some of the plants collected on Captain Cook's voyages.
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I'm at Lake Hāwea this week helping teach a field trip for our Masters level Conservation Biology course at #LincolnUniversityNZ. The surprise find so far has been the lizard team's discovery of redback spiders on the university's Mount Grand high country station.
These are Australian venomous spiders related to black widows and NZ's katipō. Redbacks have been established around Cromwell and Alexandra and are spreading.
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#BiologicalInvasions expert Prof. Franz Essl from Austria gave a seminar today at #LincolnUniversityNZ. He showed a study of the global distribution of slugs and snails. Natives show distinct biogeographic regions. Australasian snails were different from African snails which were different from South American snails. Yet, naturalised snails (moved around the world by people) were just temperate and tropical. We are dramatically simplifying the natural world by moving species about. #molluscs
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Yesterday I saw my 2nd "common" ectemnius, on a roadside near Lincoln, #NZ. This wasp is from Europe, Asia, & North America. It was first found in the southern hemisphere in Feb 2020 in Christchurch by Hannah Nolan, for her undergrad entomology collection at #LincolnUniversityNZ. It triggered a biosecurity response, and she passed the course.
There have now been 30 observations, all in and around Christchurch, as it slowly expands.
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This is my office this week. 😄
I've been helping to teach the "Advanced Field Ecology" 300-level undergraduate course at #LincolnUniversityNZ.
We spend a week in the Southern Alps based at the Boyle Outdoor Education Centre. Students carry out #ecology research projects they planned last year. We've got all sorts of projects happening, from testing possum monitoring methods to seed predation of daisies to the behaviour of NZ's native water spiders.