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

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

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

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

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

#clam #FreshwaterEcology #nz

[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

#clam #FreshwaterEcology #nz

[Edit: “Sustainability Week”, not “Sustainability Weed”, which would be a bad thing. ]

We just brought it 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.

#rats #nz#AudioRecorder #ecology #plastic

We just brought it 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.

#rats #nz#AudioRecorder #ecology #plastic

Yesterday afternoon I was at the #ChristchurchBotanicGardens, with an undergrad student at #LincolnUniversityNZ who will be interning at the garden during the next teaching semester. Luke Martin, the curator of the native section of the garden, gave us a fascinating tour behind the scenes of the garden's native nursery, seed bank, and herbarium.

A lot of work is being done at the Gardens to learn about and safeguard Aotearoa New Zealand's botanical taonga. New natural history knowledge is being figured out about Canterbury's most threatened native plants so they can be kept safe in the seed bank and glasshouses, in case some of the Department of Conservation's valiant efforts in the wild fail.

Some of Canterbury's most threatened plant species only exist in the wild in patches of a few square metres in remnant vegetation on private farmland. The work Luke and colleagues are doing may prove exceptionally important for the survival of some of these species.

There's a lot more to the botanic gardens than a place to see pretty flowers.

#Christchurch#NZ #botany#ChristchurchBotanicGardens#BotanicGarden

Yesterday afternoon I was at the #ChristchurchBotanicGardens, with an undergrad student at #LincolnUniversityNZ who will be interning at the garden during the next teaching semester. Luke Martin, the curator of the native section of the garden, gave us a fascinating tour behind the scenes of the garden's native nursery, seed bank, and herbarium.

A lot of work is being done at the Gardens to learn about and safeguard Aotearoa New Zealand's botanical taonga. New natural history knowledge is being figured out about Canterbury's most threatened native plants so they can be kept safe in the seed bank and glasshouses, in case some of the Department of Conservation's valiant efforts in the wild fail.

Some of Canterbury's most threatened plant species only exist in the wild in patches of a few square metres in remnant vegetation on private farmland. The work Luke and colleagues are doing may prove exceptionally important for the survival of some of these species.

There's a lot more to the botanic gardens than a place to see pretty flowers.

#Christchurch#NZ #botany#ChristchurchBotanicGardens#BotanicGarden