Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research
New Zealand's foremost environmental research organisation.
High Country Bovine Tuberculosis (Tb) research
Scientists from Landcare Research have made discoveries that could have big impacts on management of high country lands both in the Northern South Island High Country and further afield.
By studying where the vector species of bovine tuberculosis – possums, ferrets and wild pigs – lived as well as their movements between catchments and interactions amongst each other, the team established that a pest control strategy targeting specific habitats and a narrow range of altitudes containing the highest densities of possums and ferrets would be successful.
That means large high country properties would not have to undergo broad–scale, extensive control operations
More: Discovery, Issue 18 »International year of Biodiversity
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Media releases
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Science in Focus - Global Change Processes
Landcare Research’s Global Change Processes scientists are working to ensure that New Zealand has strategies to manage the risks and respond to opportunities that climate change offers for the environment, the economy and society. Our research also develops ways to adapt these strategies in response to changing circumstances as the magnitude and impacts of global change are realized. A number of inter–related research programmes focus on reducing land–based greenhouse gas emissions.
Evidence for climate change and the impact of human activity on greenhouse gas emissions is now overwhelming. Reports such as the 2006 Stern Report and the 2007 IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report conclude that increasing atmospheric greenhouse gases resulting from human activity is the probable cause of rising global average temperatures, and that continued temperature increases will result in significant environmental, economic and social impacts.
Globally, levels of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) in the atmosphere are currently equivalent to ~430 parts per million (ppm) CO2, in contrast to only 280ppm before the Industrial Revolution.
New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions are now 26% higher than in 1990, and are continuing to rise. New Zealand is committed, under the Kyoto Protocol, to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels. Climate change has the potential to significantly impact on New Zealand’s unique natural environment and its multi–billion–dollar earnings from land–based exports. Impacts of a global change in climate may result in adverse effects such as an increase in invasive invertebrates, weeds and diseases. However, they may also generate opportunities such as economic returns from afforestation of marginal lands to offset greenhouse gas emissions.
Our research is developing a process–based understanding of the impacts of global change on land–based systems by providing:
- Data on all three of New Zealand’s major greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide)—a baseline for quantifying the impacts of human–induced climate variability and change, and measuring the success of land–based mitigation and adaptation strategies.
- New tools and technologies to increase the accuracy with which current emissions can be measured and verified, and future emissions and the impacts of mitigation strategies can be predicted. Examples include:
- NZ–DNDC model
- CenW model
- Micrometeorological measurement methodologies
- Spatial and temporal scaling of local measurements and estimates, to regional and national scales.
- Integrated assessment of the impacts of global change, to determine the potential environmental, economic and social consequences for New Zealand, and to inform Government policy decisions to maximise investment and minimise risk for the New Zealand economy.
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