BioBlitz Christchurch 2009
The weekend’s BioBlitz at Lincoln’s Liffey Stream (3.15pm Friday 3rd — 3.15pm Saturday 4th April 2009) found an amazing 1537 different kinds of life, almost half of them bacteria. That’s a lot of things for a small stretch of stream side in a small rural town. They include many surprises, including a native flatworm that had not been recorded in over a hundred years, a European fungus of acorns never before collected in New Zealand.
While most of the little creepy-crawlies like mites and spiders were native species, plants and fungi they crawled on were mostly wild exotic species. While 20% of the plants were native, most of these have been recently planted. Of the wild plant species found, only 9% were native. This is a reflection of the massive transformation to the flora that has occurred on the Canterbury Plains in the past two centuries. It is promising that some natives have been recently planted back into the area. There is great potential for improvement.
Most birds were also wild exotics, a reflection of how much the Canterbury Plains has changed. Only four of New Zealand’s native land birds were found in the area: one singing bellbird, a grey warbler, several silvereyes and several fantails. Similarly, none of the butterfly species unique to New Zealand were found. Only the European cabbage white butterfly and North American monarch butterfly were present.
While the 24-hour collecting marathon is over, biologists now have a stack of specimens to follow up on.
The final tally:
| Group | Speices count | Percentage native |
| Annelid worms & molluscs | 11 | ? |
| Bacteria | 786 morphospecies | ? |
| Birds | 25 | 40 |
| Fungi | 44 | 17 |
| insects | 201 | 77 |
| Lichens | 32 | ? |
| Lizard &frogs | 0 | |
| Mammals | 6 | 0 |
| Mites | 25 | 83 |
| Nematodes | 11 | ? |
| Plants | 312 | 20 |
| Plant viruses | 6 | ? |
| Protists/algae | 47 | ? |
| Spiders | 31 | 77 |
| Total | 1537 |