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2025 News

  1. Preserving the Desert Road: the battle against invasive legumes

    The Central North Island Desert Road tussock-lands are special, containing unique landscapes and ecosystems with cultural significance. Yet this special environment faces a persistent threat from invasive species such as broom, gorse, and yellow tree lupin. These fast-spreading plants displace nativ...

  2. Are birds always on the menu for rats in New Zealand’s beech forests?

    A recently published study has shown that native birds are always on the menu for invasive rats in New Zealand’s beech forests, regardless of how much other food might be available. The study delved into the DNA inside rat stomachs and showed that one in five rats in a remote Fiordland forest had be...

  3. The summer the Southern Alps turned red

    When snow on the Southern Alps turned from white to red in the summer of 2019/20, ash from Australia’s bushfires was blamed. But researchers studying the event now say the real culprit was desert dust storms that sent massive amounts of red dust across the Tasman Sea. These storms are likely to occu...

  4. Where the wild things are

    In 2002, landscape ecologist Dr Eric Sanderson and colleagues at the Wildlife Conservation Society Institute and Columbia University, New York, wrote an influential paper introducing the Human Footprint Map, a global measure of human pressures on the environment. One of the original aims of the pape...

  5. Endless possibilities for fungi specimens returned from Kew

    The excitement in the containment room was palpable as a trove of 654 specimens of fungi were welcomed home. Manaaki Whenua staff from the New Zealand Fungarium – Te Kohinga Hekaheka o Aotearoa held a welcoming ceremony for the specimens, recognising the journey they had been on and their return hom...

  6. Ancient poo proves moa were key dispersers of colourful truffle-like fungi

    In a curious case of finding something unexpected whilst looking for something else, Manaaki Whenua’s palaeoecologists have discovered that ancient moa were fond of fungi, particularly colourful truffle-like species that mimic fruit. This discovery, in turn, has helped to advance our understanding o...

  7. News in brief

    Xylella fastidiosa (Xf) is one of the most important plant biosecurity threats to New Zealand. It affects more than 500 plant species, including economically important agricultural crops such as grapevines, summerfruit, citrus and olive, but it is not currently known to be present in New Zealand. As...

  8. Celebrating our achievements

    The annual Science New Zealand Awards celebrate the people whose research and innovation makes real-world differences. The theme of this year’s awards was ‘Impacts for Aotearoa New Zealand’, recognising the research driving innovation and tangible outcomes that benefit New Zealanders.

  9. How do we know that we have searched enough, when we do not find what we are looking for?

    This is a question that most managers face when attempting to ascertain the presence of a pest or a pathogen in an area, so that management actions can be planned accordingly. But what is the point at which researchers can stop looking, knowing with confidence that an area is pest- or pathogen-free?

  10. Working the ‘shroom: the New Zealand Fungal Foray heads to Taranaki

    This week sees the 36th annual New Zealand Fungal Foray taking place in the forests near Urenui, Taranaki. Staff at Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research began the Fungal Forays back in 1986, under the auspices of the DSIR, and have forayed across different regions in the country almost every year sinc...