Skip to content

2025 News

  1. 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...

  2. 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...

  3. 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...

  4. 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.

  5. 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?

  6. 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...

  7. New Bioeconomy Science Institute to be formed 

    New consolidated Crown Research Institutes announcement.

  8. Soil carbon: which on-farm interventions does the science support?

    The world’s soils have been calculated to contain 1,700 gigatonnes of organic carbon to a depth of 1 metre, which is more than the mass of carbon in the atmosphere and vegetation combined. Because of this, there’s been a lot of interest in how soil carbon stocks could help to mitigate global greenho...

  9. Springtail safari: a field-based assessment of agrichemical use

    Soil fauna are an essential component of virtually all terrestrial ecosystems. They are usually categorised by size into microfauna (2 to 200 µm), mesofauna (200 to 2,000 µm) and macrofauna (over 2,000 µm). The most dominant microfauna are nematodes, with springtails and mites the most dominant meso...

  10. Calculating carbon emissions from peat fires and peaty soils

    Huge amounts of carbon were lost in recent human-caused fires at two of Aotearoa New Zealand (AoNZ)’s most important wetlands – the Kaimaumau-Motutangi wetland in Northland and the Awarua wetland in Southland.