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2022 News

  1. Ngā whetū o Matariki – The stars of Matariki

    In Te Ao Māori (the Māori world) each of the whetū (stars) of Matariki is associated with a different domain of the natural world. Many of the nine stars also link to the important research and values undertaken by Manaaki Whenua.

  2. The 2022 New Zealand Garden Bird Survey starts soon. Can we count on you?

    The New Zealand Garden Bird Survey is an annual citizen science project led by scientists at Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research, one of New Zealand’s Crown Research Institutes, for the past 16 years.

  3. Manaaki Whenua and Microsoft collaborate on environmental research initiative

    New initiative to develop improved detection of land use and forest cover change. These are important elements in the assessment of carbon stored in New Zealand forests and improved mapping will help inform decisions and policies for a more sustainable Aotearoa.

  4. ICMP: the good of small things

    Manaaki Whenua is the custodian of almost a third of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Nationally Significant Databases and Collections. These include biological resources such as reference species collections, and are important scientific, cultural and historical public assets.

  5. Using genomics data to unlock precision pest control

    Pest control of invasive mammalian species – rats, mice, stoats, possums, and the rest – is a key priority for Aotearoa New Zealand to prevent further decline of our iconic, endangered native species, and to support the Predator Free 2050 initiative. One limitation of current vertebrate toxins for p...

  6. Ancient DNA provides a fascinating insight into Aotearoa’s rodent history

    Aotearoa has at least 34 species of introduced mammals with established feral populations. For some of these introduced mammals we have reasonable documentation about how and when they arrived because they were deliberately introduced, but for those that snuck their way uninvited to our shores in t...

  7. Hungry mice deplete biodiversity of ecosanctuaries

    If it weren’t for the mice, then caterpillars, spiders, wētā, beetles and even earthworms would be abundant in Aotearoa New Zealand’s ecosanctuaries.

  8. How destructive could myrtle rust be to our trees?

    Aotearoa New Zealand has 37 native Myrtaceae species, including pōhutukawa and rātā, mānuka and kānuka, ramarama and swamp maire, of which 25 are endemic. But there are many other non-native myrtle species in New Zealand, including eucalypts, feijoa, bottlebrushes, lilly pilly, and monkey apple.

  9. Wetland vegetation: the plots thicken

    Manaaki Whenua’s wetland research team is currently working towards a ‘classification’ of wetland vegetation. This will turn hundreds of wetland data plot sheets into sets of recognisable ‘communities’, which can then be linked to soil nutrient gradients.

  10. Landslide victory: using satellite data to spot dammed rivers after the Kaikoura quake

    Just after midnight on 14 November 2016, New Zealand experienced its most powerful and complex seismic event since the 1855 Wairarapa earthquake. Initially centred close to Culverden, north Canterbury, the magnitude 7.8 quake triggered a complicated series of northward-spreading fault ruptures. The ...