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2021 News

  1. Swapping time for space to track the impact of microbes on climate change

    Whether soils lose or gain carbon under warming temperatures remains one of the significant unknowns in climate change studies. In breakthrough research, Manaaki Whenua – Landcare researchers Manpreet Dhami and Gabriel Moinet have made an important finding about the response of microbes to increasin...

  2. The world is desperate for new antibiotics, and New Zealand’s unique fungi are a source of promising compounds

    One of the earliest antibiotics ever discovered, penicillin, originally came from a fungus. Mycologists are now studying the contents of ICMP (International Collection of Microorganisms from Plants) to investigate whether any of the 10,000+ fungi contained within have potential as new antibiotics.

  3. Using science to communicate the benefits of wilding conifer control

    Manaaki Whenua ecologist Norm Mason, with the support of the New Zealand Wilding Conifer Group, ran a series of workshops in the southern South Island to test a web-based tool for delivering forecasts of future wilding conifer control costs and ecosystem impacts.

  4. Cook Islands travel bubble a welcome opening for weed-busting beetles

    A consignment of African tulip tree flea beetles has resumed its interrupted journey to Rarotonga and the beetles have started on their weed-busting work.

  5. Coupled systems key to successful climate change outcomes

    Treating climate, biodiversity and human society as coupled systems will be key to successfully mitigate the effects of climate change.

  6. New research highlights the work of Māori in Antarctica

    Over the last 200 years, Antarctic narratives have been of those carried out by predominantly European male explorers. However, a research project led by Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research and Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu researchers looked into the connection of Māori with Antarctica to better document a...

  7. Reconstructing the past from poop: now we know what the little bush moa ate

    Knowledge of the diets of New Zealand's extinct moa comes from careful analysis of moa coprolites (fossilised poop) and gizzard contents. Moa coprolites and gizzard contents can be dissected and analysed under the microscope or using DNA identification techniques to decipher what the birds ate. The ...

  8. Glowing fungi and new rust species among Fungal Foray finds

    Unusual bioluminescent fungi and a new rust species were among the highlights for mycologists at this year’s Fungal Foray held on Rakiura / Stewart Island recently.

  9. Trans-Tasman collaboration unlocks genetic secrets behind myrtle rust

    In a trans-Tasman collaboration, scientists have sequenced the genome of [Austropuccinia psidii], the fungus responsible for the disease myrtle rust, and produced the world’s largest assembled fungal genome.

  10. Building community connections to protect bats in the Piako

    A group of around 25 farmers, Piako residents, land managers and conservation experts explored ways to protect the threatened long-tailed bats in the region at a recent event organised by the Piako Catchment Forum and sponsored by Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research.