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Innovation 2020
Innovation 2021
Innovation 2022
Innovation 2023
A range of work in wetland biodiversity
1 December 2021
Wetlands are important ecosystems for their biodiversity, cultural, and recreational values as well as their key role in carbon storage. However, wetlands are also ecosystems under threat. In New Zealand, wetlands have declined by ~90%, mostly over the past 200 years, from around 10% to just ~1% of ...
Innovation story
Wetlands
Biodiversity
Changes in the rural hazardscape
1 December 2021
New Zealand is a highly dynamic, multihazard environment, including coastal, riverine, and seismic landscape hazards. Manaaki Whenua’s social scientists are currently building a wide body of knowledge about the importance of co-creating knowledge about disaster response, allowing effective knowledge...
Innovation story
Land
He matawara o mua – Taking account of shifting ecological baselines
1 December 2021
Global biodiversity losses due to human activities have accelerated more in the past 50 years than at any time in human history. Intertwined with this rapid decline is the loss of knowledge about past environmental conditions and species abundances. This loss threatens how the next generation percei...
Innovation story
Iwi & Māori partners
Biodiversity
Fake clues: using misinformation about odour to protect rare bird species
1 December 2021
Mammalian predators primarily rely on smell as their main cue, enabling them to detect food from a distance. Smell is – usually – a reliable strategy for locating food.
Innovation story
Biosecurity
Biodiversity
New biocontrol tools showing promise
1 December 2021
Introduced Vespula wasps – the German wasp (Vespula germanica) and the common wasp (V. vulgaris) – are generalist predators that attack a wide variety of arthropods, including honeybees, butterflies, flies, and spiders. Where they are invasive, these wasps have detrimental effects on normal ecosyste...
Innovation story
Biosecurity
DNA sequencing for better identification of fungi
1 December 2021
It is an exciting time to be a fungal taxonomist (someone who specialises in the identification and classification of fungi) according to Dr Peter Johnston, one of Manaaki Whenua’s experts in the discipline.
Innovation story
Biosecurity
Biodiversity
Rats with chips: how microchipped rats are helping scientists to protect our native birds
12 December 2020
Some of the highest rat densities ever measured on the New Zealand mainland are being recorded in a study run by Manaaki Whenua at Lake Alabaster in Fiordland as part of the 5-year ‘More Birds in the Bush’ MBIE Endeavour research programme. The study, carried out in collaboration with DOC, is showin...
Innovation story
Biosecurity
Pest control
International recognition for New Zealand’s endangered fungi
12 December 2020
Established in 1964, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species (www. iucnredlist.org) is a critical indicator of the health of the world’s biodiversity and the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fu...
Innovation story
Innovation story
Fungi
A research partnership gives rise to a special mātauranga Māori journal issue
12 December 2020
During the year researchers at Manaaki Whenua contributed to the first special issue of the [New Zealand Journal of Ecology], focusing on ātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge).
Innovation story
Innovation story
Mātauranga Māori
Pacific Seeds for Life
12 December 2020
In March 2020 the New Zealand and Australian governments approved funding for the Pacific Seeds for Life (PS4L) project, in partnership with the Pacific Community (SPC) Land Resources Division. Both Australia and New Zealand are members of the SPC.
Innovation story
Innovation story
Gut flora could hold key to kiwi survival
12 December 2020
Brown kiwi ([Apteryx mantelli]) are highly vulnerable to extinction in the wild, with populations currently in serious decline. Even though ongoing conservation efforts such as Operation Nest Egg have increased their survival rate, the stress of captivity and the high density of chicks
co-habiting s...
Innovation story
Innovation story
Biodiversity
Eradicating the last 5%
12 December 2020
New Zealand is a world leader in controlling and, in some areas, eradicating invasive mammalian predators. Much of that innovation has been in developing and deploying devices (e.g. traps, bait delivery), but those devices can only achieve complete eradication if all individuals in the target popula...
Innovation story
Innovation story
Pests
Biosecurity
Beyond Myrtle Rust – complex responses needed to solve complex problems
12 December 2020
Collaboration and communication are the key to success in solving some of our most complex environmental problems. The Beyond Myrtle Rust (BMR) programme, a 5-year effort funded by MBIE and hosted by Manaaki Whenua, is pulling together multiple experts from several institutions while working with st...
Innovation story
Innovation story
Biosecurity
Myrtle rust
Most-wanted predator’s DNA sequenced
12 December 2020
Assembled by teams of New Zealand scientists working with international collaborators, the complete genome of the stoat (Mustela erminea) is now available to researchers at the US-based National Center for Biotechnology Information genome database, hard on the heels of the ship rat genome.
Innovation story
Innovation story
Biosecurity
Land Cover Database v5 launched in 2020
12 December 2020
In the past 6 years more than half a million hectares of New Zealand’s land cover has changed, according to the latest version of New Zealand’s Land Cover Database (LCDB, version 5), launched in January 2020. Researchers say it is one of the biggest shifts in land cover since the first Land Cover Da...
Innovation story
Innovation story
Land
Regen ag: does the science stack up for New Zealand?
12 December 2020
Regenerative agriculture (regen ag), a term first coined in the 1970s, applies an adaptive ecological approach to agricultural landscape management, with a focus on ecosystem health. However, little research has been done to show whether, or how, regen ag delivers on claimed environmental, economic ...
Innovation story
Innovation story
Land
S-map goes from strength to strength
12 December 2020
Over the past 15 years S-map has transformed soil survey in New Zealand, from a mix of hard-copy soil maps and bulletins and a few regional endeavours based on old-fashioned informatics tools such as spreadsheets, into a robust, nationally consistent information system supplying soil information to ...
Innovation story
Innovation story
S-map
Land
Sharing our knowledge abroad
12 December 2020
For decades, soil scientists from Manaaki Whenua have been visiting Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) to collect soil samples and map soil patterns. This work is vital to help decision-makers improve their soils knowledge and land management practices.
Innovation story
Innovation story
Soil
International development
Building whakawhanaungatanga in Waikato and the Bay of Plenty
12 December 2020
For Māori, elements of ecosystems and their linkages form the basis of whakapapa (ancestry) and kaitiakitanga (guardianship/management) principles, and are crucial to taonga, traditions, health, and well-being. Over time, the development and intensification of land has resulted in degraded ecosystem...
Innovation story
Innovation story
Mātauranga Māori
Ecosystem
GIS for Māori land managers
12 December 2020
Iwi and conservation groups throughout the country can now track and plan the conservation progress of native taonga species in their rohe thanks to a new free software package developed by Manaaki Whenua.
Innovation story
Land
Innovation story
GIS
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