Past Events

Radical environmental change on Whangapoua Estuary, Great Barrier Island in 3500 years

A talk by Dr Yanbin Deng, Otago Archeological Research Cluster, Dept of Anthropology, University of Otago. A vegetation history and environment change from pollen reconstructions will be presented. A linear sequence of vegetation communities beginning with mangroves and followed by estuarine marsh communities composed of Juncus kraussii, Leptocarpus similis, and Baumea juncea was recognised in almost all pollen diagrams. Further transitions, from Baumea to a terrestrial system of Leptospermum shrubland or Cordyline/Dacrycarpus swamp forest, followed two main pathways associated with autogenic accumulation of peat and terrigenous sediment input respectively. Natural and human disturbances drive sedimentation rates, and interact with autogenic factors, to dictate vegetation transitions in these later stages. The intensive impact (mainly burning) during Polynesian times had a much greater effect on estuary than the pre-Polynesian natural processes, greatly accelerating plant succession. At the Zoology Benham Building, 346 Great King Street, behind the Zoology car park by the Captain Cook Hotel. Use the main entrance of the Benham Building to get in and go to the Benham Seminar Room, Rm. 215, 2nd floor. Please be prompt as we have to hold the door open.

End of year dinner

End of year dinner at the Asian Chinese Restaurant (43 Moray Place) following Adrienne's talk. RSVP to Robyn Bridges (robyn.bridges@otago.ac.nz) by 8 December

Western Australia's ironstones - caught between a rock and a hard place!

A talk by Adrienne Markey, Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation. A presentation on the flora and conservation (or lack thereof) in banded ironstone formations, Western Australia. The landscape of much of the interior of Western Australia is characteristically subdued in topography, marked only by ranges of volcanic (mafic, ultramafic and felsics) and sedimentary rocks (banded ironstone formations and associated metasedimentary geologies). Whilst lacking the height and grandeur of the New Zealand Alps, these ranges are remarkable in that they interrupt the monotony of a vast, flat landscape and are composed of rocks formed well over two billion years ago. Some of these landforms have been a persistent topographic feature since the Cretaceous. Within these arid regions, they are a refuge for unique plants and floristic communities that thrive in microsites rich in trapped water and soils. Given the booming Asian economy and China's insatiable demand for mineral resources, these plants have found their existence perched on rocks of high quality iron ore to be extremely tenuous. This talk will outline current attempts to survey the vegetation of these ranges in the face of pressure from mining and grazing. At the Zoology Benham Building, 346 Great King Street, behind the Zoology car park by the Captain Cook Hotel. Use the main entrance of the Benham Building to get in and go to the Benham Seminar Room, Rm. 215, 2nd floor. Please be prompt as we have to hold the door open. Dinner will follow at the Asian Chinese Restaurant, 43 Moray Place.

Botanising in N.E. Newfoundland

A talk and slide show by Howard Clase, a retired Chemistry Professor from Memorial University of Newfoundland. Howard writes: "Our local society The Wildflower Society of Newfoundland and Labrador, has a week long field trip to a different part of the Province each summer, and this year we were exploring the NE coastline and a couple of offshore Islands. There are from 12 - 25 people on these trips with various levels of expertise from professional botanists through reasonably experienced amateurs (like us) to pretty flower lovers - but we all get on well and have a good time, nearly always making some fairly significant new discoveries. Recently there's a grass & Carex expert who comes over from Scotland and we have also had people from the Nova Scotia Flora Society join us." At the Zoology Benham Building, 346 Great King Street, behind the Zoology car park by the Captain Cook Hotel. Use the main entrance of the Benham Building to get in and go to the Benham Seminar Room, Rm. 215, 2nd floor. Please be prompt as we have to hold the door open.

New Zealand Biodiversity Recording Network

A talk by Dr Colin Meurk, Landcare Research. Colin will bring us up-to-date with this exciting new web-based system to record and process natural history observations (birds, plants, butterflies, mushrooms, reptiles, frogs and mammals). This is a way of providing secure storage for data outside of institutional plot-based databases which can then be used to create distribution maps, graphs and species lists. The system is adapted for New Zealand from the highly successful Swedish Artportalen (species gateway) system. At the Zoology Benham Building, 346 Great King Street, behind the Zoology car park by the Captain Cook Hotel. Use the main entrance of the Benham Building to get in and go to the Benham Seminar Room, Rm. 215, 2nd floor. Please be prompt as we have to hold the door open.

Trip to Lammerlaw Range with Prof. Alan Mark

1. Black Rock Scientific Reserve
2. DCC water catchment area to look at the snow tussock burning study of Landcare/AgResearch/DoC/Forest Research plus the controversial 30 ha reservoir currently under construction for TrustPower's Deep Stream Hydroelectric Augmentation project
3. TrustPower's Mahinerangi Windfarm proposal
4. Deep Stream Scenic Reserve/Te Papanui Conservation Park

Eagle's Complete Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand Book Launch

Eagle's Complete Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand will be launched by Professor Alan Mark in Dunedin to coincide with an exhibition of Audrey Eagle's artwork at the Otago Museum. Audrey warmly invites all BSO members to join her at the Otago Museum in celebrating the publication of her decades of dedicated botanical drawing. RSVP to Annette Heward, Otago Museum (annette.heward@otagomuseum.govt.nz), phone (03) 474 7479 ext 832, by Thursday 26 October 2006.

Aramoana salt marshes

A half-day trip to visit the Aramoana salt marshes. This salt marsh is one of the best remaining examples in the Otago area and is a prime example of a habitat increasingly under pressure elsewhere from land development. We'll also check out the population of Cook's scurvy grass on the Aramoana Mole. Leaves 8:30 am from Botany Carpark, returning 12:30 pm.

Banks Peninsulas Botany; the past, the present and the future

A talk by Hugh Wilson, 5th Geoff Baylis Lecturer. Banks Peninsula is a unique part of NZ. It has suffered massive changes to its flora and fauna because of two waves of human settlement, Polynesian and European. Hugh will look at Banks Peninsula in pre-human times, at what happened as humans impacted on it, what it is like now and what it might be like in 100 years time. Hugh is guardian of more than 1000 hectares, 1%, of Banks Peninsula. He manages Hinewai Reserve under a policy of minimum interference and is documenting the reappearance of native vegetation. NOTE SPECIAL VENUE, Castle 1 Lecture Theatre, Otago University.

Co-evolution on the Galapagos Islands

A talk by Drs Allison and John Knight. The Galapagos Islands rose steaming from the equatorial Pacific Ocean over the last 10 million years. Their sterile volcanic slopes were gradually populated by a limited range of plants and animals, mainly those that could cross the 1000 km gap from the nearest land. As Darwin found, the fascinating thing is that on each island a different combination of plants, pollinators, herbivores and frugivores has evolved together. Humans and grazing mammals arrived late on the scene; there are other parallels with New Zealand. At the Zoology Benham Building, 346 Great King Street, behind the Zoology car park by the Captain Cook Hotel. Use the main entrance of the Benham Building to get in and go to the Benham Seminar Room, Rm. 215, 2nd floor. Please be prompt as we have to hold the door open.

Waipori River Valley

An exploratory visit to a patch of beech forest on the slopes of the Maungatua Range. Find out what plants and winter fungi inhabit this silver beech forest remnant. Trip leaves 8:30 am from Botany Carpark, returning c. 4:00 pm.

Living in a high CO₂ world: Impacts of global climate change on aquatic ecosystems

The John Smaillie Tennant Lecture 2006. A talk by Professor John Beardall, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Australia. This is a public lecture presented by the Division of Sciences and the Department of Botany. Professor Beardall began as a microbiologist, completing his BSc from Queen Elizabeth College at the University of London in 1973. He moved across town to University College for his PhD, where he developed a lifelong interest in photosynthetic organisms, doing some pioneering work on the pathways of carbon assimilation and adaptation to low light by microalgae. He graduated in 1976 and held postdoctoral appointments in Wales and Scotland before moving to Australia in 1982. He has broad interests ranging from the molecular mechanisms of photosynthesis and membrane transport to the primary productivity of oceans, but his interests in carbon have led him inexorably towards trying to understand the consequences, for aquatic systems, of the current crisis of anthropogenically-induced climate change. Note special venue: At the Union Street Lecture Theatre (corner of Union and Great King Streets). All BSO members, staff, students, and interested members of the general public are welcome to attend. Light refreshments will be served in the Botany Department Staff Room at 5:30 p.m.

Insights of South American flora and fauna.

A talk by Pascale Michel. This informal talk presents the ecological uniqueness of two main national parks in South America: Parque Nacional da Serra do Cipó (Minas Gerais, Brazil) and Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi (San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina). Serra de Cipó NP was created in 1984 to preserve a rich endemic flora, specific to dry high-altitude plateaux, and in particular the canela-de-ema (Vellozia pirestana) and a rare orchid (Constantia cipoensis). Nahuel Huapi NP comprises a large diversity of habitats expanding from Andean mountain beech forests to Patagonian steppes, and is home to humming birds and chinchillas. At the Zoology Benham Building, 346 Great King Street, behind the Zoology car park by the Captain Cook Hotel. Use the main entrance of the Benham Building to get in and go to the Benham Seminar Room, Rm. 215, 2nd floor. Please be prompt as we have to hold the door open.

Lichen trip to Sutton Salt Lake with David Galloway

Led by David Galloway, author of the Lichen Flora of New Zealand. Orange Caloplaca on the shores of this lake are remarkably similar to coastal Caloplaca, while the schist tors bear rich communities of large foliose and smaller crustose lichens. Definitely bring a hand lens, or contact Allison Knight, 487 8265, if you would like to buy one.

Desert island botany: plants, pests, and 750 000 seabirds.

An impromptu talk by Mike Thorsen on the flora of the equatorial Pacific Phoenix Islands and the impacts from pests (people, rats, and rabbits) and the phenomenal density of ground-nesting seabirds. At the Zoology Benham Building, 346 Great King Street, behind the Zoology car park by the Captain Cook Hotel. Use the main entrance of the Benham Building to get in and go to the Benham Seminar Room, Rm. 215, 2nd floor. Please be prompt as we have to hold the door open.