Newsletter #96
NEXT MEETING:
Our next General Meeting will be 2-5pm 28 February 2025 at the Department of Conservation office, 31 Nga Mahi Road, Sockburn. I look forward to seeing you there.Bird Surveys
- 2024 Waiau Uwha River Bird Survey (PDF)
- 2024: Ashley Rakahui River Bird Survey (Word)
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Please remember to send me your bird surveys when they are completed. These are added to each of the river pages on the website. This helps researchers and community groups to discern trends over time.
Please also send a copy to Miles Burford at ECan, as Miles is compiling an amazing database with the aim of eventually making it accessible online through Canterbury Maps.
News/articles
- The Ashley Rakahuri Rivercare Group are running a writing competition for young people ‘to stand up for an ecological gem in need of help.’ The competition is now open and runs until 07 March 2025.
- Funding: The Coleridge Habitat Enhancement Trust (CHET) is inviting applications for funding for environmental/ecological projects that meet the objectives of the Trust. A fillable PDF application form is here.
- Clarence River weed control being given a boost – The Press
- The nearly 3 million rivers that weave across the world are experiencing rapid and surprising changes, with potentially drastic implications. – CNN
- Seabirds can help predict the size of fish stocks—if only we’d listen – Hakai Magazine
- The journal Nature, has a brand new additional journal: Nature Reviews Biodiversity
- Devices inspired by a moth could help protect bats from wind turbine strikes – Yale Climate Connections (Not sure if any of our bats could be affected by existing or proposed wind farms, but if so, this could be intriguing).
- Listening to the Smelt: By monitoring their embryos scientists hope to track and minimize the damaging effects of pollution in important coastal habitats along the Pacific Northwest (we also have smelt in Aotearoa). – Biographic magazine
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From ECan: “Toxic algae is known to bloom in awa/rivers during the warmer months, so it’s a great time for a refresher on how to spot it. Toxic algae grows on the bottom of riverbeds and appears as thick dark brown or black mats that have a slimy or velvety texture and musty smell. These mats can come loose and wash up on the edge of the rivers, or form ‘floating rafts’ in shallow areas. As they dry out, they turn light brown or white and look like dried leaves or cowpats. If you are in any doubt, keep your whānau and animals away from the river.”
Research & Reports
- 2025: Sayer et al; One-quarter of freshwater fauna threatened with extinction, Nature article (Open access)
- 2025: Chaplin-Kramer et al; Wildlife’s contributions to people, Nature Reviews Biodiversity 1 pp68-81 (Open access)
- 2025: Ridley & Blackburn; Climate-induced divergence of song, Nature Climate Change 15 pp22-23
- 2025: Callaway; How flight helped bats become invincible to viruses, Nature article
- 2024: Feng & Gleason: More flow upstream and less flow downstream: The changing form and function of global rivers, Science 386 | 6727 pp 1305-1311 (if you can’t access the paper see the CNN news report above)
- 2024: Scholz & Lora; Atmospheric rivers cause warm winters and extreme heat events, Nature 636 pp640-646. “AR events are associated with temperature anomalies of 5–10°C above the climatological mean” (may explain some of the extreme rainfall events that are much higher than NIWA projections).
- 2025: Wolff et al; Climate change aggravates bird mortality in pristine tropical forests, Science Advances 11 | 5. Open access; also an excellent article in The Guardian that points to a decline in bird populations due to increasing heat and phenological changes (I created these diagrams some time ago to illustrate):
