Past Events

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.

Ross Creek-Woodhaugh Garden Track Network

This half day trip in the heart of Dunedin will explore the network of tracks that begin at Woodhaugh Gardens and wind their way up the Water of Leith and into the Ross Creek Reservoir area. There's quite a range of natural vegetation passed on the walk including kahikatea-kowhai-ribbonwood-lacebark forest through to more recent kanuka dominated successional communities. Be prepared for a couple of hours walking on well maintained tracks. The trip will start and finish at Woodhaugh Gardens. Meet at 10 am at the George Street entrance to Woodhaugh Gardens. Back about midday

Fungi: New Zealand's hidden diversity

A talk by Dr David Orlovich. Fungi are nature's recyclers. They form the connections between between plants and soil, algae and rocks, toxic wastes and the atmosphere, even life and death! In New Zealand, fungi support the beech forests of Fiordland, the high country tussock grasslands and our agricultural pastures through symbiotic mycorrhizal associations. I will give an overview of research on fungi in New Zealand, illustrate the beauty of many species found in New Zealand, and emphasise the importance of societies like the BSO in furthering research on New Zealand fungi. 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.

Fungal Foray to Orokonui

A fungal foray led by David Orlovich to Orokonui Reserve. Note that collecting will be subject to DoC approval. Bring hand lens, a basket or bag for collecting fungi, greaseproof paper (for wrapping specimens in the field) and a camera if you have one.

Leave 9 AM from the Botany Dept carpark (corner of Great King Street and Union Street (West)) or 9:15 AM at the Orokonui carpark (the "Tallest Tree" carpark, off Orokonui Road, Waitati). We will aim to collect in the morning, and then return to the Department of Botany by 1 PM to record and dry our collections for the herbarium.

Some rain is forecast for Saturday, but we will still go if it is only light rain. You can check on the morning of the trip by calling David Orlovich on 021 122 7230 anytime after 8:00 AM. In case of really bad weather, we will postpone and go on Sunday 28th May instead.

Members who can't come in the morning are welcome to come to the Botany Dept (464 Great King Street) and see what we collected at 1:15 PM - be prompt as we have to hold the door open.

A magnificent obsession: the botanical life and legacy of Tony Druce

A talk by Geoff Rogers. An account of the wit, wisdom, mentoring role, and scientific achievements of a great New Zealand botanist. 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.