Past Events

Maintaining females in gynodioecious populations in Lobelia siphilitica

Genetic, ecological and morphological factors. A talk by Dr Dana Dudle, Biology, DePauw University, Indiana, USA. Union Street Lecture Theatre (upstairs)

Life on the rocks: Research and restoration in Limestone Glades and Abandoned quarries.

Talk by Dana Dudle, DePauw University. The 'limestone belt' in the southern part of Indiana is home to hundreds of abandoned quarries as well as rare ecosystems such as limestone glades. Using a quarry near DePauw's campus as a model I will explore opportunities for research and possible establishment of glade-like communities on abandoned quarries. 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.

Maungatua Scenic Reserve

Mt Maungatua rises strikingly above the Taieri Plain. Once it was mostly covered in forest, but this was largely lost around 1300 - 1400 AD and has not re-established. In its place on the upper slopes are snow tussock grasslands in the west and mixed snow tussock-scrub in the east. A few stands of silver beech, Nothofagus menziesii, persist on the most sheltered sites of the western slopes, and it is in most gullies on the moister eastern slopes with mixed podocarps and beech in the larger gullies (Lee Ck and Mill Ck-Waipori Gorge) at either end of the range. On the summit plateau are subalpine scrub dominated by Dracophyllum longifolium, depressions with herb/moor communities, tarns and lichen-rich bogs and tors. Leader: Emeritus Prof. Alan Mark has established permanent plots to monitor change and will have handouts and plant lists available. Rain-date Sunday 11 March. 4WD helpful. Bring warm, windproof clothes.

Why study pollen?

A talk by Professor David Ferguson (William Evans Fellow), Director of Department of Paleontology, University of Vienna, Austria. Union Street Lecture Theatre (upstairs)

Coral reefs and their loss: Why it matters

A talk by Professor Mark Hixon (William Evans Fellow), Department of Zoology, Oregon State University, USA. Union Street Lecture Theatre (upstairs)

Free BSO BBQ

BBQ to welcome new botany/ecology students and new BSO members. At the front lawn, Botany House Annex, Great King Street (across the road from the main Botany building). Sausage sandwiches and drinks provided free by the Botanical Society of Otago. All BSO members welcome!

Dynamics and regulation of marine fish populations at multiple scales

A talk by Professor Mark Hixon (William Evans Fellow), Department of Zoology, Oregon State University, USA. Union Street Lecture Theatre (upstairs)

Global warming and YOU: What every citizen should know

A talk by Professor Mark Hixon (William Evans Fellow), Department of Zoology, Oregon State University, USA. Archway 4 Public Lecture Theatre

Plants and animals from a Miocene Maar lake in China

A talk by Professor David Ferguson (William Evans Fellow), Director of Department of Paleontology, University of Vienna, Austria. In the Geology Dept Common Room

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