Contamination at Mapua

The area surrounding Mapua made for prime conditions for the cultivation of a variety of commercial fruits. In 1932, Mapua would have been a logical place for the Fruitgrowers Chemical Company (FCC) to build its plant for manufacturing pesticides. Thirteen years later, production of the powerful new organochlorine pesticides began. The FCC plant was established in a time of far less scientific understanding of chemical toxins, and consequently little appreciation of the need for protecting people or the environment from exposure to them. There was virtually no care taken in the disposal of the factory’s waste products. The FCC plant site was abandoned in 1988, yet the organochlorine pesticides it produced were particularly persistent. Furthermore, in a mismanaged, inefficient, and ultimately ineffective attempt by the New Zealand government to “clean up” the toxic site lead to a release of a variety of additional toxins to the air and water. Discharges to the air pose potential risk to human health, while the discharges to the water threaten the ecology of the Waimea Estuary.
Prior to the clean up attempts, several investigations into contamination on the site, surrounding marine sediments, and adjacent residential lots identified the presence of some of the substances known to have been stored or manufactured on-site, including:
· Extensive contamination with organochlorine pesticides, especially DDT and its breakdown products, aldrin, dieldrin, and lindane
· Occasionally elevated levels of heavy metals (including chromium, arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury) and elemental sulfur.
· Occasionally elevated levels of petroleum hydrocarbons
· Traces of chlorophenoxyacetic acid herbicides, phenoxy herbicides, organophosphates, triazines and other related nitrogen containing pesticides
· Traces of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
Marine sediment samples from the Waimea Inlet revealed contamination mainly by organochlorine compounds, particularly DDT and its metabolites. Metal and organochlorine levels in the groundwater exceeded guidelines for the protection of aquatic ecosystems and recreational water quality.
This clean up effort was a high risk strategy, as it was the first commercial application of a new technology in the middle of a village and close to a sensitive estuary. Mechano-chemical dehalogenation (MCD) was the method of clean up. This used a heated tumbling drier with a proprietary mixture of reagents to enhance treatment in hopes of degrading the toxic chemicals to inert products. One of these reagents was copper sulfate. The site auditor and the Engineer to the Contract warned the company managing the cleanup that they had serious concerns over the use of copper sulfate; yet at least 13 tons of copper was added to the site soils in the treatment process. Copper is highly toxic to marine ecosystems so it poses a particular hazard on the coastal Mapua site. Although the amount of copper sulfate was gradually reduced by about a third during the works, a large amount of copper remained behind at the site. There may be significant risks to the estuarine environment and plant life on the site, but no site-specific assessment criteria have been set for these receptors, so these risks have not been formally evaluated. Diammonium phosphate (DAP) and urea were also used as additives. At least 730 tons of DAP and 36 tons of urea were added to the site soils in this way. This is of concern because these nutrients are readily leachable and could be discharged to the estuary in groundwater, causing weed growth and eutrophication. Groundwater monitoring results show that DDT, lindane, nitrate and ammoniachemical nitrogen frequently exceeded consent threshold concentrations throughout the works often by orders of magnitude. Concentrations of copper, increased erratically throughout the works. Nitrate and DDT still exceed limits in some areas.
Not only was the selected method of cleanup inadequate, the process itself was seriously mismanaged. According to the Official Report released by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment in July 2008, dioxin was released from the drier, but it is impossible to know now much due to inadequate monitoring. Why? The conditions in the soil drier were right for creating dioxin. For the MCD process to function efficiently, the soil being decontaminated must be dry. However, if contaminated soil particles in the drier come in contact with air above 250°C, organochlorine compounds in the soil may be converted to form dioxin (which did happen in one of the proof of performance trials) so specific precautions were included to prevent this situation arising during normal operations. In essence, the condition required the hottest part of the drier (the inlet) to be fitted with a temperature cut off, which would shut the drier down if the temperature exceeded 120°C. This was to reduce the volatilization of OCPs and prevent the formations of dioxins.
Inspections of the clean up process showed the temperatures of the drier inlet ranged from 250-396°C (the temperature depends on the water content of the soil). The design of the drier was such that, had this resource consent condition regarding the temperature cutoff been implemented, the soil output would likely have been about 15 percent of what was actually processed. This means that the MCD plant installed was not capable of complying with the temperature consent condition and functioning at the output envisaged.
Unfortunately, the impact of pollution on the estuarine water has not been investigated. So what’s the big fuss? Humans and other organisms in this community seem to be going about their business as usual, largely unaffected by this pollution. Before such an assertion can be made with confidence, the nature of these man made toxins must be carefully considered. The most profound impacts of these toxins on a given organism would occur at the molecular level, and therefore the consequences may seem less obvious. Although every user of bleach and swimming pools is familiar with chlorine, the element rarely exists in free form in nature: It is man-made. Chlorine is also extremely unstable and volatile, easily recombining with other elements. When combined with hydrocarbons and other chemicals, chlorine produces a bewildering number of molecular compounds that are almost universally poisonous to invertebrates, plants, animals, and humans. Although most organochlorine compounds are produced intentionally, they can also be produced unintentionally. Dioxins, one of the most deadly family of compounds known to man, are created when chlorine bleaches are used to treat lumber or pulps, and also during incineration of other compounds as was observed at Mapua. The family of organochlorines includes many famous chemicals now banned or restricted, such as DDT, chlordane, Mirex, Dieldrin, Heptaclor, all the PCB’s and ozone-disrupting CFCs as well.
Organochlorines are remarkably persistent and cannot be incorporated into the metabolic process of any organism on earth. Because organochlorines do not break down in water, they accumulate in the fatty tissues of organisms. Species that are higher on the food chain, such as humans, accumulate organochlorines to a far greater degree than might be anticipated by their exposure. There is every reason to believe that concentrations of these compounds in wildlife and humans will continue to increase as they move up the food chain. The implication of recent studies on effects of these compounds on human development is that we have within the human race a biological ozone hole, a series of chemical compounds whose effect will expand throughout the entire world population for decades, even if all such compounds ceased being manufactured today. Tests show that these compounds have adverse effects in very low concentrations, and because their widespread use and persistence, we face continuous re-exposure over our lifetime. Currently, human exposure to such substances in the United States is well within the tolerances where hormonal disruption can occur. An accumulation of forty years’ worth of such substances in the environment may require only a few minutes in the body at a critical time to cause genetic changes that are permanent and irreversible. The most disturbing suggestion of the research in this area is that because organochlorines clearly react with and disrupt sexual hormones, both androgens and estrogens, they can alter the function of the brain, and thus affect behavior, thought, and intelligence. Biologically speaking, our metabolic processes have little or no effect in rendering these substances into more harmless ones because humans and other organisms have never in their evolutionary history encountered similar compounds. Because of the slow maturation of human beings, we have not had sufficient time since the introduction of such chemicals to understand the multigenerational health consequences of exposure to organochlorines. It is well known that these compounds do play havoc with human physiology, with effects that include cancer, infertility, immune suppression, birth defects, and still births. More disturbing, is the ability of several organochlorine compounds to disrupt the endocrine system. They are mistakenly “recognized” by the human body as hormone messengers, thereby signaling the wrong information to cells and bodily functions. Because the compounds in question mimic the actions of natural hormones, binding to receptor sites in the body, they can alter the embryonic development of the organism in ways that are irreversible, although the effects may not be experienced until maturity. In wildlife, these chemicals cause decreased fertility, behavioral abnormalities, compromised immune systems, and monstrous defects, such as fish born with both male and female sex organs but incapable of reproduction.
The contamination at Mapua showed just how difficult cleaning up a toxic site can be. Perhaps the real issue at hand is not improving waste disposal and clean up technology, but rethinking if we as a society should find the production of these compounds acceptable in the first place. To err on the side of caution and acknowledge the things we still do not understand would be wise. I strongly urge others to analyze issues such as these critically, and bear in mind that common practice does not infer safe or sustainable.

Lake Moeraki

Visit to lake Moeraki 6/2/09

Today our group visited with Gerry McSweeney and learned about the "green" practices they use for their wilderness lodge. This place was one of the most green that we have seen so far. They have a carbon neutral footprint and create all the needed electricity by using falling water of the Moeraki River. They do not add to the growing problem of green house gases. This place was unique in the thickness of vegetation and the tropical rainforest which has survived because of its location. The forest was surrounded on three sides by the lodges, highway, and lake so the deer were deterred from entry.

This location was originally going to be logged until biologists McSweeney and Anne Saunders decided to save the podocarp trees and use them for nature tourism and economic benefit. By working with the Department of Conservation (DOC) they helped to change the minds of those in the Haast community and to see the benefits in preserving nature while also creating more jobs and a stable economy. As McSweeney put it, "You need to change the hearts and minds of the people; the problem with governmental decisions is that they can easily be reversed by the next government or anyone that comes to power." He also stated, "It's hard to be green when you're in the red." These two statements were really what their business was all about.

One focus of this group has been to save the Fjordland Crested (Tawaki) penguin. This species has struggled due to fishermen's dogs going after the distinctive smell of the penguins and killing them. Fishing with dogs has been outlawed, yet it is still a problem because people are not prosecuted when they bring their dog along on a fishing trip. These penguins are one of the rarest in the world and spend six months nesting in the rainforest and the other six months at sea.

The deer, stoats, possums, and ferrets are among the other problems that ruin the forest and decrease the island's uniqueness. McSweeney thus agreed to the spraying of a chemical known as 1080 over the land. Birds have a low susceptibilityto the formula and it biodegrades into sodium fluoride, which is found in many items including household toothpaste. No better method has been found thus far as it's not plausible to cover such a large area any other way. This chemical is sprayed every 2-3 years because that is how long it takes for these pests to repopulate the area. The rainforest takes what McSweeney refers to as a "double-whammy" because the deer destroy the undergrowth and the possums destroy the tree tops and canopy. The spraying of 1080 has helped the rainforest survive by reducing the numbers of unwanted possums and deer.

Katie J. and Anna

Cushion Plant

The first time I encountered the cushion plant was not in the greatest of circumstances. Justin and I decided that we were going to hike up Mount Miserable or some silly name like that right behind the research station we were staying at in Cass, in the South Island of New Zealand and stay in a tent for the night. After hiking through all of the thorny, sharp plants, Justin and I starting looking for a place to set up camp. This was no ordinary mountain however, the whole side that we were climbing seemed to be harboring a stream of water. It was really interesting and wet at the same time. Although you could not physically see this stream, you could hear it underneath the dense soft ground. So despite not being able to set up a tent on this hike, I did discover what I had later learned to be a very interesting plant; the cushion plant

The cushion plant is a low growing, mat-like plant that can be found all over the world. There are approximately 338 species of Cushion Plant. The do not grow to be much higher than slightly rased above the ground, but the are very thick and dense. Not to mention very soft. Watch the video below. Cushion Plants thrive in alpine, arctic, and sub-alpine condions.
They are able to thrive in these conditions due to their compact, extremely dense growth. As you can see in the photograph on the left, the density of these stems is so thick that they almost seem as one. This allows the plant to keep in warmth, sustain periods of drought because they are excellent at maintaining water, and are not as vulnerable to sheer winds. They maintain water so well, due to their root systems and the densities of their structures.
The cushion plants are very slow growing. Their average growth rate is .6mm per year. Considering, that many of them, including those of which we saw on our hike, grow to be 3 meters across, cushion plants can live a very long time. The live an average lifespan of 350 years, and some subspecies live to be over 3,000 years old. Another really unique thing about cushion plants is they create miniature ecosystems that allow for new life to flourish in places that without the cushion plant would be impossible. In the photograph on the left you can see a little fungi growing right out of the cushion plant. I was unable to find mushrooms in any other location during that whole hike on Mount Miserable. I agree with the author of the wikipedia page on the cushion plant when he says that the cushion plant is an "ecosystem engineer." you can tell with every step you took on that hike, that these cushion plants are and have been modifying the mountainside. They have a nurse effect on their surrounding environment, allowing life to take place, and new ecosystems to develope.

A Little From the Parliament of the Cook Islands

Since not many bio students went to Parliament in the Cook Islands, I thought I'd give you all a little info about what we covered on June 11th.
Although we discussed quite a bit of material, as far as I know, Joe made the appointment with Deputy Clerk Puna to discuss issues with the seabed mining bill that is being dicussed in their legislature. According to a report by SPC Coastline Fisheries the Cook Islands Exclusive Economic Zone covers 1.8 million square kilometers in which there is an estimated 7.5 trillion tons of mineral resources in manganese nodules. The nodules are formed by metallic elements that slowly precipitate out of the ocean water. The nodules grow at a rate of only 2 mm/million years. Deep currents flowing from the Antarctic region towards the equator influence the formation of nodules in Cook Island waters, which are rich in cobalt, nickel and copper. Of these metals, cobalt is the most valuable, and the nodules of the Cook Island waters are thought to have the highest cobalt content in all of the Pacific, estimated to be about 32 million tons. These 32 million tons are thought to be able to meet current world demands for more than 500 years. (cobalt is mostly used industrially, especially in the aircraft industry, rechargeable batteries, and laptops). The monetary value of these metals is estimated to be NZ$ 2 trillion for cobalt, NZ$ 380 billion for nickel, and over NZ$ 50 billion for copper. These nodules occur in waters around 5000 meters deep, which can be a real challenge for mining, and could cause a great deal of disruption to the seabed. Previously, most cobalt has come from Africa, but these supplies have not been consistent and thus other sources are significant. Environmentally the consequences of harvesting these nodules could be devistating, but they are honestly not known. Collecting the nodules could have a significant affect on the seafloor ecosystem especially by sediment plumes that will surely be generated. If the nodules are harvested and processed, more than 95% of the weight would be in unstable tailings because it is unlikely that the manganese and iron will be recoverable, which means disposal of these tailings.
As Puna indicated (this is pretty true in the states as well), the problem is that as long as revenue can be generated, the government will continue their actions.

MORE TO COME!!! I'm at work :-)

Mount Aspiring National Park Birds

On Friday , June 5, while hiking near Glenorchy in Mount Aspiring National Park, I got the opportunity to observe several birds, some of which are now rare in New Zealand compared to just a few hundred years ago. The first bird I got a glimpse of was the Yellowhead, as it foraged among the moss that all but completely covered the beech forest we walked through. The Yellowhead (Mohua ochrocephala) is now the most threatened species of its genus, though in the 1800’s it was apparently very common, inhabiting podocarp-hardwood forests (such as Rimu, Totara and Miro). The clearing of those forests as well as the introduction of new mammalian predators (rats, stoats, etc) led to its decline and now this insectivorous bird is found only in beech forests with fertile soils where it can find plenty of food. It is now estimated that 1000 to 2500 Yellowhead birds remain.

As we walked, flittering along close to the forest floor were Acanthisitta chloris chloris, the South Island subspecies of the bird commonly referred to as The Rifleman. Though not considered vulnerable, all other members of its family are either in danger or extinct (the most recent being the Bush Wren, last seen in 1972). The birds seemed to follow us as we proceeded down the path (judging by the high-pitched ‘peep’ they would emit every so often), though with my poor camera skills and their restless nature I was not able to catch any of them in a photograph. I was able to see the male or males due to their near constant movement, as the green plumage on the male Rifleman’s back makes them hard to observe otherwise among the green forest floor. The Rifleman or Titipounamu is also New Zealand’s smallest bird, with each bird weighing 6-7 grams.

As we were heading back, there was a great commotion of birds in a nearby tree that had produced fruit. Among those present were some of the aforementioned birds plus another type we had not seen yet: the kakariki, yellow-crowned parakeet. The yellow-crowned parakeet still inhabits parts of mainland New Zealand, unlike the closely related red crowned parakeet, which survives only on offshore islands. Both have been severely affected by rats, and have tried to obtain food from human crops when their own food sources had failed due to these introduced rats. As they fed, they were constantly chattering, perhaps advertising the abundance of food on the tree to other kakariki in the area. Yellow-crowned parakeets are classified as near-threatened, whereas their close relations, red-crowned parakeets and orange-fronted parakeets are vulnerable and critically endangered, respectively.

This however is just a small sampling of the diversity of New Zealand birds.

Glowworms

" I wish I was a glowworm, a glowworm is never glum. 'Cos how can you be grumpy when the Sunshine's from your bum"

Larson Burrows (1910-1994) was a local explorer who re-discovered the te-ana-au glowworm cave in 1948. Glowworms can reach up to 3 cm in length and have a life expectancy of about 11 months with different stages of life. The glowworm life starts as an egg and takes about 3 weeks to hatch. The eggs are clumped together by mucus like filaments, these eggs are small and dense. Once hatched they are small larva. The larva stage is where the glowworms builds a nest and begins to try to catch food by releasing lines down that reach anywhere from 1/2-7 inches long and up to 70 lines can be dropped from the nest. These lines are known as "fishing lines." The contain a paralyzing agent which kills the insect that fly into the lines. The insect is attracted to the bio luminescence of the glowworm. Then the glowworm pulls the line up in which the insect was caught on. Once the glowworm has enough energy it suspends itself on a long thread in its pupa stage. This lasts about 12 to 13 days to become the adult fly. to release itself from the cocoon like structure, the adult fly expands and contracts its body until the cocoon breaks open. The adult fly is only alive long enough to reproduce and for female lay eggs. The female usually dies after laying the eggs, males on the other hand can live up to 5 days. This is short because the adult fly in both male and female have no mouths nor do they have stomachs. The soul purpose it so reproduce. This overall life cycle of the glowworm. Interesting facts, the more hungry the glowworm is the brighter its bio luminescence is. Glowworms live in caves because it has low temperature and humidity fluctuations, glowworms are also found in dense forest floors where the living conditions are met.

** No pictures were allowed in the cave, this was taken from google image**

I actually posted this blog the night that we went, but when i went on here I noticed my blog wasnt on here but that I created my own blog about glowworms! haha WOOPS!

Milford Sound

On Sunday June 7th we drove to Milford Sound, also known to the Maori as Piopiotahi, from Te Anau. The two-hour drive through the winding mountains was very scenic and contained many viewpoints to stop and admire the lush green forests and mountain terrain. On the drive we got to experience the historic Homer Tunnel that is 1.2km long, and has a gradient of 1:10, which is not for the faint of heart. Finally after many miles of winding tight turns and smoking brakes we arrived in Milford Sound. This fjord is located on the south island in Fiordland National Park. Fiordland was one of the last places to be explored in New Zealand and wasn’t popular until the 1800’s, due to the fact that early European sailors, such as James Cook, overlooked it because they didn’t think that the narrow entrance from the Tasman Sea lead into a large bay, which comes inland about 15km. Soon enough it became one of the top tourist destinations in New Zealand and I could see why. As we walked to the visitor center we could already see the pristine blue waters of the fjord and the overwhelming rock faces that rise 3,900 feet or more, created and fed by glaciers over time. This was a remarkable and unforgettable site. At the visitor center we decided to take one of the many boat tours around the sound where we got a closer look at this unique environment. We saw many waterfalls, fur seals, and bottlenose dolphins; we also saw that most of the cliffs were covered in rainforest vegetation. The tour guide pointed out places where large areas of plants have slid off the cliff into the sound because these plants have rooted themselves on moss, which can easily slip off the rocks due to accumulation of rain. This happens quite often because Milford Sound gets about 6,813mm of rain a year. Towards the end of the boat tour we stopped at the underwater observatory where we got up close and personal with the sea life of the sound, which includes black coral, sea stars, sea squirts and many kinds of fish. From the observatory we headed back to the vans to take the long road back to Te Anau where we ended the night with dinner at the Moose restaurant.

Compostable Water Bottles

Hey all,

Just wanted to tell a cool story... that reminded me of our visit to SCION!

On my flight from LAX to Denver, I sat next to a man who was actually the first person to create a full copostable water bottle. The company he worked for is called BIOTA. The name is an acronym for "blame it on the altitude". The water that the company uses comes from one of the highest freshwater springs in Ouray, Colorado. The company uses Natureworks PLA (polylactic acid) as the base for their plastic.

As we saw at SCION, the plastics are completely degradable. The PLA's are corn-based in contrast to ordinary plastics which are petroleum-based, which are not degradable. These new plastics, break down in to water, carbon dioxide, and organic material.

Glowworm Caves

We stayed two nights in Queenstown and than drove farther south of the South Island of New Zealand to the lake cities of Te Anau, Manapouri, and Milford Sounds as well as the Fiordland National Park, the most beautiful park in New Zealand. After having lunch in Te Anau, we traveled 20km for an hour hike along Lake Manapouri, the controversial lake that sparked environmental awareness in New Zealand in the 1950s and gave birth to the Green Party. At 7pm, we had dinner at The Moose Restaurant and took a boat cruise about 20 minutes to see the Te Anau glowworms. Situated in Fiordland National Park, the Te Anau Glowworms Caves are part of the World Heritage Area. These caves are surrounded by rainforest and predator-controlled habitats for native birds only found in New Zealand. The Glowworm Caves are couple of thousand years old. The Maori prehistoric name for Te Anau is translated as “caves with current of swirling waters.” We navigated through the electrifying caves full of live in small boats carried by roaring waters into the dark silent glowworm caverns. These caves serve as shelters to some of New Zealand’s beautiful native species including the glowworms of the underworld that have never ceased to amaze tourists and students. The glowworms caves are about four level limestones disarranged and fairly young in ecological environment but are carved up to several million years. Compared to a lot of other caves, these caves are continuously escalating in dimension due to the production of acids from carbon dioxide that comes from forest floor high above the caves’ surface. The acids help dissolve the rock and create passage. We saw examples of how the water wears away the ancient limestone when we passed a waterfall and natural sandstone bridge leading into the caves.
The luminous lights of the glowworm larvae attract flying insects by their gluey threads that hang from their nests. The hungrier the glowworms, the brighter they glow. The glowworm’s light is produced as a by-product of excretion. A reaction takes place in a small tube near the tail between an enzyme called luciferase, and other chemicals, produce a blue-green light. Because glowworms react to light and noise by switching off, we were cautioned not to make sounds, take photographs or videotape in the caves. My immediate reaction upon seeing the brilliant lights of glowworms was, “Oh my God.” I couldn’t stop but appreciate more of the biodiversity, ecology and geology of New Zealand.

Te Anau Glowworm Caves

The glowworm cave we visited is located on the ewestern shores of Lake Te Anau. The cave itself is part of a 6.7km, four-level limestone labyrinth known as the Aurora Caves system. The caves are about 12,000 years old, which is quite young in geological terms, but the limestone they carve through is ancient - up to 35 million years old.
Unlike many dry cave systems, the Te Anau glowworm caves are still increasing in size. The "Tunnel Burn" river that flows through the caves is mildly acidic, which helps the water dissolve the rock and create passages. This acidity is produced from carbon dioxide which originates from the forest floor high above the caves. Because the Te Anau glowworm caves are young and still have a river running through them, stalactittes and stalagmites are only just starting to form. Speleothems are more common in what seemed to be the older, and drier, upper passages of the caves.
The entrance to the cave was quite low, having to basically duck walk in order to get through, but this quickly opened up into a secton known as the Cathedral. This section is roughly 20m high - the highest known point in the Aurora Caves. At the far end of the Cathedral, close to a waterfall, there are fossilized shell fragments that were noticeable in the limestone walls. These would have to date back to when the limestone formed under the sea millions of years ago... a breathtaking site.
Past the waterfall, a whirlpool and natural sandstone bridge are good examples of how the water wears and cuts is way through the limestone. At the end of the walkway, we boarded a small boat and drifted into a section known as glowworm grotto, which seemed to be a small lake-like section of water accumulation (it was pitch black in order to see the glowworms so it is hard to tell for sure.)
Adult Fly (1-5 days) - The adult fungus gnat's only purpose is to breed and disperse. The female usually dies immediately after laying eggs. The males live up to five days. They are born without functioning mouthparts.
Eggs (20-24 days) - Each adult lays approximately 130 tiny sticky eggs. They hatch about three weeks later. Hatching occurs in all seasons but is most common in December.
Larva (9 months) - As soon as it hatches, the glowing larva builds a nest and begins catching food. Once it reaches 30-40mm, it covers itself in a protective skin, much like a cacoon, and becomes a pupa.
Pupa (12-13 days) - Suspended on a long thread, the larva begins turning into an adult fly. Both males and females emit light but the female becomes much brighter before she hatches, attracting adult males.
Glowworms "fish" for food by dangleing as many as 70 "fishing lines" which are 20-150mm long and covered with thick sticky droplets of mucus. The glowworm's light attracts insects which then become trapped and paralysed by chemicals in the lines. When the glowworm feels vibrations on a line, it quickly hauls in its victim, kills it, and feeds. The glowworm's light is produced as a by-product of excretion. A reaction takes place in small tubes near the tail between an enzyme called cuviferase and other chemicals, producing a blue-green light.
The glowworm's main predator in the caves is the harvestman, similar to a spider. If food is scarce, and glowworms live too closely together, they have been known to cannibalize eachother. Glowwroms need high humidity, close to saturation point, or else they dry out and die. Many other creatures live in the cave system including weta, earthworms, spiders, millipedes, beetles, isopods, amphipods, as well as the aforementioned harvestman. The water supports native long-finned eel, which can grow up to 1.7m long and weigh up to 25 kg, as well as small native fiash called kaoro. Some creatures, such as cave beetles and harvestmen, live their entire lives in the caves and cannot survive outside. After living in the dark so long, many have lost pigmentation and developed highly sensitive sensory organs to detect prey. Others, such as glowworms, can survive equally well oustide caves, as long as they may find cool, dark habitats reminiscent of the cave environment.

Glowworms

So today we went to see the glowworms located in the caves in Te Anau. The caves here are relatively young compared to other caves being only 12,000 years old. The cave is still growing to this day due to the slightly acidic river that runs through. The water is acidic because of the carbon dioxide produced by us humans above the cave. The highest point in the cave is about 20 meters.
The glowworms are mostly condensed to a small open space at the end of the cave called the glowworm grotto. We had to climb into a boat in order to see the glowworms up close. All the lights were turned off and we were asked to be silent so that we would not scare them. When we entered the grotto we were surrounded by thousands of glowing specks covering the walls of the cave. It was an amazing site.
The lights that we were seeing are produced by the glowworm in their larva stage. This is actually the only stage the glowworm eats and it lasts for most of its life. The larva stage lasts for about 9 months. During this time the glowworm is eating and growing. To capture its food the glowworm sends down fishing lines that are made of sticky mucus. An insect that flies into this trap is stuck, sucked up, and eaten by the glowworm. They can even become cannibalistic when it comes to issues of territory. We saw a video of an older glowworm devouring a younger glowworm that got too close. The glowing is used as a tactic to attract the insects to the fishing lines. The hungrier the worm is the brighter the glow. It was really interesting to see how an animal will adapt to dark cave environments.
The next stage in a glowworms life is the pupa stage. This begins after the larva reaches about 30-40mm and covers itself with a protective skin. This will only last for 12-13 days where the larva is developing into an adult fly. The adult fly is released from the protective layer. The fly’s life is very short because they are born without mouthparts. Their only purpose is to breed in their 1-5 day life. If successful, the female will lay up to 130 eggs. Then the stages begin again.

Jessica

Fleeting Fantails

Everywhere you wander in New Zealand you see birds flitting about here and there. Some of these are introduced birds like the European Blackbird and others are native like the Wax-eye. My favorite bird here has been the Pied Fantail. These little birds are about the size of a House Sparrow but are colored white and black with a buff or yellow chest. They have a white streak over their eyes and a beautiful large white and black tail. By far they are most enjoyable to watch when they are flying. Looping, rolling and diving as they chase insects the aerial acrobatic show is spectacular.
Pied Fantails, or Piwakawaka in Maori, are from a group of birds known as flycatchers. Their scientific name is Rhipidura fulginosa and while there are three specific subspecies unique to New Zealand, the family that they belong to isn’t limited to New Zealand alone. There are also Fantails in Australia, Malaysia, and most of the South Pacific. The three subspecies are differentiated by slight differences in coloration between North, South and Chatham Island varieties including some all black Fantails found in the South Island. They are found throughout New Zealand from sea level to the snow line, in urban, suburban, farm, forest and scrub environments. They are generally 16 cm in length with 8 cm of that being their tail alone and weigh 8 grams on average. Their call is a kissing sound and they often follow people chasing and catching the insects that are stirred up by people’s passing.
They can have 2-5 broods of chicks each year so the population is able to quickly bounce back from depletion. The oldest Fantail was known to have lived to the age of three. The species is dimorphic changing in coloration from juvenile to adult plumage as it grows. Both sexes appear the same but the males are slightly larger. Breeding season for Pied Fantails is from September through January and they generally build their nests on branches overhanging water. The nests themselves are usually constructed of moss, hair, grass, and bark with cobwebs used for mortar to hold it all together. Their eggs are generally 3-4 in number and are creamy with brown spots. Incubation is around fourteen days and both parents participate incubating and then feeding the young.
The Fantail also plays a part in Maori myth as the reason or the cause of Maui’s death. The myth goes that Maui, who fished the Islands up from the sea, was traveling into the underworld to kill the goddess of death, Hine-nui-te-po. As Maui was entering her to kill her, a fantail who was accompanying him laughed and woke her. She then closed her legs and killed Maui. So the presence of a Fantail can be interpreted in Maori culture as a bad omen.
From what I’ve witnessed, they have little to no fear of people as they fly and perch quite close and appear not to be the slightest bit afraid of you. I’ve seen one on nearly every hike we’ve had on this trip, urban or through bush. They’re great to watch flying through the air pulling off spectacular aerial moves to catch the insects they’re chasing. The loops, dives and quick changes instantly catch and hold your eye and the plumage when they land is beautiful. The pictures above were taken along the ocean coast near the town of Harihari in the South Island during a couple hour hike. These little birds are wonderful and will hold a great place in my memory this trip.

Glacier Pictures

Commenting on what Anna said...

This photo was taken because it shows that area that the glacier used to cover.  The small island to the left of the river is where the glacier use to be at around the mid to late 1900s.  It was so interesting to see the effects of climate change right at our feet.  We have been having discussions about what is actually causing climate change and being at this wonderful glacier all day allowed me to put it all in to perspective and reiterate, again the damage that we may be doing.  

Today was probably one of the most breathtaking days that I have ever had and I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to be able to study Biology in this beautiful place rather than in a classroom. 

Foreign Ministry and the Kyoto Protocol

On the eighteenth of May a number of us had the opportunity to visit with members of the foreign ministry in regards to the world’s climate crisis, how New Zealand is planning on combating carbon emissions, and the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol is an international environmental treaty produced by the United Nations and is intended to achieve stabilization of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations as to prevent interference of local and global climates. It establishes a legally binding commitment for the reduction of four greenhouse gases in all participating countries (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and sulphue hexafluoride) and two additional gases (hydrofluorocarbons and perflourocarbons) in Annex I countries, countries that were industrialized/developed as of 1990. The protocol aims at reducing the carbon emissions of each participating country to the 1990 carbon levels of that particular country. There are "flexible mechanisms" built into the protocol, such as emissions trading. This allows Annex I economies to meet their greenhouse gas emission limitations by purchasing GHG emission reductions credits from elsewhere, through financial exchanges, projects that reduce emissions in non-Annex I economies, from other Annex I countries, or from Annex I countries with excess allowances. In practice this means that Non-Annex I economies have no GHG emission restrictions, but have financial incentives to develop GHG emission reduction projects to receive "carbon credits" that can then be sold to Annex I buyers, encouraging sustainable development. Currently 183 countries have ratified the protocol, including New Zealand. Countries such as the U.S and China have not ratified the protocol, despite being the leading contributors of green house gases. However, under Obama the U.S is seriously considering the ratification of the protocol.

Members of the panel stressed that New Zealand is making great strides in reducing their carbon footprint. Currently the country is powered by seventy percent renewable resources, such as wind, geothermal, hydropower, etc. They hope to increase the number of renewable power sources to ninety percent over the next twenty years. This is very ambitious because of cost and limited resources, but the New Zealand public and government seem to be extremely committed to making this a reality and have made it clear that they will remain a nuclear free country and have no plans to continue building coal burning power plants. New Zealand has also improved carbon emissions by importing a number of emission friendly cars from Japan. These cars are smaller, use less fuel, and are more environmentally friendly than many of the cars driven in the U.S and other developed countries. However, while New Zealand has been able to lower the carbon emissions in both transportation and energy, they have not been able to significantly lower their carbon footprint as a whole because fifty percent of their carbon emissions come from agriculture. Agriculture is a huge part of the New Zealand economy, as they are one of the leading countries in the export of dairy products, sheep products, and sheep/cattle meat products. As a result of the economic significance of agriculture it is extremely difficult to decrease carbon emissions any further because reducing agricultural emissions would worsen the New Zealand economy. In this situation the only viable option for reaching the goal of reducing carbon emissions to that of the 1990 level would be to buy emission credits from another country. Overall, New Zealand has made such great strides in reducing their carbon footprint that it is difficult to feasibly lower it any further.

My personal opinion of the Kyoto Protocol is that it is a step in the right direction. The world is in crisis and obviously facing a large number of climate problems. If these problems are not aggressively addressed in the near future the world will undergo a number of changes; species will go extinct, low lying coastal communities will be endangered, world health will decrease, natural resources will be depleted, etc. However, while being a step in the right direction, there are foreseeable problems with the protocol, especially with the “trading flexibility” within it. Countries such as New Zealand will need the credit trading system to sustain their economies because they have lowered their carbon emissions nearly as low as possible. The problem with the trading system is that small countries like New Zealand have significantly less money than other developed countries (i.e. United States) and there is nothing in the protocol that stops larger countries from buying all of the credits. If all the GHG credits were bought by a larger country there would be none left for small countries. As a result they would not be able to meet the required carbon emission level and would be fined large amounts of money. The only way to prevent this from happening is to put a limit on the amount of credits that any one country can buy, but it is these very limits that have kept the U.S from ratifying the protocol. Therefore, putting a limit on it would deter the large carbon emitting countries from joining the cause. In conclusion, the Kyoto Protocol is a good idea that has too many loop holes to be effective. In the end it should not be the small carbon emitting countries like New Zealand leading the fight against global warming. It is the responsibility of the United States, as the leading carbon emitter, to step up to the plate and lead the way.

Franz Josef Glaciers

Today, I conquered one of can’t do attitudes by hiking on the Franz Josef Glaciers with eleven members of our group, woo! It was really fun to see glacier for the very first time in my life. But not only did I see it, I walked on it. The history of the glacier is quite intriguing. Julius von Haast, a geologist and explorer, named the glacier Franz Josef Glacier in 1863, after the Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Approximately 7000 years old, and a residue of a much older and larger glacier that originally swept right to the sea, Franz Josef Glacier extends 12 kilometers from its three feeder glaciers in the high snow fields of the Alps. Currently, the life-threatening face is about 19 kilometers from the sea and just 5 kilometers from the township. By 1954 the glacier had retreated so that it was no longer visible from the town. The forward moving from melting ice and waterfall from surrounding mountains to the glacier brought it back into public view. From early Maori legends this glacier was called Ka Roimata o Hinehukatere. The Tears of a Maori Girl (Hinehukatere),
Hinehukatere loved climbing in the mountains and persuaded her lover, Tawe, to climb with her. Tawe fell from the peaks of the mountains and died. Hinehukatere was broken hearted and her many, many tears froze to form the glacier. The Franz Josef Glaciers run via amazing glacial valleys to flow into a beautiful rainforest. What is unique about Franz Josef Glacier is that unlike any other of the world’s glaciers that retreat, these glaciers still flow almost to sea level, which makes them very exceptional relics of the last Ice Age. Because the glacier lies between huge winds called the roaring forties, the wind rise above the Southern Alps causing cooling and moisture as it rains and snows. Even though the glaciers start to melt from the top at lower altitude, the elevated snowfall constantly pushes ice down the valleys at very fast speed. This creates a barrier sliding, placing deposits of water beneath the glaciers, formed by the weight of the ice pushing against the valley floor. These factors cause the Franz Josef glacier to flow at faster rate up to 10 times faster than most valley glaciers in the world. It was amazing to see how the glaciers flow over large bedrock and overhang everything around it. Sometimes I could hear the ice break up as it forms steep icefalls and sometime creating Mullins, tiny holes that turn into tunnels making pathways. This was a unique glacier experience for me to walk on large impressive landscape of ice that I have never dreamed of before. It was really awesome!!