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!!