Margaret and Stef here, We are blogging about the Umbrella Ferns that we saw on our hike in Tongariro National Forest last week.

Name: Umbrella Fern

Genus: Sticherus Cunninghamii

Umbrella ferns grow in open habitats and mostly in the tropics. They tend to grow on banks and the floor of the forest where the sunlight can reach them. It is found in higher altitudes, we found this picture at about 3700 ft above sea level. The stem system is very distinctive in that it has one stem that brances into two, each divergance has many leafs. It was first identified in 1979 and goes by many traditional Maori common names such as Rarauheriki, Tapuwae kotuku, and Waekura.

Stockton Mine

       Today we visited the Stockton Mine which is harvesting one of the purest forms of coal in the world. The mine has been in operation for nearly 100 years. Our visit was focused on the environmental impact aspect of the mine. The folks at the mine have only been aware of the "green" movement for around 5 years, and has only just begun to address the issues in the last 18 months. 

Some of the main issues addressed in our brief meeting included water management, acid rock damage (ard), and direct transfer. 

In January, 2007, the Stockton Mine was granted resource consents by the West Coast Regional COuncil to discharge treated mine water and settled water from Stockton Mine into the Mangatini Stream and to dose the stream with finely crushed limestone to improve the downstream water quality by raising the pH level. This reduces the concentration of metals that dissolve in the water and improves water quality. The reported water quality findings thus far have shown exponential improvement. The problem with this is, when you start to confront water quality issues in an area with a pH of something around 2-3, exponential improvement is not hard to show. 

The so called "mildly" acidic acid rock damage forms when rain and air combine with the pyrite which is widespread in rock located within the Stockton Mine. Most likely a major contributor to the pH issues in the water quality of the Mangatini Stream. I have trouble calling a pH of that measure "mild." According to this description, stomach acid would be comparable to hydrogen peroxide. However, many recent efforts have gone into developing systems to insulate rock dumps from the elements and so minimize the extent of environmental impact of ARD.

Another of the issues covered was a process that Phil Rossiter, Environmental Program Manager, termed "direct transfer." Direct transfer is, in simpler terms relocation of environmental barriers. Much work has gone into transplanting environments into sections of the mine called "rehabilitation" zones. The problem with the rehabilitation zones that I found was that they looked nothing like the native bush that surrounded the mine yard. The rehabilitation zone was dry, and arid. It contains no soil except for some sort of a mesh made of straw. 

The second example of direct transfer comes about with the issues of powelliphanta Augustus covered in the previous blog. One of the main objections that I have with this process, besides the aforementioned side effects, is  best said by Cath Wallace earlier on our trip. When considering moving a species to another location, you must first ask yourself why that species isn't in that location in the first place. Most likely, there is a reason. This is not verbatim from Cath, but you get the idea. Any species, and most especially those that are considered endangered, may not be able to handle the stresses of being extracted from their native environments. 

Overall, it was definitely an eye opening experience in many aspects. Allthough I feel that there is much more work to be done, the bottom line is that this is a coal mine, and they are in the business of producing a product which supplies a need in demand. I must give credit where credit is due and state that the Stockton Mine is most likely one of the world leaders as far as environmentally conscious coal mines, but my own conscious in my head continued to scream throughout the brief meeting, "what aren't you telling us Phil?" 

          "rehabilitation zone"

rehabilitation 

Carnivorous Snails

Today we went on a tour of the Stockton Coal Mine.  We had an interesting opportunity to hear about one of New Zealands threatened species of carnivorous snails.  This specific type is named Powelliphanta "Augustus".  The "Augustus" part of the name was used because the snails were originally located on Mount Augustus.  Mount Augustus is now part of the Stockton Coal Mine.  Since Solid Energy, the company that owns the coal mine, wanted to use this mountain to further their coal mining, they had to relocate the snails.  The Department of Conservation (DOC) along with local environmental enthusiasts covered Mount Augustus in order to preserve the endangered species.  The early estimates of how many snails were there was around 500 snails.  Later on, the actual number jumped all the way to 6800 snails.

Our visit to the coal mine was interesting to see the political and economic problems faced with preservation of threatened species.  Biologically, too, it is quite impressive to see the habitat change for the snails.  We watched a video about the some of the difficulties in feeding, weighing, and storing the snails.  I also think it is important to consider that the only population of these snails was found on that particular mountain.  The mountain was considered subalpine and had limited soil.  There were some native plants and vegetation but a lot of the surrounding area was covered in rock, especially sandstone and slate.

As for the snails themselves, they are considered terrestial pulmonate gastropod molluscs, in the family of Rhytididae.  They are endemic to New Zealand's Sounth Island and have only been found on the ridgeline northeast of Westport.  The species was first identified in 1996 and have already been considered critically endangered.  

Not much is known about the species specifically, because it has not been known about for a long period of time.  

In general though, these snails belong to:

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Mollusca

Class: Gastropoda 

Order: Pulmonata

Family: Rhytididae

Genus: Powelliphanta

Species: "Augustus"

*Picture is From Wikipedia

The Swing Bridge and Kekenos

Wednesday (5/28) as we were driving to Westport we stopped at the Buller River Gorge, home of New Zealand's longest swing bridge. After we made the trek across the bridge there are four different walking paths to choose from with varying lengths and different sights to see. Pressed for time we all went on the loop walk which was long enough to stretch our legs and gave us a chance to see a wide variety of plant life including Crown Ferns (Piupiu) and different kinds of pines (White, Black, Brown and Red). Along this walk you are also able to see the White's Creek faultline. This was one of the epicenters of the Murchison earthquake in 1929. This earthquake measured a 7.8 on the Richter Scale and was felt all around the country. During this earthquake the ground rose 4.5 meters or 15 feet instantly in this area. After the walk some people chose to take the comet line back across the gorge while the rest walked back over the bridge.

After we got settled in at the Canterbury field station we went to see the seal colony at Tauranga Bay. Just a short walk from the carpark you could see and hear the seals out on the rocks. The type of seals that are found here are New Zealand Fur Seals also known as Kekeno. They are the most common seals in New Zealand and are also found in western and southern Australia. Kekenos hunt at night and mainly feed on squid and small fish but sometimes feed on larger creatures such as barracuda and eels. Kekenos are very good swimmers and the pups have been recoded to swim as far as Australia. The females are also known to be some of the deepest and longest divers of any of the fur seals. Off the west coast they are known to dive deeper than 238m for up to 11 minuets, but the average dive time is one to two minutes. The estimated population of the seals in New Zealand is 50-60,000. Some of the natural predators of the seals are great white sharks, sevengill sharks and humans. Even though the hunting of the seals was outlawed in 1894 human activity is still their biggest threat, the seals get stuck in fishing nets and trash that has been dumped into the ocean. Since the seals were protected after they were hunted to near extinction in 1894, the populations have increased each year across New Zealand and studies indicate it will continue. As the sun set the seals slipped away into the waters for their nightly hunt and we left for the cafe.

New Zealand Spiders!

Here is a collection of the spiders that I have photographed insofar in New Zealand. If you have any input as to identification I would love to hear your input :) Thank you Shane for finding most of these. Click on the Photos to Enlarge

Name: Pholcus phalangioides
Common Name: Daddy Long Legs
- note that this is not to be confused with the arachnid that you more than likely associate daddy long legs with. The one part body with long legs that you are thinking of is actually a European harvestman Phalangium opilio. the European harvestman does not make any webs either and although is an arachnid is not considered a spider.

Habitat: the Daddy Long Legs is commonly found in tiny unorganized webs in the ceiling corners of houses. In New Zealand, these spiders are commonly found in in the north island and a little less often in the South Island. This spider was found at a Holiday Park in the Mapua, the northern part of of the South Island.

Habits: The Daddy Long Legs captures most prey that happen to get caught in its webs. A straining prey will be wrapped up at a safe distance from the daddy long legs via the shooting of a silky web. Once rendered useless to defend its itself, the prey will be consumed by the daddy long legs.

This is an interesting web/nest that I found while I was hiking near the coastline in Paikakariki. It looked as though the contents of this nest had hatched. The thin sheet was made to protect the eggs. It was very interesting. Possibly not spider related .

Name: Steatoda capensis

Common Name: Black cobweb or false katipo spider

Habitat: The False Katipo Spider is commonly found all over New Zealand and is thought to have originated in Africa. It can be found in long grasses bound by sand and driftwood and and under structure. We found two of these spiders on our hike on the near the shoreline in Paikakariki.

Habit: This is a very smart spider. It mimicks is close relative the Kapito spider and als othe Black Widow spider. It is nearly identical to its relative but does not contain the intense venom of which the kapito carries.

Name: *we don't know
Coloration: This spider was found deep in the bark of decaying log. Its coloration was such that it was very difficult to see without a trained eye.

Behavior: This spider did not want to leave the safety of its wooden habitat. When we finally were able to seperate it from the log, and dropped it onto a piece of white notebook paper, the paper scattered like none other. It moved very fast across the paper before we were able to get a closer photo.

Name: Another Unknown

This spider was found at the Bird Sanctuary. If you have some ideas on the identification of this spider your input would be much appreciated.

Name: Possibly a Wolf Spider.

This spider was found underneath a log during mine and Shane's nightlife tour of Paikakariki. Once again if you have any input please post it :)

I hope you have enjoyed my spider photo gallery so far. I will continue to post more as this trip continues. It will be interested to see what the South Island and the Cook Islands have to offer as far as spiders are concerned. Before you crush the 8 legged fury friend chillin in your room, please come find me so I can get up close with my camera. I will also promptly and remove your unwanted guest after the shoot is over.

Which one do you think is scarier? the Spider or the Centipede? Check out this video!

Vineyard and Winery 5/26/09

Today we visited a family owned and operated vineyard and winery to learn about how they were keeping their operation sustainable. We were met by Heidi Seifried, the daughter of Hermann and Agnes Seifried who are the founders of the vineyard, who gave us a tour of their whole operation.

This particular vineyard in Nelson has a grafting system in place which helps them overcome some of the diseases known to affect grapes. The whole grafting system takes about 4 years, starting off with culturing the roots that are Phylloxera resistant (Phylloxera is a root based microbial disease that has devastating effects on grape plants), then grafting shoots of particular grapes onto those roots and incubating the seedlings before finally planting them. With this system, it is possible to graft a different type of grape onto an already established root system that has been growing a different type of grape. This is done by cutting the plant down to the original root stalk and then grafting the new plant onto that root stalk. The fresh wound is covered with resin to prevent botrytis from getting into the plants. Botrytis is a fungal disease that is usually found on the raceme which are the left over stems once the grapes are shaken off.

Pesticide use is kept to a minimum by keeping the canopy of their grapes well trimmed and training the grapes to grow at a certain level. When pesticides and herbicides are used, they use sulfur and tend to stay away from copper sulfates. The copper sulfates have a nasty tendency to get into water supplies and are toxic to fish and marine wildlife. The Seifrieds use all natural oils to coat their grapes which helps to prevent fungal infections.

During the wine making process, extracts from fish bladders (isinglass or collagen), milk (casein) and egg (albumin) are used to neutralize the negatively charged tannins that come from the grape seeds and skins. These extracts are taken out of the wine by various types of filtration.

It was interesting to see the steps being taken to make this an eco-friendly operation. The vats were all placed under the protection of buildings to reduce the cost and need for refrigeration, there were also steps being taken to reduce the amount of water needed for irrigation and cleaning. Earlier in the trip, we talked to Cath Wallace, who made a point that being “green” was just a smoke and mirrors act. I disagree with this to a point, I think that there are many ways in which the examples we were shown today at this vineyard were excellent starts to being a more sustainable operation. However, there were many parts that could be improved upon.

For example, the release of carbon dioxide during the fermentation process is not sufficiently dealt with. There is an expectation that some of the carbon dioxide will be taken up by the grapes through photosynthesis but overall this does not fully compensate for the large release so this vineyard does not have a zero carbon footprint. On the plus side, they ship their wines in boats overseas which has a significantly lower carbon emission then trucking or air shipping. The obvious downside is the time it takes for the wines to arrive at their final destination.

I really enjoyed seeing how this family business was run and how they made and kept their international connections. This visit really exemplified how numerous areas of study (business, politics, chemistry, biology, econ, agriculture, forestry, …) need to be rolled into one in order for the business to be successful.

Gaby and Katie J.

A day with Richard and some marine life

Yesterday (Monday, May 25th), we spent a lot of time with Brian’s friend Richard. I think I learned more that morning/afternoon than I have any other single day in New Zealand so far. He was extremely knowledgeable about New Zealand’s current marine wildlife situation and he shared the facts and stories in a fun and effective way. We went over a lot of different things but I will just try and mention a few key things that moved me the most.

The Touch the Sea aquarium experience was great. We got to touch eels, sharks, starfish and other underwater animals. The large tank had scarlet wrasse, a short tail stingray, an eagle ray, trumpeters, red maki, snappers, and blue cod among numerous other types of fish. We saw some huge packhorse rock lobsters that are relatives of crayfish, seahorses, a red eared turtle, a blowfish, and the octopi were very neat to watch too. The common octopi (Octopus maorum) there live only for about 18 to 24 months, which was surprising to me. They are predators that eat crabs and small fishes at night, though I think they are definitely capable of eating larger things. Everything was very new to me and I thought it was a great experience.

Richard got to talking about orange roughy, scampie, seals and tuna, among many other things. I thought it was interesting that seals have one o f the largest nocturnal migrations. They eat hokey (the liver and brain have the most energy, and they leave the rest as scraps). Some fishers want the seals dead because they mistakenly think they kill too many fish. Quotas need to be calculated and better considered. This is a problem in New Zealand as well as around the world. He also mentioned that tuna may be extinct in about ten years. They are nearing commericial and ecological extinction. That really boggled my mind! I guess I hear so little about shortages and overfishing that it never really considered it a real problem. Hearing it from someone so knowledgeable and passionate about the marine life, and New Zealand’s pristine nature in general really made it more impactful.

Finally I just have to mention the walk on the beach while before the tide came in and the sun set. That was absolutely incredible for me. I got to see and hold hairy handed crabs, common rock crabs, smooth shore crabs, sea stars, sunflower stars, half crabs, a sea squirt, a flatworm, mussels snails and chitins. Bill told me a bit about chitins. We could identify the head, foot, gills in groves on the sides, and the hard outer shell (in 8 segments). They eat in an interesting way. Bill described that their tongue is a chainsaw-like foot that helps it move along as well as eat. Here are a few pictures (sorry about the low quality). Chitins, and the underbelly of an octopus: