2021 Projects (Round 9)
Whakatipu Wildlife Trust – Using Technology to Engage Community Trapping Groups
Whakatipu Wildlife Trust is an umbrella organisation working with 60 trapping groups/projects in the Lake Whakatipu basin from Paradise to Kingston. Our goal is to reduce, and eventually eliminate predators from our area, enabling our native wildlife to thrive. Our trapping groups have told us they are interested in using new technology to make their activities more efficient and effective.
We are asking 12 of our more experienced trapping groups to shape localised research questions, and we will provide administration and coordination, along with scientific and technological advice and equipment to help them find a solution. For example, what is the efficacy of a range of baits over time in the high country environment?
Each project will be shared with all of our trapping groups, and hopefully help them to remain engaged, to learn new skills and to continue to develop future community-based projects that help us reach our goal of having the area predator free.
Find out more about this project by visiting their Facebook page.
Funding: $19,590
Contact: Joanne Conroy
Biodiversity is the name of the game – What’s the difference in the biodiversity between the lower and upper Tomahawk lagoons?
Develop appropriate protocols to investigate the range and abundance of different species of animals and plants present in the lagoon.
Plan and implement a monitoring programme to build a robust data base to allow for a comparison between the lower and upper lagoons at TL.
The Tomahawk Lagoon ecosystem health group will build two expert teams: one to SETUP the nets and traps on the evening prior to sampling day, and two, to be our SAMPLING and RETRIEVAL team on the day. The second team will also be responsible for on site analysis and recording data of the fish samples and bird observations as well as preservation of planktonic and other macroinvertebrate samples for more expert analysis.
Students and teachers from local schools – Tahuna Normal Intermediate school, Bayfield High School, John McGlashan College, Otago Girls’ High School and King’s High school – joined forces with Ocean Grove community members and ecologists from the University of Otago, the Department of Conservation, Otago Regional Council and Otago Fish and Game.
Towards the end of the year, participants invited the local community to a 1-day symposium at which they presented their findings.
Find out more about this project by visiting their Facebook page.
Funding: $20,000
Contact: Andrew Innes (ECOTAGO)
Wading in – the role of rainfall events in contributing nutrients and sediments into the Blueskin Bay Estuary
The Blueskin Bay community are concerned about nutrient and sediment pollution in their estuary. The lettuce seaweed Ulva is a ‘nuisance’ which can bloom in response to an increase in nutrients and smothering sediment in an estuary. A 2020 study in Blueskin Bay detected a marked increase in Ulva cover over 10 years concurrent with elevated levels of nitrate discharged from the Warrington Waste Water Treatment Plant. Otago Regional Council are commissioning a Eutrophication Susceptibility Study of the Bay but are not including rainfall events in their models. We believe rainfall events are major contributors and should not be left out. We want to wade in and plug the gap. If rainfall events are important nutrient and sediment contributors, this information should be included by regional councils in their National Eutrophication Susceptibility Modelling. By wading into this issue in Blueskin, our community can lead the way in caring for estuaries nationwide.
We aim to measure:
What is the nitrogen, phosphate and sediment load delivered to Blueskin Bay during rain fall events?
How does this compare with monthly Otago Regional Council monitoring (not weather targeted)?
How does inclusion of nutrient and sediment loading during rain fall events alter the estimation of the Eutrophication Susceptibility of Blueskin Bay?
The measurements will be undertaken by members of the Blueskin Bay community during rising water levels in Careys Creek and Waitati River during two rain events.
Funding: $19,999
Contact: Mike Thorsen (Ahika Consulting)
Take a walk on the wild side – restoring native ecosystems and building connection to nature.
A project by the local council to develop an area of Wānaka’s lakefront will significantly change the current ecology and how residents and visitors interact with nature. The project includes a large-scale revegetation and planting plan, including the addition of a greater variety of native plants and new areas of wetland. A boardwalk with information boards will also be installed, allowing residents and visitors to have closer access to the lakefront and greater knowledge of the local flora and fauna.
By working together, local schools, community partners and WAI Wānaka will assess how the development has met it goals to ‘restore and develop ecology through ecological enhancements’ and ‘improve land use within the lakefront’ by measuring any changes to biodiversity, water quality and community values.
To do this, local students will use water testing techniques to regularly measure changes in water quality including gaining data on the populations of freshwater macroinvertebrates which are good indicators of water health. Moving on to land, our keen citizen scientists will measure the change in populations of small beasties found among the vegetation, looking at the type and abundance of native versus introduced species over time. Tapping into social science, the students will design and undertake a survey to canvas opinion from the local community. They will enquire about the community’s interaction, enjoyment and engagement with nature at the lakefront now, and after the newly developed area fully opens.
We hope to find out whether a managed amenity planting can produce a functioning native ecosystem and increase community engagement with nature.
Funding: $19,256
Contact: Jose Cranfield (WAI Wānaka)
Urbanization of red-billed in gulls in Otago – love them or lose them
Increase public awareness and understanding about red-billed gulls
Involve the wider community in caring for and gathering data that can help inform and better mitigate detrimental interaction due to the urbanisation of this native species.
Red-billed gulls, Tarapunga (Larus novaehollandiae scopulinus), are common residents of the New Zealand coast, or so it seems. They frequent our beaches, try to steal our lunch and squawk loudly when we come too close. Most New Zealanders have seen red-billed gulls and many can identify them by name. Although they are commonly encountered, there has been a steady decline in numbers at their largest breeding colonies.
The 2020 Otago Participatory Science project on red-billed gulls found that that the population of gulls in Otago is increasing, and that the location of some breeding colonies have changed. Community input has been essential in locating new breeding locations. Future work with the community will provide opportunity to add to our understanding of how breeding activity in Otago is changing over time.
Red-billed gulls are increasingly breeding in urban areas. In the 2020 project, we identified nesting sites where the interactions with humans were having an undesirable impact (e.g. tops of buildings in Oamaru, car park at Taiaroa Head, boats at Otago Yacht Club marina). Through the development of alternate suitable habitat for breeding and methods to either lure the birds to new sites or exclude them from existing sites, we hope to find solutions to perceived clashes with gulls and people.
Red-billed gulls are increasingly becoming a nuisance in schools. Preliminary research in 2020 has shown that gulls are more commonly encountered at schools where the students eat their lunch outside and have open rubbish bins in contrast to schools where students eat lunch inside and have reduced rubbish. Through coordinated data collection with schools and other interest groups (eg cafés), we hope to be able to further our understanding about the interaction between gulls and people and possible solutions.
To keep up-to-date with the project, visit the Otago Peninsula Trust and Royal Albatross Centre websites.
Funding: $19,936
Contact: Robyn McDonald (Otago Peninsula Trust)
Soil Your Undies Otago! #Stretching the elastic
Soils provide the ecosystem services and provide the basis of biodiversity, food production and carbon storage which our economy, culture and communities rely on. The aim of this project is to make field observations of soils using biological indicators (earthworms and the cotton strip test (“undies”)) in rural East and North Otago to determine our soil health.
Understanding soil health will help provide a framework to future proof the value of soils for communities and provide a pathway to improve ecosystem functioning. This year 14 schools in the area will be part of the project and investigating soil health.
Funding: $20,000
Contact: Bridget McNally (North Otago Sustainable Land Management)
The development of a concussion management policy for high schools
The project to develop Concussion Management Guidelines for High Schools aims to support students to safely return to learning and sport by working collaboratively with school parents, and health care providers.
In youth sport, concussions account for 15% of injuries. In NZ, ACC reports that the highest rates of concussion are in 13-18-year-olds. Research shows that individuals who sustain a concussion and access care quickly, are more likely to experience fewer symptoms and recover sooner.
Previous work by NZR around the management of concussion in high schools has identified several challenges regarding the management of the student athlete following a concussion. One of these challenges is communication between the athlete, their parents, teachers, and healthcare providers around the appropriate activities a student should be engaging in.
The purpose of this work is to engage with the various stakeholders involved in the care of the student and facilitate the collaborative development of a concussion guidelines. This study encourages those involved with the management of a student’s concussion to engage and take charge of the challenges they experience around concussion management. They will also develop their own individualised solutions that will enable best practice concussion management to support a successful return to learn and sport.
Focus groups with students, parents, teachers, admin staff and health care providers will be used to explore:
how concussions are managed in schools currently,
share what’s working well and identify opportunities to continually improve; and
identify key ingredients for a ‘best practice’ process in schools (i.e. a co-designed framework).
This information will be analysed, the results presented at a workshop, and then engagement with identified sport organisations, health care providers and key school contact to co-design a concussion policy that is fit for purpose.
To find out more about concussions, check out Concussion | Rugby Toolbox and to learn about the research NZR is doing in this space see COMMUNITY CONCUSSION MANAGEMENT PATHWAY | Rugby Toolbox
Funding: $20,000
Contact: Dr Danielle Salmon (New Zealand Rugby)
Coastal Heritage and Coastal Erosion – discovering the past at Moeraki
Salvage archaeology of eroding Māori heritage at Moeraki
Marae learning in excavations, lab analysis and how archaeology works
Coastal Heritage and Coastal Erosion is a rūnanga archaeological project. Helped by archaeologists from the University of Otago and Otago Museum, whānau from Te Rūnanga o Moeraki are doing the excavation ourselves.
Other than the pā at Katiki Point, there has been little archaeological investigation on Moeraki Peninsula. However, coastal erosion of the cliff face and rampant rabbit burrowing have exposed an extensive archaeological deposit on Tikoraki Point that appears to date back to early Māori settlement in Otago. We want to know what archaeological evidence from the eroding Tikoraki site tells us about the history of Māori landscape use and changes to lifeways in pre-European Moeraki.
In February 2021 over twenty whānau members got their hands dirty in the first excavation that revealed cooking stones and midden rich in seal bone, fish bone and shell. These are all in the top metre of the ground, but Tikoraki is also an urupā with historic burials dug deeper through the archaeological layer. Some ancestors buried there are from the early 19th century whaler settlement. So, this research also aims to identify unmarked burials for monitoring against the erosion threat.
Whānau are gaining firsthand experience of ‘how archaeology works’, from the beginning of identifying issues and developing research questions, right through to figuring what we can and can’t know, and why. It includes another excavation in November and three weekend workshops in the University’s archaeological labs to clean, sort and analyse the recovered material. For our University and Museum partners it is also provides an experience of tikanga Māori in the Rūnanga’s kaitiakitanga of Tikoraki. This two-way learning in the cooperative putting together of the long story of Moeraki will also help envisage how future archaeology can be advanced in North Otago.
Funding: $19,902.40
Contact: Dr Gerard O’Regan