Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research

Landcare Research

Manaaki Whenua
Landcare Research logo
Agency overview
Headquarters	Lincoln, Christchurch
Agency executives	Dr Warren Parker, Chief Executive Jo Brosnahan, Chair
Website	http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz

Landcare Research, or Manaaki Whenua in the Māori language, is one of New Zealand's Crown Research Institutes. The focus of the research at this company is the environment, biodiversity, and sustainability.

History

Landcare Research was originally part of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), but was established as an independent organisation when the Crown Research Institutes were created in 1992. As part of that process, it was semi-commercialised, and now operates as a government-owned company rather than as a government department. The commercialisation has led to greater emphasis on financial viability, and Landcare Research is employed by various private groups to provide advice and information.

Locations

The main site is in Lincoln, near Christchurch. There are also other sites at Auckland on the Tamaki campus of Auckland University, Hamilton, Gisborne, Havelock North, Palmerston North, Wellington, Nelson, Alexandra, and Dunedin.

Collections

Landcare Research holds several collections of organisms that are of significant national importance to New Zealand.

International collection of microorganisms from plants

The International Collection of Microorganisms from Plants (ICMP) in Auckland holds live bacterial and fungal specimens that are preserved under liquid nitrogen or in freeze dried ampoules. Currently there are over 15,000 specimens in the collection .

National fungal herbarium

The Auckland office also has the National Fungal Herbarium (PDD), a herbarium containing over 80,000 dried fungal specimens, including all the New Zealand fungal type species. This represents one of the most extensive compilations on the national fungal biota of any country.

New Zealand arthropod collection

A card mounted native ladybird (Coccinella leonina) at NZAC

The New Zealand Arthropod Collection (NZAC) or Ko te Aitanga Pepeke O Aotearoa in Māori. NZAC has the most complete coverage of terrestrial invertebrates of all the collections held in New Zealand, although much of it remains unsorted and largely unstudied. In addition to its fundamental systematics value, the collection underpins quarantine and border control decisions e.g., verifying the presence or absence of species in New Zealand (though it is difficult to understand how such verification can be meaningful when much of the collection remains unsorted - especially material collected in the last few decades, with relatively few collections outside of native habitats). NZAC is held at Landcare Research's Tamaki site.

One of FRST’s Outcome Based Investments (OBIs) is IO2 “Defining New Zealand’s Land Biota”, an investment of NZ$19 million over four years, supporting the work of 45 scientists and technicians around N.Z.

Below is listed the published outputs of that investment, by the scientists of New Zealand Arthropod Collection (NZAC), held by Landcare Research New Zealand Limited. These scientists (including one publishing technician), as of October 2008, are as follows:

• Buckley, T.R.
• Crosby, T.K.
• Henderson, R.C.
• Hoare, R.J.B.
• Larivière, M.-C.
• Leschen, R.A.B.
• Ward, D.F.
• Zhang, Z.-Q.
• Zhao, Z.

Only those publications which are directly relevant to the published IO2 statement 'the research, which has investment of $19 million over four years from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, will catalogue and describe as many species as possible of key groups of unrecorded New Zealand flora, fauna and fungi', are listed. In other words, only descriptive taxonomic publications and catalogues are listed.

Estimates of the diversity of, for example, Coleoptera in New Zealand range from 4, 300 to 10, 500 species, indicating a huge amount of documentation needing to be done. No new taxa of New Zealand Coleoptera have been described since 2007 by NZAC scientists, indicating that the current rate of progress, in this major group at least, is negligible. No new contributions to the Fauna of New Zealand series, on any group, by any author, have been published since 2007. Is New Zealand getting good value for money from IO2 funding to NZAC?

Relevant published outputs 2008-2009
2009

• Fletcher, M.J.; Larivière, M.-C. 2009: Anzygina, a new genus for some Australasian microleafhopper species formerly placed in the genus Zygina Fieber (Cicadellidae: Typhlocybinae: Erythroneurini). Australian journal of entomology, 48: 164-176. doi:10.1111/j.1440-6055.2009.00700.x
• Zhao, Z.Q. 2009: A review of the genus Tripylina Brzeski, 1963 (Nematoda: Triplonchida), with descriptions of five new species from New Zealand. Zootaxa, 2238: 1-24. Abstract & excerpt

2008

• Larivière, M.-C.; Fletcher, M.J. 2008: A new genus, Zeoliarus, for the endemic New Zealand species Oliarus atkinsoni Myers and O. oppositus (Walker) (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Cixiidae: Cixiinae: Pentastirini). Zootaxa, 1891: 66-68. PDF
• Xue, X.-F.; Zhang, Z.-Q. 2008: New Zealand Eriophyoidea (Acari: Prostigmata): an update with descriptions of one new genus and six new species. Zootaxa, 1962: 1-32. Abstract & excerpt

National nematode collection of New Zealand

The National Nematode Collection of New Zealand (NNCNZ) contains hundreds of nematode specimens. It is contained within the Arthropod Collection.

Landcare Research Allan Herbarium

The Landcare Research Allan Herbarium (CHR) at Lincoln, contains species from around the world but specialises in plants (indigenous and exotic) of the New Zealand region and the Pacific. It also has specialist collections of seed, fruit, wood, plant leaf cuticle, liquid-preserved specimens, and microscope slides. The oldest samples are the 91 duplicate specimens collected by Banks and Solander during Captain Cook's first voyage to New Zealand in 1769-1770.

There are currently over 550 000 specimens in the Allan Herbarium with 5000-8000 being added annually. Two-thirds of the specimens are of indigenous plants with the remainder divided between naturalised, cultivated, and foreign specimens. It was named the Allan Herbarium to acknowledge the contributions of H. H. Allan to New Zealand botany.

National New Zealand Flax Collection

Manaaki Whenua is kaitiaki of an ethnobotanical collection of traditional weaving varieties of harakeke (NZ flax, Phormium spp.) donated by Rene Orchiston of Gisborne. The 50 harakeke were selected long ago from natural stands and cultivated by Māori weavers for their special leaf and fibre properties. There are varieties specially suited to making kete, whariki, piupiu and cloaks.

Research

Science includes research into the processes that maintain New Zealand’s ecosystems, enable natural flora, fauna and fungi to flourish, and protect soil and catchments for a range of production and other purposes. The impacts of disruption to ecosystems; biosecurity risks from foreign weeds, pests and micro-organisms; and contamination to land, water and air caused by the production of natural, manufactured or waste compounds are investigated. Research is also untertaken to develop tools to help mitigate inefficient resource use and excess waste, and systems designed to improve resource use productivity, lifestyle and business viability. Research focuses on six key areas:

Base camp for the 2005 Auckland BioBlitz

Dr Peter Buchanan, organiser of the Auckland 2004 and 2005 BioBlitzes

• Conserving and restoring our biodiversity and the healthy resilience of natural ecosystems
• Reducing pest, disease and weed impacts in our natural and managed ecosystems
• Understanding, mitigating and adapting to the impacts of climate change
• Sustaining the long-term health of soils, waterways and landscapes for the continued viability of our rural environments
• Enhancing urban biodiversity and developing low-impact approaches for built environments
• Fostering environmentally sustainable and globally competitive business practices

BioBlitz

Landcare Research has organised BioBlitz events — a survey of all species in a given area — several times, including the first New Zealand event in 2004. In 2004, BioBlitz was held in the Auckland suburb of St Heliers on 30 April – 1 May 2004. In a remnant of native forest at Dingle Dell reserve, 925 separate species were found, and 631 species were found in a native bush gully at Meadowbank Primary School. A second BioBlitz in the Auckland Domain on 12 – 13 March 2005 found 1575 distinct species. Another BioBlitz occurred at Hagley Park, Christchurch on 8 – 9 April, here 1197 species were found. In 2006, BioBlitz was held in Hamilton. This event uncovered 948 species..

External links

• Landcare Research