NZ Freshwater Sciences Society Conference
18 - 22 November 2024
Rotorua Energy Events Centre
Aotearoa | New Zealand
Keynote Speakers
- William Anuru - Tuesday 19th November, 9:00am
- Lan Pham - Tuesday 19th November, 2:25pm
- Marnie Prickett - Wednesday 20th November, 9:00am
- Angus McIntosh - Wednesday 20th, 2:10pm
- Simon Stewart - Thursday 21st November, 9:00am
- Olivier Ausseil - Thursday 21st November, 2:10pm
William Anuru
Operations Manager for Biosecurity and Taiao Restorations, Te Arawa Lakes Trust (TALT)
Biography
Ko William Anaru ahau, No Te Arawa waka.
I am the Operations Manager for Biosecurity and Taiao Restorations at Te Arawa Lakes Trust (TALT). I have been working with the trust since 2018 when I started as the community coordinator to increase awareness and education around invasive catfish. Prior to my role at TALT I worked in a variety of conservation and biosecurity roles. I studied at University of Wellington graduating in 2006. I grew up on our lakes and have always had a close connection with them. Being able to work on our lakes each day is a massive privilege. Since starting at the trust six years ago, we have been at the forefront of all biosecurity issues impacting on our lakes. We have become a voice for our people and our lakes. We now have a dive team, Maritime team, wetland restoration team that has provided sustainable employment for our whanau and cementing us in the taiao space to provide meaningful solutions for our wai and our taiao.
Abstract
Te Arawa Lakes Trust - Hungatiaki o nga Rotomoana o Te Arawa
Te Arawa Lakes Trust (TALT) is mandated to ensure the protection of our taonga and restore the mauri of te wai and te taiao. The relationship and aspirations of hapū and iwi and the Te Arawa Lakes, our wai, taonga and wider Taiao, are expressed in Te Tūāpapa o ngā Wai o Te Arawa and He Mahere Taiao. Environmental issues such as pollution and biosecurity concerns continue to have major negative impacts on the Tipuna roto (ancestral lakes) of Te Arawa. In recent years, TALT have been at the forefront of initiatives to resolve these issues such as the removal of invasive fish, mammals and pest weeds (aquatic and terrestrial) that have driven our taonga to the brink of extinction. As Hungatiaki, we cannot allow this to happen! These taonga sustained the whakapapa of Te Arawa and through waiata, purakau and whakatauki guided our tipuna and continue to guide us today. This guidance has led to solutions steeped in matauranga and driven by our aroha for our roto and provide for a shared vision where our taonga and our people thrive enabling us to be the best tipuna we can be.
Lan Pham
Green Party Spokesperson for Environment, RMA Reform and Water Services
Biography
Lan’s background is in Freshwater Ecology where it was Aotearoa’s quirky endangered native fish that first got her involved in intergenerational issues like freshwater pollution and climate change. She has worked with community groups, schools, farmers, rūnanga and government agencies across Murihiku Southland, Ōtākou Otago and Waitaha Canterbury on grass-roots freshwater restoration projects as a freshwater ranger for DOC and as founder and trustee of Working Waters Trust.
Lan served 2 terms in Local Government as a Regional Councillor on Environment Canterbury from 2016 - 2022 where she championed action for nature, climate action and people. She was an RMA Commissioner, appointed as a Freshwater Commissioner and a Senior Environmental Advisor for Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, before resigning to return a political role. Lan was elected to parliament in 2023 and is the Green Party spokesperson for Environment, RMA reform and Water Services where she is enjoying hearing lots of ‘reckons’.
Abstract
Being a scientist in the post-evidence, post-logic era. How might scientists help unscrew decision-making in Aotearoa and the world?
If you haven’t yet heard – it turns out in 2024, Joe and Jane Blogg’s ‘opinions’ are just as valid as your decades of research/evidence-base/expert evidence. So what is the role of science and evidence-based decision making in today’s world? Does science and evidence even matter anymore? What is the role of scientists in this and what might it look like to stand up for logic and evidence-based decision making in this post-evidence, post-logic era? Reckons from a…….*gulp* politician.
Marnie Prickett
Research Fellow, Department of Public Health, Otago University Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, Wellington
Biography
Marnie Prickett has a background in Agricultural Science and Ecology and now works in Public Health, with freshwater the common thread throughout. She’s been involved in environmental education, community restoration and monitoring, campaigning through the Choose Clean Water campaign, policy advisory groups for government, was Chair of Pāmu’s (Landcorp) Environmental Reference Group and now works as an academic and advocate.
Abstract
What can our freshwater community learn from public health?
The public health community has learned invaluable lessons about how commercial interests can undermine work to improve and support populations’ health and well-being. Public health literature has developed a deep understanding of what the field calls ‘commercial determinants of health’. These are the industries and their strategies that perpetuate harm to human and environmental health, and commonly oppose regulation. What can we learn from this to strengthen our work to protect and restore the country’s waterways? And what does it mean for how we collaborate?
Angus McIntosh
Professor of Freshwater Ecology and Associate Dean, Faculty of Science, University of Canterbury (UC)
Biography
Angus is a Professor of Freshwater Ecology and an Associate Dean in the Faculty of Science at the University of Canterbury (UC) in Christchurch. He is a member of the Ako Aotearoa Academy of Tertiary Teaching Excellence and co-leader of UC’s Freshwater Ecology Research Group (www.ferg.org.nz). His research has investigated trophic interactions across environmental gradients, often experimentally, to reveal key drivers and pathways for repair and management. Topics have ranged from low flows and invaders to agricultural stream restoration and fisheries management.
Abstract
Advancing an agenda for freshwater improvement
As a young freshwater ecologist, and now as a teacher and mentor, I have enjoyed unwrapping the secrets of things that live underwater, especially those that are not obvious. If we are to turnaround the plight of freshwater life, sharing our experiences more widely will expand our mandate. Under the onslaught of impacts on freshwaters, reversing declines will also depend on our underlying understanding of how freshwater ecosystems work, and particularly how they can reassembled in restoration. Critical science gaps remain in determining which dynamic processes apply in particular situations, and how those processes scale across waterway networks. For example, success in managing the whitebait fishery, setting river flows, protecting braided rivers, or undertaking restoration all depend on identifying and manipulating influential processes. Finally, if we are to advance a freshwater improvement agenda, embracing the full diversity of approaches, values and knowledge, including mātauranga Māori will be necessary. Success is more likely through recognition of differences, cooperation and a diversity of action. Communicators, knowledge brokers, advocates, consultants, regulators, farm advisors, kaitiaki, innovators, modellers, catchment managers, farmers, citizen scientists etc, are all needed.
Simon Stewart
Freshwater Water Ecologist, Cawthron Institute
Biography
Dr Simon Stewart (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairoa) is a freshwater water ecologist at the Cawthron Institute. Growing up in Rotorua was an important catalyst in him pursuing freshwater science. After a BSc, he completed a MSc at the University of Canterbury investigating the sources and fate of nitrate in Banks Peninsula streams using stable isotopes. Following this, Simon worked for two years as a research technician at the Nation Isotope Centre at GNS Science in Petone refining techniques for isotope analyses for nitrate and ammonium. He then studied a PhD at the University of Waikato examining responses of the rainbow trout fishery to the recently implemented water quality management actions.
Now he works on a broad range of freshwater projects, often using stable isotope techniques in conjunction with a range of methods to address a range of challenges pertaining to lake management and fisher management. These projects include: a Marsden Fast start examining the role of īnanga as a marine subsidy in supporting longfin eel growth; research to understand impacts of smelt on conservation of lake-locked kōaro populations as part of the Fish Futures programme; new tools for developing a more holistic understanding of lake health as part of the Our Lakes Our Future programme.
Abstract
Using stable isotopes to simplify food webs for applied freshwater management
Food web ecology is often seen as at the ‘theoretical end of the ecology spectrum’. Attempts to push it into the applied end of the ecology spectrum come up against the perceived complexity of food webs; “it’s too complicated”. As highlighted in a recent high court decision regarding the quota for crayfish in Northern New Zealand, the ‘it’s too complicated’ argument has traditionally been used to justify management inaction. However, in this case, embracing a distilled understanding of food web ecology produced effective outcomes; accounting for the role of trophic cascades for controlling ‘kina barrens’ when setting the crayfish quota.
Focusing on the dominant interactions which can be well described – rather than attempting to account for every trophic interaction within an intricate food web – food web ecology can make extremely meaningful contributions to environmental management. Stable isotope-based approaches, which inherently track dominant diet sources, provide a powerful approach for simplifying food web understanding for applied outcomes.
Focusing on my own research path to-date, I will demonstrate how stable isotope analyses can be an effective tool for: i) distilling the dominant trophic pathways within a food web; ii) identifying otherwise cryptic trophic connections; iii) demonstrating mechanisms that promote or limit co-existence, and; iv) provide a link across world views of our environment between those who primarily see the connections and those who see distinctions. I will present examples of these applied uses of isotope-informed food web ecology and discuss the management implications of them for our freshwaters.
Olivier Ausseil
Principal Scientist and Director, Traverse Environmental
Biography
Olivier is a Principal Scientist and Managing Director of Traverse Environmental. His main area of work is in the management of complex multidisciplinary projects in the context of freshwater science, monitoring and reporting, policy development and resource management processes. Olivier has extensive experience in hearing processes as a technical expert on behalf of consenting authorities, applicants, and submitters, and as an independent hearing commissioner. Over the last five years, Olivier has led several research and tool development projects relating to monitoring design and catchment scenario modelling for the Our Land and Water National Science Challenge and the Access to Experts programme.
Abstract
Supporting freshwater policy and decision making in Aotearoa New Zealand – lessons learnt from a freshwater scientist
Managing freshwater is the epitome of a “wicked problem”. Ask 10 people what the solution to a freshwater management question is, and you’ll get 10 differing responses. This simply reflects that managing freshwater is a balancing act between competing views and interests, and does not (and probably never will), have a “unique” solution. Whilst it is important that all viewpoints are heard and considered, resource management decision-making processes in Aotearoa New Zealand have become extremely slow, expensive, litigious and sometime mired by unclear or incorrect information. We, as freshwater scientists have a crucial role to play in these processes. Beyond our core function to impartially collect, interpret and produce information, how do we participate in the decision-making process and public debate? Access to supporting data, resources and models enabling freshwater partners and stakeholders to meaningfully participate in decision making has improved but is still problematic. How do we develop resources and how do we communicate scientific information that are available, understandable and meaningful to a broad audience? How do we empower the community to meaningfully participate in freshwater management?
