University Centre awarded $1.12m for study
university-of-waikato
Wed Feb 28 2007 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
University Centre awarded $1.12m for study
Wednesday, 28 February 2007, 5:00 pm
Press Release: University of Waikato
University Centre awarded $1.12m to study native forest fragments
The University of Waikato's Centre for Biodiversity and Ecology Research has been awarded $1.12 million in funding from the Foundation for Science, Research and Technology to look at methods to restore the biodiversity of native forest fragments in rural areas.
The 28-month project, in partnership with crown research institute Landcare Research NZ Ltd, will examine traditional indigenous forest management techniques, including the effectiveness of fencing, possum control and revegetation.
The collaborative research team also includes scientists from Canterbury University and crown research institute AgResearch Ltd.
Professor Bruce Clarkson, ecologist and director of the university centre, says the project fills a critical gap between existing major research programmes in large conservation estate forests, and severely depleted and modified urban remnants.
"We will be doing this work in the Waikato region as a model for the many developed regions in New Zealand with similar extensive biodiversity loss," he said.
The research team, which will include experts in plant, invertebrate and vertebrate ecology, will focus on a range of ecological processes such as the regeneration of understorey and canopy plants, the decomposition of forest litter and the ability of birds to reproduce successfully.
"It will be the first time that native forest remnant ecosystem processes have been looked at on productive land in this way," Professor Clarkson said.
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The project will also investigate experimental control of ship rats.
Professor Clarkson says as "islands in a sea of pasture", forest remnants may offer unrealised opportunities for near eradication of ship rats with limited reinvasion, because they appear to avoid pasture, preferring to use hedges and other cover.
"We will examine this hypothesis by examining ship rat reinvasion of treated forest remnants, their numbers and their behaviour in various habitats in farmed areas."
Professor Clarkson says the collaborative project has won great support from key agencies that will be the end users of the research findings.
The agencies include, Environment Waikato, the Local Government Ecologists' Network, the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust, New Zealand Landcare Trust and the Department of Conservation, which will support the research via staff time, initial construction of databases, selection of suitable remnant forest sites and collaborative research.
"We're confident that as a result of this project indigenous forest remnants will be more effectively managed in the future, and will contribute to integrated, biodiversity restoration in the region and nationally."
The University of Waikato's Department of Biological Sciences is internationally renowned for its ecology research, and has the largest research funding base of any New Zealand university in this field. This includes restoration of freshwater systems and lake biodiversity as well as terrestrial ecosystems such as indigenous forests.
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