Environment BoP extends support for lakes research
university-of-waikato
Fri Jun 22 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Environment BoP extends support for lakes research
Friday, 22 June 2007, 12:45 am
Press Release: University of Waikato
Media Release
22 June 2007
Environment Bay of Plenty extends support for University of Waikato lakes research
University of Waikato's research programme into the management and restoration of the Rotorua lakes is to receive additional funding of almost $1 million under an agreement signed today (June 22) with Environment Bay of Plenty.
The agreement to extend funding for the university's professorial 'Environment Bay of Plenty Chair in Lakes Management and Restoration' for a further five years was signed following a meeting of the Rotorua Lakes Strategy Group. The group comprises representatives from Environment Bay of Plenty, Rotorua District Council and Te Arawa Lakes Trust.
Established in 2001, the Chair funds the position of Professor David Hamilton, a noted freshwater ecologist in the School of Science and Engineering's biological sciences department, which gained top-ranking in ecology in the recent, Tertiary Education Commission's Performance-Based Research Fund (PBRF) assessment.
In the last five years, in addition to providing support for technical assistance, the Chair has also provided support for 15 postgraduate students to undertake lake and freshwater research, based around the Rotorua lakes.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Roy Crawford said establishment of the Chair had enabled Professor Hamilton's research team to grow to the point where it was successful in attracting Outcome-Based Investment (OBI) funding of $10 million over ten years from the Foundation of for Research, Science and Technology (FORST) for freshwater restoration.
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"The LERNZ (Lake Ecosystem Restoration NZ) programme in turn has attracted further research funding and is now beginning to be seen as a centre of excellence for this body of research," Professor Crawford said.
Research students had contributed substantial information on the sediments of Lake Rotorua and exchanges of nutrients between the sediments and the lake, and problems such as green-blue algal blooms.
"This information will be an integral part of the knowledge required to manage nutrient levels in the lakes in future. Additionally those students will hopefully become future experts and ecosystem managers as we work together on current freshwater problems in Rotorua and throughout New Zealand," he said.
Professor Crawford also thanked Environment Bay of Plenty for its support for coastal and marine research, largely through an association with Professor Terry Healy and the Coastal Marine Group from the University's Earth and Ocean Sciences Department, School of Science and Engineering.
The collaboration between the university and Environment Bay of Plenty had established a platform, not just of mutual benefit, but one that could continue to produce benefit for New Zealand and solve some of the ecosystem problems the country faced, he said.
"The relationship is a model the university seeks to have with other regional councils, industries and community-based organisations throughout the region in which we seek to engage with end users of both our academic and research endeavours."
ENDS
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