The natural history of New Zealand’s freshwaters: Series conclusion and reader feedback
By Daniel Collins
Over the past two months, Waiology’s Freshwater in Focus series on natural history has published 14 articles, from 13 authors and seven institutions, describing the diversity, complexity, and beauty of New Zealand’s freshwaters. From atmosphere to lithosphere and mountain to coast, we have seen examples of how water shapes the landscapes and ecosystems, and what traits plants and animals have acquired to thrive and survive in these environments. The articles highlight the wonder of the natural world – whether for curiosity’s sake or to better under our natural heritage and resources.
Waiology will continue to publish articles along these lines, of course, but we will now return to regular programming. If you would like to give feedback on the series or Waiology in general, see below. And for ease of reference, here is a list of the series’ articles.
- Weather and water in New Zealand – where do our storms come from?, James Renwick, Victoria University
- A pluvial and fluvial country, Daniel Collins, NIWA
- Tussocks – a fundamental component of New Zealand’s water cycle, Alice Trevelyan and Sarah Mager, University of Otago, and Peter Wilson, Fish and Game Otago
- Thirsty trees and water yields: Vegetation, water and a changing climate, Cate Macinnis-Ng, Auckland University
- Southern Alps groundwater sheds light on the Alpine Fault, Simon Cox, GNS Science
- Landscapes shaped by water, Daniel Collins, NIWA
- Hapua: developments in understanding river mouth lagoons and their responses to freshwater regimes, Deirdre Hart, University of Canterbury
- Understanding the natural history of New Zealand’s nutrient fluxes, Emily Diack and Sarah Mager, University of Otago
- Carbon cycling in mountain ranges – Our environmentally friendly Southern Alps, Sarah Mager, University of Otago
- Delving deeper: Life below the bottom of the stream, Aslan Wright-Stow, NIWA
- How many whitebait eggs does it take to make a whitebait fritter?, Paul Franklin, NIWA
- Lamprey – Living fossils in our midst, Cindy Baker, NIWA
- Food webs: Who eats who, and what does that tell us?, Elizabeth Graham, NIWA
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The secret lives of freshwater mussels, Kevin Collier, University of Waikato, and Sue Clearwater, NIWA
Reader Feedback
Reader feedback is very important to Waiology, but unfortunately the most useful indicators of audience interest and uptake are website visit statistics. Occasionally I receive more substantive feedback, and I take it on board when making editorial decisions, but more would be very helpful and would indicate what efforts (and how much) I and NIWA should invest in the future. So please let me know what you think. Thanks!
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7 Responses to “The natural history of New Zealand’s freshwaters: Series conclusion and reader feedback”
Great series Daniel, real credit to the Waiology team.
It’s been a fascinating insight into what makes this country unique – keep on writing!
We’ve been upstream and downstream in this series, and a lot more about the things that live there is needed to be got across to farmers. Great series.
Sue might be right. Packing some of the information for farm shed meetings could be of value. Thought about it Daniel?
Sounds good. How would you carry it out? I’m all for finding the right comms channel for the topic/audience, and I know Waiology is limited. Something that maximises discussion while keeping within a shoe-string budget would be nice, because there’s little budget for science outreach. [DC]
Easy (or rather it sounds easy)-
1, Apply for Sustainable Farming Fund support
2, Make each series into a presentation package.
3, Appeal to DairyNZ and Beef & Lamb NZ for field day opportunities. Market it.
4, Present to their field days nationwide.
(3 might need to be first)
The idea is to tag onto a frame work that is existing as this is the most expensive part of field days.
I believe an important introduction would be NZ water quality relative to International levels. People are more agreeable to opportunities when they don’t feel targeted. Discussions would be open minded, I am sure.
Thanks. That’s a good idea. I’ll have a chat to some colleagues.