Te Kura M\u0101tauranga m\u014d Ahuwhenua me Te Taiao School of Agriculture and Environment<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Simon Hills from the School of Agriculture and Environment uses both traditional and high-tech approaches to understand our unique ecosystems, with a particular focus on issues of interest to M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018I\u2019ve worked with some of my uncles on the East Coast looking at biodiversity of coastal marine molluscs, for which we\u2019ve got one of the best fossil records in the southern hemisphere,\u2019 he said. The objective was to establish what the species composition is at different places along the coastline, and whether populations are genetically closely connected or reasonably isolated. \u2018Overall, the aim was to understand the structure of biodiversity on that seascape.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another project involved looking at the impacts of 1080 poison on insect populations, both directly and also in terms of the reduction of predators. \u2018Everybody likes to look at the birds, plants and pests, but I\u2019m quite interested in the things that people don\u2019t tend to think about as much, like the invertebrates, which are important parts of the functional ecosystem.\u2019 The research showed no direct negative impact of 1080 on insect populations. But, perhaps surprisingly, there was not as much of a positive effect of predator reduction as expected either. \u2018The most important predators are rats and mice, and those can bounce back really quickly. We did see a positive effect, but it was not as sustained as would have been ideal. It shows that you\u2019ve got to hit those rats, mice, possums and stoats really hard over several years to get the big dividends in terms of biodiversity recovery.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of this research involved the use of traditional environmental monitoring techniques, but in the future Dr Hills plans to use genomic techniques to facilitate quicker and more enhanced monitoring. \u2018One way is to use environmental DNA, where you can sample water or forest soil, extract the DNA from it and find out what organisms are in it,\u2019 he explained. \u2018This means you can quickly do some of this monitoring work that otherwise takes quite a lot of time and taxonomic expertise.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As well as his academic work, for the last three years Dr Hills has worked in Massey\u2019s Research Development Office, focusing on research applied to M\u0101ori. \u2018That job opened up a whole bunch of opportunities,\u2019 he said, \u2018because you\u2019re running into M\u0101ori organisations that are crying out for various expertise and you get a good idea of the types of things they are wanting to do. It\u2019s been an interesting few years \u2014 a lot of work, but really horizon-expanding.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
In particular, Dr Hills discovered a lot of interest from M\u0101ori in the environmental space. \u2018It fits in really nicely with concepts such as kaitiakitanga, or guardianship, because it\u2019s increasing our understanding of the natural system, so we can place practices that more effectively reflect it. M\u0101ori have got an awareness and an increasing interest around being more active kaitiaki of New Zealand native species and environments, so the type of research that I do fits in quite nicely in helping inform the thinking in that area.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This has led to his current work on a Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment Endeavour Fund research programme, focused on thinking about landscape classification and modern representations from a M\u0101ori perspective. \u2018There\u2019s some very interesting thinking coming out of it, and not necessarily thinking you would get at a table that wasn\u2019t dominated by M\u0101ori,\u2019 he said. \u2018The way in which maps were created at the time when the English were settling New Zealand was to aid in colonisation, to represent a landscape and to break it down and represent ownership. From a M\u0101ori viewpoint, there\u2019s quite a different perspective to what a map might look like. Of course, M\u0101ori didn\u2019t traditionally have any written maps, so part of this project is to unpack M\u0101ori language around description of landscapes and use that to create things like GIS [geographic information system] layers that then tell us about what M\u0101ori understanding and value of various landscapes looks like.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following from this research, the information can be used when planning ecological restoration in particular areas, as it gives clues to the past. \u2018We have these landscapes which are highly modified now and not a lot of information about how they used to look, but a lot of the original M\u0101ori descriptions, particularly for things like early land claim tribunals, can give a lot of information about that. This can then potentially help inform what we might want to do in terms of restoration, particularly when you\u2019ve got a lot of iwi [tribe] and hap\u016b [subtribe] thinking about environmental issues. It is a really rich source of information.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DR SIMON HILLS Ng\u0101ti Porou Te Kura M\u0101tauranga m\u014d Ahuwhenua me Te Taiao School of Agriculture and Environment Dr Simon Hills from the School of Agriculture and Environment uses both traditional and high-tech approaches to understand our unique ecosystems, with a particular focus on issues of interest to M\u0101ori. \u2018I\u2019ve worked with some of my … Continue reading Understanding our unique ecosystems and landscape<\/span>