News Archive
Awards for FERG students (23 December 2011)
Sophie Hunt has been awarded a Sadie Balkind Award from the New Zealand Federation of Graduate Women (Inc). The money she will receive will go towards fees for the next school year. Helen Warburton has also been awarded grants that will assist her in her studies in 2012.
First Mackenzie paper (30 November 2011)
Riparian Management in Canterbury Streams
The results of the first phase of the Mackenzie project were published online this week in the Journal of Applied Ecology (Greenwood et al. 2011). Michelle Greenwood led a team of researchers on a broad survey of Canterbury that assessed the effect of riparian conditions and stream size on the invertebrate communities.
The findings suggest that riparian management will be most effective when targeted at small streams without degraded in-stream habitat.
Intensive management (such as in-stream habitat restoration) will be needed in degraded streams to address historical factors, such as sedimentation, that will otherwise continue to limit the recovery of invertebrate communities.
Summer support for FERG researchers (25 November 2011)
Look at them smiling! FERG group welcomes the 2011-2012 summer enthusiasts and wishes them sunny days in the field and less tedious work in the lab.
Dragonflies in light traps from Nigeria (24 November 2011)
A recent finding of the PhD student Danladi Umar sparked an interesting discussion. In his light traps Danladi identified a large number of dragonflies, which are predominantly diurnal species. A review of all information about previous records of these insects in light traps is under way and will be published soon.
FERG retreat (14 November 2011)
The FERG members gathered together at the UC research station in Kaikoura for a day and a half at the beginning of November to talk about important administrative and research issues related to the future of the group. We generated a comprehensive list of ideas in two major directions:
1. Strategic planning for improving the communication within FERG and increasing the efficiency of work; professional development for FERG students and interactions with other UC research groups.
2. Research ideas, which varied widely from investigating basic ecosystems subsidies, identifying the major stressors and the resilience of the freshwater communities at various temporal and spatial scales, through to the inevitable discussion on the influence of the climate change across different countries.
There was also some fun had with a Geo-cashing challenge and photographic treasure hunt.
One of the ‘finds’ from the photographic treasure hunt.
Prestigious research recognition (26 October 2011)
Three FERG members were awarded at this year’s Annual Biology Conference.
Dr Phillip Jellyman received the award for the best journal article by a PhD student. This research investigated the major mechanisms affecting recruitment variability in non-migratory galaxiid fishes. Freshwater Biology Journal Article (PDF 400KB).
Helen Warburton won the best PhD talk. She gave a talk entitled "Body mass-abundance relationships in stream ecosystems: the influence of habitat size on community structure and stability”.
Kate Schowe was awarded with the best poster. She is studying diatoms as indicators of streams receiving acid mine drainage on the West Coast.
Freshwater research inspires MP's visit (25 
October 2011)
Green Party co-leader Dr Russel Norman and Green MP candidate Eugenie Sage visited the School of Biological Sciences recently to find out more about the research being carried out by the Freshwater Ecology group on the effects of pollution in streams and rivers.
Silt chokes Christchurch rivers (25 October 2011)
Christchurch's rivers and streams are dying, choked with tens of thousands of tonnes of earthquake silt that is killing native wildlife. UC freshwater biologist Jon Harding says the rivers could take decades to recover unless streams at the top of their catchments are urgently cleared of silt. Full article on Stuff.co.nz
Helen Warburton again! (17 October 2001)
Helen continues her quest for international recognition. She was just recently awarded a Claude McCarthy Fellowship which offers financial support to present her studies at an overseas conference as well as visit research groups in Europe in 2012. Helen aims to attend and present at the Ecological Society of America Conference, in Portland as well as visit the University of Göttingen in Germany to work with Ulrich Brose and his research group. Hopefully Helen will also have time (and money!) to go back to the University of Queen Mary and York University in the UK.
New FERG faces (13 October 2011)
Recently FERG family got two new members: Amanda Klemmer and Hamish Greig.
Amanda is one of ten students nationally awarded a New Zealand International Doctoral Research Scholarship. Amanda is investigating the influence of cross-ecosystem subsidies on the structure and dynamics of recipient food webs. She is aiming to develop general theory by experimentally manipulating food webs in freshwater, terrestrial and marine ecosystems.
Hamish is completing the final year of his FRST Postdoctoral Fellowship entitled “How does past climate predictability influence organismal and community resilience to climate change?” His research is applying a multi-scale approach to understanding the effects of global changes on freshwater ecosystems, and centres around to two key themes: 1) the influence of environmental variability on the structure and resilience of ecological communities, and 2) the response of trophic interactions to temperature variation and other perturbations associated with climate change.
FERG members in the international news (10 October 2011)
Frank Burdon recently presented findings from his PhD research at the International Water Association’s Diffuse Pollution conference in Rotorua.
Five FERG people took part in the 2011 Australian Society of Limnology/New Zealand Freshwater Scientific Society Congress in Brisbane (26th to 30th September). Two of them won special prizes.
Frank Burdon was awarded the SIL Trust prize for the best oral presentation. His talk outlined the effects of diffuse pollution (primarily fine sediment) on invertebrate communities in agricultural streams, and linked the pervasive biological impacts of sedimentation to farming practices altering the adjacent riparian habitat.
Although not physically there, Helen Warburton succeeded in grabbing the Best Student Poster prize for the investigation she did on the role of habitat size in affecting body mass-abundance relationships in streams. Her study was presented by one of the co-authors Phil Jellyman. Phil also gave an oral presentation on how both direct and indirect disturbance effects can influence stream community structure.
The next poster in the row came from Kate Schowe. She is studying diatoms as indicators of streams receiving acid mine drainage on the West Coast.
As one of the Plenary Speakers, Hamish Greig introduced his current research which applies a multi-scale approach to understanding the interactive effects of global changes on freshwater ecosystems. Specifically, he talked about potential for synergistic effects of temperature change and increased disturbance on the strength of top-down control by predators in freshwater food webs.
Liquefaction and us (29 September 2011)
Can anyone be thrilled by the liquefaction? YES, if he is a stream ecologist. Jon Harding found a new research opportunity following the continuous aftershocks in Christchurch. He decided to study the sudden shift in the macroinvertebrate community structures in the most badly affected areas of Avon and Heathcote Rivers. Now the restoration of these streams is part of the laborious monthly field sampling and lab work of several FERG members. First analyses are underway and the preliminary reports are expected very soon.
May 2011
FERG students have obviously been really busy post-quake. Congratulations to the following:
Phillip Jellyman - passed his PhD oral exam yesterday. Well done Dr Jellyman!
Helen Warburton - recently gained the prize for the best poster at the SIZEMIC conference in Hamburg
Helen Warburton (again) - gained an SIL Trust Travel Award from the NZ Freshwater Sciences Society to fund her conference travel
Frank Burdon - has received the prestigious Peterson Award from the North American Benthological Society to support his travel to the NABS conference in Rhode Island.
Well done everyone and keep up the great work!
April 2011
The Freshwater Ecology Research Group is up and running again after the Canterbury earthquakes. Various parts of the university are still out of action, but we have full lab facilities again and are going full steam ahead. Various members of the group had houses etc damaged, but none of our group were injured thankfully. We lost a few experiments, and almost everybody has been setback in their research. However, we are pretty much back on track now. Thanks to everyone for all their messages of support and offers of help. We really appreciated them!
October 2009
FERG graduate achieves major research success
The Freshwater Ecology Research Group is celebrating the latest in a string of successes for its graduates. Dr Michelle Greenwood, who completed her PhD in freshwater ecology in 2007, has been awarded a $190,000 postdoctoral fellowship by the Rutherford Foundation of the Royal Society of New Zealand.
August 2009
Blue duck research sets standards
FERG PhD student Amy Whitehead was announced as runner-up in the MacDiarmid Young Scientist of the Year contest. Amy's research has boosted the chances of conservation workers bringing back the endangered native blue duck (whio) from the brink of extinction.
April 2008
Singapore's Public Utilities Board funds new research
The Public Utilities Board (PUB) of Singapore has awarded senior lecturer Jon Harding SG$270,000 over two years to develop a biotic index for assessing biological health in Singapore's running waters. PUB is currently undertaking a large-scale restoration project to transform many of the concrete drains and canals around Singapore into more natural, meandering streams and rivers. For further information see:Ecology of urban streams: development of a biotic index for assessing biological health in Singapore rivers and canals
February 2008
Mackenzie Foundation funds new Chair
The Ashburton-based Mackenzie Charitable Foundation has funded a new research chair at the University of Canterbury which will investigate the response of stream ecosystems to urban and rural land-use pressures.
It has granted the University $1.3 million over five years to fund the work of the Mackenzie Charitable Foundation Chair in Freshwater Ecology.
For further information see:Riparian management: enhancing the effectiveness of riparian management along lowland Canterbury streams
Okeover Stream Restoration Project (Ongoing since 2000)
The Okeover Stream, a tributary of the Avon River, has been severely degraded over the last few decades by a combination of housing developments in its catchment and building activity on the University of Canterbury campus. The low gradient of the stream and a lowering water table have resulted in a reduction in discharge and an increase in sedimentation of the bed, which in turn has had dramatic negative impacts on the stream fauna and flora. For further information on research conducted in Okeover Stream see: