FERG News
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!
FERG graduate achieves major research success (9 October 2009)
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.
Blue duck research sets standards (28 August 2009)
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.
Singapore's Public Utilities Board funds new research (1 April 2008)
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:
Mackenzie Foundation funds new Chair (18 February 2008)
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:
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: