Our Changing World

The summer science series continues with an episode from RNZ podcast Here Now. A love for tropical plants united Canterbury-based botanists Dr Julie Barcelona and Dr Pieter Pelser in the mid-2000s. The pair are renowned for their work on the large and unusual flower Rafflesia, which smells like a rotting carcass. They have found at least three new species on their adventures in the Philippines. Kadambari Raghukumar learns more about their spectacular discoveries.

Featuring:

• Dr Julie Barcelona
• Dr Pieter Pelser

Here Now is an RNZ podcast produced and presented by Kadambari Raghukumar.

• Listen to more episodes from Here Now.
• Watch a video about this episode.

Learn more:

• What will happen to plants in a warming world?
• Naturally rare and threatened

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Welcome to the summer science series! We're kicking off with two stories made by local podcast producers. First, on New Zealand's quest to become predator free by 2050, are we forgetting about mice? Dan Moskovitz, a student at Victoria University of Wellington, investigates what might happen to mice – and ecosystems as more areas become predator free. Then, a story from Xanthe Smith's Catch On podcast. Many people who consume fish stick to eating the fillets, meaning a substantial chunk of the whole fish gets chucked. A project seeks to tackle this food waste by connecting communities with kaimoana.

Guests:

• Associate Professor Stephen Hartley, Victoria University of Wellington
• Dr Araceli Samaniego
• Brent Bevan, Department of Conservation
• Chris Jupp, Kai Ika
• Vera, Kokiri Marae Naenae Hub

Learn more:

• Listen to more episodes of Catch On, a podcast by Xanthe Smith for the Office of the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor
• Find out about the Kai Ika Project
• Dr Araceli Samaniego's paper, Small mice create big problems
• Listen to Voice of Tangaroa for more exploration of ocean issues
• Watch Fight for the Wild, a series about Predator Free 2050

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

New methane seeps are being discovered in Antarctica, some now appearing in areas that researchers have been monitoring for years. These are areas on the seafloor where methane gas escapes out from under the ground through fissures or cracks. What is the extent of the seeps? How large is the gas reservoir they are being fed from? How much methane is escaping from the sea into the air? Why now? And does this have implications for further warming the planet? A team of NIWA scientists are racing to find answers.

Guests:

• Dr Sarah Seabrook, NIWA
• Dr Leigh Tait, NIWA

Learn more:

• You can find all the papers referenced this episode in the write-up that accompanies it.
• Claire spoke to Sarah about her initial work on seeps and the microbes that are attracted to them in 2022
• There’s currently a massive project underway to investigate whether the West Antarctic Ice Sheet will melt under 2oC of warming. Veronika Meduna joined them on the ice last year.
• Listen to our recent episode about life on the seafloor under the ice, including mysterious giant glass sponges.

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New Zealand’s tuatara are the last remaining species of an order of reptile that was alive alongside the dinosaurs 240 million years ago. The rest died out about 65 million years ago, but in Aotearoa the tuatara live on, found on 32 offshore islands and in a small number of ecosanctuaries and zoos on the mainland. Now one researcher is investigating the microbial community that lives inside their gut. Are there also bacterial ‘living fossils’ to be found? And has their gut microbiome changed as a result of living in captivity on the mainland?

Guests:

• Cam Hoffbeck, PhD candidate, Taylor lab, University of Auckland
• Chye-Mei Huang, Ectotherm ranger, Auckland Zoo

Learn more:

• Read the article that accompanies this episode.
• Hear from another researcher who has been exploring the viruses found in tuatara.
• Cam has also spoken to Emile Donovan on Nights about her research.
• In 2014 Alison Ballance visited Orokonui Ecosanctuary to learn about the tuatara who had recently made the move to the cold climes of Dunedin.
• Our own microbiome may affect our brain, moods and behaviour, and changes across our lives.

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Dive under the Antarctic sea ice near Scott Base into the weird world of cold-water life. Pink sea angels, worms that look like intestines, ocean creepy crawlies that get as big as your hand... and mysterious giant glass sponges. These sponges are one of the strangest, and oldest, animals on Earth: surviving without light, eating bacteria and viruses, and making themselves out of silica they absorb from the water. In most parts of the world, they live at depths too deep to dive, making them tricky to study. But in the cold waters of McMurdo Sound, they can be found in shallower waters. Now an international team of scientists are unlocking some of their secrets.

Guests:

• Professor Ian Hawes, University of Waikato
• Dr Jürgen Laudien, Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany
• Katherine Rowe, University of Waikato
• Dr Erik Wurz, Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands,
• Andreas Schmmider-MartÍnez, Universidad Mayor, Chile

Learn more:

• Read the article that accompanies this episode
• Listen to The secret life of sea sponges
• Find out what it takes to live and do science in Antarctica with the award-winning 2020 Voices from Antarctica series by Alison Ballance

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For centuries Samoa's traditional healers have harnessed the power of the country's native plants as remedies for village ailments. Now scientists at the Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa are putting those plants under the microscope to unlock and understand how this traditional knowledge works. In this episode of Pacific Scientific from the ABC, tour the labs and lush gardens filled with plants that could hold the secret to battling diabetes, HIV, and cancer.

Guests:

• Annie Tuisuga, Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa
• MaserotaOfoia, Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa
• Benaiah Une, Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa
• Sekotilani Aloi, University of Samoa Lecturer

Pacific Scientific credits:

• Series Creator: Carl Smith
• Reporter: Adel Fruean
• Producer: Shelby Traynor
• Series Producer: Jordan Fennell
• Executive Producer: Will Ockenden
• ABC Science Editor: Jonathan Webb

Learn more:

• Read the article that accompanies this episode.
• Listen to more Pacific Scientific episodes.

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Ngutukākā, or kākābeak, is a popular garden plant in Aotearoa. But in the wild, it is now rarer than kākāpō, with only about 100 individual plants surviving on steep, inaccessible cliffs. The East Coast is one of its remaining strongholds and the Tairāwhiti Ngutukākā Trust is on a mission to bring the taonga back. Veronika Meduna joins the inaugural Tairāwhiti Ngutukākā Festival to find out more about the community’s efforts to turn State Highway 35 into a Crimson Highway by rewilding this iconic native.

Guests:

• Graeme Atkins, Tairāwhiti Ngutukākā Trust
• Mere Tamanui, Tairāwhiti Ngutukākā Trust
• Hōhepa Waenga, East Coast Myrtle Rust Response Team
• Natalie Robertson, artist and Associate Professor at Auckland University of Technology
• Emma Giesen, Trees That Count
• Stephanie Gardner, Trees That Count
• Tamariki from Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Mangatuna

Learn more:

• Read the article that accompanies this episode.
• Visit the Tairāwhiti Ngutukākā website
• Graeme Atkins featured in a recent episode of Country Life.
• For more on rare flora, Our Changing World has covered threatened limestone plants and explored what will happen to alpine plants in a warming world.

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Invasive redback spiders are highly venomous, threatening both people and New Zealand’s native species. A team of scientists is developing a cunning tool to trap male redbacks, by concocting an irresistible spiderweb perfume. We visit 800 captive redback spiders in the lab, learn about their wild mating habits, and check out the “spider arena” where the redbacks’ signature scent is put to the test.

Guests:

• Dr Andrew Twidle, Plant & Food Research
• Tom Sullivan, Plant & Food Research

Learn more:

• Read the article that accompanies this episode.
• Redbacks aren’t the only spiders to engage in a spot of sexual cannibalism. Claire Concannon enters the weird world of spider reproduction on a spider hunt in this episode.
• Back in 2016, Alison Ballance reported on the threat to Cromwell chafer beetles posed by red4KU24B9_Female_Redback_Spider_PFR3471_jpg
  back spiders.
• Coming up with clever ways to lure pests is also a big focus of Predator Free 2050, as Katy Gosset finds out in this 2021 episode.

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The MRI technique advances coming out of the Mātai Medical Research Institute in Gisborne have been described as ‘pioneering’, ‘groundbreaking’ and ‘world leading’. Claire Concannon speaks to chief executive and research director Dr Samantha Holdsworth to learn why, and about their big plans for the future.

Guests:

• Dr Samantha Holdsworth, research director and chief executive of Mātai Medical Research Institute
• Taylor Emsden, MRI technologist at Mātai Medical Research Institute

Learn more:

• Read the article that accompanies this episode.
• One of the studies underway at Mātai looks at how brains and hearts are damaged by meth use, and also how they can recover.
• One of the pilot research projects that Mātai hosted involved investigating muscle development in children with cerebral palsy.
• The Mātai concussion study involves teen rugby players, learn more about other research on this issue from the University of Canterbury.

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About two hours south of Dunedin, in the Catlins, the Tautuku and Fleming rivers flow into the sea at Tautuku beach. Covered in native bush from headwaters to the ocean, this special catchment is home to many native, and some threatened, plants and animals. But there’s an ongoing battle. Browsing animal such as deer and pigs are destroying the undergrowth, while feral cats and stoats are predating on critters such as the mātātā, the South Island fernbird. We meet some of the people fighting back.

Guests:

• Gavin White, pest control for Forest & Bird
• Francesca Cunninghame, project manager for Forest & Bird

Learn more:

• Watch Fight for the Wild, a documentary series exploring Predator Free Aotearoa 2050.
• Listen to Deer Wars, a podcast telling the story of the 50-year struggle to control red deer.
• Drones are a new tool in the battle against introduced pests, William Ray reports in this Our Changing World episode.
• Find out more about the Tautuku Ecological Restoration Project.

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Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details