Our Changing World

For nearly 30 years, researchers have been banding black petrel fledglings before they make their maiden migration to Ecuador. Only a handful of birds have ever come back.

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Each year, five Prime Minister’s Science Prizes are awarded in the most prestigious New Zealand science awards. We explore the AgResearch science that got the top recognition this year and catch up with two of the other winners. Science Communication prizewinner Professor Jemma Geoghegan talks about the hundreds of interviews she’s done about viruses, and Future Scientist prizewinner Rena Misra explains her project exploring how a plant-fungus combination could have the potential to help clean up stormwater.

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Guests:

• Professor Jemma Geoghegan, University of Otago
• Rena Misra, Epsom Girls’ Grammar School in Auckland
• Dr Linda Johnson, Endophyte Discovery Team, AgResearch

In this episode:

00:06–02:05: The main science prize was awarded to a group who have discovered a way to protect pasture ryegrass from pests.

02:06–02:57: The winners of the Science Teacher Prize and the MacDiarmid Emerging Scientist Prize.

02:58–19:33: Interview with Science Communication prizewinner Professor Jemma Geoghegan of the University of Otago about viruses and pandemics.

19:34–26:10: Interview with Future Scientist prizewinner Rena Misra of Epsom Girls' Grammar School in Auckland about a fungus-plant symbiosis that might help clean up stormwater…

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With its steep sides, forested slopes and heavy rainfall, Fiordland has interesting ecosystems both above and below the water. Below the surface of the inner fiords, a variety of sponges, corals, and other filter-feeding animals cling to the cliff-like reefs. Claire Concannon heads to Doubtful Sound with a research team who are habitat-mapping the fiords to better understand what’s there, and how things are changing over time. They are also investigating the resilience of its iconic black corals to local landslides and marine heatwaves.

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Guests:

• Professor James Bell, Victoria University of Wellington
• Miriam Pierotti, Victoria University of Wellington
• Amber Kirk, Victoria University of Wellington 

Learn more:

• Read the article that accompanies this episode: Studying Fiordland's iconic black corals
• Our Changing World visited Professor James Bell at the Coastal Ecology Lab in 2023 to learn more about sponges.
• The 2022 marine heatwave mentioned here led to one of the largest ever recorded sponge mass bleaching events.
• In Antarctica giant glass sponges also live in quite shallow waters, under the sea ice.
• Eva Ramey and Dr Alice Rogers are also involved in a project to study the movement of sharks in Fiordland.
• Professor James Bell has investigated ‘middle’ light zone habitats around Aoteaora. Learn more and check out some videos in his recent article on The Conversation.

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Cooper’s orchid is New Zealand’s rarest and most elusive, with fewer than 250 plants left in the wild. It belongs to the group of potato orchids, which grow mostly underground as tubers – except for a brief period every few years when they push out a leafless stick with a few flowers. This largely subterranean lifestyle already presents a challenge, but saving this species is even harder because, like all orchids, the Cooper’s orchid can only produce seedlings with the help of the right soil fungus. After years of lab experiments to produce in vitro seedlings, botanists are now ready to boost dwindling wild populations.

Guests:

• Dr Carlos Lehnebach, botany curator, Te Papa Tongarewa
• Dr Karin van der Walt, conservation advisor, Ōtari Wilton’s Bush
• Jennifer Alderton-Moss, plant conservation researcher, Wellington City Council

Learn more:

• Read the article that accompanies this episode: Rare orchids reintroduced into the wild.
• Alison Ballance talked to Carlos Lehnebach about why some orchids smell like mushrooms and how that helps them to fool insects.
• This Critter of the Week episode focuses on the helmet orchid (Corybas dienemus), another rare native orchid that likes cold, damp and windy places.
• In this interview, Jesse Mulligan talks to Fred Clarke, a Californian orchid breeder who created the acclaimed black orchid After Dark.
• This Critter of the Week episode discusses the copper beard orchid (Calochilus herbaceous), which is threatened by habitat loss and climate change.

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Kākahi are a keystone species in lake and river ecosystems, keeping the water clean by filtering one litre of water every hour. These native mussels once blanketed lakebeds across Auckland – but recent surveys found an alarming decline and disappearance across many lakes. A team of scientists and divers have mounted a rescue mission for one of the last remaining kākahi populations, trying to keep the mussels safe from invasive fish through all the steps of their complicated – and fascinating – life cycle.

Guests:

• Madison Jones, Senior Healthy Waters Specialist, Auckland Council
• Belinda Studholme, Senior Biosecurity Advisor – Freshwater, Auckland Council
• Ebi Hussain, Submerged Environmental and Aotearoa Lakes
• Andrew Simpson, Global Dive

Learn more:

• Read the article that accompanies this episode: A rescue mission saving rare freshwater mussels.
• Meet the bullies – the native freshwater fish that host the kākahi in their parasitic stage – in this 2023 episode recorded by Claire at Zealandia, where the fish have been translocated.
• Alison Ballance covered the translocation of kākahi into Zealandia back in 2018.
• Wondering how the perch and other pests ended up in Lake Rototoa? Black Sheep has the details in the episode Invasive: the story of Stewart Smith.

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Claire Concannon spoke to RNZ's climate correspondent Eloise Gibson for the last episode of the Voice of the Sea Ice series. Listen to the full interview between Eloise and Claire in which they talk about the Paris Agreement, New Zealand's international climate commitments, and what we can do as individuals.

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Guests:

• Eloise Gibson, RNZ climate correspondent

Learn more:

• Read Eloise’s recent analysis about New Zealand’s international climate targets, or New Zealand's glacier loss.
• Eloise has also recently fact checked Winston Peters on climate accord, reported on our 2035 Paris Agreement target and delved into the recent uptake of solar demand in New Zealand.
• The Climate Action Tracker website keeps tabs on the targets and pledges of different countries and monitors whether they are on track to keep the world below 2 oC of warming (compared to pre-industrial temperatures).

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Human-induced climate change is impacting Earth’s global systems, including ice melt in Antarctica. What is the world doing to combat it? Signed in 2016, the Paris Agreement is the current global plan to tackle it. Countries pledge different emission reduction targets and then produce their workings and homework about how they are going about it. Where does New Zealand fit in? Are we doing our bit as a nation? And should we be bothering with individual actions or is that simply a bait-and-switch tactic by those who want to delay real change?

Guests:

• Eloise Gibson, RNZ climate correspondent
• Dr Jess Berentson-Saw, Director of Narrative Research and Strategy, The Workshop 

Learn more:

• Read the article that accompanies this episode: Is New Zealand doing its bit in combating climate change?
• Read Eloise’s recent analysis about New Zealand’s international climate targets, or listen to this episode of The Detail.
• Eloise has also recently fact checked Winston Peters on climate accord, reported on our 2035 Paris Agreement target, and delved into the recent uptake of solar demand in New Zealand.
• The Climate Action Tracker website keeps tabs onthe targets and pledges of different countries and monitors whether they are on track to keep the world below 2 °C of warming (compared to pre-industrial temperatures).
• The Workshop have published a cheat sheet on ‘How to talk about climate change’.

This series was made with travel support from the Antarctica New Zealand Community Engagement Programme.…

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In February 2025, the world hit a new low for global sea ice extent. Arctic sea ice has been declining for several decades now, but Antarctic sea ice had been holding steady, until recently. With low summer sea ice extents for four years in a row, it appears that Earth’s warming has kicked Antarctic sea ice into a new regime. Claire Concannon speaks to scientists to understand what this means for Antarctica, what this means for us, and how they feel about it.

Guests:

• Dr Natalie Robinson, NIWA 
• Dr Jacqui Stuart, Victoria University of Wellington
• Dr Greg Leonard, University of Otago
• Dr Daniel Price, University of Canterbury and Kea Aerospace
• Dr Inga Smith, University of Otago 
• Dr Michelle LaRue, University of Canterbury

Learn more:

• Read the article that accompanies this episode: A time of change for Antarctic sea ice.
• Read about the recent State of the Global Climate Report.
• The world’s biggest iceberg recently ran aground, but to get up close and personal, listen to the Voice of the Iceberg miniseries.
• The world is also experiencing ice loss from its glaciers. New Zealand’s glaciers have shrunk by 29% since 2000. Listen to The annual snowline survey to learn how our glaciers are monitored.

This series was made with travel support from the Antarctica New Zealand Community Engagement Programme.

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Penguins that return to the ice in the middle of winter to lay their eggs. Seals that use cracks in the ice to keep their pups safe. And fish that have antifreeze proteins to survive in the icy cold waters... Antarctic life is tough, and full of surprises. Scientists are keen to piece together the Antarctic food web puzzle to better understand the interconnections, and to enable smart conservation decisions.

Guests:

• Arek Aspinwall, University of Canterbury
• Dr Michelle LaRue, University of Canterbury
• Professor Steve Wing, University of Otago

Learn more:

• Read the article that accompanies this episode: How Antarctic seals and penguins rely on sea ice.
• Meet other seals and penguins with Peregrin Hyde on his journey to South Georgia Island as part of an Inspiring Explorers expedition.
• In ‘Best Journey in the World’ from the Voices from Antarctica series, Alison Ballance travelled to Cape Crozier with a team from NIWA studying the emperor penguins.

This series was made with travel support from the Antarctica New Zealand Community Engagement Programme.

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What’s it like to live and work on the frozen ocean? A team of researchers is camping out on the sea ice to investigate the small critters that live on the bottom of the ice, and among the sloshy platelet ice layer just below it. From microalgae to krill, these tiny organisms hold up the big complex food web of Antarctica. Scientists are keen to understand these communities, and how they might shift as the sea ice cycle changes.

Guests:

• Dr Natalie Robinson, NIWA 
• Dr Jacqui Stuart, Victoria University of Wellington
• Dr Greg Leonard, University of Otago
• Lizzy Skelton, University of Canterbury
• Dr Aimee van der Reis, University of Auckland
• Salvatore Campanile, Victoria University of Wellington

Learn more:

• Read the article that accompanies this episode: What lives in Antarctic sea ice?
• Dr Natalie Robinson spoke to The Detail in 2023 about the unprecedented sea ice conditions of that year
• Alison Ballance's Voices from Antarctica series from 2020 explores what it’s like to live and work in Antarctica.

This series was made with travel support from the Antarctica New Zealand Community Engagement Programme.

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