ISSN 1177-2026 New Zealand Freshwater Sciences Society Newsletter Number 42 June 2006 Contents EDITORIAL 3 PRESIDENTS CORNER 3 MEMBERS NEWS 5 OTHER NEWS 13 CONTRIBUTED ITEMS 13 UPCOMING CONFERENCES 15 EXECUTIVE MEMBERS 16 Editorial Welcome to the autumn 2006 newsletter of the New Zealand Freshwater Sciences Society As with last year, the purpose of this newsletter is to provide a mid-year update of what members have been upto, details of Society and other relevant publications, upcoming conferences and any other news that’s considered to be of interest to members. As always, any comments or recommendations for future newsletters would be much appreciated. Thanks very much to all those who have contributed – it’s great to get such a good response at such a busy time of year. Cheers, Ngaire Presidents Corner What is going on in NZFSS? As well as details of what is happening within the Society, there are plenty of things happening which involve the Executive or are of interest to members. These include the following: Sustainable Development Programme of Action: Water The Government has made some announcements on how it intends addressing some of the major issues surrounding water quantity and quality and the protection of freshwaters of national importance. A leadership group is being formulated to advise Government. Information is available from http://www.mfe.govt.nz/issues/water/prog-action/index.html . Some of these initiatives will involve members of the Society in providing advice in the formulation of National Environmental Standards on, for example, methods of developing sustainable flow regimes. We will all be vitally interested in the outcomes and many members will wish to be kept informed on progress. Conferences 2006 Rotorua Conference David Hamilton and his team are well organized for this year’s conference “Keeping it Fresh: Werohia te wero (Take up the Challenge)” at Rotorua in late November. The location is the Park Heritage Hotel Rotorua, 27-30 November. Check the Society website for details. (Editors note: also see Conferences for more details). 2007 Queenstown joint ASL Conference Chris Arbuckle is coordinating efforts for next year’s joint conference with ASL in early December 2007 in Queenstown. He and I will be spreading the word at NABS and ASL conferences so we hope to get a good overseas contingent, as well as hearing and seeing about what is going on in New Zealand. Water Conference 2006 - Enough For Everyone? : Christchurch The NZ Water & Wastes Association' Annual Conference, 'The Water Conference 2006 - Enough for Everyone?', will be held in Christchurch from 11-13 October this year in partnership with the Royal Society of New Zealand and IPENZ. Every six years since 1964 a 'Water Conference' has been convened, at which policy matters in their broadest sense are discussed and recommendations forwarded to the appropriate authorities. Water conferences have traditionally incorporated a solid scientific content. See http://www.nzwwa.org.nz/thewaterconference06.html for details. Publications Freshwaters of New Zealand I find myself frequently referring to this excellent reference on the state of our freshwaters. Obviously so do many others as sales via the hydrological Society have been going well. You had better be in quick because only about ¼ of the original printing run are still in stock. Invertebrate Book Mike Scarsbrook and Brian Sorrell still have copies of this reference book on invertebrates. These are now available at half price so contact them for copies. New Edition of Winterbourn et al Invertebrate Book The Entomological Society is presently printing the recently revised edition of this standard invertebrate identification text, with our financial support as a joint project. (Editors note: see Other News for more details). Proposed 40th Anniversary Book Ian Boothroyd is leading this project. We have discussed progress on this, especially funding for interviews with a number of those members who can recall the whole Society history. Proposed Crustacean Book Ann Chapman and Ian Boothroyd are discussing this with some of the authors and potential publishers, and should shortly return with a detailed proposal. Posters Preparations are afoot to develop a native aquatic macrophyte poster to complement the popular fish and invertebrate posters. Website David Burger is doing an excellent job of keeping this up to date but would always welcome new ideas or material to go on the website. Royal Society I attended the annual meeting of the Royal Society constituent societies (there are about 50) late last year. The relationship between the Royal Society and its constituent societies was discussed, particularly ways in which closer links might be forged. The Royal Society Council has since offered half price membership of the Royal Society to members of constituent societies. The Freshwater Sciences Executive will consider and bring a recommendation forward to the next NZFSS AGM as to whether we should also offer half price membership to Royal Society members. Anyone who wants to know more about the Royal Society and consider whether they might wish to become a member at half the usual cost should visit their website http://www.rsnz.org/ Awards SIL Award Duncan Gray has been successful in his bid for support from the SIL Trust to attend NABS in Alaska, where he will report on his University of Canterbury Masters research into invertebrate communities of alluvial flood plain springs in the upper Waimakariri River. Regards Neil Deans President, New Zealand Freshwater Sciences Society Members News Centre for Biodiversity and Ecology Research, University of Waikato Ann Chapman has been continuing with her revision of epigean amphioids and recently completed a major review of the neglected genus Paraleptamphopus , which has proved to be much more widespread and diverse throughout NZ than previously realised. On collecting trips she snarls and sighs in despair at the extent of poisoning of roadside ditches and seepages by herbicides used to promote water flow rather than amphipods etc. She and Maureen Lewis are revising their book of 1976: An Introduction to the Freshwater Crustacea of NZ . Some groups remain little better known but in others there have been major advances in taxonomic and /or ecological knowledge. With the support of NZFSS a publisher is being sought. Vivienne Cassie Cooper continues to be a research associate at both Landcare Research and the University of Waikato, concentrating her research on the accurate determination of freshwater microscopic algae, particularly diatoms. David Hamilton is now fully involved with the Lake Biodiversity restoration program ( www.LERNZ.co.nz ) that involves several interrelated projects, including Genetic Analysis of Cyanobacteria (with Prof. Craig Cary , Dr Andreas Rueckert at UoW and Susie Wood at Cawthron), Catchment Nutrient Loads (with Prof. Warwick Silvester at UoW and Paul White at GNS), Lake Ecology Modelling (with David Burger , Chris McBride and Dennis Trolle at UoW), as well as linking with Brendan Hicks' invasive fish programme. An automated (telemetered) buoy monitoring station will soon be operating in several Rotorua lakes in conjunction with Environment BOP, and will be linked into the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON). Eloise Ryan graduated with her PhD in April this year and has recently started working as an Environmental Water Specialist for Genesis Energy. David Burger has also completed his PhD and is continuing his modelling work on the Rotorua Lakes in conjunction with Environment Bay of Plenty. Carolyn Faithful has been working as a research assistant for David Hamilton , which has involved completing a report on sediment nutrient removal in the Waikato peat lakes, and the identification and enumeration of algae species for Environment Waikato. Currently she is working on communicating the Lake Biodiversity Restoration programme to the public before she heads to Sweden to commence a PhD at Uppsala University in August. Chris McBride continues with the monthly Bio-fish and water quality monitoring of Lakes Rotorua, Rotoiti, Rotoehu, Okareka and Rotoma, and has recently completed five Bio-fish surveys of northern and southern Lake Taupo. Chris is also implementing a prototype wireless water quality monitoring buoy station for Lake Rotorua. Nina von Westernhagen is examining the spatial distribution of phytoplankton in Lake Rotoiti as part of her Ph.D. study. She is examining nutrients, productivity and biomass at three different sites in the lake and looking at the connection between bays and the main body of the lake. Amanda Baldwin continues her PhD research on deep chlorophyll maxima in Lake Tarawera. Wendy Paul has completed her MSc thesis on Lake Okaro, focusing on carbon and nitrogen transfers between phytoplankton and bacteria and the management of internal nutrient loads using alum dosing. Wendy intends to submit papers for publication in the near future. Dennis Trolle has recently commenced his PhD with David Hamilton on “Lake Restoration from a climate change perspective”, and is currently collecting and processing sediment cores from 12 Rotorua lakes to examine nutrient accumulation in the sediments over the last decade. Ian Duggan has at long last finished with the Canadian post-doctoral work that has been hanging over him, now leaving some time to concentrate on New Zealand waters again. MSc student Sheree Balvert has submitted her thesis that investigated the limnology and zooplankton of Weavers