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Predicting Ecosystem Health in a Changing World

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A field site for research in the Wairarapa region.


Aotearoa’s landscapes have been transformed, with nearly forty percent of the land now devoted to pastoral agriculture. Bioprotection Aotearoa Senior Researcher, Dr Julie Deslippe, and her team at Victoria University of Wellington are studying the risks to pastoral ecosystems from the loss of natural subsidies due to vanishing native habitats.

As Aotearoa’s agriculture faces threats from biodiversity loss and climate change, the team is creating pioneering frameworks for assessing and safeguarding ecosystem health.

Learn more about the group’s aspirations and how they are addressing the challenges for pastoral lands from global environmental uncertainties.

 

The dance between Indigenous knowledge and scientific research

The Wairarapa region, in the southeastern corner of the North Island, includes the ancestral lands of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa and Rangitāne o Wairarapa. The terrain is shaped by an active fault line, resulting in expansive valleys and rugged hills, where rivers meander through the wetlands of Wairarapa Moana and Lake Ōnoke and lead to Palliser Bay and the sea.

In the past, Wairarapa Moana and Lake Ōnoke were renowned for their glistening surfaces. According to local legend, Haunui-a-Nanaia, a descendant of Kupe, who was the inaugural Polynesian voyager to reach Aotearoa, was captivated by these lakes. The sunlight was so intense that its reflection would cause tears to well up in his eyes as he gazed upon them.

The lakes were also the source of a bustling centre of commerce, yielding around 20 tons of eels (tuna) for trade every year, as well as sandstone that was exported to Kāi Tahu for pounamu carving. It was also the source of food for many locals, or what kaumātua (elder) Rawiri Smith calls “a bustling Pak’nSave” for his people.

In contrast, as Rawiri gazes over the lakes today, he sees only murky water, a stark reminder of the impacts of colonisation, including the transformation of Wairarapa into farmland dominated by grass and pine trees. A once vibrant native wetland ecosystem is now largely an exotic monoculture that is under threat from global changes.

A similar transformation of natural landscapes into grazing pastures for livestock has been widespread globally.

According to Rawiri, these shifts in land use have disrupted the delicate balance between the environment and the climate. He believes that embracing the principles of rongoā (healing) will help heal the land, its forests, and its people.

Current commercial and scientific models overlook valuable Indigenous knowledge, Rawiri says, and its problem-solving processes should be more deeply integrated into environmental protection.

“Tangata whenua are affected by the land, its whenua and the taiao (natural world),” says Rawiri. “Māori can feel the mauri (lifeforce of nature) and have faith in ecosystems, but anybody can feel this.”

Rawiri highlights the power of Indigenous expression in a non-indigenous setting to motivate and transform behavioural change.

Rawiri Smith


A paradigm shift in how we value ecosystems

Bioprotection Aotearoa is one of several initiatives that is working closely with Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa to rise to Rawiri’s challenge. Dr Julie Deslippe and her team at Victoria University of Wellington are working to understand ecosystem health in the Wairarapa and to develop innovative approaches that restore the environmental balance and tackle challenges arising from land-use changes.

Julie advocates for a paradigm shift in how people perceive ecosystems at a landscape scale, emphasising the value of each research project as it incrementally builds new knowledge toward the development of these innovative methods.

“We need lowland ecosystems to be restored to a much greater extent than they are currently if we are going to be able to manage the productivity of land in the future,” Julie says.

Understanding the variability in health outcomes across landscapes requires a holistic approach that considers human impacts on the environment, biodiversity effects, population dynamics and the inherent benefits ecosystems provide to their neighbouring surroundings.

“With this knowledge, we can begin to understand how new and emergent pests like myrtle rust in our landscape will affect both native and productive ecosystems,” says Julie.

Despite farmers often facing negative perceptions, Julie’s experiences working with community members highlight their shared vision to rehabilitate the landscape.

“That is what Bioprotection Aotearoa does; it creates common ground between all kinds of community members, so transformative change can be realised.”

Julie Deslippe


From forests and wetlands to productive land

The research in Julie’s lab covers various ecosystems, from native forests and wetlands to agricultural pastures, emphasising the intricate interconnectedness among them.

“Wetlands can help to filter excess nutrients from upslope pasturelands, keeping fresh water clean,” Julie says. “Patches of native forests and wetlands in the landscape can maintain native biodiversity. This includes the beneficial insects that eat pests and pathogens increasing pasture and crop production and animal welfare, without costly interventions for the farmer.”

Swamp maire (Syzygium maire) is a useful indicator of the health and resilience of wetland ecosystems due its spatial distribution. Unlike other dominant trees found in wetlands, which also grow upslope, swamp maire is an exclusive specialist of swamp forest ecosystems, which are now rare.

Using modelling techniques, Julie’s team is developing an innovative tool to guide the strategic planning of wetland restoration efforts across the Greater Wellington region, especially in the face of emerging threats like myrtle rust.

“Creating functional wetland ecosystems in key locations in the landscape is critical. Once we restore the hydrological processes and native biodiversity that maintain healthy, breeding swamp maire populations, suddenly we have resilience to things like emergent pests and disease.”

Julie emphasises the critical need to adopt a holistic approach to agricultural management, recognising that while it may initially appear tangential to focus on a native wetland tree, the interconnectedness of ecosystems is vital to sustainable agriculture in the years to come.

Field trip in the Wairarapa region


Indigenous knowledge must have a seat at the table

Central to these projects is the process of bringing researchers and Indigenous knowledge holders together to create a holistic understanding of ecosystem dynamics.

Postdoctoral fellow alumna, Dr Stephanie Tomscha, says Bioprotection Aotearoa is pioneering in developing cultural education, which has been pivotal for her to co-design research that further articulates Māori aspirations for their whenua.

“Bioprotection Aotearoa has given researchers a lot of the tools they need to do Māori engagement better,” says Stephanie.

“In terms of health of landscapes and productive landscapes, Māori have always known the value and the importance of inland wetlands for water purification, but other people aren’t always in tune with this fact. When this place was colonised, wetlands were drained.”

Stephanie’s work with Rawiri has helped her understand the impacts of colonisation and wetland destruction in the Wairarapa for Māori.

“Before, tuna was so important for Māori trade and their livelihoods. Now that wetlands are no longer available, there’s a huge loss in habitat for fish and tuna, which affects cultural practices,” Stephanie explains.

Since most of the remaining Wairarapa wetlands are on privately held land, wetland loss affects a wide range of people. The research group also works with local farmers to understand their values and aspirations for wetlands in the landscape. Many farmers are already restoring wetlands, because they are aware of their benefits for water filtration, ease of land management, and more.

A significant part of the group’s work has been dedicated to helping farmers invest time, resources, and capital into restoring wetlands on their farms.

Stephanie explains, “Once you fence and restore wetlands, land management is easier, because farmers can easily keep livestock off boggy soils.”

Stephanie says that some landowners have been surprised at how much they appreciate the aesthetic appeal of wetlands on their property.

“From a sales perspective, landowners feel their land will be worth more because the wetlands are so beautiful once restored. So, there was also the economic impact landowners did not anticipate.”


More information

Our research in the Wairarapa region spans several projects. You can learn more about these projects here:

>> Mātauranga Māori and diversity of fungi in wetland forests

>> Predicting the state of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Forests in the 22nd Century

>> Building models to guide conservation of an endangered wetland tree

>> Wetlands: Where does the Nitrogen go?

The post Predicting Ecosystem Health in a Changing World appeared first on Bioprotection Aotearoa.


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