title: Alum dosing effects on fish and aquatic invertebrates: Utuhina Stream 2024

authors: Ling, Nicholas

abstract: To reduce external phosphorus loading to Lake Rotorua, the Bay of Plenty Regional Council has been granted resource consent to dose the Utuhina Stream with alum (aluminium sulphate). Aluminium binds phosphorus, preventing its uptake by phytoplankton and thereby inhibiting growth. Aluminium forms monomeric species outside of circum-neutral pH (pH 68), and these species can disrupt osmoregulation and respiration of aquatic organisms. The alum dose rate to the Utuhina Stream is dependent on discharge, with a maximum application rate of 1 mg Al L-1. This report presents the results of an on-going assessment of the fish and aquatic macroinvertebrate communities of the Utuhina Stream for 2024.  Macroinvertebrates, fish and kōura (freshwater crayfish; Paranephrops planifrons) were sampled from one control (site 1) and two treatment (sites 2 & 3) reaches of the Utuhina Stream. Common bully (Gobiomorphus cotidianus) were the dominant species of the fish community, with juvenile trout and kōaro (Galaxias brevipinnis) also captured. Kōura were present at all sites but variable in abundance. There was a notable decline in the semiquantitative macroinvertebrate community (for soft-bottomed streams; MCI-sb) score at Sites 1 and 3 in 2024 compared to long-term site averages, with Site 1 declining into the ‘poor’ category. Interannual variation in MCI-sb scores is typical for these reaches of the Utuhina Stream and have been attributed to flood-related disturbances to stream bank morphology and in-stream vegetative cover (Ling 2021). Tissue aluminium concentrations were determined from common bully (flesh, gill, liver) and kōura (flesh, gill, hepatopancreas) by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). There was some evidence of aluminium bioaccumulation in the liver tissues of common bully at Site 2, but overall concentrations were similar to long-term averages and there were no notable differences for the same tissues between sites. Kōura tissue aluminium concentrations for 2024 were similar to long-term averages across all tissues and sites. A small number of individuals had elevated gill concentrations at Site 3 compared to long-term average concentrations, but this is unlikely to result in harmful physiological impacts. The data presented in this report further supports the conclusion by Tempero and Ling (2024) that alum dosing does not appear to have a notable effect on the fish and kōura community and that site and interannual differences appear to be due to hydrological and habitat variability.

text: Alum dosing effects on fish and aquatic invertebrates: Utuhina Stream 2024 To reduce external phosphorus loading to Lake Rotorua, the Bay of Plenty Regional Council has been granted resource consent to dose the Utuhina Stream with alum (aluminium sulphate). Aluminium binds phosphorus, preventing its uptake by phytoplankton and thereby inhibiting growth. Aluminium forms monomeric species outside of circum-neutral pH (pH 68), and these species can disrupt osmoregulation and respiration of aquatic organisms. The alum dose rate to the Utuhina Stream is dependent on discharge, with a maximum application rate of 1 mg Al L-1. This report presents the results of an on-going assessment of the fish and aquatic macroinvertebrate communities of the Utuhina Stream for 2024.  Macroinvertebrates, fish and kōura (freshwater crayfish; Paranephrops planifrons) were sampled from one control (site 1) and two treatment (sites 2 & 3) reaches of the Utuhina Stream. Common bully (Gobiomorphus cotidianus) were the dominant species of the fish community, with juvenile trout and kōaro (Galaxias brevipinnis) also captured. Kōura were present at all sites but variable in abundance. There was a notable decline in the semiquantitative macroinvertebrate community (for soft-bottomed streams; MCI-sb) score at Sites 1 and 3 in 2024 compared to long-term site averages, with Site 1 declining into the ‘poor’ category. Interannual variation in MCI-sb scores is typical for these reaches of the Utuhina Stream and have been attributed to flood-related disturbances to stream bank morphology and in-stream vegetative cover (Ling 2021). Tissue aluminium concentrations were determined from common bully (flesh, gill, liver) and kōura (flesh, gill, hepatopancreas) by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). There was some evidence of aluminium bioaccumulation in the liver tissues of common bully at Site 2, but overall concentrations were similar to long-term averages and there were no notable differences for the same tissues between sites. Kōura tissue aluminium concentrations for 2024 were similar to long-term averages across all tissues and sites. A small number of individuals had elevated gill concentrations at Site 3 compared to long-term average concentrations, but this is unlikely to result in harmful physiological impacts. The data presented in this report further supports the conclusion by Tempero and Ling (2024) that alum dosing does not appear to have a notable effect on the fish and kōura community and that site and interannual differences appear to be due to hydrological and habitat variability.

year: 2025

title: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and the protection of commercial confidential information and trade secrets in New Zealand law

authors: Kingsbury, Anna

subjects: criminal liability

abstract: After many years in which trade secrets law received relatively little attention internationally, we are now seeing a flurry of activity aimed at harmonising trade secret protection, combined with efforts to increase the level of protection provided by law. Internationally, there have been a number of initiatives to increase trade secret protection, driven by concerns about economic espionage, especially foreign economic espionage. ¹This article is about one such initiative, the trade secret provisions in the recently concluded Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) to which New Zealand is a party, and the impact these provisions will have on New Zealand law.

text: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and the protection of commercial confidential information and trade secrets in New Zealand law After many years in which trade secrets law received relatively little attention internationally, we are now seeing a flurry of activity aimed at harmonising trade secret protection, combined with efforts to increase the level of protection provided by law. Internationally, there have been a number of initiatives to increase trade secret protection, driven by concerns about economic espionage, especially foreign economic espionage. ¹This article is about one such initiative, the trade secret provisions in the recently concluded Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) to which New Zealand is a party, and the impact these provisions will have on New Zealand law.

year: 2016

title: Two-step human−environmental impact history for northern New Zealand linked to late-Holocene climate change

authors: Newnham, Rewi M.

subjects: New Zealand

abstract: Following resolution of a long-standing debate over the timing of the initial settlement of New Zealand from Polynesia (late 13th century), a prevailing paradigm has developed that invokes rapid transformation of the landscape, principally by fire, within a few decades of the first arrivals. This model has been constructed from evidence mostly from southern and eastern regions of New Zealand, but a more complicated pattern may apply in the more humid western and northern regions where forests are more resilient to burning. We present a new pollen record from Lake Pupuke, Auckland, northern New Zealand, that charts the changing vegetation cover over the last 1000 years, before and after the arrival of people. Previous results from this site concurred with the rapid transformation model, although sampling resolution, chronology and sediment disturbance make that interpretation equivocal. Our new record is dated principally by tephrochronology together with radiocarbon dating, and includes a cryptotephra deposit identified as Kaharoa tephra, a key marker for first settlement in northern New Zealand. Its discovery and stratigraphic position below two Rangitoto-derived tephras enables a clearer picture of environmental change to be drawn. The new pollen record shows an early phase (step 1) of minor, localised forest clearance around the time of Kaharoa tephra (c. 1314 AD) followed by a later, more extensive deforestation phase (step 2) commencing at around the time of deposition of the Rangitoto tephras (c. 1400‒1450 AD). This pattern, which needs to be corroborated from other well-resolved records from northern New Zealand, concurs with an emerging hypothesis that the ‘Little Ice Age’ had a significant impact on pre-European Māori with the onset of harsher conditions causing a consolidation of populations and later environmental impact in northern New Zealand.

text: Two-step human−environmental impact history for northern New Zealand linked to late-Holocene climate change Following resolution of a long-standing debate over the timing of the initial settlement of New Zealand from Polynesia (late 13th century), a prevailing paradigm has developed that invokes rapid transformation of the landscape, principally by fire, within a few decades of the first arrivals. This model has been constructed from evidence mostly from southern and eastern regions of New Zealand, but a more complicated pattern may apply in the more humid western and northern regions where forests are more resilient to burning. We present a new pollen record from Lake Pupuke, Auckland, northern New Zealand, that charts the changing vegetation cover over the last 1000 years, before and after the arrival of people. Previous results from this site concurred with the rapid transformation model, although sampling resolution, chronology and sediment disturbance make that interpretation equivocal. Our new record is dated principally by tephrochronology together with radiocarbon dating, and includes a cryptotephra deposit identified as Kaharoa tephra, a key marker for first settlement in northern New Zealand. Its discovery and stratigraphic position below two Rangitoto-derived tephras enables a clearer picture of environmental change to be drawn. The new pollen record shows an early phase (step 1) of minor, localised forest clearance around the time of Kaharoa tephra (c. 1314 AD) followed by a later, more extensive deforestation phase (step 2) commencing at around the time of deposition of the Rangitoto tephras (c. 1400‒1450 AD). This pattern, which needs to be corroborated from other well-resolved records from northern New Zealand, concurs with an emerging hypothesis that the ‘Little Ice Age’ had a significant impact on pre-European Māori with the onset of harsher conditions causing a consolidation of populations and later environmental impact in northern New Zealand.

year: 2018