title: Using five-minute bird counts to study magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) impacts on other birds in New Zealand

authors: Innes, John G.

subjects: abundance indices

abstract: We used five-minute bird counts to investigate whether introduced Australian magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen) influence the abundance of other birds in rural New Zealand. Over 3 years, magpies were removed from five c. 900-ha study blocks, one in each of Northland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Wellington and Southland. Birds were counted in both the treatment blocks and paired non-treatment blocks for the 3 years of removal and also 1 year before. To minimise problems raised elsewhere with index counts we (1) selected treatment blocks and count stations using randomisation procedures, (2) used trained observers who spent equal time in paired treatment and non-treatment blocks, and (3) counted all blocks at the same time of year and only in good weather. On average, 548 magpies were removed from each treatment block each year, with magpie counts reduced by 76% relative to non-treatment blocks. Our results suggest magpies may restrict the movements of some birds (including kererū and tūī) in rural areas, but are less important than pest mammals at limiting population abundance at a landscape scale. We submit that five-minute bird counts were appropriate for our objectives, but that more research to examine their relationship to absolute densities is needed.

text: Using five-minute bird counts to study magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) impacts on other birds in New Zealand We used five-minute bird counts to investigate whether introduced Australian magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen) influence the abundance of other birds in rural New Zealand. Over 3 years, magpies were removed from five c. 900-ha study blocks, one in each of Northland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Wellington and Southland. Birds were counted in both the treatment blocks and paired non-treatment blocks for the 3 years of removal and also 1 year before. To minimise problems raised elsewhere with index counts we (1) selected treatment blocks and count stations using randomisation procedures, (2) used trained observers who spent equal time in paired treatment and non-treatment blocks, and (3) counted all blocks at the same time of year and only in good weather. On average, 548 magpies were removed from each treatment block each year, with magpie counts reduced by 76% relative to non-treatment blocks. Our results suggest magpies may restrict the movements of some birds (including kererū and tūī) in rural areas, but are less important than pest mammals at limiting population abundance at a landscape scale. We submit that five-minute bird counts were appropriate for our objectives, but that more research to examine their relationship to absolute densities is needed.

year: 2012

title: Hamilton Parents Centre 1957-2003: A sociological history

authors: Morgans, Blair

subjects: sociological history

abstract: This is a "sociological history" of Hamilton Parents Centre and as such presents the stories' of Hamilton Parents Centre organised both chronologically and thematically. These stories are broadly of two kinds: those represented in words and pictures in the archive materials made available to us by Hamilton Parents Centre, and those shared with us this year in individual and group interviews by (mostly) women who in the past were or at present are involved with Parents Centre (and in some instances with the Federation of New Zealand Parents Centres). This sociological history is also a case study, and we believe it is a "normal" or "typical" case'. Hamilton Parents Centre can be regarded as a single entity, one of a number of such specific entities (the other Parents Centres) and more generally one of a much larger number of entities, voluntary community-based social service and advocacy organisations . We argue that Hamilton has, over the life of Hamilton Parents Centre, been reasonably representative of New Zealand communities, of urban New Zealand which is and has for a long while been the demographically predominant New Zealand. We also take the view that Hamilton Parents Centre stands for a particular kind of organisation of great importance to the history and development of the human services sector here in New Zealand: community-based, staffed largely by volunteers (but not necessarily thereby amateurs), largely self-funded, identifying new or neglected needs, developing new services, welcoming and being assisted by appropriate professionals but not unduly beholden to them, implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) criticising the status quo-- but a too extensive description here of this sector would anticipate the stories we have to tell .

text: Hamilton Parents Centre 1957-2003: A sociological history This is a "sociological history" of Hamilton Parents Centre and as such presents the stories' of Hamilton Parents Centre organised both chronologically and thematically. These stories are broadly of two kinds: those represented in words and pictures in the archive materials made available to us by Hamilton Parents Centre, and those shared with us this year in individual and group interviews by (mostly) women who in the past were or at present are involved with Parents Centre (and in some instances with the Federation of New Zealand Parents Centres). This sociological history is also a case study, and we believe it is a "normal" or "typical" case'. Hamilton Parents Centre can be regarded as a single entity, one of a number of such specific entities (the other Parents Centres) and more generally one of a much larger number of entities, voluntary community-based social service and advocacy organisations . We argue that Hamilton has, over the life of Hamilton Parents Centre, been reasonably representative of New Zealand communities, of urban New Zealand which is and has for a long while been the demographically predominant New Zealand. We also take the view that Hamilton Parents Centre stands for a particular kind of organisation of great importance to the history and development of the human services sector here in New Zealand: community-based, staffed largely by volunteers (but not necessarily thereby amateurs), largely self-funded, identifying new or neglected needs, developing new services, welcoming and being assisted by appropriate professionals but not unduly beholden to them, implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) criticising the status quo-- but a too extensive description here of this sector would anticipate the stories we have to tell .

year: 2004

title: Waitangi Soda Springs alum dosing – bioavailability of aluminium 2013

authors: Ling, Nicholas

abstract: Continuous alum dosing of the Waitangi Soda Springs at Lake Rotoehu commenced in 2010 to reduce inflows of dissolved reactive phosphorus to Lake Rotoehu. Analyses of bioaccumulation in the tissues of kōura and goldfish from Lake Rotoehu were undertaken on animals collected in September 2013 to determine the bioavailability and bioaccumulation of aluminium. Comparative analyses were undertaken on kōura and goldfish collected from Lakes Rotorua and Rotoiti. Lake Rotoehu kōura and goldfish showed slightly elevated aluminium concentrations in the gills indicating enhanced exposure to aluminium but little evidence for significant bioaccumulation in tissues.

text: Waitangi Soda Springs alum dosing – bioavailability of aluminium 2013 Continuous alum dosing of the Waitangi Soda Springs at Lake Rotoehu commenced in 2010 to reduce inflows of dissolved reactive phosphorus to Lake Rotoehu. Analyses of bioaccumulation in the tissues of kōura and goldfish from Lake Rotoehu were undertaken on animals collected in September 2013 to determine the bioavailability and bioaccumulation of aluminium. Comparative analyses were undertaken on kōura and goldfish collected from Lakes Rotorua and Rotoiti. Lake Rotoehu kōura and goldfish showed slightly elevated aluminium concentrations in the gills indicating enhanced exposure to aluminium but little evidence for significant bioaccumulation in tissues.

year: 2015