Peter Wardle MSc (Otago), PhD (Cantaur.), FRSNZ, ONZOM. 14 February 1931 – 6 December 2008

[First paragraph...] Peter Wardle passed away suddenly on 6 December 2008 while crossing the Waimakariri River with his wife Margaret and friends on a tramping trip. His death marked the end of a scientific career lasting more than 50 years during which he explored, thought, wrote and debated about the plants and vegetation of New Zealand. Part of a gifted generation of natural scientists who took advantage of educational opportunities opening up during the 1950s in New Zealand and overseas, Peter, through his sustained output of scientific, technical, and popular publications, provided insights into the ecology of New Zealand vegetation that have influenced several generations of researchers.     

Kiore (Rattus exulans) distribution and relative abundance on a small highly modified island

ABSTRACT

Kiore (Pacific rat; Rattus exulans) is both a target for eradication and a taonga or highly valued species in New Zealand, and its abundance and distribution vary considerably throughout the country. We investigated reports of an abundant kiore population on Slipper Island (Whakahau), off the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island, in March 2017. We trapped kiore to examine their distribution across a range of habitats with varying degrees of human activity. Kiore were captured in all habitats, with particularly high abundance at a campground with a fruiting fig tree (50 kiore per 100 trap nights corrected for sprung traps). We found no evidence of other rat species; Slipper Island appears to remain one of few New Zealand islands with kiore but without ship rats (Rattus rattus) and Norway rats (R. norvegicus), the two other rat species present in New Zealand. Slipper Island potentially provides opportunities to research kiore behaviour and population dynamics in a New Zealand commensal environment, and genetics of an isolated island population.     

Reconstructing demographic events from population genetic data: the introduction of bumblebees to New Zealand

Four British bumblebee species (Bombus terrestris, Bombus hortorum, Bombus ruderatus and Bombus subterraneus) became established in New Zealand following their introduction at the turn of the last century. Of these, two remain common in the United Kingdom (B. terrestris and B. hortorum), whilst two (B. ruderatus and B. subterraneus) have undergone marked declines, the latter being declared extinct in 2000. The presence of these bumblebees in New Zealand provides an unique system in which four related species have been isolated from their source population for over 100 years, providing a rare opportunity to examine the impacts of an initial bottleneck and introduction to a novel environment on their population genetics. We used microsatellite markers to compare modern populations of B. terrestris, B. hortorum and B. ruderatus in the United Kingdom and New Zealand and to compare museum specimens of British B. subterraneus with the current New Zealand population. We used approximate Bayesian computation to estimate demographic parameters of the introduction history, notably to estimate the number of founders involved in the initial introduction. Species-specific patterns derived from genetic analysis were consistent with the predictions based on the presumed history of these populations; demographic events have left a marked genetic signature on all four species. Approximate Bayesian analyses suggest that the New Zealand population of B. subterraneus may have been founded by as few as two individuals, giving rise to low genetic diversity and marked genetic divergence from the (now extinct) UK population.     

Introduction to the Nigel Barlow Symposium

Dr Nigel Barlow died on 4 June 2003 aged 53 in Christchurch, New Zealand. Nigel completed his PhD at the University of East Anglia in 1977 and emigrated to New Zealand in 1979 where he worked initially at Palmerston North and for the last 12 years for AgResearch at Lincoln. Nigel made an enormous contribution to New Zealand ecological science through the use of mathematically based models. In particular, he worked on insect pests such as grass grubs and vertebrate pests such as possums and rabbits, producing over 130 papers. Nigel’s models of bovine tuberculosis underpinned the current strategies and expenditure of over $50 million each year on the control of wildlife vectors on this disease. Nigel’s capabilities as a scientist were not only in the applied field but also reflected in his ability to win funds with his student John Kean from the prestigious Marsden Fund for basic research on the causes of rarity. He was Editor of the New Zealand Journal of Ecology from 1985 to 1990 and of the Journal of Applied Ecology. Nigel was awarded the New Zealand Ecological Society Award for his outstanding contribution to applied ecology in 1996 and posthumously in 2003 the Caughley Medal for lifetime contributions to wildlife management and ecology by the Australasian Wildlife Management Society. Nigel was a true polymath and enthusiast about all natural history. He had an interest in bird-winged butterflies and regularly vanished into the jungles of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea to study them. He was fascinated by crocodilians and anacondas, mountain climbing, landscape painting, and malt whisky. At work he was resistant to bureaucratic interference but happy to pass on his abilities and insights to his students and numerous colleagues.     

Springs and wire plants: anachronistic defences against Madagascar's extinct elephant birds

The extinction of large vertebrates in the last few millennia has left a legacy of evolutionary anachronisms. Among these are plant structural defences that persist long after the extinction of the browsers. A peculiar, and controversial, example is a suite of traits common in divaricate (wide-angled branching) plants from New Zealand. Divaricate architecture has been interpreted as an adaptive response to cold climates or an anachronistic defence against the extinct moas. Madagascar, a larger tropical island, also had a fauna of large flightless birds, the elephant birds. If these extinct ratites selected for similar plant defences, we expected to find convergent features between New Zealand and Malagasy plants, despite their very different climates. We searched the southern thickets of Madagascar for plants with putative anti-ratite defences and scored candidate species for a number of traits common to many New Zealand divaricates. We found many Malagasy species in 25 families and 36 genera shared the same suite of traits, the 'wire plant' syndrome, as divaricates in New Zealand that resist ratite browsing. Neither ecologically, nor phylogenetically, matched species from South Africa shared these traits. Malagasy wire plants differ from many New Zealand divaricates in lacking the distinctive concentration of leaves in the interior of shrubs. We suggest that New Zealand divaricates have a unique amalgam of traits that acted as defences and also confer tolerance to cold. We conclude that many woody species in the thickets of southern Madagascar share, with New Zealand, anachronistic structural defences against large extinct bird browsers.     

Polytrichum commune Hedw. and Polytrichadelphus magellanicus (Hedw.) Mitt. used as decorative material on New Zealand Maori cloaks

Abstract

Confirmation of the occurrence of the moss Ptychomnion densifolium on the main islands of New Zealand is provided and the features which separate it from the more common P. aciculare are outlined. A brief account of the history of P. densifolium in New Zealand is given and its morphology there is discussed. A key to the two species in New Zealand is provided and habitat differences between them outlined. New Zealand material differs from type locality (Tristan d' Acunha) material in having longer and more twisted acumens, and in this respect is similar to New Zealand material of P. aciculare. New Zealand populations of P. densifolium are recognisable in having stem leaves reflexed from an oblong sheathing base, and well developed basal leaf plications. It is a relatively widespread species in New Zealand, occurring in mostly upper elevation, open sites.     

Community and justice: the challenges of bicultural partnership to policy on assisted reproductive technology

Listening to other cultures offers challenges to our fundamental assumptions and world views. In New Zealand public policy on Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) is being worked out in a society committed to the development of bicultural partnership honouring the Treaty of Waitangi, a treaty with the indigenous people.
Strong claims to the cultural significance of genetic heritage by Maori have made apparent to non-Maori (Pakeha) their own assumptions. These claims also resist reductive understandings of genetics.
In this paper I review, as a Pakeha ethicist, initiatives taken in New Zealand, and the impact of bicultural development on public policy on ART. I also discuss some of the issues this raises for western bioethics as it relates to non-western approaches and include reference to the significance of genetic heritage as it is affecting guidelines for donor insemination and surrogacy.     

Asthma mortality: comparison between New Zealand and England.

Causes for the high mortality from asthma in New Zealand were investigated by comparing deaths from asthma in caucasian subjects aged 15-64 in New Zealand with those from asthma in the same age group in two regions in England. There were no significant differences in the accuracy of death certification. The verified asthma mortality in New Zealand (4.2/100,000) was over twice that in England. Many characteristics of patients and management, including poor compliance with treatment and deficiencies in long term and emergency care, were qualitatively similar in the two countries. New Zealand had an apparently higher rate of non-preventable deaths from asthma, suggesting a greater severity of asthma in New Zealand. In both countries, however, most deaths were associated with poor assessment, underestimation of severity and inappropriate treatment (over-reliance on bronchodilators and underuse of systemic corticosteroids), and delays in obtaining help. A greater frequency of some of these deficiencies in management remains a possible additional explanation for part of the excess mortality in New Zealand.     

An interview with Dr. Paolo Sassone-Corsi on his highly cited paper published in Cell Cycle

Paolo Sassone-Corsi graduated in genetics at the University of Naples, Italy, and then conducted post-doctoral studies at the CNRS in Strasbourg, France, and at The Salk Institute, San Diego California. After being Directeur de Recherche at the CNRS in France from 1990 to 2006, he moved to the University of California, Irvine, where he is Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology. His research focuses on the mechanisms of gene expression, including chromatin remodeling, circadian rhythms and germ cells.     

XLVII.—Obituary

C harles B ygrave W harton , whose death we mentioned in our last number, was the second son of the late Rev. H. J. Wharton, Vicar of Mitcham, Surrey, and elder brother of the late H. T. Wharton (see 'Ibis,' 1896, p. 159). In early life he took an active interest in bird-life, and during a residence in New Zealand, where he took part in the campaign against the Maoris in 1868, he made, though he never published, many notes on ornithology. From September 1874 to May 1875 he lived in Corsica, and on his return he contributed to this journal (Ibis, 1876, pp. 17–29) a paper containing remarks on 113 species of birds obtained or identified in that island. Thence he proceeded to Vannes, in Brittany, which he made his headquarters for exploring Belle Ile and the neighbouring islets in search of the Roseate Tern, and, though unsuccessful, he undoubtedly deserved success. Subsequently he made excursions—chiefly in spring, for he was a keen birds'-nester—to the valley of the Seine and some of the forests of Normandy, to Holland, and to the Hebrides & c. in Great Britain. At his home at Hounsdown, near Totton, Hants, on the borders of the New Forest, he continued to study birds up to the close of his life, and his garden was well stocked with nesting-boxes, at which he could observe at leisure the habits of his feathered favourites. He wrote little, but he was emphatically a field-naturalist.     

Mechanisms of song differentiation in introduced populations of Chaffinches Fringilla coelebs in New Zealand

Chaffinches Fringilla coelebs were introduced to New Zealand from Great Britain over 100 years ago, and since then their songs have diverged from British ones in both syllable structure and basic organization of syllable sequences. The New Zealand populations seem to be unique in that their songs have undergone differentiation of trill segments by progressive elaboration of syllable morphology and hp ascending and descending changes of pitch. Published sonagrams of British song types have significantly more trill phrases and significantly fewer syllables in the end phrase than do Yew Zealand ones. Many New Zealand song types have much elaborated end phrases and concomitantly simpler trill segments, with songs quite commonly having only one trill phrase. This reversal of complexity between the trill and end phrase in New Zealand seems to have been derived by progressive reduction of the ultimate trill phrase to one syllable, and by recombination of end phrase syllables from different song types into one compound end phrase. The significance of the increased complexity in the end phrases of many song types may relate to the sound transmission properties of dense pine forests in New Zealand, in which Chaffinches are ubiquitous. Elaborate end phrases degrade much less from reverberation in pine forests because individual syllables have more dispersed temporal patterning.
Recombination of syllables to form new song types is a major mechanism of song differentiation in New Zealand. Although whole song copying is the predominant mode of replication, very few song types in a locality sample are composed of a unique set of syllables. Rather, song types in an area are interconnected by different combinations of shared syllables, suggesting that the incorporation of some local syllables in a bird's repertoire is sufficient to signal its status as a member of a neighbourhood and also allows the evolution of broadcast complexity.     

Teratologic evaluation of synthetic delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol in rabbits.

Synthetic delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) was dissolved in undiluted propylene glycol and administered in daily subcutaneous doses of 15.0, 30.0 or 60.0 mg/kg to pregnant New Zealand white rabbits on days 7--19 of gestation. Maternal food consumption and weight gain were markedly reduced at all dose levels. Embryotoxicity and embryocidal effects were observed in the form of reduced litter weight and number of viable fetuses, respectively, in offspring from pregnant mothers treated with THC. However, on the basis of extensive external, visceral and skeletal examination of all fetuses it may be concluded that THC is not teratogenic in the New Zealand white strain rabbit following subcutaneous administration of doses as high as 60.0 mg/kg/day during the critical period of organogenesis (days 7--19 of gestation). On the other hand, an oral dose of thalidomide (200.0 mg/kg/day), the positive control used in this study, was both embryocidal and teratogenic.     

A European pest to control a new zealand weed: investigating the safety of heather beetle, Lochmaea suturalis (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) for biological control of heather, Calluna vulgaris

Heather, Calluna vulgaris (L.) Hull, is a serious invasive weed in the central North Island of New Zealand, especially in Tongariro National Park, a World Heritage Area. Heather beetle, Lochmaea suturalis (Thomson), is a foliage-feeding pest of Calluna in Europe, that was selected as the most promising biological control agent for introduction into New Zealand, because it causes high levels of damage to Calluna in Europe. Host-range tests indicated that L. suturalis poses a negligible threat to native New Zealand plants. Cultivars of Calluna grown as ornamentals are suitable food plants, but are unlikely to be severely affected because L. suturalis requires a damp understorey of moss or litter for successful oviposition and pupation, which is rarely present in gardens. However, mosses and litter occurring under Calluna stands in Tongariro National Park are suitable substrates for eggs and pupae. Lochmaea suturalis released in New Zealand has been freed of parasitoids and a microsporidian disease that attack the beetles in Europe.     

Cephaloziella tahora Bever. & Glenny,a new species of Cephaloziella (Jungermanniopsida,Cephaloziellaceae) from eastern Taranaki,New Zealand

Cephaloziella tahora, a new species of Cephaloziella is described and illustrated from a lowland forest habitat in eastern Taranaki in the North Island of New Zealand. It has similarities to six other New Zealand species of Cephaloziella, and appears closest in New Zealand to Cephaloziella aenigmatica R.M.Schust. It is defined by a unique combination of features and distinguished from C. aenigmatica and other New Zealand species by having entire, distant leaves that reach the dorsal stem mid-line, and have large conspicuous hemispherical and hemi-ellipsoidal papillae, underleaves on gemmiparous and gynoecial shoots, and by its dioecy. The addition brings the number of New Zealand species of Cephaloziella to 18, 12 of which are endemic to New Zealand.     

Trends in sales of drugs for asthma in New Zealand,Australia, and the United Kingdom, 1975-81.

As part of an investigation into the recent epidemic of deaths from asthma in New Zealand, trends in the sales of drugs for asthma in New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom during 1975-81 were examined. Data on sales of drugs were obtained from an international pharmaceutical market research organisation. A striking increase in sales of sympathomimetic aerosols, steroid aerosols, and theophylline per caput occurred in all three countries, with the greatest increase occurring in New Zealand. Sales of sodium cromoglycate also increased in New Zealand and the UK but fell in Australia. By 1981 New Zealand had the highest sales of all these drugs per caput. Explanations for the rising mortality from asthma in New Zealand despite large increases in drug sales need to be explored. Although the temporal association between mortality and sales of drugs suggests that direct drug toxicity is unlikely, there may be more subtle adverse effects of drug use.     

Seeking healing transnationally: Australians,John of God and Brazilian Spiritism

João de Deus (John of God) is a Brazilian faith healer who has become increasingly well‐known outside Brazil. In 2006 alone he was invited to conduct healing events in Germany, the United States of America and New Zealand. He returned to the United States of America and New Zealand in 2007, and in 2008 was once again in the United States of America. There are plans for him to come to Australia in the near future. This article is based on ethnographic research conducted in Brazil, New Zealand and Australia and on interviews with Australians in Sydney. Here, I explore the stories of Australian followers of John of God and their reasons for seeking his healing system. I argue that Western New Age and alternative medicine concepts of healing produce a disposition ( Bourdieu 1972 ) towards ‘traditional’ healing from exotic lands. I show that the reinstatement of a connection between healing and religion, the construction of context that gives meaning to illness, and empowerment through surrendering to a higher power are three important factors that help to explain why people shun Western medicine in favour of alternative practices.     

Elsinoe takoropuku sp. nov. infects twigs of Pittosporum tenuifolium in New Zealand

Elsinoe takoropuku sp. nov. is described from Pittosporum tenuifolium Sol. ex Gaertn. (Pittosporaceae). This species causes swelling to develop on the twigs of the host species. The species initially was thought to be a recent introduction to New Zealand but, based on the host association and the geographic range of the fungus in New Zealand, it is considered to be a newly described native species.     

Moss biogeography in the Tasman Sea region

Abstract

Panbiogeographic track analysis is applied to the distribution of several groups of mosses which occur in the New Zealand region. The analysis highlights areas of biogeographic interest (nodes) in the New Zealand region as follows: 1. New Guinea, 2. New Caledonia, 3. New South Wales/Queensland border in Australia, 4. northern New Zealand, 5. Rapa Island, 6. subantarctic New Zealand.

New Zealand is connected to these nodes by the following standard tracks: 1. New Guinea—New South Wales/Queensland border—Tasmania—subantarctic New Zealand, 2. New Guinea—New Caledonia—New Zealand—subantarctic New Zealand, 3. a central Tasman Sea transversal track; New South Wales/Queensland border—New Caledonia. Rapa Island is connected to the Tasman region by northern New Zealand and New Caledonia.     

The classification and frequency of ectotrophic mycorrhizas onPinus radiata D. Don. in New Zealand

Summary Eight subtypes and thirteen sub-subtypes of ectotrophic mycorrhizas were identified in New Zealand onPinus radiata. Subtype B occurred most frequently. The maximum occurrence of ectotrophic mycorrhizas was in New Zealand conditions at the end of winter and beginning of spring.     

Comparison of a Thermoanaerobium sp. from a New Zealand hot spring with Thermoanaerobium brockii

Abstract An anaerobic ethanologenic strain of extremely thermophilic bacteria isolated from a New Zealand hot spring resembled Thermoanaerobium brockii in morphology and cell-wall ultrastructure. However, antibodies produced against the New Zealand isolate did not crossreact with the type strain of T. brockii . The New Zealand isolate strain Tok6-B1 fermented a wider range of carbohydrate substrates, including pentoses, and was less inhibited by a hydrogen atmosphere. Ethanol and acetate were major end-products and lactate a minor product of glucose fermentation. Under a hydrogen atmosphere, these 3 end-products were formed in approximately equal amounts.