Korte mededelingen

Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms in Heemstede gevonden. Op de Floristenvergadering van 3 januari 1974 werden twee vondsten van ontsnapte aquariumplanten gemeld: Pistia stratiotes L. in de Krimpenerwaard door A. J. Quené-Boterenbrood en J. Mennema (zie ook Gorteria 7, 1974, p. 28-29) en Eichhornia crassipes bij Voorschoten door Prof. Dr. V. Westhoff. De laatste vondst intrigeerde mij in hoge mate, want als ingezetene van Voorschoten voel je je onder je duiven geschoten, wanneer je in je eigen woonplaats een leuke vondst wordt „afgesnoept”. De nadere aanduiding van de vindplaats door Prof. Westhoff „in een slootje bij de kerk” was voldoende om bij de gemeentelijke plantsoenendienst navraag te doen, maar dit leverde niets op. Daar Prof. Westhoff de waterhyacint niet zelf had gevonden, duurde het enige tijd alvorens bleek, dat E. crassipes niet in Voorschoten, maar in Heemstede was aangetroffen. De vinder, de heer A. W. M. Höcker, berichtte mij onlangs, dat de soort van juli tot oktober 1973 was te vinden in de Glippervaart, die uitmondt in de Ringvaart van de Haarlemmermeer en wel in het doodlopende gedeelte langs de Kadijk te Heemstede. In begin september – dezelfde maand, waarin vele tientallen exemplaren van Pistia werden gevonden – bereikte het aantal individuen het hoogtepunt; daarna stierven de planten langzaam af. Nadien is Eichhornia, die oorspronkelijk inheems is in tropisch Amerika, doch die in alle tropen der wereld is binnengedrongen, aldaar niet meer aangetroffen. De vindplaats Voorschoten, vermeld in Gorteria 7, 1974, p. 16, dient dus te worden gewijzigd in Heemstede. Dit betreft zeer waarschijnlijk de eerste vondst van dit aquariumadventief in Nederland. Een eerdere vondst in het Naardermeer, vermeld in De Levende Natuur 22, 1917, p. 159, moet volgens Jac. P. Thijsse worden toegeschreven aan het feit, dat „een van de bezoekers van het Meer ongetwijfeld heeft getracht die bloem daar te importeren, om te kijken, wat ze doen zou”. De planten te Heemstede zouden volgens de heer Hoeker afkomstig kunnen zijn van een bekend arrangeur van bloemententoonstellingen, die aan de Kadijk te Heemstede woonachtig is

Best management practice guidelines for salmon farms in the Marlborough Sounds: Part 1: Benthic environmental quality standards and monitoring protocol (Version 1.1 January 2018)

This is a guidance document to inform the development and implementation of benthic monitoring of salmon farms in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand. The standards were developed in an integrated working group environment, with representation from: Marlborough District Council (MDC), New Zealand King Salmon, the Sounds Advisory Group to MDC, Cawthron Institute, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research and the Ministry for Primary Industries/Fisheries New Zealand. The aim is to provide consistent and clear requirements for the benthic monitoring and management of existing farms, based around an agreed set of environmental quality standards with accompanying rationale. Details are provided about how and when to conduct the surveys, along with consequences in the event of non-compliance. It is intended to be a living document that will be reviewed, updated and amended as required. This is the first revision of the guidance document published in 2015 (Keeley et al. 2015)

Best management practice guidelines for salmon farms in the Marlborough Sounds: Part 2: Water quality standards and monitoring protocol (Version 1.0)

The New Zealand King Salmon Co. Limited (NZKS) were granted resource consent for three new salmon farms in the Marlborough Sounds by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) in 2012. The consent conditions were determined by the EPA’s Board of Inquiry (BoI) which required NZKS to monitor broader scale effects in the water column of their nitrogen discharge. The conditions also required the setting of numerical thresholds, or ‘interim water quality standards’ (WQS) for ecologically important water column attributes: chlorophyll-a, total nitrogen and dissolved oxygen. The consents required the interim WQS to be reviewed by the end of 2018. Two additional farms which had been separately re-consented following the BoI also required the interim WQS to be reviewed by the end of 2018. These farms are all sited in locations of high current flows (high-flow) within the Marlborough Sounds. A working group was set up to provide advice to The New Zealand King Salmon Co. Limited (NZ King Salmon) and Marlborough District Council (MDC); the group included representatives from Fisheries New Zealand, Department of Conservation (DoC), Cawthron Institute, National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA) and the Sounds Advisory Group to MDC (SAG). The working group was tasked with reviewing and recommending ‘best practice1 guidelines’ detailing WQS, a monitoring protocol, and a management response framework for these high-flow farms to follow. The review was to be informed by international examples of best practice and customised to the biophysical conditions of the Marlborough Sounds. The primary purpose of these guidelines is therefore to provide a central set of WQS, and requirements for monitoring and managing potential water column nutrient enrichment from salmon farms in the Marlborough Sounds. The overall framework will provide the regulator and consent holder with early detection, or warning signs, of a deterioration in water quality from nutrient enrichment, at a regional-scale. The review also acknowledged the importance of the wider environmental context, because dissolved nutrient inputs come from a range of other sources (e.g., upwelling from Cook Strait, catchment run-off). Aspects of this framework may also be broadly applicable to other fin-fish farms or feed-added aquaculture, and/or existing salmon farms in low-flow locations. However, these were not a specific consideration in the review. The guidelines define the management framework, which includes environmental performance criteria and intervention points, as well as recommendations for monitoring design and delivery of monitoring information. The monitoring structure is tiered, and consists of routine monitoring (Tier 1) against the WQS. An exceedance of the WQS triggers Tier 2 monitoring to determine, using a weight of evidence approach, whether salmon farm inputs are likely to be the primary cause. If proven likely to be cause, changes to management could be triggered. If more intensive monitoring is required, then Tier 3 monitoring can be initiated on a case-by-case basis, by either NZKS or MDC. These guidelines represent our proposed ‘best practice’ for salmon farm water column effects management within the Marlborough Sounds. The content was based on the best information available at the time of the review (June – October 2018), and the guidelines will be reviewed at least every five years. The purpose of each review will be to ensure that the WQS, monitoring and management of possible salmon farm induced water quality effects in the Marlborough Sounds remains cognisant of emerging local and international practices and knowledge, and new monitoring technologies

Declining adult survival of New Zealand Bar-tailed Godwits during 2005–2012 despite apparent population stability

Like many migratory shorebird populations using the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, Bar-tailed GodwitsLimosa lapponica baueri in New Zealand have significantly declined since the mid-1990s, but census data indicate arelatively stable population since 2004. The demographic drivers of both the decline and stabilisation remain unknown.We estimated annual survival from mark–recapture data of adult godwits in New Zealand during 2005–2014. Annualadult survival declined over the study period from 0.89–0.96 in 2005–2010 to 0.83–0.84 in 2011–2012. The simultaneousdecline in annual survival found in a separate study of Bar-tailed Godwits L. l. menzbieri in north-west Australia suggestsa common effect of their high dependence on threatened migratory staging sites in the Yellow Sea; the more extreme declinein L. l. menzbieri may reflect ecological differences between the populations, such as timing and extent of use of these sites.At current apparent recruitment rates, persistent adult survival of ~0.84 would lead to a population decline of 5–6% per yearin L. l. baueri. Our study implies that the demographic precursors to a population decline developed during a period ofapparent population stability; this suggests that monitoring a single index of population stability is insufficient for predictingfuture trends

Foraging behaviour and habitat use of chick-rearing Australasian Gannets in New Zealand

Patchily distributed marine pelagic prey present considerable challenges to predatory seabirds, including Gannets (Morus spp.) departing from large breeding colonies. Here, for the first time, we used GPS data loggers to provide detailed spatial, temporal, and habitat metrics of chick-rearing Australasian Gannets (Morus serrator) foraging behaviours from two distant colonies in New Zealand. Our goal was to examine the extent to which Gannet foraging tactics vary across disparate habitats, and determine whether the observed differences are consistent with predictions derived from foraging studies of other gannet species. Foraging trip performance was highly consistent between colonies, and sexes, and no significant differences in any of the variables analyzed were observed. However, Gannets from Farewell Spit (FS) dove in shallower waters (0–50 m) than birds from Cape Kidnappers (CK, >50 m), which is consistent with previous dietary studies suggesting that FS Gannets feed mainly on coastal prey, whereas CK birds feed on species with a more oceanic distribution. Diving frequencies were similar in the two colonies suggesting that Gannets were foraging in habitats with similar levels of food availability. Further studies are needed to understand the relationship between prey availability, oceanography and geographic features, to better interpret foraging tactics of Australasian Gannets

Interacting Roles of Breeding Geography and Early-Life Settlement in Godwit Migration Timing

Publishe

Testing evolutionary hypotheses about species borders: patterns of genetic variation towards the southern borders of two rainforest Drosophila and a related habitat generalist

Several evolutionary hypotheses help explain why only some species adapt readily to new conditions and expand distributions beyond borders, but there is limited evidence testing these hypotheses. In this study, we consider patterns of neutral (microsatellite) and quantitative genetic variation in traits in three species of Drosophila from the montium species group in eastern Australia. We found little support for restricted or asymmetrical gene flow in any species. In rainforest-restricted Drosophila birchii, there was evidence of selection for increased desiccation and starvation resistance towards the southern border, and a reduction in genetic diversity in desiccation resistance at this border. No such patterns existed for Drosophila bunnanda, which has an even more restricted distribution. In the habitat generalist Drosophila serrata, there was evidence for geographic selection for wing size and development time, although clinal patterns for increased cold and starvation resistance towards the southern border could not be differentiated from neutral expectations. These findings suggest that borders in these species are not limited by low overall genetic variation but instead in two of the species reflect patterns of selection and genetic variability in key traits limiting borders

Contrasting extreme long-distance migration patterns in bar-tailed godwits <i>Limosa lapponica</i>

Migrating birds make the longest non-stop endurance flights in the animal kingdom. Satellite technology is now providingdirect evidence on the lengths and durations of these flights and associated staging episodes for individual birds. Using thistechnology, we compared the migration performance of two subspecies of bar-tailed godwit Limosa lapponica travellingbetween non-breeding grounds in New Zealand (subspecies baueri) and northwest Australia (subspecies menzbieri) andbreeding grounds in Alaska and eastern Russia, respectively. Individuals of both subspecies made long, usually non-stop,flights from non-breeding grounds to coastal staging grounds in the Yellow Sea region of East Asia (average 10 060 ? SD290 km for baueri and 5860 ? 240 km for menzbieri). After an average stay of 41.2 ? 4.8 d, baueri flew over the North PacificOcean before heading northeast to the Alaskan breeding grounds (6770 ? 800 km). Menzbieri staged for 38.4 ? 2.5 d,and flew over land and sea northeast to high arctic Russia (4170 ? 370 km). The post-breeding journey for baueri involvedseveral weeks of staging in southwest Alaska followed by non-stop flights across the Pacific Ocean to New Zealand (11 690 kmin a complete track) or stopovers on islands in the southwestern Pacific en route to New Zealand and eastern Australia. Bycontrast, menzbieri returned to Australia via stopovers in the New Siberian Islands, Russia, and back at the Yellow Sea; birdstravelled on average 4510 ? 360 km from Russia to the Yellow Sea, staged there for 40.8 ? 5.6 d, and then flew another5680–7180 km to Australia (10 820 ? 300 km in total). Overall, the entire migration of the single baueri godwit with afully completed return track totalled 29 280 km and involved 20 d of major migratory flight over a round-trip journey of174 d. The entire migrations of menzbieri averaged 21 940 ? 570 km, including 14 d of major migratory flights out of 154 dtotal. Godwits of both populations exhibit extreme flight performance, and baueri makes the longest (southbound) andsecond-longest (northbound) non-stop migratory flights documented for any bird. Both subspecies essentially make singlestops when moving between non-breeding and breeding sites in opposite hemispheres. This reinforces the critical importanceof the intertidal habitats used by fuelling godwits in Australasia, the Yellow Sea, and Alaska