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An open access copy of this article is available from the publishers website.A pollen, sediment, and tephra record from a drained swamp at Harataonga contains a history of the local coastal environment from the Mid Holocene. This commences c. 6000 cal yr BP in a freshwater environment with swamp forest composed mainly of Laurelia, Leptospermum, Ascarina, and Cyathea spp. Dodonaea and Cyperaceae grew on margins of this forest. Forest on the hills surrounding the wetland... [Journal Article]

An open access copy of this article is available from the publishers website.A 2.34 m sediment profile from the base of the crater of Mt St John volcano (a small basaltic cone on Auckland Isthmus) provides a partial environmental record of the Late Quaternary. The record highlights potential age control problems with sediment cores taken directly from archaeological sites. Two distal tephras were recorded: 9.5 ka Rotoma and 7 ka Tuhua. A date of 16 309 �90 14C yr BP... [Journal Article]

An open access copy of this article is available from the publishers website.Fine resolution pollen analysis shows that the late-glacial (c. 13 000-10 700 B.P.) vegetation of the Ohakune-Horopito area was dominated by Prumnopitys taxifolia, indicating a cooler and probably drier climate than the present. Around 10 700 B.P., Dacrydium cupressinum replaced Prumnopitys taxifolia as the forest dominant, and tree ferns and hardwood trees expanded, suggesting a change to... [Journal Article]

An open access copy of this article is available from the publishers website.A survey of Cu, Pb, Zn, Cr, and As concentrations in bed sediment, fresh waters, storm waters, and suspended particulate matter (SPM) has been undertaken in the Hatea River catchment, Whangarei, New Zealand. The most recently deposited sediment in the Hatea River estuary has elevated levels of Cu, Pb, and Zn, derived from tributaries draining the more densely-populated western side of the... [Journal Article]

An open access copy of this article is available from the publishers website.We examined temporal changes at the Three Kings Islands, New Zealand in 1993 and 2002 in the diet of the endemic herbivorous fish Odax cyanoallix (Family Labridae) and in habitat-forming macroalgae, and compared these with published accounts from 1979. The diet of O. cyanoallix predominantly comprised the laminarian Ecklonia radiata in 1993, and the fucoids Sargassum johnsonii and Landsburgia... [Journal Article]

An open access copy of this article is available from the publishers website.Human viruses are a common contaminant of shellfish affected by human sewage wastes. They are difficult to detect as they are not easily separated from shellfish tissue. This paper describes a modification of the polyethylene glycol (PEG) precipitation technique for recovery of enteroviruses and F-specific bacteriophages from the Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) and the green-lipped mussel... [Journal Article]

An open access copy of this article is available from the publishers website.Shellfish may bioaccumulate a variety of chemicals, some of which are mutagenic or carcinogenic to humans. Mutagenicity tests provide an integrated way of detecting these chemicals. This paper describes the application of two such tests to New Zealand shellfish in laboratory and field situations. The bacterial mutagenicity test gave positive results on a nitric acid extract of green-lipped... [Journal Article]

An open access copy of this article is available from the publishers website.Gametogenesis began in the spring, and major spawning occurring in mid to late summer. The proportion of the gonads taken up by nutritive phagocyte cells increased from autumn to spring. During proliferation and growth of gametes and nutritive phagocytes declined in abundance and globulation, suggesting that reserves stored in these cells were transferred to developing gametes. Although...

An open access copy of this article is available from the publishers website.Several sponges with a thin encrusting form and of fragile construction have been collected in the Indo-Pacific, and have proved difficult to differentiate, let alone identify, without recourse to electron microscopy. Here we re-describe Halisarca melana de Laubenfels, 1954 from Palau, and H. metabola de Laubenfels, 1954 from Majuro Atoll in the Marshall Islands from new material, emphasising... [Journal Article]

An open access copy of this article is available from the publishers website.Phormium tenax, studied on Tiritiri Matangi Island and in Auckland, reproduces asexually by offsets and sexually by large inflorescences. Flowers are protandrous hermaphrodites that exhibit partial dichogamy and herkogamy. The pollen or the stigma are presented sequentially for initial contact with floral visitors. Nectar rewards are greatest during the male phase of flowering. Shape and... [Journal Article]

An open access copy of this article is available from the publishers website.Phormium tenax self pollination from the same inflorescence produced many small seeds and the fewest large seeds. These had the least endosperm. Self-pollination between inflorescences of the same plant produced more large seeds with intermediate amounts of endosperm. Naturally outcrossed flowers produced mainly large seeds and these had the most endosperm. [Journal Article]

An open access copy of this article is available from the publishers website.The small epiphytic liverwort Cololejeunea cardiocarpa (Lejeuneaceae) is reported for the first time from New Zealand. It is a widespread species known from the Neotropics with outliers in the south-eastern USA, Africa, and recent reports from New Caledonia and tropical Australia. [Journal Article]

An open access copy of this article is available from the publishers website.Evidence is presented that the growth rings in the wood of fast growing tawa are annual. Diameter growth rates of tawa are variable but usually \-A mmyr1 in trees >20 cm diameter at 1.4 m height. Tawa probably has maximum longevity in the range 300-400 years. It shows unexplained biennial fluctuations in diameter increment, a feature shared with several New Zealand tree species. [Journal Article]

An open access copy of this article is available from the publishers website.Evolution in the genus Pratia (Campanulaceae) has been studied using a variety of techniques. The distribution of chromosome races in P. angulata has been plotted and results suggest that although they generally occupy different geographic areas there are large areas of overlap. No consistent morphological differences were found between these chromosome races. The existence of hybrids between... [Journal Article]

An open access copy of this article is available from the publishers website.Muehlenbeckia astonii produces both orthotropic and plagiotropic shoots but after a while the orthotropic shoots revert to a plagiotropic form. [Journal Article]

An open access copy of this article is available from the publishers website.Flow cytometry has been used to measure the C-values of 29 species in 13 genera of New Zealand native grasses. An almost 18-fold variation was found between the lowest value, 0.78 pg for Zoysia pauciflora, and the highest value, 13.70 pg for Pyrrhanthera exigua. Some of this variation can be attributed to differences in chromosome number or ploidy level but groups of related species with the... [Journal Article]

An open access copy of this article is available from the publishers website.An outline of the scope and origins of plant demography emphasises the link between numerical and evolutionary approaches. The rules governing thinning in monocultures and some general features of plant competition in mixtures are described. Plant demography can be applied at several levels ó that of the genetic individuals or that of the modular components of which plants are usually... [Journal Article]

An open access copy of this article is available from the publishers website.Anthocyanin pigments must reside in the uppermost tissues of a leaf if they are to be effective as UV-B filters. However, in our survey of leaves and phylloclades from 25 native New Zealand plants, only four species held anthocyanins in the upper epidermis and/or hypodermis. For 18 species, anthocyanins were located in vacuoles of the palisade and/or spongy mesophyll, the same tissues that are... [Journal Article]

An open access copy of this article is available from the publishers website.Documented chromosome numbers are reported for 33 species, 7 subspecies, 9 varieties, 2 forma, 2 hybrids, and 14 taxa of uncertain rank from 21 families of angiosperms. Thirty-eight of these are for previously uncounted taxa and hybrids. The majority of the counts are for nationally uncommon and threatened, or newly described plants. In the majority of genera the numbers follow established... [Journal Article]

An open access copy of this article is available from the publishers website.Siblicide in the South Polar Skua (Catharacta maccormicki) was studied at Cape Crozier, Ross Island, Antarctica during the 1993/94 austral summer. Sixty-six two-egg nests were monitored, providing 49 two-chick broods for study. Eighteen pairs of chicks (37% of broods) were raised. Single chicks survived in 27 nests, of which 26 were first chicks. Only three second chicks outlived firsts in the... [Journal Article]

An open access copy of this article is available from the publishers website.Chromosome numbers of 2n = 50 have been determined from clones of the single wild plant of Pennantia baylisiana as well as of a seedling from this plant. In addition the same number was determined for P. corymbosa and the hybrids P. baylisiana x P. endlicheri and P. baylisiana x P. corymbosa. [Journal Article]

An open access copy of this article is available from the publishers website.Size at sexual maturity and gonad indices appropriate for measuring reproduction were examined in the scallop Pecten novaezelandiae at two sites in the Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand. Size at maturity was assessed using gonad visual grading and allometric calculation methods. Size of the smallest mature individual varied from 52 to 59 mm shell height between sites. In general, 50% of scallops were... [Journal Article]

An open access copy of this article is available from the publishers website.In general, the conservation of plants often focuses on reducing the number of species that may feed on a plant species. Caging is one of the effective methods that conservationists use. In this study, I examined how such caging may affect the persistence of the wood rose, Dactylanthus taylorii, on Little Barrier Island, New Zealand. The probability of increase in these populations should... [Journal Article]

An open access copy of this article is available and complies with the copyright holder/publisher conditions.Despite policies and calls for scientists to make data available, this is not happening for most environmental- and biodiversity-related data because scientists' concerns about these efforts have not been answered and initiatives to motivate scientists to comply have been inadequate. Many of the issues regarding data availability can be addressed if the principles of “publication”... [Journal Article]

An open access copy of this article is available from the publishers website.Notolabrus fucicola Richardson, a large common labrid inhabiting rocky reefs around New Zealand and southern Australia, were collected monthly from December 1996 to February 1998 around Kaikoura, New Zealand. They were found to be asynchronous spawners and followed the typical labrid spring-summer seasonal pattern of reproduction from July to December. Compared with other New Zealand labrids... [Journal Article]