Predicting and Preventing Ecosystem Decline

Researchers are developing a framework to help predict and prevent the approach of rapid, harmful and difficult-to-reverse changes in ecosystems.

The inventory of research outputs and resources can be found here:

Predicting and Preventing Ecosystem Decline

This research is Completed

Overview Te Tirohanga Whānui

In this project, led by Professor Jason Tylianakis of the University of Canterbury, researchers are aiming to reverse degradation across a range of ecosystems and nudge these systems towards a healthy, self-reinforcing state.

Once an ecosystem reaches a tipping point, it can be costly or unfeasible to reverse – for example the loss of peat-forming species in wetlands, and the loss of soil structure and quality following intensive agriculture.

A key aspect of this BioHeritage Challenge project is understanding the processes leading to these tipping points in socio-ecological systems, and using that knowledge to develop generic, widely applicable tools to proactively manage and sustain healthy ecosystems.

Mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) is critical to the project which is contributing to BioHeritage’s goal of creating resilient and thriving ecosystems that New Zealanders are proud of.

Research is being co-designed with key Ngāi Tahu staff members who are using their indigenous knowledge of restoring populations and sustaining harvests of mahinga kai (food gathering) to help shape the research priorities.

Specifically, research on the restoration of īnanga (whitebait) and black swan egg harvests is being co-developed with Māori knowledge-holders as part of this work and another BioHeritage Challenge project – taking a biocultural approach to restoring New Zealand’s biodiversity.

Highlights Ngā Mahi Whakahirahira

The project team has distilled complex concepts around tipping points into a policy brief that outlines approaches that can help regional and central government to manage tipping points and drive positive ecosystem change.

Addressing cutting-edge problems in ecological tipping points has led to publication of the team’s research in international ecological journals such as Ecology Letters and the Journal of Ecology.

The team’s research has been integrated with a Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment Endeavour Project: Our lakes’ health: past, present and future, Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua.

In addition, lake sediment samples and analytical techniques have been shared with the Lakes380 team, and researchers have conducted a collaborative analysis of ecological tipping points in lakes.

Looking for more information?

If you’re looking for any outputs (papers, data etc) from this project that you don’t see on this page please visit our data repository.

Team Members Ngā kaimahi

  • Jason Tylianakis ; University of Canterbury

Research Partners Ngā hoa pātui rangahau

Resource outputs from this programme

Video

Crazy & Ambitious 2 – 2019

A playlist of presentations given at New Zealand’s Biological Heritage Science Challenge conference, Crazy & Ambitious 2. 20 – 21 May 2019, Te Papa Wellington.
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Video

Crazy & Ambitious – 2017

A playlist of presentations given at New Zealand’s Biological Heritage Science Challenge inaugural conference, Crazy & Ambitious. 8-10 May 2017, Te Papa Wellington
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Report

Assessment of the ecohydrological functioning of Otakairangi Wetland, Northland

Otakairangi is the largest wetland remnant on the floodplain of Northland’s Wairua River near Hikurangi. Extensive peat deposits many metres deep accumulated over thousands of…
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Report

Considering a future spatial framework for wetland mapping and monitoring in New Zealand

The Ministry for the Environment, Department of Conservation, and the Biological Heritage National Science Challenge co-funded research to look at contemporary losses of wetland extent…
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Report

An analysis of wetland loss between 2001/02 and 2015/16

The Ministry for the Environment, Department of Conservation, and the Biological Heritage National Science Challenge co-funded research to look at contemporary losses of wetland extent…
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Publication

BOOK: Indigenous Pacific Approaches to Climate Change

Situating Māori Ecological Knowledge (MEK) within traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) frameworks, this book recognizes that indigenous ecological knowledge contributes to our understanding of how we…
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Publication

Teach Indigenous knowledge alongside science

Conflict has grown around Indigenous knowledge in education policy. There has been growing acceptance of the value of Indigenous knowledge for promoting ecological resilience, transformational…
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Publication

Shouldering the burden: social-ecological scale mismatches in wetland ecosystem management in Aotearoa New Zealand

Social-ecological mismatches in scale limit the recovery of ecosystems from environmental degradation, severely impacting the diverse groups who rely on them. Identifying scale mismatches across…
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Publication

Evaluating the Role of Social Norms in Fostering Pro-Environmental Behaviors

Human activity is changing the biosphere in unprecedented ways, and addressing this challenge will require changes in individual and community patterns of behavior. One approach…
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Publication

Diatom nutrient requirements change with lake nutrient limitation and enrichment in New Zealand dune lakes.

Nutrients are important determinants of diatom growth in lakes, and diatoms are considered reliable indicators of changing lake nutrient concentrations and eutrophication. However, diatom ecologies…
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Publication

Social–ecological connections across land, water, and sea demand a reprioritization of environmental management

Despite many sectors of society striving for sustainability in environmental management, humans often fail to identify and act on the connections and processes responsible for…
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Publication

Indigenous Pacific Approaches to Climate Change, Aotearoa/New Zealand

Situating Māori Ecological Knowledge (MEK) within traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) frameworks, this book recognizes that indigenous ecological knowledge contributes to our understanding of how we…
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Publication

Biocultural Hysteresis Inhibits Adaptation to Environmental Change

Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLC) often use natural resources as both a reason and mechanism for environmental management, yet a number of environmental, social,…
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Publication

Building biocultural approaches into Aotearoa – New Zealand’s conservation future

Indigenous peoples’ roles in conservation are important because they offer alternate perspectives and knowledge centred on the quality of the human–environment relationship. Here, we present…
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Publication

Influences of fire–vegetation feedbacks and post‐fire recovery rates on forest landscape vulnerability to altered fire regimes

In the context of ongoing climatic warming, forest landscapes face increasing risk of conversion to non‐forest vegetation through alteration of their fire regimes and their…
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Publication

Symmetric assembly and disassembly processes in an ecological network

The processes whereby ecological networks emerge, persist and decay throughout ecosystem development are largely unknown. Here we study networks of plant and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal…
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