How Lost Hikers Can Send an SOS to Space

How Lost Hikers Can Send an SOS to Space

These instruments, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking program (Sarsat), picked up the signal and immediately pinged alerts to Earth.

Ki uta ki tai: NIWA’s role in mountains-to-sea estuarine management

Ki uta ki tai: NIWA’s role in mountains-to-sea estuarine management

Researchers from Sustainable Seas and Our Land & Water National Science Challenges are involved in a two-year project called Ki uta ki tai: Estuaries, thresholds and values, which includes interwoven critical steps funded by MfE.

‘Plastitar’ Is the Unholy Spawn of Oil Spills and Microplastics

‘Plastitar’ Is the Unholy Spawn of Oil Spills and Microplastics

“We saw that the tar was completely full of mainly plastics,” says Javier Hernández-Borges, an analytical chemist at the University of La Laguna and coauthor of a new paper in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

Smaller Reactors May Still Have a Big Nuclear Waste Problem

Smaller Reactors May Still Have a Big Nuclear Waste Problem

A Department of Energy-sponsored report estimated in 2014 that the US nuclear industry would produce 94 percent less fuel waste if big, old reactors were replaced with new smaller ones.

‘Flash Droughts’ Are the Midwest’s Next Big Climate Threat

‘Flash Droughts’ Are the Midwest’s Next Big Climate Threat

Fast-moving droughts like this one are developing more and more quickly as climate change pushes temperatures to new extremes, recent research indicates—adding a new threat to the dangers of pests, flooding, and more long-term drought that farmers in the US already face.

The Wetlands Are Drowning

The Wetlands Are Drowning

“We often call them ecosystem engineers,” says Pat Megonigal, an ecologist who directs the Smithsonian’s Global Change Research Wetland and studies the plants.For a long while, wetland researchers have wondered whether that skill could help the plants build their way out of climate change.

How Scientists Fish: The Hand Line

How Scientists Fish: The Hand Line

“You’ll know,” says Kydd Pollock, fisheries science manager for The Nature Conservancy and research leader for the Fishing for Science program at Palmyra Atoll.He had substantial experience with a form of hand line: He tagged more than 2,500 sharks at Palmyra using the method.

Removing barriers to ensure freshwater fish can complete their life cycle

Removing barriers to ensure freshwater fish can complete their life cycle

NIWA’s Freshwater Species Programme Leader Dr Paul Franklin said World Fish Migration Day, on May 21, is a good time to remind New Zealanders of the challenges migratory fish face, and also the research that is underway to provide solutions.

This Is Where Dirty Old Cars Go to Die

This Is Where Dirty Old Cars Go to Die

Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research in Duisburg, Germany, believes that the fixation on third- or fourth-hand vehicle imports in the developing world can be a distraction from the main cause of vehicle pollution: 90 percent of cars worldwide are sold in Canada, China, Europe, and the United States.

A New Database to Drive Seabird Conservation

A New Database to Drive Seabird Conservation

Now, a new database of seabird restoration projects will aid these conservation efforts, providing an essential resource for practitioners working to protect the world’s most imperiled group of birds.TNC is using social attraction tools, like decoys and sound systems, to restore seabird populations on Palmyra.

Anchors cause “extensive, persistent” damage to seafloor

Anchors cause “extensive, persistent” damage to seafloor

“It seems that this problem is ‘out of sight, out of mind’ because the environmental footprint of anchoring is not yet considered in official reporting of global human impacts on the marine ecosystem,” Dr Watson said.

Survey provides snapshot of harbour’s health

Survey provides snapshot of harbour’s health

Greater Wellington Regional Council regularly assess sediment quality and seafloor community health in the subtidal areas of Te Awarua-o-Porirua (Porirua Harbour) and Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington Harbour).

Ticks Are Spreading in the US—and Taking New Diseases With Them

Ticks Are Spreading in the US—and Taking New Diseases With Them

That’s a problem, because research shows tick species are expanding into new areas and carrying greater amounts of pathogens as they move.

Stories from Palmyra: The Recapture

Stories from Palmyra: The Recapture

On the next Fishing for Science trip in February of this year, a scientific angler caught a bluefin trevally that had been tagged on February 6, 2020, at liberty for 753 days.Giant trevally caught and tagged on a Fishing for Science trip in February 2022.

The Queen Conch’s Gambit

The Queen Conch’s Gambit

A mother queen conch lays half a million eggs over a day or so in a gelatinous strand that, unfurled, would stretch longer than a semitruck trailer.A queen conch shell can grow as big as a football.

Fishing for Science on Palmyra Atoll

Fishing for Science on Palmyra Atoll

© Kydd Pollock / TNC My fishing partner, Kawika Auld, a master angler from Hawaii, is already by the side of the boat, gloves on and ready to go.After 10 days, we had tagged more than 240 trevally, more than any previous Fishing for Science trip.

Easy access to environmental research data

Easy access to environmental research data

New Zealand’s seven Crown Research Institutes (CRIs) have created the National Environmental Data Centre (NEDC) website to make the environmental information held by CRIs more accessible to all New Zealanders.

The Energy Crisis Is Pushing Solar Adoption—for Those Who Can Pay

The Energy Crisis Is Pushing Solar Adoption—for Those Who Can Pay

“On that very first weekend when the price cap change came in, our inquiries increased by 300 percent,” says Richard Moule, a director at the Sheffield-based solar installers All Seasons Energy.

​​Oceans Aren’t Just Warming—Their Soundscapes Are Transforming

​​Oceans Aren’t Just Warming—Their Soundscapes Are Transforming

Changes in salinity, temperature, and pressure change how the sea sounds, with unknown impacts on the life-forms that depend on that noise to survive.

As Climate Fears Mount, Some Are Relocating Within the US

As Climate Fears Mount, Some Are Relocating Within the US

Like a growing number of Americans, the Brazil family realized they could no longer live in a place where they faced soaring temperatures and worsening wildfires driven by climate change, and so they decided it was time to move to a less vulnerable part of the country.

The Race to Rebuild the World’s Coral Reefs

The Race to Rebuild the World’s Coral Reefs

It has taken Carne and her team more than a decade to plant 160,000 coral fragments on less than 9 acres of reef.Coral restoration has not summed up to even 1/100,000th of the area of shallow coral reefs worldwide.”.

Chernobyl Was a Wildlife Haven. Then Russian Troops Arrived

Chernobyl Was a Wildlife Haven. Then Russian Troops Arrived

Orizaola had come to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone to collect tree frogs and find out whether living in the shadow of disaster had a lasting effect on the creatures’ genetics.

NIWA-Nippon Foundation Tonga Eruption Seabed Mapping Project a “rare opportunity” to study effects of Tonga eruption

NIWA-Nippon Foundation Tonga Eruption Seabed Mapping Project a “rare opportunity” to study effects of Tonga eruption

In a rare opportunity to improve understanding of the nature and impact of a major volcanic eruption, NIWA scientists are sailing to Tonga to survey the ocean around the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai (HT–HH) volcano and surrounding regions.

Passing FAD: Partnership Protects the Reef at Palmyra Atoll

Passing FAD: Partnership Protects the Reef at Palmyra Atoll

That is thanks to an innovative partnership called FAD Watch Program between conservation and industry, specifically the US tuna fishing fleet, that is remotely tracking FADs to protect Palmyra, and provide important oceanographic data as well.

Climate Change Is Disrupting the Global Supply Chain Too

Climate Change Is Disrupting the Global Supply Chain Too

A 2020 study in the Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering that Becker coauthored found that of 85 US maritime infrastructure engineers who responded to a survey, only 29 percent said their organizations had a policy or planning document for sea level rise, let alone had acted on one.

The Amazon Rainforest May Be Nearing a Point of No Return

The Amazon Rainforest May Be Nearing a Point of No Return

For a forest, one way to track resiliency is through a satellite measurement called vegetation optical depth, or VOD, which penetrates through the canopy and detects how much woody biomass there is.

Mean heat: Marine heatwaves to get longer and hotter by 2100

Mean heat: Marine heatwaves to get longer and hotter by 2100

New research from the Deep South Challenge: Changing with our Climate and NIWA shows that New Zealand could experience very long and “very severe” marine heatwaves by the end of the century.

Ukraine Is in an Environmental Crisis Too

Ukraine Is in an Environmental Crisis Too

The health effects of these kinds of wartime incidents are likely to be felt long after the physical conflict subsides, says Doug Weir, director of research and policy at the UK-based Conflict and Environment Observatory.

Offshore Wind Turbines Could Mess With Ships’ Radar Signals

Offshore Wind Turbines Could Mess With Ships’ Radar Signals

It turns out that massive wind turbines may interfere with marine radar systems, making it risky for both big ships passing through shipping channels near offshore wind farms and smaller vessels navigating around them.

Tropical seafloor secrets revealed

Tropical seafloor secrets revealed

NIWA scientists and Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) have used satellite technology to chart the Cook Islands’ seafloor in never-before-seen detail.The work was done as part of Seabed 2030 - a collaborative project to produce a definitive map of the world ocean floor by 2030.