In progress

T2 | Pacific Futures

Resilience in Indigenous Fijian food systems
This research explores how Indigenous Fijian communities are adapting to climate change and land-use pressures, and how traditional knowledge helps sustain their food systems. It aims to support community-led solutions that strengthen resilience and improve long-term food security.
In progress

T2 | Identifying Microbial Threats

Fungal pathogens as ecosystem drivers: the impact of fungi on forest communities over decades to centuries
This project investigates how fungal pathogens have shaped forest ecosystems throughout the history of Aotearoa. It aims to improve understanding of historic pathogen communities, including long term cycles of forest dieback and pathogen outbreaks, and help inform future restoration and pathogen management efforts.
In progress

T2 | Bioprotection Futures

Invasion resistant landscapes in Aotearoa New Zealand
Most weed and pest management in Aotearoa New Zealand focus on addressing individual invasive species, rather than the environmental conditions that trigger invasiveness. This project aims to shed light on avenues—both existing and new—that enable landscape-scale bioprotection approaches in policy and practice.
In progress

T2 | Bioprotection Futures

Community inclusion in pest management in Aotearoa New Zealand
This doctoral research by Jazmynn Hodder-Swain examines existing processes of community inclusion in the pest management system in Aotearoa New Zealand, as well as how communities are generating other contexts for inclusion outside of the system.
Completed

Outreach and Engagement

Te Māhuri Scholarship
A two-week summer programme for secondary school students in Canterbury who are curious about the world around them with an interest in science.
In progress

T2 | Soil Carbon

Role of soil microbes in carbon dynamics
Microbes link plants to the below-ground world; they help them grow and thrive. This project will help us understand the role microbes play in carbon use and storage in soils.
In progress

T2 | Weed Invasions

How landscapes influence the spread of bird-dispersed weeds
Exploring how birds and landscapes interact to promote the spread of invasive woody weeds, and use this knowledge to better inform future weed management strategies.
In progress

T2 | Weed Invasions

From garden to forest: spread and detection of bird-dispersed weeds
Assessing the spread patterns of bird-dispersed weeds and evaluating surveillance techniques for detecting emerging weeds.
In progress

T2 | Identifying Microbial Threats

How microbial diversity influences the success of land restoration
Investigating whether plant pathogens hitchhiking on nursery-raised kānuka plants, how long they persist after planting, and their effects on ecosystem health and forest restoration success.
In progress

T2 | Future Biocontrol

Heat shock impacts on host-parasitoid interactions
Climate change and the coevolutionary arms race: The responses of a fruit fly and a wasp to heat shock, and the impact on their host-parasitoid coevolution.