@joncounts@mastodon.nz
@joncounts@mastodon.nz avatar

joncounts

@joncounts@mastodon.nz

Kia ora! I'm a #nature nut, addict of #iNaturalist NZ — Mātaki Taiao, and an #ecologist at #LincolnUniversity in #Aotearoa-#NewZealand.

I spend an inordinate amount of my time counting nature to watch what's changing (see https://wildcounts.org/).

#TwitterMigration #NZTwits #ecology #EcologicalMonitoring #NaturalHistory #iNaturalistNZ #iNaturalist #wildcounts #RStats #Biodiversity

Born when there was 326 ppm carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

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joncounts, to nz
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The sky over Ōtautahi is insane at the moment. I hope you’re all outside. #aurora #nz

joncounts,
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@mez The other half of the city was up in the Port Hills, or so it seemed. When we came back, there was a slow stream of cars heading up the hill bumper-to-bumper from the Sign of the Kiwi all the way down Dyers Pass Road to about two bends above Hackthorne Road. Crazy!

It was great seeing so many people out looking for darker skies.

joncounts, to nz
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My favourite NZ observation on #iNaturalist from the last couple of days is this stable fly photographed at Waihi by helenmacky.

It's a handsome enough fly, and it's a good photo, but what makes it stand out is the gang of at least seven pseudoscorpions all hitching a ride on it.

!!!

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/209456898

#insects #diptera #arachnids #pseudoscorpion #NZ

joncounts,
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@bananabob 😄 Not very well, I expect, although I've been impressed with how well some insects can fly even with damaged wings so I expect it will manage with a little extra ballast.

joncounts, to NewZealand
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"The government has released the list of organisations it provided information to on how to apply for fast-track consents - just hours before public submissions on the bill close."

If you haven't submitted yet, there's still two hours to submit your views on this.

#nzpol #nz

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/514743/government-releases-list-of-organisations-shoulder-tapped-for-fast-track-consents

https://www.parliament.nz/en/ECommitteeSubmission/54SCENV_SCF_083F0A7B-F182-41D5-0897-08DC3E31559C/CreateSubmission

davidzipper, to random
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Been a while since I've seen a book cover go this hard

joncounts,
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@davidzipper Looks good. I found the book at the publisher's website:

"civil engineering professor Wes Marshall shines a spotlight on how little science there is behind the way that our streets are engineered, which leaves safety as an afterthought. While traffic engineers are not trying to cause deliberate harm to anyone, he explains, they are guilty of creating a transportation system whose designs remain largely based on plausible, but unproven, conjecture."

https://islandpress.org/books/killed-traffic-engineer#desc

joncounts, to NewZealand
@joncounts@mastodon.nz avatar

James Shaw's bill, the NZ Bill of Rights (Right to Sustainable Environment) Amendment Bill, was voted down yesterday by the coalition govt.

To quote newsroom:

Shaw said New Zealand was one of a “shrinking minority” of countries which haven’t recognised the right to a sustainable environment in one way or another.

“I think over 130 other countries around the world already have, either at the national or state level. We are behind the curve.”

https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/04/10/doomed-bill-not-the-end-of-fight-for-right-to-sustainable-environment-shaw/

#nzpol #SustainableFuture

joncounts, to random
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This afternoon’s big noisy protest through the streets of Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ, led the protest into the Christchurch City Council building. Inside there were speeches and art and music and a question-and-answer session with five councillors. Then the students sat on the floor and wrote submissions to the city’s Long Term Plan. Now they’re barn dancing!

The kids are much more than alright. Let them vote already!

#SchoolStrikeForClimateNZ #SS4C

joncounts, to cycling
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I just found this, which underscores how NZ towns and cities are currently a bit broken.

"A 2016 study conducted by AUT concluded that 96 per cent of children would prefer to walk or cycle to school; however, data from the Ministry of Transport shows that the number of 5–12-year-olds walking to school decreased from 42 per cent in 1989 to 29 per cent in 2014."

https://gazette.education.govt.nz/articles/the-school-commute-on-foot/

#BikeTooter #BikeCommute #SchoolCommute #WalkableCities #nz

Krisss, to art Dutch
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Dust
By Anastasia Trusova ©

#art #nature #trees

joncounts,
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@Krisss Wow. Very good!

mez, to random
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Any fluent German/English speakers out here? I have a translation question. Technical knowledge would be helpful, but I doubt that’s necessary as it’s a more generic question I hope.

joncounts,
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@mez I'm not but I have a German PhD student at the moment that I could ask if you don't find anyone else.

ml, to academicchatter
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Most of Plant Science Twitter seems to be on Bluesky. What are your favorite Fediverse accounts (institutional and/or personal) for keeping up with academic botanical news? @plantscience @academicchatter

joncounts,
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@ml @plantscience @academicchatter Here are a few of the folk I follow who post about plant science things (mostly ecology, evolution or natural history): @umehlig, @planty, @silverdory, @flannerm, @dr_norb, @Dendrochronicle, @Theobrominated, @bjenquist, @cbuddenhagen, @LyndaDelph

HopePunkFTW, to random
@HopePunkFTW@earthstream.social avatar

, explained: the storytelling trend that weaponizes optimism

https://www.vox.com/2018/12/27/18137571/what-is-hopepunk-noblebright-grimdark

joncounts,
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@HopePunkFTW Magic Alexandra Rowland quote:

“Hopepunk says that genuinely and sincerely caring about something, anything, requires bravery and strength. Hopepunk isn’t ever about submission or acceptance: It’s about standing up and fighting for what you believe in. It’s about standing up for other people. It’s about DEMANDING a better, kinder world, and truly believing that we can get there if we care about each other as hard as we possibly can, with every drop of power in our little hearts.”

joncounts,
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@HopePunkFTW Yeah. In this world of dark news, just dreaming of a better world seems like a rebellion. We need more open-eyed people driven by hope.

markwyner, to art
@markwyner@mas.to avatar

Beautiful words, and beautiful art from Zoe Keller’s “Ocean Biodiversity” series.

The project:
https://www.zoekeller.com/ocean-biodiversity-prints

Nautilus interview:
https://nautil.us/zoe-keller-interview-scientists-artists-storytelling-536938/

#Art #Illustration #Ocean #Biodiversity #ZoeKeller

joncounts,
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@markwyner Wow. Very nice art. Thanks for sharing that.

ojala, to random
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deleted_by_author

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    joncounts,
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    @ojala That’s great! Yes, I’m looking forward to it.

    joncounts, to random
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    I saw my first Ectemnius wasp yesterday, at Tārerekautuku/Yarrs Lagoon south of Lincoln, NZ. It's a northern hemisphere wasp that unexpectedly appeared in Ōtautahi-Christchurch in a suburb near the airport in February 2020. An undergraduate student at #LincolnUniversityNZ, Hannah Noley, found it when doing her insect collection for our entomology class. It's since been found south to Leeston and north to Kaiapoi, gradually spreading.

    #biosecurity #insects #Hymenoptera

    https://inaturalist.nz/observations/203299934

    A photo of the head of a common ectemnius wasp emerging from a how it's made in a fallen tree trunk.
    A map of the current known distribution of the northern hemisphere native wasp, Ectemnius continuus, now in the southern hemisphere. It's only in and around Christchurch city, New Zealand. This map from iNaturalist shows the iNaturalist records plus all occurrences from GBIF.
    A map of the current known distribution of the northern hemisphere native wasp, Ectemnius continuus. It's only in and around Christchurch city, New Zealand, in the southern hemisphere. This map from iNaturalist shows the iNaturalist records plus all occurrences from GBIF.

    joncounts, to nature
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    Here's a wildly optimistic tī kōuka/NZ cabbage tree that I spotted yesterday in Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ. It's growing five storeys above the ground in the top of the spouting of an abandoned, earthquake damaged building.

    The building is still waiting for demolition and in the meantime the tī kōuka is doing its best to turn the building into a forest.

    On Google Street View the plant was there in August 2023 about a third the size.

    https://inaturalist.nz/observations/201326735

    #nature #botany #UrbanEcology #nz

    iangriffin, to random
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    So my 4 year lucky streak has ended! Bugger. But at least i qualify for anti-virals! #covid

    joncounts,
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    @iangriffin Nuts. Take it seriously and get lots of rest and let your immune system do its thing. I hope it treats you kindly.

    joncounts, to Birds
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    Here's a friendly NZ fantail/piwakawaka/tīrairaka that came up to me yesterday in Ernle Clark Reserve in Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ.

    This is a black morph. The "Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds" states that 12-25% of fantails are black in the South Island, and <1% in the North Island.

    Meep! Meep!

    https://inaturalist.nz/observations/201079203

    #birds #nz

    auscandoc, to solar
    @auscandoc@med-mastodon.com avatar

    New study reveals unexpected benefit of farms — here's what it could mean for farmers https://www.thecooldown.com/green-business/habitat-friendly-solar-energy-insect-population-boost/ “A recent study conducted by scientists from the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado found that solar farms don’t have to only harvest clean, from the sun — they can also be breeding grounds for and .”

    joncounts,
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    @auscandoc That's a interesting study. With the right land management, solar farms can be a win for biodiversity and the ecosystem services it provides, like pollination.

    I tracked through the two press articles to find the scientific paper which is here: https://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad0f72

    joncounts, to random
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    Here's a graph of the growth in human population globally over the past 2024 years. I updated it this morning for a first-year lecture. On it I mark the years my grandparents and parents were born, when I was born, and when my teenage daughter was born.

    I still find it hard to grasp just how quickly and massively the human population has exploded. There's 6 billion(!!!) more people on the planet today than when my grandparents were born.

    https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

    #population #humans

    joncounts,
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    @mez Good point. I bet someone's made a series of graphs like that. The growth is certainly far from even across the world, of course. Even here in New Zealand we've grown by 4 million since my grandparents were born, from 1.2 million in 1923 to ~5.2 million now.

    joncounts,
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    @mez It looks like most of the historical population increase in NZ has come from births and people living longer rather than immigration. I found a report on NZ immigration from the New Zealand Productivity Commiission which states:

    "Migration has become more important for New Zealand. While most population growth in the last century-and-a-half has come from natural increase (births less deaths), the contribution of immigration has increased in recent years."

    https://www.productivity.govt.nz/assets/Inquiries/immigration-settings/Immigration-by-the-numbers.pdf

    joncounts, to nz
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    Wrap around eyes! This stylishly hairy beetle is looking at you, and looking out to the sides, and looking above, all at the same time.

    My wife found this in out garden in Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ. It's a native species of Xylotoles long-horn beetle.

    https://inaturalist.nz/observations/199960374

    #insects #beetles #nz #MacroPhotography

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