Science – Page 9 – rnzngin Fifth Estate

December 13, 2018

NIWA’s Hotspot Watch for 12 December 2018

Source: NIWA – National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: NIWA’s Hotspot Watch for 12 December 2018

The driest soils across the North Island compared to normal for this time of the year are found in an area stretching from coastal Manawatu-Whanganui northeast to Taupo. The driest soils across the South Island compared to normal for this time of the year are found in far southern Westland District. A small hotspot has emerged in Nelson in the past week.

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November 29, 2018

NIWA’s Hotspot Watch for 29 November 2018

Source: NIWA – National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: NIWA’s Hotspot Watch for 29 November 2018

All previous hotspots in the North Island dissipated this past week due to the heavy rainfall. Substantial rainfall in the past week caused the small hotspot in northwestern Marlborough to dissipate, and no other hotspots are currently in place in the South Island.

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November 7, 2018

NIWA’s Hotspot Watch for 7 November 2018

Source: NIWA – National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: NIWA’s Hotspot Watch for 7 November 2018

The largest hotspot in the North Island continues to be found in Napier and southern Hastings District. A new, very small hotspot has also emerged this week near Cape Reinga. No hotspots are currently in place in the South Island.

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October 31, 2018

NIWA’s Hotspot Watch for 31 October 2018

Source: NIWA – National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: NIWA’s Hotspot Watch for 31 October 2018

With the recent rain, the soil moisture has generally improved across the North Island since last week. However, the soils are still drier than normal for the time of year in eastern Northland, western Auckland, western Waikato, western Taranaki, as well as Hawke’s Bay, central and southern Manawatu-Wanganui and Wairarapa. The most anomalously dry soils are found in the north of the South Island, especially in interior Marlborough where the soil moisture is well below average for this time of year.

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October 24, 2018

NIWA’s Hotspot Watch for 24 October 2018

Source: NIWA – National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: NIWA’s Hotspot Watch for 24 October 2018

Soils are drier than normal for the time of year in the majority of the North Island, excluding the eastern Gisborne region where the soil moisture is near average. Parts of Queenstown-Lakes District in Otago, the Grey and Buller Districts in the West Coast, northeastern Marlborough, and the Waimate District in southern Canterbury experience well below average rainfall for this time of year, while the rest of the South Island had near normal rainfall.

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July 14, 2018

The Great Weeds Hunt Aotearoa

Source: Landcare Research – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: The Great Weeds Hunt Aotearoa

New Zealand is one of the weediest countries in the world, with the number of weed species now outnumbering our native flora.

These invasive weeds are among the greatest environmental threats to our parks, wetlands, reserves, coasts, bush remnants, and alpine areas.

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May 29, 2018

World first probe of submarine volcano gets underway – 07/05/2018

Source: GNS Science – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: World first probe of submarine volcano gets underway – 07/05/2018

An international team of scientists with several New Zealand participants will drill into a hydrothermally active submarine volcano northeast of White Island in a bid to learn more about how metals move through the Earth’s crust and find out about the life forms that live in these extreme environments.

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May 29, 2018

Tapping into New Zealand’s sleeping giant – 04/05/2018

Source: GNS Science – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Tapping into New Zealand’s sleeping giant – 04/05/2018

Stretching down the length of the North Island’s east coast lies a sleeping geological giant – the Hikurangi subduction zone. It is New Zealand’s largest and most active plate boundary, where the Pacific Plate subducts beneath the Australian Plate, giving rise to large earthquakes and tsunamis.

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May 10, 2018

Protecting our history with harakeke – the National New Zealand Flax Collection

Source: Landcare Research – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Protecting our history with harakeke – the National New Zealand Flax Collection

Manaaki Whenua is kaitiaki (guardian) of the National New Zealand Flax Collection. The collection is made up of over 300 plants. The five main collections include weaving varieties, ornamental garden plants, historical plants from the early flax industry, plants taken to offshore islands by both Māori and Pākehā, and a collection of plants representing what grows in the wild.

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May 2, 2018

The final cut: crank paper on NZ temperature record gets its rebuttal – warming continues unabated

MIL OSI – Source: Hot Topic – By Gareth Renowden – Analysis published with permission of Hot-Topic.co.nz

Headline: The final cut: crank paper on NZ temperature record gets its rebuttal – warming continues unabated

Way back in the spring of 2014, NZ’s little band of climate cranks somehow managed to get a paper published based on their recalculation of New Zealand’s long term temperature record¹. The effort – based on calculations done to support their infamous court case against the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), which they emphatically lost – purported to show that New Zealand’s long term warming rate was only a third of the amount previously calculated. As I pointed out at the time, it was riddled with errors and bad scholarship, but it appeared in the peer-reviewed literature², and so required a peer-reviewed rebuttal.

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