Environment
New Thinking
The new rock and roll
Earthquakes are a fact of life for most New Zealanders, with 14,000 or so recorded tremors each year. Monitoring what happens and where is key to improving earthquake readiness and response. With the GeoNet monitoring network, Crown Research Institute GNS Science is seismically aware, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Visionary ‘2020 Science’ strategy to help New Zealand prosper
Agriculture is still the backbone of New Zealand’s wealth – and will remain so says Crown Research Institute AgResearch. But New Zealand is no longer the world's lowest cost dairy producing country. Resources are limited and everyone else has been catching up fast. What are the opportunities – and risks? And can we extend our knowledge and technologies into non-pastoral areas?
NZ prepares for faster action against global disease
Pandemic? Biosecurity? Bioterrorism? Potential threats all. Since 9/11 and SARS the world has taken big steps in proactive surveillance. But like all nations, perhaps the biggest challenge NZ faces is to bring the barrage of facts together, into a single – relevant - information source. Crown Research Institute ESR reckons it’s cracked the problem.
New Science
Biting back against billion dollar blights
The enemy never rests. Clover root weevil, Argentine stem weevil, New Zealand grass grub and Californian Thistles collectively cost NZ pastoral farmers over a billion dollars a year. Now scientists are showing that the right pest controls not only reduce losses – they can actually make money. It’s a virtuous circle from science that’ll give the little blighters something to chew over.
Cleaning up New Zealand’s drinking groundwater
Groundwater provides more than 40 per cent of New Zealand's drinking water. That makes clean groundwater a major issue for almost two million Kiwis. A team including four Crown Research Institutes is investigating two areas of groundwater contamination – nitrates and viruses.
