1:00 pm, Monday, 14 August
Room BIG13, Ground Floor
Biochemistry Building
710 Cumberland St
Dr Michael Knapp,
Department of Anatomy
The past, present and future of New Zealand endemics bird species – how environmental change impacts New Zealand bird biodiversity
For a long time, Aotearoa New Zealand was considered a “Moa’s Ark”, an isolated landmass that has preserved a fauna and flora from the age of the dinosaurs. Over the last two decades, this view has shifted, with some authors suggesting that the archipelago is more a “flypaper of the Pacific”, attracting species from a diversity of Southern Hemisphere landmasses.
Not surprisingly, the New Zealand bird fauna is a prime example of such international exchange. My group studies the origin and evolution of the New Zealand bird fauna from a molecular to a species level. Our research shows that the New Zealand bird biodiversity has been strongly influenced by past environmental change and evaluates how future environmental change will affect species and ecosystems.
