Lectures & Talks

Civil Defence Emergency Management

Last Thursday each month
31 July, 28 August, 25 September, 30 October, 27 November
6pm
APEC Room

Like most regions in volcanic New Zealand, Auckland is vulnerable to several possible disaster scenarios including eruptions. This workshop is an opportunity to hear how Civil Defence Emergency (CDEM) works in New Zealand. We want to ensure that we are as prepared as possible and also remind ourselves that we have an individual responsibility to be prepared as well. Includes an optional tour of the Volcanoes exhibition.

Bookings are essential. Book through Auckland City Council Emergency Management office - telephone (09) 307 7341.

Auckland Museum Institute Lectures

Conservation Week Event

RSNZ 2008 Charles Fleming Lecture
In association with the RSNZ

Science for Conservation
with Professor Mike Clout, Centre for Biodiversity and Biosecurity, University of Auckland

Wednesday, 10 September
7pm
Museum Auditorium
$10 ($5 Museum and RSNZ members)
Bookings on 306 7048 or bookings@aucklandmuseum.com
(please note that there is a $3 fee per transaction on all phone and email bookings)

Invasive alien species are now considered to be one of the most serious threats to natural ecosystems and native species worldwide, and in isolated archipelagos such as New Zealand, the threat is particularly serious.  Active conservation and direct intervention are urgently required.  This talk will use a series of examples to illustrate how ecological science can help with the practical business of conservation.

GEOLOGY

2008 Geological Society Hochstetter Lecture
Sponsored by the Geological Society of New Zealand

Learning from Lahars: New Insights from the March and September Flows at Ruapehu
with Dr Vern Manville, GNS Science (Wairakei Research Centre)

Tuesday, 16 September, 7.30pm
Museum Auditorium
Gold Coin Donation on Entry – no bookings taken

The Hochstetter Lecturer is chosen each year by the Geological Society of New Zealand and must present recently completed and largely unpublished findings. This year’s speaker, Dr Vern Manville has been with GNS for 12 years, arriving the week of the onset of the 1995 Ruapehu eruption.  He will speak about last years lahars at Ruapehu, which had been brewing for over 10 years giving scientists enough warning to install a huge array of monitoring instruments.  Findings are already informing improvements in systems for detecting and mitigating against future lahar hazards at Ruapehu, and overseas.

From the Tangaroa

Life on the seafloor

MARINE CONSERVATION

The New Zealand IPY-CAML voyage to the Ross Sea, Antarctica
with Dr Stuart Hanchet, NIWA, Nelson

Tuesday 23 September, 7pm
Museum Auditorium
$10 ($5 Museum members)
Bookings on 306 7048 or bookings@aucklandmuseum.com
(please note that there is a $3 fee per transaction on all phone and email bookings)

On 31 January 2008 New Zealand commenced one of the largest ever marine research voyages into the Ross Sea region in support of the International Polar Year Census of Antarctic Marine Life (IPY-CAML). The 50 day voyage on NIWA’s research vessel Tangaroa involved an extensive survey of marine organisms from viruses to blue whales in depths from the surface down to 3500 metre.  The NIWA research vessel, the Tangaroa, recently returned from an eight-week voyage to the Antarctic.  Twenty-three national and international scientists were part of the on-board team.  Samples of living organisms from the sea floor to the sea surface have been collected and images captured down to 4000m, including in areas previously unexplored.  This talk will give provide an opportunity to hear first-hand about the voyage and some of the preliminary findings.  It will be illustrated by still and video footage of images never screened before.

   An ancient NZ moth

BOTANY

2008 Lucy Cranwell Lecture
In association with the Auckland Botanical Society

The Origin of New Zealand’s Flora: How Much Do We Really Know?
with Dr George Gibbs, scientist and author

Wednesday 1 October, 7pm
Museum Auditorium
Gold Coin Donation on Entry – no bookings taken

As the distinguished historical biogeographer Gareth Nelson once wrote ‘explain New Zealand and the rest of the world falls into place’ (Nelson, 1975).  Despite the efforts directed towards this question, science is still far from a satisfactory answer.  The suggestion from some geologists that perhaps there was no emergent land here 23 million years ago has stimulated fresh interest in the question of origins.  Our plants tend to support the ‘drowning’ hypothesis, but many of our characteristic animals do not.  Is there a consensus in sight?

Members Research Trip to Otuataua Stonefields

Sunday 19 October
$10 per person
With Ewen Cameron, Museum Curator Botany & Bruce Hayward, Geologist
Phone 302 6249 to register and for more information.

Otuataua Stonefields Historic Reserve was created in 2001 and is managed by the Manukau City Council. Otuataua is an important archaeological site and educational resource where one can see clearly how people used to live and interact with their environment. Apart from signs of successive human habitation, visitors can also see examples of the native cucumber and the last remnants of Auckland's forests of titoki and kanuka. And it was Ewen Cameron who discovered the native cucumber (mawhai) there in 1991. The trip will also explore aspects of the volcanic history of the area as Otuataua Stonefields covers the lava flows from two of Auckland's volcanoes - Otuataua and Pukeiti. This will be a day-long field trip to the Otuataua Stonefields in Manukau, led by the authors of a book entitled “A Field Guide to Auckland”, which explores Auckland’s natural and historic heritage. Members are invited to bring their own lunch and binoculars for those who are keen bird watchers.