Research

Research is undertaken on a wide range of topics, including pest mammal species, other invasive species (plants and insects), urban ecology, coastal ecology, survival and genetic diversity of translocated species, bioacoustics, and biodiversity monitoring, including long-term population trends of threatened species (e.g. tuatara and native frogs).

The six main research themes for the Centre are:

1. biodiversity conservation & monitoring
2. pest mammals & biosecurity
3. urban ecology
4. ecological restoration (islands, coastal, wetland and forest ecosystems)
5. global change biology
6. ecosystem processes

Most research projects are interdisciplinary and integrate aspects from two or more of the above themes. Staff have teaching or research collaborations in place with many overseas universities.

In New Zealand, the Centre collaborates with Zealandia (formerly the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary Trust), Wellington and Auckland zoos, museums, Crown Research Institutes, iwi and a variety of multi-agency restoration projects.

External funding comes from multiple sources including government ministries, industry and philanthropic donations.

Ecology and Biodiversity Research Index lists all staff members and their research interests, and the Research Groups pages give more detailed information about current staff, students and projects. For a list of recent research activity see our 2019 publications.

Posters highlighting areas of research in biodiversity and restoration ecology:

• Wairarapa wetlands pdf627KB
• Coastal sand dunes pdf672KB
• Improved lures for mammalian pests pdf474KB
• Bioclimatic modelling to predict pest distributions pdf310KB