Conservation kōrero: Lake reflections – a human story

Travel through time to discover the environmental, social, and cultural histories of our lakes in Aotearoa New Zealand. Lakes380 is the biggest scientific study of New Zealand’s lakes in our history, it answers questions about a lake’s ‘medical history’, like what it used to look like and when it started to deteriorate, by weaving paleo-environmental reconstructions with mātauranga Māori. The programme endeavours to obtain the history of 10% of New Zealand’s lakes using sediments, which act as natural archives that continuously record environmental history. The reconstructions from Lakes380 will cover New Zealand’s entire history of human induced landscape change to identify processes that have altered lake health.

Doors open at 6pm, light refreshments included (during alert level 1).

Members go free, check your member e-newsletter (sent 30 September) for promo code.

Dr Andrew Rees is a Research Fellow in Paleoecology at Victoria University of Wellington, Te Herenga Waka. He uses biotic and abiotic proxies preserved in lake sediments to reconstruct past environments of sites located within the mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere.

This event will go ahead during alert level 2 following the Ministry of Health guidelines. There will be no refreshments and 2m distancing between seats.