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NZ Herald
02-06-2025
- Climate
- NZ Herald
Winter weather: Warmer, wetter than average conditions for much of New Zealand
Kiwis should not bring out their warm coats yet, with forecasters predicting a warmer, but wetter, winter for much of New Zealand. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) forecaster Chris Brandolino said rain-bearing low-pressure systems
Scoop
07-05-2025
- Science
- Scoop
New Study Reveals Climate Change Is Already Impacting The Andes
Seven nations sharing world's longest mountain range already impacted by climate change. Climate change is already reshaping life and landscapes across the world's longest mountain range which extends the length of South America's western side, new research has found. Climate change isn't just a future threat for the Andes mountain region, but a present reality that is already occurring, found the study, published in the Communications Earth & Environment journal. An international team of six scientists from four different countries collaborated to compare predictions from climate models with real-world observations of the Andean climate, natural environment, industries and societies. "We examined evidence that climate change and its impacts are already occurring in the Andes, the world's longest mountain range, which crosses seven South American nations from Argentina and Chile in the south, through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia, to Venezuela in the north," says hydrologist Dr Ana Ochoa-Sánchez from Ecuador's University of Azuay. "What we found was that human-induced climate change is warming all of the Andes. Climate change is already occurring and noticeably impacting one of the world's iconic mountain regions. One of the most significant impacts is that climate change is likely causing less precipitation on the eastern side of the mountain range. "Mountain regions are predicted to be among the most sensitive and vulnerable to human-induced climate change, with changes causing a cascade of impacts across South America, says climate scientist Dr Dáithí Stone, at New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA). "Throughout the Andes the climate trends are causing rapid shrinking of glaciers and reduction in the accumulation of snow. This results in reduced water flowing down from the mountains and brings about changes in ecosystems. This in turn, in multiple countries, affects food production, industry, health, culture and societies." The research will improve understanding of future impacts, and the effectiveness of adaptation, says Dr Stone. "In order to understand how climate change might affect us in the future, we need to understand how it is already affecting us. As we implement more measures to adapt to climate change, future updates of this study will also be able to evaluate how effective those adaptation measures have been and how they might be made more effective." The extensive and diverse Andes, which runs from the Caribbean coast to its southern tip in Patagonia, means the study advocates for localised adaptation strategies, informed by scientific research and indigenous knowledge, says Dr Ana Ochoa-Sánchez. "The research also stresses the need for global climate policies to reduce emissions and increase adaptation to support vulnerable mountain regions, such as our iconic Andes. The findings highlight that climate change is not a distant threat but a current crisis already unfolding across one of the world's most celebrated mountain landscapes."
Time of India
30-04-2025
- Climate
- Time of India
New Zealand braces for wild weather; heavy rains, severe gale and snowfall warning issued
Many regions of New Zealand will face the vagaries of weather with heavy rainfall, severe gales and snow storm likely to hit the North as well as the South Islands. The country's biggest city, Auckland, will witness strong winds and authorities have cancelled ferry services in Wellington due to 10-metre high swells in the sea. #Pahalgam Terrorist Attack The groundwork before India mounts a strike at Pakistan India considers closing airspace to Pakistani carriers amid rising tensions Cold Start: India's answer to Pakistan's nuclear threats Parts of South Island including Christchurch will have mild to heavy snowfall. An orange rainfall warning has been issued for many areas on the island and some parts of Christchurch have been flooded. Canterbury is expected to receive up to 230mm of rain and snow, too, and the northern part of the city has seen some landslides. But no loss of life and property has been reported till now. 5 5 Next Stay Playback speed 1x Normal Back 0.25x 0.5x 1x Normal 1.5x 2x 5 5 / Skip Ads by Flight services to and from Wellington tonight (April 30) and tomorrow (May 1) will most probably be hit due to win speeds reaching up to 130km/h, according to the weather forecast agency MetService. The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research gave a slightly lower figure for the wind speed at 120km/h. Trees could be uprooted and powerlines damaged due to the gusts. Live Events Strong wind watch warning is in place for at least five hours from 7am to on May 1 in Auckland, Great Barrier Island, Coromandel Peninsula, and Waikato north of Hamilton. The forecast states that westerly winds may approach severe gale in exposed places and there is "a moderate chance of upgrading to a Warning". The South Island's eastern side could se the worst weather with MetService stating the storm 'could be a significant weather event, with large amounts of rainfall expected between today and Friday". The regions facing heavy rainfall could also face some localised flooding, landslips and poor driving conditions due to wet and slippery roads. Wairarapa's coasts will face strong winds for 15 hours staring 9am on May 1 while Wellington will have a longer time period of bad weather which will start at 3am and continue for the next 21 hours. Several other cities and regions like Marlborough Sounds, Horowhenua and Kāpiti Coast, inland areas of Wairarapa, the Tararua District, and Hawke's Bay south of Hastings will be under weather watch, stated MetService.
The Guardian
18-04-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
How a Sydney scientist became enamoured with the ‘Ferraris of the crustacean world' – and discovered a new shrimp species
When Prof Shane Ahyong was seven, his mum came home with a bag of prawns from the fish shop – but one of those things was not like the others. 'It just looked different,' said Ahyong. 'It looked a bit like an armoured lobster just without the big claws. I was amazed.' What had caught his eye at his home in Sydney was a mantis shrimp – a crustacean with some of the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom and that (when it's not dead in a bag of prawns) can strike prey so fast it can be akin to a bullet shooting from a gun. That chance encounter helped spark a career studying marine life – in particular, mantis shrimps and what he calls their 'superpowers' of incredible speed and vision. And Ahyong's latest discovery – a mantis shrimp so unusual it needed its own new genus – has now been named as one of the top 10 most remarkable discoveries of 2024 by the World Register of Marine Species in a list that includes a worm that mimics coral, a carnivorous sponge and a sea star that lives on sunken wood. The story of the newly discovered chimera mantis shrimp – Incertasquilla chimera – started in 2008 when Japanese scientists found a specimen while undertaking marine life surveys off the Ningaloo coast in Western Australia. They sent it to Ahyong – by now becoming a world authority on mantis shrimps – who was working at New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter 'As soon as I saw it I thought: it's definitely a new species – the form of the tail fan and the head – everything was unlike any species I had seen before,' said Ahyong, now the acting chief scientist at the Australian Museum in Sydney. Ahyong's Japanese scientific colleagues later found the same mantis shrimp living off Iheya Island in Japan. There are several families of the shrimps but Ahyong couldn't make this new find fit neatly into any of them – despite having discovered about 100 new species of mantis shrimp. 'It had features that you could find in three families – it flummoxed me bit. It looked like a mashup of three different families.' The new species is about 9cm long – considered small to medium for mantis shrimps – with 'gorgeous' stripes and fake eye-spots on its tail, both features to confuse would-be predators. Some mantis shrimp have blunt clubs as claws that they use to hammer through the shells of clams and snails. Others, like the chimera, have appendages with spines they can flick outwards – unfolding them and striking in as little as four one thousandths of a second, at a speed of up to 8 metres per second, as they spear fast moving prey like small fish. 'It unfolds the claw really quickly and it's slammed into their prey – it's like a flick knife. But the only way you can see it is with a super slow-motion camera,' said Ahyong. Sign up to Afternoon Update: Election 2025 Our Australian afternoon update breaks down the key election campaign stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Mantis shrimps also have some of the most complex eyes in the natural world. Each eye has binocular vision, meaning it can judge distances incredibly accurately, and each one can move independently of the other. They also see in a range of light spectra that humans can't see. A couple of years before the rogue mantis turned up in the bag of prawns, Ahyong's interest in marine invertebrates was sparked with a birthday present from an aunt – a copy of the 1970 book Australian Crustaceans in Colour. 'I was the kid that turned over every rock on the beach,' said Ahyong. By the age of 14, he had a mantis shrimp as a pet. He still has one in a tank an aquarium at home but he hasn't named it. His previous one lived for eight years and was called Lilly, after the wife of his mentor – the late Ray Manning, one of the curators at the Smithsonian Institution. 'I never tire of seeing them,' says Ahyong. 'Once they get used to you as a diver, they'll come and touch your hand. But then if prey comes it's back to work – no mercy. 'They've a reputation for being a bit brutish. But I think they're powerful with a great deal of grace and finesse. 'They're like the Ferrari of the crustacean world.'
