The foraging zones used by two species of albatross, breeding at Campbell Island, were studied by dye‐marking breeding birds in 2 years in combination with ship‐board observations of bird distribution. New Zealand black‐browed albatross, Diomedea melanophrys impavida , were found mainly over the shelf waters of the Campbell Plateau and the south‐eastern South Island mainland, but were also found over oceanic waters to the sout...

Thyroxine, one of the iodinated hormones produced by vertebrate thyroids, has been reported to accelerate late larval development in several sea urchins (Chino et al. 1994) and in the crown‐of‐thorns starfish (Johnson & Cartwright 1996), but thyroxine effects on earlier portions of echinoderm development have not been reported. I investigated thyroxine effects on developmental rates during several periods spanning development...

Lighting of streams profoundly influences their ecology, particularly through primary production and thermal behaviour. We used paired canopy analysers, instruments with fish‐eye lens imaging, to measure sunlight exposure of streams in five regions of North Island, New Zealand. Reach‐averaged stream lighting, at both water and bank level, was strongly influenced by riparian vegetation type. Pasture streams had comparatively hi...

Using corn pollen as an analogue for fine particulate organic matter (FPOM), retention characteristics were measured for 13 reaches encompassing three different catchment land‐use classes (pasture, native forest, and exotic pine forest), and five pasture sites along the Mangaotama Stream, New Zealand. The retention coefficients (specific loss rate, m ‐1 ) of reaches having similar positions in the stream continuum did not diff...

Five bryozoan species were encountered in a 15‐day survey of freshwater habitats in New Zealand. Listed in order of decreasing frequency these were: Fredericella sultana, Plumatella repens, P. emarginata, Paludicella articulata , and one plumatellid species not previously described. Micro‐structural features of the floatoblast annulus separate the P. repens specimens into two distinct varieties, named here P. repens typica and...

The distribution of phytoplankton on both the east, in the region near the Subtropical Convergence (STC), and the west coast of South Island, New Zealand was investigated in winter and spring 1993. Water samples were analysed for the cell carbon biomass, species composition, and pigment characteristics. In both winter and spring, the overall biomass/standing stocks consistently were greatest in the STC, intermediate in the sub...

Identification of species within the do‐moic acid‐producing diatom genus Pseudo‐nitzschia is vital for biotoxin monitoring and decisions regarding shellfish harvesting, particularly when blooms are occurring. Several Pseudo‐nitzschia species produce high concentrations of domoic acid per cell, whereas others are non‐toxic, but all have similar morphologies using standard brightfield light microscopy. FITC‐conjugated lectins di...

The oreosomatid genus Neocyttus contains five valid species of which three are named: N acanthorhynchus Regan, 1908 (southern Indian Ocean), N. helgae (Holt and Byrne, 1908) (North Atlantic Ocean), and N. rhomboidalis Gilchrist, 1906 (circumglobal in Southern Ocean). These species are redescribed based on the types and new material. A fourth, from southern Australia and New Zealand, is described herein as N . psilorhynchus n....

Current methods for the analyses of enterococcal densities include the membrane filtration (MF) technique and the multiple tube fermentation technique for the most probable number (MPN). Both techniques are labour intensive, tedious, and require a minimum of 48–72 h before results can be obtained. The Enterolert ® system, designed to detect enterococci in water in 24 h, uses 4‐methylumbelliferyl‐ß‐D‐glucoside as a defined subs...

The submerged vegetation in Lakes Te Anau, Manapouri, Monowai, Hauroko, and Poteriteri from the South Island of New Zealand, was surveyed in 1993 using SCUBA methods to record a range of botanical parameters to the deepest extent of the vegetation. This is the first detailed account of the submerged vegetation in these lakes and the first description for Lake Poteriteri. The vegetation of these lakes is comprised predominantly...

Hydraulic design details are presented of the Silverstream eco‐hydraulics flume, which is a 12 m long by 75 cm wide tilting outdoor flume situated on the left bank of the Silverstream River, 30 km north of Christchurch, New Zealand. Results of testing, both mechanical and hydraulic, are presented and discussed. The mechanical adjustments required to accommodate the weight of water in the flume and thermal expansion and contrac...

In a novel association the turbellarian rhabdocoel Paravortex sp. was observed in a group of the scallop Pecten novaezelandiae . Flatworms were more frequently observed in gaping and dead scallops, although the average density of flatworms in infested scallops was low. Scallops which were non‐gaping contained very few flatworms. Flatworms occurred throughout the entire digestive system of the scallops with the majority found i...

Inferences about spatial variation in species richness and community composition are important both to ecological hypotheses about the structure and function of communities and to community‐level conservation and management. Few sampling programs for animal communities provide censuses, and usually some species in surveyed areas are not detected. Thus, counts of species detected underestimate the number of species present. We...

We developed a watershed index of biotic integrity that used whole watershed variables for metrics rather than site‐specific variables. We used the index to evaluate the biological health of 100 watersheds in the Sierra Nevada of California. The index scores, which were based on various measures of distribution and abundance of native fish and frogs, indicated that 7 of the watersheds were in excellent condition (high biotic h...