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There have been growing concerns that social distancing and stay-at-home mandates have exacerbated loneliness for older people. Empirical evidence about older people's experiences of loneliness and COVID-19 have quantified this phenomena without considering how older people themselves define and understand loneliness. This paper explores how older New Zealanders conceptualized and experienced loneliness under 'lockdown' stay-at-home measures. This multi-methods qualitative study combines data from letters (n = 870) and interviews (n = 44) collected from 914 people aged over 60 and living in Aotearoa, New Zealand during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted a reflexive thematic analysis to conceptualise this data. We identify three interconnected ways in which older people conceptualised and experienced loneliness: (1) feeling disconnected relating to lack of emotional closeness to another often resulting from being physically separated from others and not being able to touch; (2) feeling imprisoned relating to separation from preferred identities and activities and was frequently associated with boredom and frustration; and (3) feeling neglected which often related to feeling let down by generalised and idealised forms of support, such as one's neighbourhood and health care system. Older New Zealanders experienced lockdown loneliness in three interconnected ways rather than as a stable and homogenous experience. Māori, Pacific, Asian and New Zealand European older people often discussed loneliness in different ways; attesting to loneliness being a culturally-mediated concept shaped by expectations around desirable social interaction. We conclude the paper with implications for research and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many of the implications of climate change for Aotearoa (New Zealand) remain unclear. To identify so-far unseen or understudied threats and opportunities related to climate change we applied a horizon-scanning process. First, we collated 171 threats and opportunities across our diverse fields of research. We then scored each item for novelty and potential impact and finally reduced the list to ten threats and ten opportunities through a prioritisation process. Within the 20 items presented in this paper, we uncover a range of climate-related costs and benefits. Unexpected opportunities evolve from economic reorganisation and changes to perspectives. The threats we highlight include the overall failure to interconnect siloed policy responses, as well as those relating to extreme events and feedbacks, as well as pressures that undermine the coherence of society. A major theme of our work is that climate change effects in Aotearoa are likely to transgress the boundaries of research disciplines, industry sectors and policy systems, emphasising the importance of developing transdisciplinary methods and approaches. We use this insight to connect potential responses to climate change with Aotearoa's culture and geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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• Hazard zone methodology: The paper employs a hazard zone methodology, typically used for managing erosion risk to modern infrastructure, to assess and manage the risk to coastal archaeological heritage. • Coastal archaeological heritage at risk: Coastal archaeological heritage in Aotearoa/New Zealand is under threat from coastal erosion, with accelerated risk due to rising sea levels. • Projected sea-level rise impact: The study predicts that a relatively modest 20 cm of sea-level rise, expected by 2040, may put around 8 % (155) of coastal archaeological sites at risk, and a more significant 1 m of sea-level rise could threaten approximately 19 % (356) of sites. • Connection to indigenous communities: The coastal archaeological heritage is closely tied to Māori, the indigenous ancestral communities of Aotearoa/New Zealand. • Adaptive planning pathways: Scenarios are presented to assist stakeholders in assessing heritage risk, providing an opportunity for coastal managers to incorporate heritage considerations into adaptive planning pathways. Coastal archaeological heritage is in danger of being lost to coastal erosion, the risk of which is amplified by accelerating sea-level rise (SLR). In Aotearoa/New Zealand, coastal archaeological heritage is closely associated with indigenous ancestral communities, but our understanding of the spatiotemporal variability in coastal erosion risk for cultural heritage is limited. Coastal erosion hazard zones have typically been implemented to manage erosion risk to modern infrastructure at regional scales. In this study, we applied a hazard zone methodology in the context of coastal archaeological heritage for a selected region of Aotearoa (Te Tai Tokerau/Northland). Historical coastal change analyses reveal that most beaches in the region have been stable or slightly accretionary over the past ∼80 years, but a reversal of this trend is likely under the projected SLR, which is expressed in the coastal erosion hazard zones. Our analyses indicate that ∼8 % (155) of coastal archaeological sites in Te Tai Tokerau/Northland may be at risk of erosion with a relatively modest 20 cm of SLR, which is expected for the region by 2040, and ∼19 % (356) of sites are threatened by 1 m of SLR. Scenarios are presented that should assist a broad range of stakeholders to assess heritage risk and provide an opportunity for coastal managers to include heritage within adaptive planning pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is likely to have significant impacts on the forestry sector in New Zealand. However, an understanding of how forest growers are reducing their risks from climate change impacts is still in its infancy. This paper applies the protection motivation theory to identify socio-psychological factors influencing forest growers' adaptation to climate change. This study presents the survey results from 60 forest growers who have the combined responsibility for managing more than 70% of New Zealand's plantation forests. We investigated whether their perceived response efficacy, self-efficacy and their understanding of response costs are predictors of their protective or adaptive measures. Based on our survey, risk reduction and risk spreading are the two types of protective measure frequently reported by the respondents to deal with climate risks. Consistent with the protection motivation theory, our findings show that respondents who are more likely to implement protective or adaptive measures if they perceive the threat severity to be high have high self-efficacy and resource efficacy, and exhibit low maladaptive responses such as evading and postponing behaviours. Furthermore, our findings also suggest that there is a low self-efficacy belief with strong maladaptive behaviour among the respondents that negatively influence their motivation to implement adaptation measures. This result provides guidance to policy makers, researchers and forest companies on how to make climate change adaptation efforts effective by considering the forest growers motivation to adapt to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resilience theory has emerged as a holistic concept well suited to analyzing tourism systems and which promises important insights into the sustainability of tourism destinations in the face of accelerating global environmental change (GEC). This article presents empirical research into the social-ecological resilience of tour operators using the case study destination of the Otago Peninsula, Dunedin, New Zealand. It addresses the following research question: How do birdwatching tour operators build resilience to drivers of environmental change, including climatic drivers, into their operations? Qualitative interviews with providers of a specific nature tourism sector activity – birdwatching – were conducted with stakeholders including tour operators, conservation organizations, and local government members. The findings highlight current and possible future challenges to birdwatching tourism on the Otago Peninsula. The paper introduces a conceptual framework which highlights the tour operators' main coping strategies in response to key perceived social-ecological system (SES) drivers of change. Overall, tour operators perceived their main social-ecological resilience to be the diversity of the species of the Otago Peninsula, their business experience, and the strength of their local stakeholder network to respond to SES crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a critical sustainability challenge for alpine tourism and the ski industry. Climate change adaptation is characterised as identifying and taking advantage of new business opportunities plus reducing physical risks. For adaptation strategies to be sustainable they should consider the environment, economy and society. While several adaptive ski industry strategies have been identified, not all can fulfil these criteria; some adaptive strategies could be perceived as unsustainable, or maladaptive. This paper provides a qualitative, perceptual study of ski industry stakeholders in Queenstown, New Zealand, addressing perceptions of climate change adaptation by the core industry, wider industry actors, local community and tourists. It answers two research questions: What are perceived as the main climate change adaptation strategies for Queenstown's ski industry? How do ski industry stakeholders perceive current adaptation strategies in terms of sustainability? It finds snowmaking central to addressing both current weather variability and medium/long-term future climate change. Ski-field operators use snowmaking to ensure the industry's economic sustainability, to extend seasons even beyond traditional norms, but with little consideration for environmental or social sustainability. It finds some local people questioning snowmaking on ethical and environmental grounds, and skier acceptance of snowmaking connected to activity preference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An understanding of vulnerability is not only crucial for the survival of the exposed communities to extreme events, but also for their adaptation to climate change. Vulnerability affects community participation in hazard mitigation, influences emergency response and governs adaptive capacity for the changing environmental and hazards characteristics. However, despite increased awareness, assessments and understanding of the processes that produce vulnerability, disaster risks prevail. This raises questions on the effectiveness of vulnerability assessments and their applications for hazard mitigation and adaptation. The literature includes a range of vulnerability assessment methods, wherein frequently the selection of any particular method is governed by the research objectives. On the other hand, hazard mitigation plans and policies even though mention vulnerability, their implementation pays less attention to the variations in its nature and underlying causes. This paper explores possible reasons for such gaps by exploring a case study of the Hutt Valley, New Zealand. It brings out the limitations of different vulnerability assessment methods in representing the local vulnerability and challenges they bring in planning for the vulnerability reduction. It argues that vulnerability assessment based on any particular method, such as deprivation index, principle component analysis, composite vulnerability index with or without weight, may not reveal the actual vulnerability of a place, and therefore, a comprehensive vulnerability assessment is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In this paper we reflect on discussions with people of advanced age in Āotearoa New Zealand, and draw on theoretical frameworks of resilience and place in old age, to explore insights about the ways older people maintain quality of life and health. Twenty community-dwelling people of advanced age (85+) were recruited in 2015–16 from a large multidisciplinary longitudinal study of advanced age. These twenty participated in interviews about health in advanced age, impact of illnesses, interactions with clinicians, access to information, support for managing health, and perceptions of primary care, medications, and other forms of assistance. We use a positioning theory framework drawing on thematic and narrative analysis to understand the dynamic ways people in advanced age position themselves and the ways they age well through speech acts and storylines. People in advanced age saw themselves as challenged, rather than threatened, by adversities, and positioned themselves as able to draw on a lifetime of experience and resourcefulness and collaborations with supporters to deal with challenges. Key strategies include downplaying illness and resisting biomedical discourses of complexity, positioning embodied selves as having agency, and creative adaptation in the face of loss. People in advanced age exhibit resilience, maintaining wellbeing, autonomy and good physical and mental quality of life even while living with challenges such as functional decline and multi-morbidities. These findings have significance for supporters of older people, emphasising the need to move away from a narrow focus on problems to working together WITH people in advanced age to offer a more holistic approach that encourages and enhances adaptation and flexibility, rather than rigid and counterproductive coping patterns. Highlights • Older people position themselves as active co-managers in their support arrangements. • Framing problems as challenges not threats facilitates older people's resourcefulness. • People in old age adapt resiliently to health conditions as part of living and ageing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism will be highly impacted upon by climate change and adaptation and mitigation policies implemented by other agencies. This paper seeks to increase our understanding of the role tourism plays in relation to climate change policies and identifies gaps where specific tourism policy might be required to address climate change. Based on the case studies of Fiji and New Zealand, common areas of concern relating to climate change will be identified, existing policy settings discussed and challenges of the policy development process explored. Existing climate policies were found to cover tourism for many issues, either directly or indirectly, and tourism-specific policy needs relate mainly to a better integration with these policies, education and capacity building, business performance and marketing. The participatory process and the creation of a tourism-climate change policy network have proven successful in both case studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical analogies of environmental change and stress are a well-established method of examining vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. In our view historical analogies of social transformations can similarly illuminate what factors are conducive to transformation. In this paper we draw on the historical example of the environmental transformation of Aotearoa New Zealand from predominately woodlands into farmlands; a transformation which was inextricably linked with the social transformation of indigenous Māori society following European colonisation. The Aotearoa New Zealand case study illustrates how both incidental and purposeful transformations can be instigated by small groups of committed individuals working in formal or informal networks, but can also be imposed by outside experts who instituted widespread changes under notions of progress and improvement without local support or consent. Such transformations involved widespread changes to Indigenous governance regimes, agricultural systems, production and consumption patterns, lifestyles, values and worldviews, and inevitably involved both beneficial and negative outcomes for local peoples. We argue that thinking historically about transformational change provides an opportunity to assess the processes that shape both vulnerability and resilience, and the circumstances under which transformational change occurs, as well as the potential dangers of irreversible changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Resilience is a concept of growing interest in relation to older people and within the context of population ageing. In this paper we explore older people''s understandings and experiences of resilience, drawing on interviews and participant-led focus groups with 121 older people living in two case-study communities in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Close reading of extended conversations about what characterises resilience, such as positive attitude, counting blessings or keeping busy, reveal how all of these apparently internal or personal characteristics are deeply embedded in social and physical contexts. We argue that resilience should be seen as a contextualised process which can be both individual and environmental. Older people''s experiences highlight the need to consider the effectiveness of environmental community resources and social–political structures such as state-funded service availability, as well as the personal characteristics that are usually focused on when considering resilience in old age. We also argue that it is important to consider different aspects of resilience, so that a person or group might face constraints in one area, such as physical or economic wellbeing, but be strong in other areas such as social relationships or mobility. Resilience can mean acknowledging and incorporating ‘vulnerability’ and balancing wellbeing across a range of areas. Thus even those living with significant illness or hardship can be understood to be ageing well and indeed to be resilient. Far from using resilience as a narrow measure against which to succeed or fail, resilience is a useful concept framing how ageing well can incorporate multidimensional pathways including both vulnerability and flourishing. We must pay adequate attention to the broader physical and social contexts and scales that underpin – or undermine – individual resilience. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper describes the results of a design studio on climate change at Victoria University of Wellington (VUW), New Zealand, in 2007. It discusses the processes and outcomes of the studio and the subsequent testing of student work against a resilience model developed by Canadian ecologist CS Holling (1973, 1998; Walker et al, 2004) to create a framework for the design of resilient cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infrastructure systems and services (ISS) are vulnerable to changes in climate. This paper reports on a study of the impact of gradual climate changes on ISS in Hamilton City, New Zealand. This study is also the first of its kind to be applied to New Zealand ISS. In the future, the CLINZI project will extend to other areas of New Zealand. Using historical climate data and four climate change scenarios, we modelled the impact of climate change on aspects of water supply and quality, transport, energy demand, public health and air quality. Our analysis reveals that many of Hamilton City''s infrastructure systems demonstrated greater responsiveness to population changes than to gradual climate change. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Most molluscs possess shells, constructed from a vast array of microstructures and architectures. The fully formed shell is composed of calcite or aragonite. These CaCO3 crystals form complex biocomposites with proteins, which although typically less than 5% of total shell mass, play significant roles in determining shell microstructure. Despite much research effort, large knowledge gaps remain in how molluscs construct and maintain their shells, and how they produce such a great diversity of forms. Here we synthesize results on how shell shape, microstructure, composition and organic content vary among, and within, species in response to numerous biotic and abiotic factors. At the local level, temperature, food supply and predation cues significantly affect shell morphology, whilst salinity has a much stronger influence across latitudes. Moreover, we emphasize how advances in genomic technologies [e.g. restriction site‐associated DNA sequencing (RAD‐Seq) and epigenetics] allow detailed examinations of whether morphological changes result from phenotypic plasticity or genetic adaptation, or a combination of these. RAD‐Seq has already identified single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with temperature and aquaculture practices, whilst epigenetic processes have been shown significantly to modify shell construction to local conditions in, for example, Antarctica and New Zealand. We also synthesize results on the costs of shell construction and explore how these affect energetic trade‐offs in animal metabolism. The cellular costs are still debated, with CaCO3 precipitation estimates ranging from 1–2 J/mg to 17–55 J/mg depending on experimental and environmental conditions. However, organic components are more expensive (~29 J/mg) and recent data indicate transmembrane calcium ion transporters can involve considerable costs. This review emphasizes the role that molecular analyses have played in demonstrating multiple evolutionary origins of biomineralization genes. Although these are characterized by lineage‐specific proteins and unique combinations of co‐opted genes, a small set of protein domains have been identified as a conserved biomineralization tool box. We further highlight the use of sequence data sets in providing candidate genes for in situ localization and protein function studies. The former has elucidated gene expression modularity in mantle tissue, improving understanding of the diversity of shell morphology synthesis. RNA interference (RNAi) and clustered regularly interspersed short palindromic repeats ‐ CRISPR‐associated protein 9 (CRISPR‐Cas9) experiments have provided proof of concept for use in the functional investigation of mollusc gene sequences, showing for example that Pif (aragonite‐binding) protein plays a significant role in structured nacre crystal growth and that the Lsdia1 gene sets shell chirality in Lymnaea stagnalis. Much research has focused on the impacts of ocean acidification on molluscs. Initial studies were predominantly pessimistic for future molluscan biodiversity. However, more sophisticated experiments incorporating selective breeding and multiple generations are identifying subtle effects and that variability within mollusc genomes has potential for adaption to future conditions. Furthermore, we highlight recent historical studies based on museum collections that demonstrate a greater resilience of molluscs to climate change compared with experimental data. The future of mollusc research lies not solely with ecological investigations into biodiversity, and this review synthesizes knowledge across disciplines to understand biomineralization. It spans research ranging from evolution and development, through predictions of biodiversity prospects and future‐proofing of aquaculture to identifying new biomimetic opportunities and societal benefits from recycling shell products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum L.) is an important legume in dryland hill pastures in New Zealand. In this environment plants adapt to low temperatures (<10°C) through a series of physiological mechanisms, such as the foliar biosynthesis of pigments, to protect vulnerable tissues. The biosynthesis of anthocyanins is one of the most important physiological responses for cold acclimation in plants. In this study we investigated anthocyanin concentration by accessing leaf reddening in 14 cultivars from three subspecies (yanninicum, brachycalycinum or subterraneum) during winter growth. The effect of anthocyanin production on spring herbage productivity was further quantified in the field and in the glasshouse. Leaf concentration of anthocyanins increased 10-fold as a consequence of cold exposure (mean daily air temperature was below ∼7°C) in red leaves compared with green leaves. There were large cultivar differences with yanninicum ssp. cultivars having the highest leaf reddening at >60%. Lowest values were observed in 'Antas' (brachycalycinum ssp.) and 'Denmark' (subterraneum spp.) at <20% of leaf reddening. Australian subterraneum ssp. cultivars had 13% higher leaf reddening values than Italian cultivars. Leaf reddening was a temporary, cold induced, anthocyanin response that did not affect subsequent subterranean clover plant growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussion in settler New Zealand concerning the Maori past has gone on for more than 150 years. To a large extent, archaeological approaches to this issue date only to the arrival of Jack Golson, a Cambridge-trained archaeologist, at the University of Auckland in 1954. He was joined shortly afterwards by Roger Green from Harvard. Debates between Golson and Green, bringing both European and American approaches to bear within a culture historical framework, have been influential. Their work and subsequent critiques are reviewed, along with an assessment of how New Zealand archaeologists currently interpret the archaeological record of change and development within Maori culture. When Europeans first encountered Maori culture they were surprised at how different it was from that of its presumed Polynesian ancestors. Speculation began with British explorer James Cook in the eighteenth century and has continued ever since. Debates on this issue among New Zealand archaeologists, discussed here, illustrate both the strengths of the archaeological scientific method and the difficulties experienced in trying to capture the changing nature of Maori history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The House that Jack Built by multi-award winning author-illustrator, Gavin Bishop, is one of New Zealand's most sophisticated picture books for children. Recently republished by Gecko Press in Te Reo Māori as well as English, it depicts the colonisation of New Zealand from 1798 to around 1845, and the beginning of the New Zealand Wars between Māori and Pākehā over land. Rather than simplistically depicting antitheses, the book emphasises mixed truths and a fusing of sides. This article considers the book's interweaving of diverse cultures through its multi-layered story, which conflates several narratives, including those that are global and local, exotic and indigenous and, finally, those that are oral, written and visual. It examines the book's deepest "truth," which lies in its interaction with other texts, and the fact that the multi-literate reader must engage in the book's playful intertextuality in order to access this larger "truth." Drawing on ethnographic studies of historical, cross-cultural encounters, the article also explores Bishop's appropriation and theatricalising of found texts, which he incorporates into his socio-political ideology, thus producing a work that forms an ironic counterbalance to more standard and sedimented versions of the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge about the impacts of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and aspects that influence recovery and adaptation are key to understanding how best to provide appropriate services. Whilst injury experiences have been documented, factors that help or hinder recovery and adaptation over time and across injury severities remain unclear. We present overarching findings addressing these matters in a large longitudinal qualitative study of recovery and adaptation following TBI. People experiencing TBI (n = 52) and their significant others (n = 37) were interviewed at 6-, 12- and 24-months post-injury. Data were thematically analysed cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Two overarching themes were captured in the analysis: making room for recovery and cultivating important resources. Themes comprise circumstances and processes that changed and developed over time in different ways for different participants. Key complexities within the overarching themes included the notion of "acceptance" and the role it played in allowing for recovery and adaptation; and the concept of "self" as a resource aiding recovery, but one that is perpetually at risk due to the intersection between the functional and social effects of the injury. Developing concepts of TBI recovery and living with TBI were central processes across diverse participants, but necessarily individualised in how they could be enacted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like many countries, New Zealand is grappling with how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while adapting to climate change. We are working through a Zero Carbon Bill and the implications of transitioning to a low-carbon economy. The country is being told it needs a more co-ordinated and effective way to prepare for climate change impacts, as local government is formulating adaptation and mitigation strategies in an uncertain and, as discussed below, at times confusing legal and policy framework. Potentially helpful is a concept evolving internationally, climatecompatible development. This promotes the idea of explicitly combining strategies and policies for emissions reductions and adaptation initiatives while enabling improvements in human wellbeing. This article explores the usefulness of such a concept for New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The New Zealand government recently announced an intention to make the country carbon neutral by 2050. Interest has been expressed in using the United Kingdom's Climate Change Act 2008 as a model to achieve this goal. However, more needs to be done to critically review the UK legislation's applicability to the New Zealand context. This article identifies some of the issues emerging from a ten-year review of the UK act. It is hoped that close consideration of these issues will inform New Zealand policy and legislative development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resilience embodies concepts of impact absorption and recovery, adaptation, and transformation. Clarity is needed when using the term as to whether these attributes are being pursued contemporaneously, sequentially, or at all. Land transport funding in New Zealand is examined from a climate change perspective and demonstrates policies and processes applying resilience in the sense of maintaining or improving current levels of service despite perturbations, with elements of medium term adaptation. While this interpretation helps manage immediate uncertainty, it may lock development into a low-resilience trajectory. However, this may change as the full meaning of resilience becomes apparent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Future changes in New Zealand's climate are expected to be less than in many other countries, and New Zealand has well-established governance structures for dealing with environmental risks. While this might imply that adaptation would be straightforward, extensive public and private investments, as well as many traditional Māori assets and cultural values, are in areas increasingly at risk of flooding and sea level rise. In order to consider the country's adaptive capacity in more detail, we have used an empirical research approach, working with government practitioners at three levels and with Māori communities. Very different perceptions of risk, and structural inertia in planning processes have emerged as key issues for implementing adaptation responses. In particular, the use of static frameworks biases responses towards retrospective, rather than anticipatory analysis. Ongoing socioeconomic changes in New Zealand also raise the risk of structural effects caused by climate change impacts becoming unevenly distributed across society. Our analysis indicates that a national and regional strategic approach, centred on a dynamic view of climate risk, is necessary for effective decisions at the local government and community level. In addition, effective adaptation requires better identification of barriers and opportunities for addressing changing risk, together with more effective and continuous social engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptation to climate change has been reviewed in several developed nations, but in none where consideration of the effects of climate change is required by statute and devolved to local government. We examine the role of institutional arrangements, the players operating under them, the barriers and enablers for adaptation decision-making in the developed nation of New Zealand. We examine how the roles and responsibilities between national, regional and local governments influence the ability of local government to deliver long-term flexible responses to changing climate risk. We found that the disciplinary practices of law, engineering and planning, within legal frameworks, result in the use of static mechanisms which create inflexible responses to changing risk. Several enablers are identified that could create greater integration between the different scales of government, including better use of national policy instruments, shared professional experience, standardised information collection and risk assessment methods that address uncertainties. The framing of climate risk as dynamic and changing that differentiates activities over their lifetime, development of mechanisms to fund transitions towards transformational change, are identified as necessary conditions for delivering flexible responses over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge on the evolution of the New Zealand insect fauna is reviewed and outstanding questions are highlighted. The New Zealand insect fauna is a composite of old and recent lineages and many spectacular examples of evolutionary processes are evident, including species radiations, hybridisation and unusual adaptations. We discuss the origins and evolution of four prominent communities within the insect fauna: terrestrial lowland insects, alpine insects, aquatic insects and insect communities from offshore islands. Within each of these communities, significant lineages are discussed, and in particular the crucial adaptations that enable these lineages to thrive and diversify. Glacial history has had a dramatic impact on the New Zealand insects, and the effects on different lineages are discussed. The New Zealand insects are unique, yet many are threatened with extinction, and efforts to preserve the fauna are reviewed. Despite the accumulating knowledge, major gaps still exist and these are outlined, as are opportunities to address key questions. The review concludes with a synthesis and a discussion of how systematics, new technologies and integrative approaches have the promise to improve dramatically our understanding of New Zealand insect evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rouse, H.L, Blackett, P., Hume, T.M., Bell, R.G, Britton, R. and Dahm, J., 2013. Coastal Adaptation to Climate Change: a New Zealand story. The requirement for using a participatory approach to consider options for adapting to climate change is well documented, but there are some key challenges of engaging with communities, especially over the complexities of projected climate change impacts and possible adaptation options. Here we describe the development of a two-stage method aimed to overcome these challenges, and the testing of this method in a coastal community in Whitianga on the Coromandel Peninsula, North Island of New Zealand. First, at an Open Day we used projections of sea-level rise driven changes to coastal inundation, erosion and habitat change and mapped them on large aerial-photo maps to use as the basis for a participatory mapping exercise. The purpose of the Open Day was to elicit input on valued aspects of the Whitianga community that might be at threat from climate change. Second, at a follow-up Workshop we worked with the community to explore the potential for adaptation options to provide 'solutions' to these issues, exploring who the winners and losers would be for each option, and what would be required to enable the options to be actioned. The maps were a key tool in this engagement case-study, and we reflect on them in our discussion of their development and usefulness. Finally we summarise the lessons learned in this case study and describe four key inputs to successful community engagement: the right team, the right data, the right support, and the right resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Zealand's first primetime animated program, bro'Town, ran successfully for five seasons between 2004 and 2009. Described by its creators as a "modern-day non- PC satire," bro'Town focuses on five New Zealand teenagers of Samoan and Maori ethnicities growing up in Auckland. While the program was promoted as "The Simpsons of the South Pacific," its audience, critics, and politicians have celebrated it as a twenty-first- century New Zealand creative success story. This article explores the historical, cultural, and economic forces that have shaped bro'Town in the context of the debates on media globalization using the framework of hybridity as "the cultural logic of globalization" as well as the framework of global television formats. The authors suggest that bro'Town represents a complex case of television program adaptation and provides a unique case study to examine the multilayered nature of contemporary hybrid cultural forms moving beyond the simplistic local--global dyad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract.The alpine tree weta Hemidiena maori Pictet et Saussure (Orthoptera: Stenopelmatidae) is a large, flightless insect found above the treeline on many of the mountain ranges of the South Island of New Zealand. The population found on the Rock and Pillar Range, Central Otago has been identified as freezing tolerant with a haemolymph ice nucleating agent. The ability of H. maori to survive freezing is compared to the lowland weta Hemideina thoracica Walker and H. crassidens Blanchard, both of which are able to survive the formation of some ice in their bodies. Mortality is associated with time spent frozen in H. thoracica, and it is hypothesized that this species is killed when a critical proportion of its body water is frozen. All five subalpine and alpine populations of H. maori surveyed were found to be freezing tolerant. Comparison of temperatures of first nucleation and mean supercooling point of haemolymph droplets suggest that haemolymph ice nucleating activity varies between populations of H. maori. Hemideina maori collected from the Mt Cook region appear to lack a haemolymph ice nucleator. This population is nevertheless freezing tolerant, suggesting that the haemolymph ice nucleating agent described in H. maori is not essential for freezing tolerance. Hemideina crassidens and H. ricta Hutton, both of which are found in lowland habitats, also had high mean supercooling point and temperatures of first nucleation of haemolymph droplets, suggesting that these species also have a haemolymph ice nucleator. Comparison of ice nucleation characteristics of haemolymph and faecal material (representing gut contents) suggests that gut nucleators in H. maori may be at least as efficient as the haemolymph nucleator. It is concluded that freezing tolerance is probably not an adaptation to the alpine environment. This highlights the need for inter- and intraspecific comparative studies if physiological data are to be used to draw evolutionary conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]