An ‘ordinary’ storm with extraordinary impacts: what made Wellington’s deluge so intense?

Wellington’s extreme deluge was caused by an unfortunate combination of weather factors. But a warming climate is upping the odds of more of these events in future.

Our work is exploring the role of these fish in carbon sequestration, part of a fantastic collaboration between @vicuniwgtn.bsky.social , University of Otago, and @aucklanduni.bsky.social, made possible with support from @marsdenfund.bsky.social

…and of course the scenery was stunning! NZ is a great place to live and work.

Nights were our primary focus, but we made the most of the daylight to sample other parts of the system for stable isotope work

New Zealand’s Fiords are a fantastic spot to study mesopelagic species! We just returned from a bucket list expedition on RV Polaris, and with buckets full of “lanternfish-adjacent” pearlsides.

We’re hiring (again)! 🌊🐟
Lecturer/Senior Lecturer (≈ US Assistant Prof) in marine biology/marine ecology @ Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington, NZ.
NZ lifestyle, fantastic temperate reefs, a marine lab by the sea, & great colleagues 🌊
Apply here 👉 tinyurl.com/366jnm5d

Our Changing World: The dance of the lanternfish Researchers are investigating whether tiny lanternfish play an outsized role in controlling fish life cycles and carbon storage in the ocean.

Listen to the latest media coverage of our research, on Radio New Zealand's 'Our Changing World' podcast

(available on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts)
www.rnz.co.nz/news/ourchan...

Do #kelp forests really matter for fish? Check out our new meta-analysis w/ Ale Pérez-Matus in Ecology showing 1) multistipe kelps do more than single stipe, 2) all kelps enhance juveniles, 3) kelps help small herbivores & big predators.

esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

School of Biological Sciences building, Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand)

Come join us at Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand! We are hiring a tenure-track marine biologist/ecologist (Lecturer/Senior Lecturer = US Assistant Professor). NZ lifestyle, a beautiful marine lab, and great colleagues! tinyurl.com/ymmdsjus Please share widely!

Gutted by NZ Government’s sweeping unilateral defunding of research excellence in New Zealand, announced today. Funding for humanities cut to 0, ‘blue skies’ discovery research reduced by half. Expert responses on deep cuts to @marsdenfund.bsky.social & catalyst fund covered on @smcnz.bsky.social

The team were fishing with a combination of IKMT, RMT, and MOCNESS—but I think most of the specimens pictured would have come out of the RMT.

Please add me!

I study fish movements!

Hi Chris - I'm not sure, but I think there was a suggestion that it could have been an early life stage of the fangtooth, Anoplogaster cornuta. The team also captured the adults of this species in the nets.

Critters from the deep sea never cease to amaze me! They really are "textbook exemplars" of adaptation. Lanternfish are, of course, the coolest--but other critters are neat too! 🧵(3/3)

"The Great Migration" voyage (TAN2412) was an amazing success by any metric. Big thanks to Voyage Leader Amandine Sabadal, fish experts Andrew Stewart and Mike Miller, and all the other wonderful participants and crew! 🧵 (2/3)

sampling stations where we collected myctophids

Niamh Smith, Alisha Gill

lanternfish (myctophids) from the voyage

"The Great Migration" voyage (TAN2412) has wrapped, and our team successfully sampled 1575 myctophids comprising 33 species from a latitudinal gradient spanning New Zealand to New Caledonia. A treasure trove for our future work! 🧵(1/3)

Its "D-Day" for the "The Great Migration" TAN2412 voyage of the RV Tangaroa, and our lab members Niamh Smith and Alisha Gill are aboard and geared up to catch lanternfish for the next 35 days! - super excited to follow their exploits!
@vicuniwgtn.bsky.social @marsdenfund.bsky.social

Why do sixbars spawn on baby-killing new moons? Parents may trade-off offspring survival for offspring sex determination, to maximise production of their grandchildren! (6/6)
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10....

This may be the first example of environmental sex determination driven by moonlight! Spawning patterns of sixbar adults closely resemble birthdates of males. Selection patterns suggest adults may spawn on new moons to make males, full moons to make females. Super cool! (5/6)

“What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger”. Most sixbars born on a new moon will die. But for survivors, their developmental plasticity shapes future traits that position new moon babies at the top of a dominance hierarchy. (4/6)

Sex differentiation is environmentally sensitive and determined early in ontogeny for many wrasses, including sixbars. Socially dominant juveniles are more likely to mature as males. Males can potentially mate with many females to increase their fitness. (3/6)

Why do sixbar wrasse spawn the most eggs at the new moon—a time that effectively kills more of their offspring? We suspect compensatory benefits later in life. We know offspring have developmental plasticity, and also that new moon birthdates benefit larval growth… (2/6)

Do fish use the moon to manipulate the sex of their offspring? See our latest paper in Proceedings of the Royal Society B! (1/6) royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Come join us at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand! We’ve just advertised for a tenure-track Conservation Biologist/Ecologist, more details here: tinyurl.com/4vb836yv Please share widely!

Latest article in Hakai Magazine, highlighting the importance of lanternfishes and other creatures of the mesopelagic. A fantastic synopsis by Moria Donovan: hakaimagazine.com/features/all...

Find out more here: tinyurl.com/utfba9em

We hope to solve mesopelagic mysteries in this new collaboration with Steve Swearer, Alice Della Penna, Steve Wing, Suzie Mills, and Shaun Killen. Made possible by @marsdenfund.bsky.social . Find out more here!  tinyurl.com/utfba9em and stay tuned for student opportunities!

We’re ‘shining a light on lanternfish’ thanks to a new grant from the Marsden Fund How might lanternfish contribute to the global carbon cycle?  How might they shape life histories, population dynamics, and productivity in coastal ecosystems? @marsdenfund.bsky.social

So proud of our most recent lab alumni—Jaye Barclay and Emma O’Malley, joining the honours board at our Coastal Ecology Lab, graduating with fantastic MSc theses, and moving onward and upward!