It's been great to read so many inspiring stories of women working in science in recognition of the recent 'International Day of Women and Girls in Science'.
Te Hoiere Project has many women - and men - doing fantastic work in the name of science.
One is India Hamill, Marlborough District Council Environmental Scientist – Freshwater Ecosystems.
India has been using some new technology in the field of Environmental DNA (eDNA) lately called a Grover pump. She tells us about it here:
Council uses eDNA to identify all the plants and animals that are living in our waterways. It works by passing water through filters which pick up any microscopic DNA that is floating down the water at the time of sampling.
Once the filters have been filled, they are sent to Wilderlabs who analyse the DNA and tell us what is living in the waterways. The eDNA information that we have collected so far can be found on the Wilderlabs website - www.wilderlab.co.nz/explore
Council is part of the test group to look at the efficiency of the Grover pump versus the traditional method of collecting eDNA.
We are using it at the mitigation monitoring sites established in the Te Hoiere catchment to look at the improvements on water biodiversity as a result of mitigation actions in the catchment.
At Council we also conduct the traditional method of eDNA collection, electric fishing and a macroinvertebrate sample at each of the sites to further analyse the effectiveness of the Grover pump to collect information about the animals living in our waterways.
Great mahi India - thanks for sharing. Keep up your great work for our freshwater ecosystems and for Te Hoiere Project.
