KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Professor Abby Smith | 2024 NZMSS Award Recipient
Marine Science | Te Tari Pūtaio Taimoana
University of Otago | Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka
Abby Smith comes from New England in USA, where she grew up on the coast of Maine. Wading and poking around in tidepools sent her down a marine track early on. She majored in Biology and Geology (1982) at Colby College, Waterville, Maine, spending a semester at the Bermuda Biological Station, where she developed a great fondness for marine calcareous algae. She studied for a Master’s degree in “Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences” in the joint programme at Woods Hole and MIT (1984). While she was there she made friends with some kiwis, one of whom she married. Later, they moved to Hamilton New Zealand, where Abby completed her DPhil at Waikato in 1991, just in time to shift to Dunedin, as her husband had taken up a lectureship in Zoology at Otago. She lectured and researched in the Department of Marine Science at the University of Otago for 33 years, and retired in May 2025. Alongside her work at the University, she served on the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Oceans Policy and chaired the Otago Conservation Board for several years, as well as having been the Treasurer of the International Bryozoology Association for more than two decades. Active in the New Zealand Marine Sciences Society, she was also the inaugural council chair of the New Zealand Ocean Acidification Community. Though she is still busy and productive, she has never let her scientific career get in the way of her other hobbies: knitting, making jam, and enjoying cricket.
Shells Have Chemistry: Why skeletal composition is worth knowing about
Thursday 10 July
There are a variety of controls and influences on biomineralization in the marine environment. Phylogeny and evolution provide the blueprints, but the eventual result is affected by environment, ecology, growth, and development. Biomineralisation is common among invertebrates, who usually produce shells of calcium carbonate. CaCO3 is unusual among carbonates in having numerous polymorphs, at least two of which are commonly precipitated by organisms. Since the 1950s we have been able to distinguish two calcium carbonate minerals (aragonite and calcite), and determine the level of Mg substitution in calcite, using x-ray diffractometry. The result is that we are able to place shells, species and higher taxa into different parts of biomineral space. Unexpectedly, the most diverse and most well-studied invertebrate phylum, in terms of mineralogy, are the bryozoans. This minor phylum of fairly simple colonial invertebrates creates complex and beautiful skeletal structures ranging from all aragonite or all calcite to mixtures of the two and/or mixtures of calcite with Mg contents. Over 50 species of bryozoans are bimineral, displaying at least three different modes: mostly aragonite, mostly calcite, and bi-calcific. These organisms expend a great deal of their energy on calcification, and marine calcifiers are important as ecosystem engineers, sediment-formers, and agents of change in the carbon cycle. As human activity alters aspects of carbon-cycling, marine calcifiers and marine carbonates are responding with less production, altered production, altered composition, and/or changes in energy budgets. While decades of research have provided a considerable inventory of marine invertebrate skeletal carbonate composition, we are still unable to place these data in a wider context. Information gaps include calcification mechanisms in many phyla, structural features that make shells disproportionately strong, and the various controls and influences on calcification, mineralogy, and dissolution.
Thank you for the NZMSS Award, and for 35 years enjoying marine science in Aotearoa.
Dan Hikuroa
Associate Professor
Māori Studies
Waipapa Taumata Rau-University of Auckland
Dan Hikuroa (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngaati Whanaunga, Ngāti Mahuta, Pākehā) is a father, surfer, paddle-boarder, gardener, loves the taiao and is an Associate Professor in Māori Studies, Waipapa Taumata Rau-University of Auckland.
Dan is an established world expert on weaving indigenous knowledge and science to realise the dreams of the communities he works with. Dan has been spearheading alternative ways of undertaking development and assessing sustainability, including braiding indigenous knowledge and epistemologies with science and into policies, assessment frameworks and decision-support tools.
Dan is UNESCO New Zealand Commissioner for Culture, member of Pou Herenga, Māori Advisory to the Climate advises national and regional government, communities and philanthropic trusts and is a member of several significant international research teams. He is member of Ngā Ara Whetū, Te Pūtahi o Pūtaiao and Te Ao Mārama, Research Centres at Waipapa Taumata Rau -University of Auckland.
DISCUSSION PANEL
Wednesday 9 July
The panel will be made up of a facilatator and 3 panellists who work across the Education Sector.
They will be discussing Developments in Education.
Glenis Paul - panellist
Professional Practice Fellow
NZ Marine Studies Centre Whakatū | Nelson
Dept of Marine Science | University of Otago
Glenis has been teaching science in Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally for over 25 years.
She now delivers New Zealand Marine Studies Centre education programmes for Year 0 -13 ākonga across Te Tauihu o Te Waka-a-Māui. Glenis enjoys facilitating opportunities for people to make a connection with where they live, encourage their curiosity to ask questions, develop skills to critically analyse their world and be inspired to care for the whenua, rivers, estuaries, beaches and moana.
