Welcome to the wetlands…

…where the air is still and the forest is cloaked in a mysterious mist, inviting you in.

Stepping into a forest in the Catlins of New Zealand feels like entering another world. Trees encased in beards of moss are dinosaurs of a forgotten age, with ghosts of kokako amongst their branches.

Constant sounds of trickling, dripping water fill your ears, mosses, lichens and filmy ferns reign supreme.

The atmosphere aches with life. The abundant water providing an ideal home for soft bodies, vulnerable to dehydration, here the forest protects them. Clay banks of mosses speak of glowworms waiting for the night and the kill and crystal clear streams promise a summer of mayflies and stoneflies.

These stunning invertebrates and many others spend much of their lives in the clean streams of New Zealand. Their larvae hunt and gather amongst the stones and leaves that carpet these waterways and they are the first to go when things go wrong.

The EPT is a measure of water quality used across the globe, measuring the presence of Ephemeroptera (Mayflies), Plecoptera (Stoneflies) and Trichoptera (Caddisflies).

These groups act as indicator species because of their place in the lower levels of the food web and the way in which they feed. Chilling at the bottom of the food web they are filter feeders and detritovores, literally scraping the bottom to collect a meal of fungus, or building an intricate net to trap particles carried in the current, and even the predatory amongst them are only after small prey.These traits make them particularly susceptible to any impurities in the water as they will be collected and accumulated through food and water filtration, and small bodies struggle to process them.

The use of chemical indicators of water quality  are an essential component in measuring the health of a waterway. But measures of oxygen content, clarity and contaminants are measures of now, and the now in a waterway where the water is never the same is fleeting. The only way to really know a waterway is to ‘ask’ the things that live there, they can tell you if something was spilt or dumped, and whether there is no oxygen available at night, they will tell you the secrets of their home. Protection and preservation come first through knowing.

Wild places like the Catlins are worth taking care of.

Curious clifftop topiary shaped by the ruthless gardener that is the wind, blowing sand and salt to bite soft leaves. The greenery fights back, with tight walls of thorns and branches. Here is a place where the forest meets the sea, one of the few places left where the coastline hasn’t been taken over by cribs and batches, home to some of the wild places.

Harsh exteriors hides the microclimates that shelter the wildlife that brings the place to life. Home to Sealions and penguins, spoonbills and dolphins, and thousands of glistening bugs each with their place in the web.

Awesomeness of glowing in the dark

Ok so bioluminescence has been a bit done to death, but for me, and most people I think, glowing living animals never seem to loose their novelty.

While fireflies (not the song, but the insect) are the most well known ambasadors for bioluminescence, all kinds of creatures create their own light, in the bug world we can include worms and glow worms (not actually worms, but fungus gnats).

New Zealand is known for it’s glow worms (species: Arachnocampa luminosa) particularly in the north island at Waitomo caves – a huge tourist attraction,  and they are present in allsorts of caves, overhangs and shady forest banks across the country. They glow through waste processing and, to our current knowledge, excrete only light and water. And the glow attracts allsorts of flying critters to their beautiful traps = dinner. So its a bug eat bug life in the world of glowworms, but they arent the only ones…

New Zealand has a less known glow worm. These are the giant earthworm Octochaetus multiporus and they secrete bioluminescent slime – but i’m not sure why. Theyre also said to be one of the main foods of our giant Powelliphanta landsnails, and the image of a snail sucking up a giant glowing worm is rather fantastic, now I just have to find one.

I wont go too much into the chemistry of glowing as this woman covers the basic chemistry and the ocean dwelling glowers – and she has some great videos! so check it out.

And now a little fanciful thinking, to wrap a rather information heavy ramble…

You know those moments when the beauty of the world around you seems too great to be real, I had one of those on my trip to Cambodia last year.

We were in the southern region of Takaeo, near the coast, in the tidal region of a river travelling up to see the night sights. As we left the lights of town behind us I thought for a moment that the fluroescence on the boat’s hull was electrical, a second glance, and the memory that we weren’t that high tech, revealed thousands of green glowing algae. You could dip your hand in the water and pick up spots.

Then the light show started, in addition to the algae we came across great spindley trees full of fireflies, all flashing at their own pace, but eventually all in sync, against a background of violet skies cut with bolt lightning.

Its hard to describe the feeling, but it was one of awe at the wonders in this world, it made me feel small, and privelaged to be there.

awesomeness.