Our Changing World

Each year, five Prime Minister’s Science Prizes are awarded in the most prestigious New Zealand science awards. We explore the AgResearch science that got the top recognition this year and catch up with two of the other winners. Science Communication prizewinner Professor Jemma Geoghegan talks about the hundreds of interviews she’s done about viruses, and Future Scientist prizewinner Rena Misra explains her project exploring how a plant-fungus combination could have the potential to help clean up stormwater.

With its steep sides, forested slopes and heavy rainfall, Fiordland has interesting ecosystems both above and below the water. Below the surface of the inner fiords, a variety of sponges, corals, and other filter-feeding animals cling to the cliff-like reefs. Claire Concannon heads to Doubtful Sound with a research team who are habitat-mapping the fiords to better understand what’s there, and how things are changing over time. They are also investigating the resilience of its iconic black corals to local landslides and marine heatwaves.

Cooper’s orchid is New Zealand’s rarest and most elusive, with fewer than 250 plants left in the wild. It belongs to the group of potato orchids, which grow mostly underground as tubers – except for a brief period every few years when they push out a leafless stick with a few flowers. This largely subterranean lifestyle already presents a challenge, but saving this species is even harder because, like all orchids, the Cooper’s orchid can only produce seedlings with the help of the right soil fungus. After years of lab experiments to produce in vitro seedlings, botanists are now ready to boost dwindling wild populations.

Kākahi are a keystone species in lake and river ecosystems, keeping the water clean by filtering one litre of water every hour. These native mussels once blanketed lakebeds across Auckland – but recent surveys found an alarming decline and disappearance across many lakes. A team of scientists and divers have mounted a rescue mission for one of the last remaining kākahi populations, trying to keep the mussels safe from invasive fish through all the steps of their complicated – and fascinating – life cycle.

Human-induced climate change is impacting Earth’s global systems, including ice melt in Antarctica. What is the world doing to combat it? Signed in 2016, the Paris Agreement is the current global plan to tackle it. Countries pledge different emission reduction targets and then produce their workings and homework about how they are going about it. Where does New Zealand fit in? Are we doing our bit as a nation? And should we be bothering with individual actions or is that simply a bait-and-switch tactic by those who want to delay real change?

In February 2025, the world hit a new low for global sea ice extent. Arctic sea ice has been declining for several decades now, but Antarctic sea ice had been holding steady, until recently. With low summer sea ice extents for four years in a row, it appears that Earth’s warming has kicked Antarctic sea ice into a new regime. Claire Concannon speaks to scientists to understand what this means for Antarctica, what this means for us, and how they feel about it.

Penguins that return to the ice in the middle of winter to lay their eggs. Seals that use cracks in the ice to keep their pups safe. And fish that have antifreeze proteins to survive in the icy cold waters... Antarctic life is tough, and full of surprises. Scientists are keen to piece together the Antarctic food web puzzle to better understand the interconnections, and to enable smart conservation decisions.

What’s it like to live and work on the frozen ocean? A team of researchers is camping out on the sea ice to investigate the small critters that live on the bottom of the ice, and among the sloshy platelet ice layer just below it. From microalgae to krill, these tiny organisms hold up the big complex food web of Antarctica. Scientists are keen to understand these communities, and how they might shift as the sea ice cycle changes.

Step out on the sea ice just outside New Zealand’s Scott Base with researchers studying the physics of its annual cycle. Each year a massive patch of ocean around Antarctica freezes and then melts again come summer – Antarctica’s heartbeat. In winter, the ice effectively more than doubles the size of this already massive continent, and it plays a huge role in controlling our planet’s climate.

Welcome to Antarctica - a land of ice, extremes, and ambition. From historic expeditions to modern day science projects, Antarctic exploration is a unique, and dangerous, experience. We meet one researcher involved in an epic journey across the largest ice shelf in Antarctica, mapping a safe route through a crevassed landscape for others to follow. Plus, we learn about the different types of ice found in this vast, frozen landscape.

Using acoustic tags and a network of receivers attached to the seafloor, researchers are tracking the movements of sevengill sharks in Fiordland. They want to understand how these apex predators adjust to changing ocean temperatures, particularly during marine heat waves. Plus, an international collaboration involving a high-tech German research vessel is exploring New Zealand’s deep-sea realm.

People with ADHD often fidget more than those without. Why might this be? Does it help them focus? Or distract them further? An Auckland Bioengineering Institute researcher has teamed up with the Mātai Medical Institute in Gisborne to investigate this using advanced MRI techniques. And at Waikereru ecosanctuary, local birds are being enlisted in a trial to help speed up the regeneration of native bush.

The Eastern Whio Link project has been working to restore the whio or blue duck population in the rivers of the Waioeka Gorge. Sam Gibson, aka Sam the Trap Man, explains why he thinks the project has been so successful, and what he loves about these scrappy little ducks. Then, Professor Matthew Stott speaks to Claire Concannon about the complexities working on an active volcano in Antarctica, and what they hope to learn from the microbes they find there.

All around New Zealand, people are trying to make things just a little bit better for their communities. The 22 Environment Centres, or Hubs, found throughout the country aim to help with this. Claire Concannon visits the Tairāwhiti Environment Centre to learn about their three pou of waste minimisation, education, and biodiversity, and about the environmental projects they support. She also meets their close neighbours – Gizzy Kai Rescue – who are looking to balance the scales of local food waste and food scarcity.