Summer Student Scholarships

The scholarship is open to tertiary students who wish to conduct further research in the Styx Catchment during their summer break. The Styx Living Laboratory Trust, Lincoln University and the Shirley Papanui Community Board all contribute in differing ways to this scholarship.

The scholarship covers a ten week period and in 2007, Guinevere spent much of that time collecting and comparing invertebrate samples taken from a boxed drain, a restored section of the drain that is now an open waterway and the main Styx River.

The data and specimens collected could then be compared with samples collected prior to restoration work on the drain beginning.

Tentative results from Guinevere’s work found little change in the invertebrate community within the boxed drain, although changes in the proportions of snails, worms and chironomids were noted.

When compared with samples taken from the Styx River, it was found that in the River the sensitive invertebrates (mayflies, cased caddis and free-living caddis) were found predominantly on the gravel substrate, rather than where silt was present.

Guinevere made a presentation outlining results and conclusions reached as a result of her work to Scholarship partners later that year.