A brief history of botanical expeditions to Motu Maha Auckland Islands

Polynesians arrived at and lived on Motu Maha Auckland Islands in the 13th or 14th century, but it wasn’t until 1806 that the first European ship reached the archipelago. Since then, several botanists have visited Motu Maha as part of scientific expeditions, increasing our understanding of the flora. In her last blog of the series, Botany Curator Heidi Meudt and her collaborators Alex Fergus and Brian Rance outline some of these significant botanical expeditions and ask, how does the Strannik 2023 Auckland Island Expedition measure up?

1840: The international expeditions

Three independent, international expeditions arrived at Motu Maha Auckland Islands in 1840: the British, French and Americans (Miskelly & Taylor 2020). Although the French expedition made a large botanical collection (Cockayne 1904), the most important of these from a botanical point of view was the British Ross Expedition. The expedition naturalist and Kew botanist, Joseph Dalton Hooker, made the first detailed and thorough account of the flora there.

The collections Hooker made were all from the Port Ross area on the northeastern part of the main Auckland Island only, where the ships HMS Erebus and Terror anchored for three weeks, although some members also briefly visited Enderby Island (Ross 1847).

1880s to early 1900s: New Zealand botanists visit Motu Maha

A number of important New Zealand botanists visited Motu Maha Auckland Islands during this period, including John Buchanan (1883, aboard Stella), Thomas Kirk and Frederick Revans Chapman (1890, Hinemoa), and Leonard Cockayne (1903 & 1907, Hinemoa). Port Ross on the main Auckland Island was again the main area visited by these botanists, with some short visits to other smaller islands.

Cockayne’s two trips were notable for a number of reasons (Braund 2016). Cockayne was one of the first botanists to visit multiple islands in the archipelago over the course of his two trips, including the main Auckland, Enderby, Ewing, Rose, Adams, and Disappointment islands. For the 1903 trip, he was mainly at Port Ross, but on the 1907 trip, he and the rest of his team was based for ten days at Carnley Harbour, at the southern end of the main island.

On both trips, Cockayne not only surveyed, collected, and studied the plants he found, he also categorised and summarized the ecology and biogeography of Motu Maha Auckland Islands, and of the subantarctic islands as a whole. He also detailed the environmental impacts and damage of humans and naturalised mammals that he observed (Braund 2006; Cockayne 1904).

Finally, Cockayne participated in the first significant New Zealand expedition to Motu Maha Auckland Islands as part of a large scientific team for the 1907 subantarctic expedition, which was organised by the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, including botanists Bernard Aston, John Smaillie Tennant, Arthur Dorrien-Smith, Robert M. Laing, and Joseph Crosby-Smith (Godley 1979). A direct result of the expedition was the declaration of Adams Island as a reserve for the preservation of flora and fauna in 1910 (Yaldwyn 1975).

1940s–1960s: The Cape Expedition, DSIR and the Dominion Museum

Three Coastwatching stations were established in 1941 in the New Zealand subantarctic, as part of the Cape Expedition, the code name for subantarctic WWII Coastwatching activities. The two stations on main Auckland Island were No. 1 at Ranui Cove in the Port Ross area, and No. 2 at Tagua Cove in Carnley Harbour (No. 3 was at the head of Perseverance Harbour on Motu Ihupiko Campbell Island).

The Cape Expedition gave young, preeminent New Zealand naturalists unique and ample opportunities for field research and fundamentally increased our understanding of the biology of our Southern Ocean islands. Cape Expedition naturalists included Charles Fleming, Robert Falla and Graham Turbott, Robin L. Oliver and John Herman Sorensen. The latter two were mainly stationed at Motu Ihupiko Campbell Island but also conducted botanical surveys around stations 1 and 2 on main Auckland Island, compiling and updating species lists (including introduced species) and plant associations, and making collections (Hartley 2023). The extensive collections made by Cape Expedition coastwatchers generated additional research back on the mainland, with botanists like Victor  Zotov making good use of these for new publications such as Grasses of the subantarctic islands of the New Zealand region (Zotov 1965) while Amy Hodgson used these extensively for her Hepatics from the Subantarctic islands of New Zealand (Hodgson 1962).

The Department of Science and Industrial Research (DSIR) expedition to Motu Maha Auckland Islands led by Robert Falla in November 1954 included DSIR botanists John Hair and Neville Moar. Moar’s focus was on peat stratigraphy and peat vegetation for understanding the vegetation history of the island but was complemented with further botanical collections and a short publication Notes on the Botany of the Auckland Islands (Moar 1958a, 1958b). Rowley Taylor was also on the 1954 expedition and focused on human impacts on vegetation, primarily via animal introductions, on Enderby and Rose Islands in Ross Harbour, observations made in 1954 were expanded with field research in 1966 (Taylor 1971).

Botanists Eric Godley, Fulton Fisher, and Peter James were also based at Port Ross during a 1962-63 (22 December–21 January) expedition, and attempted to refine the list of plants, make collections of live plants and generate a general vegetation map for Motu Maha Auckland Islands (Yaldwyn 1975; Godley 1965, 1969 & 1985). This team planned to walk, botanise and camp the length of main Auckland Island from north to south in high elevation areas that had so far not been well documented botanically. Although Godley’s diary entries show that bad weather scuppered these plans to a large extent (Godley 1985), they nevertheless spent nine days in alpine areas around Bivouac Hill and Mt Eden – mostly lamenting the terrible weather in their tents – but also making some collections and observations, whenever possible.

Eric Godley returned to Motu Maha Auckland Islands in 1966 as part of a joint expedition organised by the Dominion Museum (now Te Papa) and his employer, DSIR (now Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research). This time he led the team who camped at pest-free Adams Island for three weeks, where he made several important observations and collections; former Te Papa director Robert Falla lead the other team based at Port Ross (Miskelly & Taylor 2020).

Godley used his two expeditions to compile his Additions and corrections to the flora of the Auckland and Campbell Islands (Godley 1969). The 1966 expedition included Peter Johns and Brian Fineran who were both focused on non-vascular plants, lichens and fungi, and collating additional records for Motu Maha Auckland Islands (Fineran 1971).

1970s–1990s: The most complete flora of Motu Maha Auckland Islands, including the introduced and overlooked

The Auckland Islands Expedition 1972–73 was the largest and most significant expedition to the island group, comprising three back to back expeditions rolled into one, and lasting 99 days in its entirety (Yaldwyn 1975). The aim of the expedition was to establish baselines for the status and distribution of species and the general ecology of the islands as a basis for future research and management in view of the growing interest in the areas of tourism, mineral prospecting, and fisheries.

Among the 37 personnel, which included our own Rodney Russ on his first subantarctic trip, were John Campbell, Mike Rudge, and Chris Challies who focused on the impacts of goats and pigs; the American botanists Henry Imshaug, Dale Vitt, and Ralph Common who collected lichens, mosses and liverworts, respectively; Peter Johnson was a ring-in for Bruce Hamlin, collecting algae and bryophytes for the National Museum (now Te Papa) and vascular plants for Otago University. These botanists spent much time around Ross Harbour but were also able to access high elevation habitats on a number of occasions during their five weeks on Auckland and Adams Islands, making extensive collections of several groups of plants that are often overlooked (Galloway 2008, Imshaug 1973, Vitt 1979). Their observations and collections – housed at different international institutions including Te Papa* – contributed to The moss flora of Auckland Islands (Vitt 1979).

Meanwhile DSIR scientists John Campbell and Mike Rudge, published on the impacts of goats on the island’s vegetation (Rudge & Campbell 1977, and made a case for controlling the tree daisy, Macrolearia lyalli (Campbell & Rudge 1976) in the Port Ross area. Campbell also co-compiled with Peter Johnson what remains the most complete and up to date flora of the island, the excellent and detailed Vascular plants of the Auckland Islands (Johnson & Campbell 1975).

Many small expeditions visited the Auckland Islands throughout the remainder of the 1970’s and 1980’s. Colin Meurk visited as part of a March 1980 expedition, which lead to his Supplementary notes on plant distributions of the subantarctic Auckland Islands (Meurk 1982), as well as on the 1985 Southern Islands Expedition, and in December 1980 Margaret Wassilieff made collections during a short stay on the island. In February 1982, an ecological expedition included Bill Lee, Paul Kennedy and Andrew Penniket. During their month-long stay  in the Port Ross area, Lee and Kennedy remeasured the Macrolearia lyallii transects established by Campbell and Rudge in 1972, as well as establishing permanent paired exclosure/open plots in Sealers Cove and Terror Cove to assess the impacts of goats and pigs (Lee & Kennedy 1986). Simultaneously, Andrew Penniket established exclosure plots on Enderby Island to assess the effect of cattle and rabbits on the vegetation (Penniket et al. 1986).

Campbell and Rudge were back on Auckland Island in April 1983 and remeasured a subset of their goat transects and published on the impact of pigs and goats on the vegetation over a 10-year monitoring period (Campbell & Rudge 1984). On the same expedition Martin Foggo collected fungal specimens (Penniket et al. 1986).

In 1987, the Department of Conservation (DOC) was formed and took over the management of New Zealand’s subantarctic islands. Their focus has primarily been on the removal of pest animals from main Auckland Island, and surrounding smaller islands.

Matt McGlone led the 1994 Landcare Research Auckland Island Expedition, working alongside Janet Wilmshurst. This pair of paleoecologists were following up Neville Moar’s work from the 1950’s, examining peat sections and collecting peat cores around Port Ross and the Hooker Hills. Their research led to multiple publications increasing our understanding of vegetation history on Motu Maha Auckland Islands and throughout the subantarctic (McGlone & Moar 1997, McGlone et al. 2000, McGlone 2002). On the same expedition John Hunt and Marilyn Ball worked on rātā ecophysiology and the role of flower colour in relation to solar heating in gentians.  A month-long expedition to Campbell Island in 1995 by Colin Meurk, Vivienne Nicholls and Geoff Walls, included two visits but limited time on Motu Maha Auckland Islands. Notably, these brief visits allowed Geoff to collect and identify the origins of the introduced harakeke (Walls 1998).

While DOC’s management of native species has concentrated mostly on rare animals, particularly albatross and sealions, it has included establishment of vegetation recovery monitoring and plant surveys on Enderby Island and also surveys of the islands of the outer Port Ross area. Most of this is unpublished with only internal expedition reports and species lists completed, with the exception of a published field guide to the native plants of the New Zealand subantarctic Islands by legendary southern botanists Brian Rance, Chris Rance and John Barkla (Rance et al. 2015).

2023: The Strannik expedition

We can compare our 2023 expedition to these previous botanical expeditions in terms of trip length, island and habitat coverage, botanical specimens, and personnel.

Expedition length

Unlike Cape Expedition naturalists, some of whom spent one or more years on Motu Maha Auckland Islands, most expeditions have been limited to one or several weeks. Our four-week expedition (with three weeks physically on land doing field work) was similar to Godley’s four weeks on land in 1962, whereas other expeditions only had a few days.

Island and habitat coverage

Second, our coverage of most of the habitats on the main Auckland Island – especially above the treeline – was extensive and not dissimilar to the 1972 expedition (compare the maps from our expedition to theirs). However, our research focus was on angiosperms and ferns (including natives and naturalised plants), so we made very different collections and observations, and we were limited to nine defined research areas on main Auckland Island.

Most of the other botanical expeditions were limited to areas near their temporary camps on main Auckland Island, either at Port Ross or at Carnley Harbour, as they did not have access to a ship for most of the time they were on land (an exception was again the 1972 expedition aboard RV Acheron; Imshaug 1973). Because we could use Strannik as our base (and also go on self-sufficient multi-day backpacking trips), we had the flexibility to travel around and explore a number of different sites.

However, we did not have permission to land on or perform research on any of the other islands in the archipelago, so we were limited to certain parts of main Auckland Island only, unlike some of the previous botanical trips.

Botanical specimens

The following graphic shows just how many plant specimens (including ours) from Motu Maha Auckland Islands are currently in the three main herbaria in New Zealand (about 8300 total):

	Te Papa (WELT)	Auckland Museum (AK)	Allan Herbarium (CHR)
flowering plants	1154	403	728
ferns	171	96	290
liverworts	2993	19	188
mosses	651	221	221
lichens	12	36	103
algae	693	212	16
total plant specimens from Auckland Islands region	5674	987	1546

The Strannik 2023 expedition deposited 81 of our botanical specimens at Te Papa’s herbarium, and 164 at Allan Herbarium in Lincoln (most of which are still being processed so not yet included in the totals above). Most of our specimens are flowering plants and ferns, with a few liverworts too.

Because different expeditions had different objectives, and specimens (and duplicates) may be deposited at various international institutions, it is difficult to compare expeditions regarding number of specimens collected. But to give an idea, together the three institutions above hold c. 4,000 specimens from the 1972-73 expedition (most collected by Peter Johnson), c. 200 specimens from the 1890-91 expedition (collected by Kirk & Chapman), c. 300 from the 1907 expedition (by Cockayne and colleagues), and c. 750 the 1940s (by a number of WWII Coastwatchers).

Expedition team

Like Cockayne’s second trip in 1907, and Godley’s second trip in 1966, we had a large team of botanists taking part in our expedition, which a wide range of complementary skills and experience. We can also celebrate that 3 of 7 of the botanists (and 4 of 11 of the whole team) were women, who have been underrepresented on previous expeditions. Working together as part of such a diverse team allowed us to make the most of every day and was a big part of achieving the goals of our expedition.

The Strannik 2023 Auckland Island Expedition – it’s a wrap

Thousands of observations and photos, hundreds of plant specimens, 27 days, 20 recce plots, seven botanists, four crew, one ship, and one subantarctic island – these are some of the summary statistics for our Strannik 2023 Auckland Island Expedition. This is the eleventh and final blog in the series, but it’s not the end of the exhibition story. Our scientific results are currently being confirmed and written up, and will include new records for Auckland Island, and maybe even a new species! Stay tuned for an update later once these results are published.

I am incredibly grateful to Expedition leader Alex Fergus for inviting me to join the team. This was one of the most epic botanical field expeditions I have undertaken so far in my career, and I came away completely in awe of Motu Maha Auckland Islands.

I wrote this blog series to showcase the incredible beauty and distinctiveness of the flora, fauna, and history of the islands; the importance of continued botanical research there; the urgent need to rid the main island of devastating predators; and the joy, awe, and hard work of being part of a subantarctic research team. I am now a staunch advocate for the subantarctic islands, and I hope you are too!

Video of my last moments on Auckland Island, where you can almost feel the wind, waves and salt spray, and enjoy the movement of the kelp Durvillaea, with Strannik anchored nearby on 2 Feb 2023. iNaturalist observation and video by Heidi Meudt. Te Papa

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Dhahara Ranatunga (Auckland Museum) and Kate Boardman (Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research) for providing the specimen data cited above. And most of all, thanks to all the botanists who have contributed to our botanical knowledge of the Motu Maha Auckland Islands flora, including the Strannik 2023 Auckland Island Expedition team!

Footnote

*Te Papa holds nearly 4000 plant specimens from the Auckland Islands Expedition 1972–73 expedition alone, with the vast majority (c. 3400) liverworts and mosses collected by Peter Johnson. These specimens make up a whopping 70% of Te Papa’s 5674 botanical specimens collected from the Auckland Islands.

Further reading

• Leonard Cockayne (1904) and Johnson & Campbell (1975) each provide an excellent summary of subantarctic botanical expeditions up to 1904 and 1975, respectively.
• Karri Horton Hartley provides a useful update, up to 1960, in a recent PhD thesis (Hartley 2023).
• Miskelly and Taylor (2020) give a detailed timeline of scientific expeditions up to the present day, but with a focus on birds and ornithologists.
• Braund, James, 2016. Leonard Cockayne’s surveys of New Zealand’s offshore islands, 1901–1908. New Zealand Geographer, 72(3), pp.169–178.
• Campbell, D. J., and M. R. Rudge. 1976. A case for controlling the distribution of the tree daisy (Olearia lyallii) Hook. F. in its type locality, Auckland Islands. Proceedings (New Zealand Ecological Society). 23:109-115.
• Campbell, D. J., and M. R. Rudge. 1984. Vegetation changes induced over ten years by goats and pigs at Port Ross, Auckland Islands (Subantarctic). New Zealand Journal of Ecology (1984): 103-118.
• Chapman, F.R. 1891. The outlying islands south of New Zealand.
• Cockayne, Leonard 1904. A botanical excursion during midwinter to the southern islands of New Zealand. Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 36: 225–333.
• Fineran, B.A. 1971. A catalogue of bryophytes, lichens, and fungi collected on the Auckland Islands. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 1:3-4, 215-229.
• Galloway, D.J., 2008. Austral lichenology: 1690–2008. New Zealand Journal of Botany, 46(4), pp.433-521.
• Godley, E.J., 1965. Notes on the vegetation of the Auckland Islands. Proceedings New Zealand Ecological Society 12,(12): 57-63.
• Godley, E.J., 1969. Additions and corrections to the flora of the Auckland and Campbell Islands. New Zealand Journal of Botany, 7(4), pp.336-348.
• Godley, E.J., 1979. The 1907 expedition to the Auckland and Campbell Islands, and an unpublished report by BC Aston. Tuatara, 23, pp.133-157.
• Godley, E.J., 1985. A visit to the Auckland Islands in the summer of 1962–63. Tuatara, 28, pp.1-13.
• Hartley, K.H., 2023. Plants and people in the subantarctic: Weaving the narrative of human endeavour and botanical thought. Doctoral dissertation, University of Otago. [See Table 3-1 for a timeline summarising the major botanical voyages to subantarctic islands, 1840–1960.
• Hodgson, E.A. 1962. Hepatics from the Subantarctic Islands of New Zealand including “Cape Expedition” collections from the Auckland and Campbell Islands. Records of The Dominion Museum 4: 101-132.
• Imshaug, H.A. 1973. Auckland Islands expedition, 1972-1973. Antarctic Journal of the United States 8: 187-188.
• Johnson, P.N.  & D. J. Campbell. 1975. Vascular Plants of the Auckland Islands. New Zealand Journal of Botany, 13:4, 665-720.
• Kirk, Thomas. 1891. On the botany of the Antarctic islands. Report of the third meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science: 213-231. Wellington, Government Printer.
• Lee, W.G. and Kennedy, P.C. 1986. Botanical studies undertaken on the Auckland Islands, March 1982. in A. Penniket, A. Garrick, E. Breese (eds.) Preliminary reports of expeditions to the Auckland Islands Nature Reserve 1973-1984, Department of Lands and Survey 13:1973-1974.
• M.S. McGlone. 2002. The Late Quaternary peat, vegetation and climate history of the Southern Oceanic Islands of New Zealand. Quaternary Science Reviews 21 (4–6): 683-707.
• McGlone, M.S., Moar, N.T., 1997. Pollen–vegetation relationships on the subantarctic Auckland Islands, New Zealand. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 96, 317–338.
• McGlone, M.S., Wilmshurst, J.M., Wiser, S.K.  2000.  Late-glacial and Holocene vegetation and climate change on Auckland Island, subantarctic New Zealand.  The Holocene 10(6) 719-728.
• Meurk, C.D. 1982. Supplementary notes on plant distributions of the subantarctic Auckland Islands. New Zealand Journal of Botany 20, no. 4 (1982): 373-380.
• Miskelly, Colin M., and Rowley H. Taylor. 2020. Ornithological discovery, exploration, and research on the Auckland Islands, New Zealand subantarctic. Notornis 67(1): 11-58. Published in Miskelly, Colin, and Craig Symes (eds.). 2020. Lost Gold: Ornithology of the subantarctic Auckland Islands. 436 pp. Te Papa Press, Wellington.
• Moar, N.T. 1958a. Contributions to the quaternary history of the New Zealand Flora. 1. Auckland Island peat studies. New Zealand Journal of Science 1: 449-465.
• Moar, N.T. 1958b. Notes on the botany of the Auckland Islands. New Zealand Journal of Science 1: 466-479.
• Penniket, A., Garrick, A., & Breese, E. 1986. Preliminary reports of expeditions to the Auckland Islands Nature Reserve 1973-1984. Reserve Series, New Zealand Department of Lands and Survey, Wellington.
• Rance, C., Rance, B. and Barkla, J. 2015. New Zealand’s subantarctic islands. Field guide to the native plants of the Snares, Auckland, Campbell, Bounty and Antipodes Islands. Department of Conservation: Invercargill, New Zealand.
• Ross, James C. 1847. A voyage of discovery and research in the southern and Antarctic regions during the years 1839–1843. Vol. 1. London. John Murray. 366 pp. [For the chapter on Auckland Islands, go here.]
• Rudge, M. R., and D. J. Campbell. 1977. The history and present status of goats on the Auckland Islands (New Zealand subantarctic) in relation to vegetation changes induced by man. New Zealand Journal of Botany 15(2): 221-253.
• Taylor, R. H. 1971. Influence of man on vegetation and wildlife of Enderby and Rose Islands, Auckland Islands. New Zealand Journal of Botany 9: 225-268.
• Vitt, D.H., 1979. The moss flora of the Auckland Islands, New Zealand, with a consideration of habitats, origins, and adaptations. Canadian Journal of Botany, 57(20), pp.2226-2263.
• Walls, G. 1998. Vegetation monitoring in the subantarctic islands. Conservation Advisory Science Notes No. 174. Department of Conservation, Wellington.
• Yaldwyn, J.C. 1975. Preliminary results of the Auckland Islands expedition, 1972-1973: from reports of participants to the Director-General of Lands; editor, J. C. Yaldwyn. Department of Lands and Survey, Wellington.
• Zotov, V.D. 1965. Grasses of the Subantarctic Islands of the New Zealand Region. Records of the Dominion Museum, Wellington 5: 101–146.

Previous blogs in this series

• The fungi of Motu Maha Auckland Islands
• Insights, passion, and hope for the future of New Zealand’s subantarctic islands
• What’s it like to be on a subantarctic expedition?
• Sea lions, spiders, slugs and slime molds: Curious critters of Auckland Island
• Scientific collections and observations from the Strannik 2023 Auckland Island Expedition
• Plantago aucklandica is a megaherb!
• The megaherbs of Motu Maha Auckland Islands
• The 2023 Strannik Auckland Island Expedition: Our favourite places and plants
• Flora of Motu Maha Auckland Islands
• The 2023 Strannik Auckland Island Expedition: An extraordinary botanical voyage to the subantarctic