# Event Details - **Event Name**: Night Talk: Heteroblastic Plants - Irisa & Resilience of Seagrass - Logan Kallam. - **Event Start and End Date**: Mon, 20 Oct, 2025 at 08:00 am - **Event Description**: This month we will be hearing from two Waikato Botanical Society Scholarship winners! 2024 Scholarship winner, Irisa will talk to us about her Masters project on Heteorblastic plants: My master's research investigates the role of environmental influences, such as light, on the transition point of heteroblastic plants. Heteroblastic plants are plants that change significantly between the juvenile and adult states. The first plant that people often think about when considering heteroblasty is lancewood or Pseudopanax crassifolius, and the accompanying story that this plant evolved such a dramatic state change to avoid herbivory from moa. Despite being a very nice story, it's likely not the most applicable ecological explanation. For example, no one has quantified the actual height of transition, nor does this explanation acknowledge the over 100 species of other heteroblastic plants in NZ, many of which transition well below 3m (the theorised transition height of lancewood to avoid moa). For my research so far, I have completed a systematic quantitative literature review, where I read/categorised all the papers on the ecological significance of heteroblasty and generated data from these categories, such as the geographical distribution of papers. I found that heteroblasty is researched worldwide - not just in New Zealand; however, New Zealand has had a significant impact on the state of the heteroblastic literature, and many of these papers have a significant over-focusing on the moa hypothesis and Lancewood. As part of my research, I have been looking at herbarium records to quantify the degree of heteroblasty exhibited by our heteroblastic species. Early results from this suggest there is a convergence in terms of leaf form - with many species, such as Nestegis lanceolata, Knightia excelsa and Pseudopanax crassifolius, having a long and slim juvenile and transitioning to an elliptical shorter adult. Interestingly, for these species, there has not been a significant difference in the photosynthetic area of the leaf; these species also share a very interesting juvenile form with a single main stem and no branching. The convergence in terms of form and area over these species leads me to suspect that this heteroblastic adaptation is likely a strategy to alter the use of space in lower light environments (such as the understory); however, this needs to be supported with field studies that I hope to complete this summer! Irisa spoke to us last year about her project and is currently writing up her results.She is excited to share some very interesting things she has found. and she would like to tell us about these discoveries at our night talk talk on 20th October. She has just accepted a position with Doc on the tier 1 team as a botanist, and will likely be working in the backcountry so her talk may be streamed. 2025 Scholarship winner, Logan Kallam will talk to us about his PhD project on seagrass: The Title of the Logan's Research Project is 'The Ecological Resilience of Seagrass in Aotearoa, New Zealand Purpose of the Research Project: Seagrasses provide many ecosystem services to humankind. However, both domestically and internationally, they are declining in both extent and health due to increasing stressors in coastal environments. This project aims to explore the ecological resilience of Aotearoa New Zealand’s only seagrass species, Zostera muelleri, by examining drivers of patch dynamics, ecosystem function and seagrass adaptation across different spatial scales and habitats. Ecological resilience in seagrasses pertains to their ability to persist by adapting to disturbances and changing conditions while maintaining overall function. In general, the entire PhD project is focused on the Coromandel, Waikato, with additional intertidal investigations in the Whangamata estuary. This PhD project is also aligned with the Waikato Regional Council management and monitoring of seagrass to ensure conservation relevance. Community engagement following this project will allow for a greater awareness of this species and its importance. This will include providing the local iwi and community with the key findings from this study. The engagement will be aided by the pairing of this project with a University of Waikato based humanities PhD project studying the relationship between coastal communities and the ocean (marine literacy). The project will also be published as a scientific article and presented at a conference for dissemination to the scientific community. We look forward to learning about this interesting marine research project. See you there :) - **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/hamilton/night-talk-heteroblastic-plants-irisa-and-resilience-of-seagrass-logan-kallam/200029006035815 - **Event Categories**: art, literary-art, health-wellness, business, performances, theatre, entertainment, conferences - **Interested Audience**: - total_interested_count: 4 ## Ticket Details - **Ticket URL**: http://facebook.com/200029006035815?utm_source=AllEvents.in&utm_medium=event-discovery-platform&utm_campaign=hamilton-events ## Event venue details - **city**: Hamilton - **state**: WK - **country**: New Zealand - **location**: The Link - **lat**: -37.784233 - **long**: 175.2859198 - **full address**: The Link, Cnr Te Aroha St and River Road Hamilton,Hamilton, New Zealand ## Event Organizer details - **affiliate_id**: 2 - **organizer**: Waikato Botanical Society (https://allevents.in/org/waikato-botanical-society/26646659) ## Event gallery - **Alt text**: banner - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events9/banners/bf2b8d509e024de1522f7d56176d299460978b6b08f5b7c614dd9ea1c8c40f6e-rimg-w1200-h381-dc47492f-gmir?v=1760293627 - **Alt text**: thumbnail - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events9/banners/08e5f82defd57a233899f755aba6f80f8c0a102bfa9bdf43fe19f88a70f82033-rimg-w300-h300-dc48472e-gmir?v=1760293627 ## FAQs - **Q**: When is the event happening? - **A:** Mon, 20 Oct, 2025 at 08:00 am - **Q**: Where is the event happening? - **A:** The Link, Cnr Te Aroha St and River Road Hamilton,Hamilton, New Zealand - **Q**: Who is organizing the event? - **A:** Waikato Botanical Society - **Q**: What type of event is this? - **A:** art, literary-art, health-wellness, business, performances, theatre, entertainment, conferences - **Q**: Where can I find ticket details about Night Talk: Heteroblastic Plants - Irisa & Resilience of Seagrass - Logan Kallam. ? - **A:** You can find ticket details about this event on AllEvents. ## Structured Data (JSON-LD) ```json [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Event", "name": "Night Talk: Heteroblastic Plants - Irisa & Resilience of Seagrass - Logan Kallam.", "image": "https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events9/banners/bf2b8d509e024de1522f7d56176d299460978b6b08f5b7c614dd9ea1c8c40f6e-rimg-w1200-h381-dc47492f-gmir?v=1760293627", "startDate": "2025-10-20", "url": "https://allevents.in/hamilton/night-talk-heteroblastic-plants-irisa-and-resilience-of-seagrass-logan-kallam/200029006035815", "location": { "@type": "Place", "name": "The Link", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "Cnr Te Aroha St and River Road Hamilton,Hamilton, New Zealand", "addressLocality": "Hamilton", "addressRegion": "WK", "addressCountry": "NZ" }, "geo": { "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": "-37.784233", "longitude": "175.2859198" } }, "eventAttendanceMode": "https://schema.org/OfflineEventAttendanceMode", "description": "This month we will be hearing from two Waikato Botanical Society Scholarship winners!\n\n2024 Scholarship winner, Irisa will talk to us about her Masters project on Heteorblastic plants: \nMy master's research investigates the role of environmental influences, such as light, on the transition point of", "organizer": [ { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Waikato Botanical Society", "url": "https://allevents.in/org/waikato-botanical-society/26646659" } ] } ] ```