An Auckland University scientist is studying what impact climate change will have on kauri trees.
Kauri are considered a taonga to many Maori and were an important resource for early Maori who burned kauri gum as an insecticide, used their resin to make ink for moko and felled trees to make giant waka.
Dr Cate Macinnis-Ngreceived a grant of $345,000 from the Marsden Fund to research the effects of climate change on kauri.
Dr Macinnis-Ng said it is unclear how vulnerable kauri are to the more frequent and severe droughts which are expected to be caused by climate change.
She plans to use special equipment to study how kauri conserve water in the dry summer months and develop models to see how they could survive worse droughts.
Dr Macinnis-Ng said she is keen to talk to iwi to make sure her work is carried out in a culturally sensitive way so she can find out more about the significance of kauri to Maori.
