Transforms - research profile by Julian Becker

Transform A proﬁle of Lincoln University’s research

New Zealand’s specialist land-based university

Welcome to Transform Lincoln University is 100% committed to transforming land, people and economies. The many research programmes we undertake, on campus and beyond, span our key disciplines, contributing thought-provoking insights and far-reaching beneďŹ ts not just for our teaching programmes but also for industry, the country and the wider academic and research communities.

It is a pleasure to introduce Lincoln University’s new research profile, Transform. This edition showcases recent research and scholarship produced by our staff and postgraduate students, highlighting just some of the innovative, creative and excellent achievements attained across a spectrum of disciplines and projects. Transform documents further evidence of Lincoln University’s commitment to transforming land, people and economies from the platform of a specialist, land-based University. Whether we are rethinking parasite control, acting as ecological DNA detectives, measuring and defining tourism yield, advising on the sustainability of residential and commercial buildings or counting the cost of climate change modelling, the goal is always the same – to deliver excellent research that can transform the way we think, work, live and play. Delivering this type of research is possible because of the University’s highly skilled, professional academic and research staff and their ability to secure significant research funding and to engage in partnerships that generate significant outputs for sectoral partners, such as the wine and dairy industries, while also making significant contributions to environmental management. To do so requires a healthy balance between discovery and application – another proud University tradition.

The research exemplars in this proﬁle cover a range of topics and span the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic, and many places in between. This reﬂects both the global relevance of the University’s research and the international connectedness of our researchers across our Faculties and Research Centres. Their rigorous and productive outputs – whether as publications in world-leading journals, book publications, contributions to national and international expert panels, award-winning designs and patents or locally supported extension activities – are also central to the education that Lincoln University provides – they inform our teaching and are often conducted alongside and with our postgraduate students, the future generation of research innovators.

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Introduction by the Vice-Chancellor

I believe Transform provides an excellent sampler of the distinctive, excellent and highly relevant research that Lincoln University consistently produces. I invite you to learn more about Lincoln University’s discoveries and many contributions. Vice-Chancellor Roger J. Field.

Professor Roger J. Field Vice-Chancellor

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Lincoln University New Zealand’s specialist land-based university In coming years, land will deﬁne how humans live with each other and how we co-exist with nature. It will shape many of our scientiﬁc breakthroughs. The ways our businesses work will revolve around land’s limits and its opportunities. Land is diverse, challenging and rewarding. It will form the basis for many of the most exciting careers in the future. And Lincoln University is New Zealand’s specialist land-based university.

Lincoln University was established in 1878 as a school of agriculture, associated with Canterbury University College, Christchurch. It became Canterbury Agricultural College, connected to the University of New Zealand, in 1896. On the reorganisation of the university structure in New Zealand in 1961, the institution became Lincoln College, a constituent college of the University of Canterbury. In 1990 Lincoln College was granted autonomous university status and became Lincoln University.

Impressive research credentials Lincoln University has continued to develop as a national and international research-led university with particular research strengths in agriculture and the agribiosciences. The University is also respected for its commerce, business and enterprise research as well as its environmental and social research. According to the 2007 New Zealand Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF) report, Lincoln University enjoyed the largest net percentage increase in funding and has one of the highest PBRF funding allocations per staff member.

Choose a specialist education

New Zealand Auckland North Island

Wellington

South Island

Through our specialist programmes and research-led teaching, we are 100% committed to transforming land, people and economies. If your strengths are in the sciences, social sciences and commerce, and you’re looking for qualiﬁcations that will really take you places, then choose this University.

Christchurch

Lincoln University Dunedin

Lincoln University is situated on the outskirts of Christchurch, the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand.

A great place to study Our picturesque and park-like 58-hectare campus provides a supportive, multi-cultural atmosphere. With a student population of approximately 4000, representing over 60 different countries, this is an easy place to make friends. The campus itself houses modern teaching facilities, a comprehensive library, information technology laboratories with 24-hour access, free car parking, eateries, a printery, a travel agency, a golf driving range, bank and sporting facilities. On-campus accommodation is home to approximately 600 students during the university year. Options include catered halls of residence, self-catered residential halls and student ﬂats. For those choosing to live away from campus, there are regular bus services.

Our courses include unique qualiﬁcations across many relevant study areas including agriculture and agribusiness; commerce; landscape architecture; viticulture and oenology; tourism management; parks, recreation and sport; environmental management and planning; society and design; software and IT; applied science; and the biosciences. As one of New Zealand’s eight universities (all publicly funded) our activities are regularly monitored and audited by New Zealand Government departments and related agencies, including the Ministry of Education. We are also a signatory to the New Zealand Government’s Code of Practice for the Pastoral Care of International Students.

Programmes of Study We offer theoretically strong and very practical university qualiﬁcations that are highly regarded nationally and internationally because of our close links to industry and the real world experiences we include in our teaching. Our staff to student ratio is low, so support is readily available.

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Foundation and History

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Contents

LINCOLN UNIVERSIT Y L ANDFORMS Text may be reproduced without permission, but acknowledgement of source is required. Photographic material may not be reproduced without permission in the ﬁrst instance. DISCL AIMER Every effort is made to ensure the information in this publication is correct at the time of printing, but the content may be subject to change. Lincoln University reserves the right to make changes, amendments or deletions should circumstances change. ENQUIRIES TO: Editor: Julia Innocente-Jones Marketing, Communications and Recruitment Group PO Box 94 Lincoln University Lincoln 7647 New Zealand Telephone: (64) (03) 325 2811 Fax: (64) (03) 325 3840 GRAPHICS & L AYOUT Dianne Calvert, Lincoln University PHOTOGRAPHIC CREDITS David Hollander, Lincoln University Dianne Calvert, Lincoln University www.istockphotos.com www.nsil.co.nz The Press John McCoombe PRINTER Kallamazoo Wyatt and Wilson (NZ) Limited

Transform is printed on Silk Matt which is manufactured under environmental management system ISO14001 using Elemental Chlorine Free pulp sourced from well-managed forests and other controlled sources. ISBN Number 978-0-86476-252-8

Research at Lincoln University

Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Introduction

Rethinking parasite control

A long way from anywhere

Staying ahead of the bunch

Legume mover and shaker

Insights into children’s disease

Precious gas, but no ice

Ecological dna detectives

The lifestyle of plant pathogens

How does nitrate get into our water?

Eco-n is a world ﬁrst

What’s the role of dust in forest ecosystems?

An alternative to 1080

Sustainability in the dairy industry

Dairy lameness

Farm to fork: food research at Lincoln University

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Faculty of Commerce

Introduction

LUCID research can clearly make its mark

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How much difference have the electricity reforms generated? Sustainability in residential and commercial buildings

Faculty of Environmental Management and Design

Agribusiness & Economics Research Unit

Bio-Protection Research Centre

Introduction

Reporting on New Zealand’s economic strategy issues

What makes insects sick?

Biochar

Introduction

Adapting to climate change in the arctic

Accelerating research

Ranking sectors in Canterbury

Smart seeds

The right to landscape

New ways of looking at tourism yield

Exploring consumer choices in theory and practice

The past as a key to the future In weed research

What does scientiﬁc research contribute to New Zealand society?

Changing how the world understands spores

Counting the cost of climate change modelling

Tracking how pests spread

Argos: The largest project of its type in the world

Functional biodiversity

Protecting our land-based industries and natural environment

The impact of environmental management systems

Urban biodiversity and design

The dynamics of new social spaces

Globalisation and agricultural landscapes

Fatigue in dairy farming

Public perceptions of New Zealand’s environment

Measuring the effect of organisational social capital

Sustainable landscape materials

When the well runs dry, we know the true value of water

Seeing through shadows

More climate and less oil

Setting a green benchmark for New Zealand buildings

Better performance, better recovery

The real impact of low impact logging

A champion of sustainable development

Gaining access to microcredit

Exploring the Avon-Heathcote estuary Ihutai

Implementing lean systems

Urban and rural transformation

Systems modelling with neural networks

Lincoln University Research Research policy and strategy are the responsibility of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Dr Chris Kirk. He works closely with the Faculty Deans and the Research Centre Directors to ensure that the academic staff and postgraduate students of Lincoln Univeristy are fully supported. Research and innovation are essential to Lincoln University. They enrich the learning environment for all our students and drive the creation of new knowledge. The unique contribution of Lincoln University to New Zealand is intimately linked to the quality and excitement of our research programmes. This Research ProďŹ le provides an insight into our world of discovery.

Research funding processes for Lincoln University involving major agency and other revenue sources are mediated by the Research and Commercialisation Ofﬁce, headed by Dr Peter John.

The small scale of the ofﬁce means that its operational focus is on direct interaction with people associated with carefully selected strategic funding opportunities, and the management of associated research contracts and intellectual property. More general interaction with University staff occurs in response to direct enquiries related to speciﬁc needs or questions around external and internal funding opportunities. The management of the Government-client relationship is managed by the Director Dr Peter John and the Manager, Research and Innovation Katrina Wilke. Dr John manages the relationship with FRST, having had a long association with that agency. He also leads relationships with key industry groups and individual companies and organisations. Ms Wilke manages the relationship with other key funding organisations and uses her experience of working at FRST to liaise with operational and sector managers at the Foundation.

Signiﬁcant FRST successes in 2009 and 2010 include –

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Funding, centres and collaborations

The office is responsible for leading large Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (FRST) applications, managing university Intellectual Property (IP), IP commercialisation and providing a high level interface with FRST, MORST, other universities, Crown Research Institutes (CRIs) and key industry clients. In addition, the office handles Lincoln University’s Performance Based Research Funding (PBRF) submissions to the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC). The office also provides hands-on assistance and advice to Lincoln University researchers and administrators on external funding application submissions and research contract preparation.

Pest Control for the 21st Century: Lincoln University will be funded $5,399,418 incl GST over six years to develop innovative alternative technologies for pest control in New Zealand.

Superior Dried Foods for Export: Funding of $1,050,000 incl GST over three years to research a new preservation method producing superior “ready to eat” dried food exports. Completing the Arsenal for Possum and TB Control: Lincoln University will be founded $4,590,000 incl GST over 5 years to complete the development of baits and delivery systems and improve uptake by end users. Four climate change projects totalling over $1.1 million incl GST: 1. Climate Change and Tourism, research to prepare the tourism sector for climate change, $616,914 incl GST over four years. Dr Peter John, Research and Commercialisation Ofﬁce Director.

2. Climate Change and Trade, researching the impact of climate change on New Zealand trade, $168,000 incl GST. 3. Biochar In Grazed Pasture Systems, a proposed technology to mitigate nitrous oxide emissions from grazed pasture and methane emissions from ruminants, $150,119 incl GST. 4. Signiﬁcance of Nitrous Oxide Fluxes in New Zealand Pasture Soils. $168,500 incl GST. Projects 2. and 3. are one-year contracts funded from the MAF Sustainable Land Management Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change Fund and managed through the FRST process.

In summary, external research funding secured in 2009 and 2010 included $11,656,332 incl GST in FRST contracts, $2,296,094 incl GST in FRST subcontracts from other organisations, $858,507 incl GST from Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) and MAF-Sustainable Farming Fund contracts. Major collaborations of which Lincoln University is a part include The Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) funded through the NZ Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre - in which Lincoln

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University is leading the Nitrous Oxide theme. This centre is designed to coordinate New Zealand’s internal and international research into greenhouse gas related science. Dr John is Deputy Chair of the Centre’s Steering Committee.

national issues in primary sector development and environmental management. Much of Lincoln University’s research activity is channelled through the University’s research centres. There are currently 10 centres. They are -

Lincoln University is also a member of the Canterbury Regional Innovation System, led by Canterbury Development Corporation, which links research organisations in the region to identify innovative opportunities for local industry. Lincoln University collaborates too with the University of Canterbury and the University of Otago through the TEC-funded ESI (Encouraging and Supporting Innovation) project which aims to grow the entrepreneurial capacity. The Waterways Centre for Freshwater Management is a TEC-funded collaboration between Canterbury and Lincoln universities. This centre is the focal point for improving knowledge-driven water resource management in New Zealand. Principal agencies and funding sources supporting research at Lincoln University include AGMARDT Beef and Lamb NZ DairyNZ MAF (including MAFSFF) Ministry of Science and Innovation (formerly FRST and MORST) Performance Based research Fund (PBRF) Royal Society of New Zealand Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) The New Zealand Government’s Tertiary Education Strategy 2010 – 2015, which sets

the political environment in which tertiary institutions operate, encourages universities to “foster and strengthen collaborative research”. The theme of “connections with industry” is a strong one in the document - “tertiary institutions need to work more closely with business to ensure that research meets the needs of the economy”, it says. As a “research led” university Lincoln has a long history of working closely with industry in its teaching and research activities. More than a century of close partnership between Lincoln University researchers and New Zealand’s land-based industries has given the University enviable credentials for providing leadership in addressing important

Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit (AERU): Founded over 40 years ago, the AERU is one of Lincoln University’s oldest research centres. Research themes include economics, resource, environmental and social issues. The AERU conducts research for clients. These clients typically include Government departments both within New Zealand and from other countries; international agencies; New Zealand companies and non-government organisations; individuals and farmers. Prominent international trade research by AERU has included the “food miles” reports focusing on carbon emissions. This work was headed by the Director of the unit, Professor Caroline Saunders. Bio-Protection Research Centre: This is a Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) funded by the Tertiary Education Commission. It is hosted by Lincoln University and comprises four partner institutions - Lincoln University, Massey University, and the Crown Research Institutes AgResearch and Plant and Food Research. The Centre’s research is organised into four interlinking themes – world-leading biosecurity; sustainable bioprotection; plant bioprotection systems biology; Maori bioprotection. The Centre incorporates one of the strongest bioprotection postgraduate training groups in the Southern Hemisphere. The Director is Professor Alison Stewart.

Centre for Advanced Computational Solutions This centre was established in 1999 to conduct research in computational and mathematical sciences relevant to environmental management, molecular biology, biophysical sciences and engineering (biotechnology). The centre fosters international collaborations for working towards answers to the research questions it formulates. The centre’s strengths include computational and mathematical modelling, artiﬁcial neural network applications, computational scholastic dynamics, fracture mechanics of biological materials, non-invasive imaging (dielectric tomography) and molecular systems biology. The Head is Professor Don Kulasiri. Centre for International Development: Associate Professor Sandra Martin is the Director of this centre, known as LUCI, and its focus is on the management of natural resources in developing and emerging economies, with the aim of reducing poverty and food insecurity through encouraging sustainable growth of rural economies. It conducts a range of consultancies and research in the ASEAN and Paciﬁc regions. Its funding sources are varied and include AYUSAID, government institutions and World Bank and ADB funding and The Ford Foundation. Isaac Centre for Nature Conservation: This centre, established in 1999, is the umbrella body for all nature conservation research at Lincoln University. The centre’s name is taken from the Isaac Wildlife Trust, established by the Canterbury quarry company, Isaac Construction. The Honorary Chair of the Centre’s board is Diana, Lady Isaac. The Director is Professor Ian Spellerberg.

Centre for Land, Environment and People: This centre fosters inter-disciplinary research among Lincoln University academics and external partners within seven research themes. The themes are: changing landscape; climate change, peak oil and society; environmental management and planning; global justice and environmental policy; human dimensions of ﬁsheries and aquaculture; leisure, activity and well-being; tourism, business and community. The Director is Associate Professor Susanne Becken.

Centre for Soil and Environmental Research: This centre provides scientific research to advance sustainable production and environmental protection for the benefit of New Zealand. The centre facilitates innovation and provides practical solutions to clients’ problems through multidisciplinary contract research programmes. It is well resourced with modern scientific equipment including the most advanced lysimeter laboratory facility in the Southern Hemisphere. The Head of the centre is Professor Keith Cameron.

Lincoln Ventures Limited: A wholly owned University research, development and consulting company. Founded in 1994, Lincoln Ventures Ltd employs scientists, technicians and support staff to carry out research on a range of real-world applications from groundwater modelling, moisture measurement, biosensors, image analysis applications to information tools for horticulture production systems or the measurement of consumer behaviour. Collaborations with industry are close and investment sources include the Foundation for Research Science and Technology. Lincoln Ventures is headed by Peter Barrowclough.

Seed Research Centre: Professor John Hampton is the Director and this centre has investments by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, Advance Seeds and South Paciﬁc Seeds. The centre was established in 2009 as a focus for research, training, product development and commercialisation. Canterbury is New Zealand’s major seed production region and the centre’s vision is to ensure excellence and relevance in seed science and technology research, product development and postgraduate studies. The centre exists within the Bio-Protection Research Centre.

Dr Peter John Research and Commercialisation ofﬁce

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Centre for Viticulture and Oenology: Established in 1998, this centre has ﬁve objectives, all linked to the New Zealand wine industry. The objectives are: increasing value to the New Zealand wine industry through improved understanding of the relationships between environment, viticultural practices and wine quality; providing the expertise required by New Zealand as a producer of high quality wine by training people with innovative vineyard management, winemaking and wine business skills; becoming an internationally recognised centre for research associated with Pinot noir; developing expertise in research on the social and cultural aspects of wine production and consumption; creating research synergies and enhancing research output through an interdisciplinary approach to viticulture and wine oriented research. The Director is Dr Roland Harrison.

Faculty of Agriculture & Life Sciences The Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences consists of 155 dedicated scientists, teachers, technicians, farm workers and administrators who all share a passion for transforming New Zealand’s land, economy and people. We work together to ensure that New Zealand’s agricultural industry continues to be the most efficient in the world, while at the same time protecting our unique and beautiful environment. All of our staff are committed to providing New Zealanders with high quality, first-class educational programs and to conducting relevant world-class research that will benefit New Zealand for many years to come.

The Faculty has formed close working relationships with external agencies, including DairyNZ, AgResearch, Ravensdown, Plant & Food Research and Landcare. One excellent example of our collaborative approach is our partnership with AgResearch in the new Centre for Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas Research. While AgResearch leads this key project to help reduce global warming, Lincoln University will host the Nitrous Oxide Sub-Centre, which is looking for ways to reduce the amount of nitrogen-based greenhouse gases produced by agricultural systems. A showcase project is the new Lincoln University Research Dairy Farm, developed by Professors Keith Cameron and Grant Edwards. Research being conducted on this farm aims to ensure the South Island dairy industry remains sustainable and is not degrading our environment. We celebrated the naming of Professor Derrick Moot as among the ‘10 movers and shakers of New Zealand agriculture’. Professor

Moot’s work in improving dryland pastoral productivity through the use of lucerne is widely acknowledged for helping to improve productivity in New Zealand’s agricultural industries.

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Introduction to the Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences

The Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences is committed to improving productivity in New Zealand’s agricultural industries while ensuring our pristine environment is protected. Our four departments - Agricultural Sciences, Ecology, Soil and Physical Sciences and Wine, Food and Molecular Biosciences - conduct research projects that are transforming our farms, hill country, forests, rivers and lakes. Staff within our Faculty are internationally recognised in areas as diverse as: stress effects on plants; environmental mitigation; animal health and welfare; dryland pastoral farming; grassland dairying; mammalian pest control; toxicology; rumen science; and climate change.

Of course, our Faculty also conducts studies on subjects not directly related to agriculture. Associate Professor Shaun Ogilvie and Professor Charles Eason, for example, are working on a project to control possums in our forests. These introduced pests consume millions of tonnes of our native forests each year and spread tuberculosis to farm animals. Associate Professor Ogilvie and Professor Eason are producing new humane poisons and new delivery methods to ensure rapid kills without harming other non-target species. Other projects involve soil scientists examining soil degradation in Antarctica and ecologists studying penguin populations on the ice.

The Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences conducts world class, highly relevant science intended to transform New Zealand’s land, people and economies. We supervise more than 102 PhD students and another 40 Honours and Masters students. Many of our research projects attract a range of international visitors.

Bruce McKenzie Dean Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Bruce McKenzie.

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Rethinking parasite control For farmers, it’s a conundrum wrapped in an enigma enfolded in a woollen blanket. Economics requires farmers to use anthelmintic drugs to control gastrointestinal nematode infections in sheep and cattle, but the intensive use of drenches has seen parasites develop resistance to the common treatments. New approaches to controlling them is therefore critical to the future sustainability of our landbased industries and the livelihood of those who work in them.

The conundrum facing farmers is to find a balance between the need to control worms and safeguarding both animal performance and welfare. The enigma involves achieving this while reducing selection pressure for resistance in worm populations. Now, a programme led by Dr Andrew Greer may result in farmers taking a very different approach to treatments in the future. Dr Greer says the research he is involved in has two key foci: targeting selective treatments to reduce anthelmintic drench usage; and reducing the negative effects of the host’s own immune response to parasites. Dr Greer says the intensive use of anthelmintics to control infections in grazing sheep and cattle threatens the sustainability of all grazing ruminant industries. His research into targeting treatments centres on much more selective use; where anthelmintic is administered only to sheep and cattle considered likely to benefit from treatment based on their ability to achieve desired levels of production. “Our studies with both dairy calves and lambs suggest we can reduce the number of treatments in growing animals by making sure any treatment is required and individualised,” says Dr Greer. “We’re hoping to change the way animal health regimes are administered, with greater focus given to the needs of individual animals, leading to more responsible use of chemicals in food production systems. Outcomes of this research could include reduced anthelmintic usage and maintenance of drug efficacy, which would lead to increased sustainability without compromising animal performance.”

maintenance of drug efﬁcacy, the research may increase the viability and sustainability of both industries without compromising animal or farm performance. Project: Mucosal tolerance in sheep, performance-based targeted selective treatments in livestock *NB, these are the combination of a number of projects that do not have these names exactly Researchers: Dr Andrew Greer, Robin McAnulty, Dr John Huntley, Dr Tom McNeilly Funders: MAFF Sustainable Farming Fund, Lincoln University Research Foundation

“Due to this, often, unnecessary cost we are attempting the reverse - desensitising animals to parasites to allow them to tolerate infection. Animals that are tolerant – that don’t recognise parasite antigens – seem to be able to withstand relatively large parasite burdens with little apparent detriment and still have good levels of production. We want to modify how the animals react to parasite challenge in order to increase both animal welfare and production.” With contributions from Drs John Huntley and Tom McNeilly of the Moredun Research Institute in Scotland, this research is providing some novel insights into the mechanisms involved in the immune response. Current studies show promise that desensitisation regimes can effectively reduce the impact of infection on the host. The direct economic beneﬁts of these research programmes may be large. At present, internal parasites cost sheep farmers $700 million a year in lost production and drench; about $60 million a year is spent on cattle drenches. Besides reduced anthelmintic use and

Right: Understanding how animals respond to parasites is critical to developing novel methods of control. Pictured above: Dr Greer preparing samples for immunological testing.

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The second aspect of Dr Greer’s studies has literally changed international thinking about developing strong immune responses to parasites. Conventionally, research has focused on ﬁnding ways of developing animal immunity to gastrointestinal parasites using genetic selection or vaccination. However, immunity usually comes at a cost -- most of the loss in performance an infected animal suffers is caused by the components produced by the animal’s own immune system as it reacts to the presence of worms.

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A long way from anywhere Asking what may appear to be a very basic question – “How do species end up where they are?” – has led researchers to a controversial answer.

A joint biological and geological project led by Dr Adrian Paterson questions evidence supporting the antiquity of terrestrial fauna and flora and asks whether New Zealand really is a Gondwanaland relict. The work, combining modern molecular techniques with biological records, ecological knowledge and geological evidence, provides new insights into the past and challenges some long held beliefs. “There are two things we know for certain about the geological history of New Zealand,” says Dr Paterson. “One, the land area that is now New Zealand was part of Gondwanaland until about 83 million years ago, and, two, New Zealand is isolated from other land masses by ocean. What we need to know is what happened in between.” Biologists working in the Chatham Islands noticed low numbers of endemic species there, compared to more than 90 percent in New Zealand. That led them to consider how old these landforms really are. “We have always accepted that after the separation from Gondwanaland New Zealand’s crust thinned and Zealandia, a land mass the size of India, slowly sank. Most of it is now about two kilometres under water,” he says. “We looked for, but couldn’t find, any evidence of dry land in the late Oligocene, which leads us to believe that most of the species in New Zealand today came here from somewhere else and did so over the past 20 million years. “This has been somewhat controversial because people are very fixed on the idea of New Zealand continuing to stock Gondwanan flora

and fauna. However, our findings do answer some questions. For example, we know there were snakes in Gondwanaland - why aren’t they with us now? The same goes for other species we know should be here, but aren’t. This drowning helps explain why not.” Dr Paterson argues that the option of Zealandia sinking must be considered because this contention is supported by almost all the molecular data. Whatever group of flora or fauna researchers studied, they found that their closest relatives, which are usually in Australia, can be shown to have arrived in this part of the world between five and 15 million years ago. If they had been part of Gondwanaland, they would have been here for 80 million years. Some people point to the moa as a flaw in the findings, however, Dr Paterson suggests the moa may not always have been large or flightless. Recent international research tends to support him. “Molecular studies, studying DNA, suggest a group of South American birds,

always considered related to kiwi and moa, is indeed part of the same taxon. That suggests these species have flown to these islands, grown bigger and lost the power of flight over time.” Dr Paterson says while his findings challenge some people, he welcomes the debate. “It’s not about being right or wrong, “ he says, “it’s about generating more research. We know there was a drowning, so really we are only quibbling about the percentage. Thinking about how things got here is the more interesting question.” The result he is most heartened by is the adoption of the term Zealandia, a name the researchers chose and now hear and see used widely. Project: New perspectives of the history and future of New Zealand biota Researchers: Dr Adrian Paterson, Dr Steve Trewick, Dr Hamish Campbell Funder: Marsden Fund, Royal Society of New Zealand

A combination of molecular biology and biochemistry is keeping New Zealand winegrowers at the forefront of a very demanding world market.

Professor Brian Jordan leads a team working very closely with the New Zealand wine industry primarily on the sauvignon blanc grape, the premium grape in terms of export value. “Since 2004, we have developed a signiﬁcant platform of molecular and biochemical research that provides a fundamental understanding for viticulturalists,” he says. “We have isolated genes (for the lipoxygenase pathway) that lead to the formation of aroma compounds. These genes are expressed differently during development, in different grape tissue and in response to wounding and pathogen infection.” The team has also been researching the light environment in the vineyard and how light changes the chemical composition of the grape.

+ UV-B showing pigmentation

-UV-B showing no pigmentation

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Staying ahead of the bunch

New Zealand produces high value premium quality wines, notably Sauvignon blanc and Pinot noir, and a research team based at Lincoln University is working to understand the characteristics of these grapes.

“We put screens into the vineyards to exclude various wavelengths of light including UV-B radiation,” he says. “The effects became obvious after a particular stage of the grape’s development called veraison and pigments called flavonoids started to form. These are protective to the plants, have antioxidant properties and have characteristics which influence the wine. From these studies, we can see that UV-B clearly has an effect on the production of these compounds, which are usually produced in the skins. This has proven to be a significant finding.” A second important finding from vineyard trials came through experimentation with foliage cover of the grape bunches.

Screens in the Lincoln vineyard to exclude various wavelengths of light.

“We removed leaves over the fruiting zone on some vines and left it on others,” he says. “We found amino acids, which are very important for a number of aspects of winemaking such as aroma formation, were being influenced by how much foliage was removed. This has implications for the wine industry, because growers now must find the balance between managing the leaf canopy for disease control and for optimum aroma production.” Another member of the team, Dr Chris Winefield, says the research could provide a vehicle for producing new genetics for the industry. “Our work is focused on understanding processes within grapes that can lead to commercial improvements within the viticulture and winemaking industry,” he says. “We work very closely with winegrowers and individual company representatives to identify important issues that need to be addressed. We have to provide innovation for the industry to keep its edge, but we don’t tell the industry what to do - we provide growers and

winemakers with information they can work their magic with.” He says the industry understands the value of research to maintain its position in an increasingly competitive market. “Ten years ago the export value of our wines was about $200,000. Today it’s more than $1 billion – and rising. This work offers our wine industry future growth and the opportunity to enter new markets. “New Zealand’s Sauvignon blanc is considered the international benchmark and everyone is trying to do what we do. We work to a very niche market, so we have to get it right.” Project: Do stressed vines produce good wine? Researchers: Professor Brian Jordan, Dr Chris Wineﬁeld, Dr Rainer Hofmann, Dr Mike Trought, Professor Jim Shinkle, Dr Jason Wargent Funder: Foundation for Research, Science & Technology, New Zealand Winegrowers, International Travel Fellowships, Lincoln University

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Legume mover and shaker There are farmers around New Zealand who consider one Lincoln University professor a saviour - for some, working with Derrick Moot has been the difference between staying on their land and walking away from it.

Professor Derrick Moot is a specialist in the need for, and use of, legumes in our pasture systems. He has been named a ’Mover and Shaker’ and a ’Legume Legend’, but he simply says it’s all about developing appropriate pasture combinations to pass on to dryland farmers. He describes his work as understanding the biology of plants and the specific management they require to be successful in a given environment, then developing that into best management practices. Professor Moot oversees a number of postgraduate students working on projects focused on ensuring the continued success of dryland farming in New Zealand. “New Zealand is a big farm and our competitive advantage is farming it well,” he says. “People come from all over the world to see how we do that. We have huge differences in soil, climate and geography over very short distances. In fact, the very things that bring tourists here add to the difficulty of farming. ” Dryland farmers on the east coast of New Zealand are exposed to inevitable annual rainfall variability. To sustain the profitability of their farming businesses, their pastures must be resilient, persistent and adapted to the extreme dry that can ravage the land. Repeated failures of the traditional ryegrass and white clover pastures, inevitable overgrazing, drought and a decline in the sustainability of rural communities have led to a downward spiral in these farming enterprises. A change in thinking and practice was required. Enter the lucerne grazing system. The science behind this system recognises nitrogen as the most limiting nutrient in all

pastures. Therefore legumes like lucerne, which fix their own nitrogen from the atmosphere, are vital in developing sustainable farm systems. Nitrogen directly affects the efficiency with which limited soil moisture is converted to pasture, particularly in dryland systems. Thus, the research has an overarching aim to enhance water and nitrogen use efficiency by identifying legumes that persist and perform in these environments. One farmer made the decision to try the system based on what he describes as a combination of frustration and desperation. Ten years on, the changes on his farm are undeniable. He now has a summer-safe farm and can have all his lambs grown out and sold before the region’s summer dry.

Another convert is a Marlborough farmer who has sown in the valleys and not in the highly erodible hill areas of the farm. It’s the driest, windiest and highest evapo-transpiration area in the country, but Professor Moot says the farmer is running a profitable dryland operation through using grazing management systems. The work done to date by this research team is credited with having a greater impact on farm profitability on the east coast farms which have adopted the technology than anything else in the past 25 years … and it’s not over yet. Lucerne does not work in all environments, so the researchers are moving on to find other legumes to develop and use in pasture systems.

Researchers: Professor Derrick Moot, Dr Alistair Black, Dr David Monks, Dr AnnaMaria Mills, Dr Hayley Ridgway, Dr Jim Moir, Dick Lucas, Malcolm Smith, Dr Keith Pollock, Richard Sim, Khumalo Qakathekile,Peter Jordan, Holena Nori, Nicole Morris Funders: Foundation for Research, Science & Technology, Pastoral 21, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Sustainable Farming Fund, Meat and Wool NZ Ltd. Commercial companies are supporting additional research and extension

Left: Ewes with lambs at foot and Friesian bulls enjoying a fresh break of lucerne at Bonaveree farm in Marlborough. Below: Professor Derrick Moot.

Insights into children’s disease Professor David Palmer is leading Lincoln University staff and students, and an international team of researchers, to better understand the genetic, biochemical and cell biology make up of the neurodegenerative disease known as Batten disease.

Batten disease is an inherited neurodegenerative disease that affects children, causing blindness, hallucinations and seizures, followed by premature death. There is no known cure. Professor David Palmer says the disease often takes several years to be accurately diagnosed. “It is inherited from two unaffected carrier parents who have no warning of the disease,” he says. “The search for remedies and therapies for this disease can be difﬁcult because many of the cases are chronic and not diagnosed until neurodegeneration is advanced to an irreversible state.” The disease is rare, but there is a handful of families with children who have Batten disease in New Zealand and a much larger group of

families profoundly affected by having lost children to it. Professor Palmer says it is very difﬁcult to conduct medical research and trials on affected children. “It is too traumatic, so possible therapies are best developed through testing in animals that are predetermined to develop diseases. Large animals with large complex human-like brains are best for this. “Studying patients only allows study of the late stages of the disease. Post-mortem human tissue provides a snapshot of the end of the disease process, but not of the events leading up to it.” Fortunately, forms of Batten disease do occur in animals and colonies have been established to study the development of the disease. “We have two ﬂocks of sheep with different forms of Batten disease. By understanding the biology and pathogenesis of these diseases in sheep we can begin to test possible therapies. “The facilities and expertise at Lincoln University are ideal for using large, easily managed, low cost pastoral animals for studies that model human disease and trialling therapies,” he says. The research on these sheep has been world leading. Much of what is known of the biochemistry and the way the brain changes during Batten disease has been discovered in these sheep. Professor Palmer says his team is now ready to look at developing therapies in sheep and testing these therapies for human use.

“We recently made an exciting discovery that neuro-inﬂammation is centrally involved in the brain damage common in Batten disease,” he says. “Neuro-inﬂammation can cause neurons to become over-activated, which can damage the brain.

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Project: New legumes improve nitrogen and water use in pasture

“This is significant because there are drugs that have the potential to quench this process. Some have been used in humans, for things like arthritis, for extended periods with few side effects. We have already begun testing with anti-inflammatory drugs.” The researchers are also looking at the development of gene therapy and testing this in the sheep. Careful immuno-histological studies are showing specific cells in specific parts of the brain are the first and most affected. These target cells include a group of neural stem cells that are prime targets for gene therapy. While current interest in this area is high, Professor Palmer says it involves brain surgery and a high risk of failure and collateral damage, thus it is really important to develop these techniques in an animal model before moving on to the affected children. Project: Animal models for human disease (Batten disease). Researchers: Professor David Palmer, Dr Graham Kay, Dr Hannah Lee, Nadia Mitchell, Lucy Barry, Janet Xu, Hongde Liang, Jarol Chen, Longfie Mao External Collaborators: Dr Stephanie Hughes, Kate Linterman (Otago), Dr Craig Johnson (Massey), Dr Imke Tammen, Mira Ismail (Sydney), Dr Jonathan Cooper, Sybille Dihanich (London), Professor Jenny Morton (Cambridge) Funders: The Neurological Foundation of New Zealand, Lincoln University Research Fund , Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, International grants

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Precious gas, but no ice

When most people think of Antarctica, they think of ice – lots of it – but four researchers have spent summer months on that continent studying desert soils in ice-free areas.

Fiona Shanhun and Dr Peter Almond lead a team considering carbon dioxide dynamics in arid ecosystems. “The Dry Valleys in Antarctica provide a unique natural laboratory in which to study how soils take up and release CO2 on a daily basis, through non-biological processes,” says Fiona Shanhun. “We want to see whether Antarctic soils are actively storing inorganic carbon and what part they might play in carbon storage under future climate scenarios.” The researchers have spent two summers camping in Antarctica, taking soil gas samples at various times throughout the day. They are studying the composition of the gas to learn more about what drives the processes controlling uptake and release of CO2. “We are using a combination of ﬁeld and laboratory techniques to better understand inorganic carbon cycling, with the long-term aim of understanding inorganic carbon storage and turnover in desert soils,” Fiona says. The dynamics of the terrestrial inorganic carbon pool in Antarctica’s ice-free areas have received little attention in the past. “The knowledge we hope to gain has the potential to be used in future global carbon budgets and could also be used in the development of carbon sequestration projects, in which soils are manipulated to mitigate global climate change.” Peter Almond says soils are the second most important store of carbon globally. “Most carbon is stored in organic forms originating from plants and organisms which live in soils,

“The inorganic processes are hard to study in soils where there is a lot of biological activity, but Antarctica provides an environment where it is easier to reduce the effect of the organic and therefore concentrate on the inorganic.” The researchers say this is fundamental research which contributes to New Zealand’s Antarctic Treaty obligations, as well as Antarctica New Zealand’s mandate to gain a better understanding of terrestrial ecosystems in the Ross Sea region. It is the only study of its kind by New Zealand researchers. The ﬁeld studies have also offered the researchers the opportunity to camp out in Taylor Valley, 40 minutes by helicopter from Scott Base. “It is a very simple environment,” says Peter. “The lack of distractions really allows you to focus on what it means to be human. There were three or four of us there at different times, working hard in the endless daylight, getting lots of work done without the interruption of email or phone. As well as our work, we concentrated on keeping ourselves well and preserving our friendships. It was a great privilege, and actually required quite an adjustment when we returned.” The scientists say they may extend their work into hot deserts, using the data they gather to help make predictions about inorganic carbon storage in desert soils under future climate scenarios.

Project: Soil CO2 dynamics in Antarctic ice-free areas Researchers: Fiona Shanhun, Dr Peter Almond, Professor Tim Clough, Dr Carol Smith Funders: Antarctica New Zealand, Lincoln University, Helicopters New Zealand, The William Machin Trust, Freemasons New Zealand, The Kate Sheppard Memorial Award Trust, Lincoln Physiotherapy

Opposite page: Peter Almond taking a soil gas sample. Eastern Taylor Valley, Antarctica. Below: Great spot for lunch! Central Taylor Valley, looking west towards Taylor Glacier.

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but inorganic forms of carbon accumulate in signiﬁcant quantities in very dry soils.

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Ecological DNA detectives The use of modern molecular techniques has opened new and promising lines of ecological inquiry at Lincoln University.

Dr Hannah Buckley, Dr Hayley Ridgway and Dr Rob Cruickshank form a multi-disciplinary team using DNA sequencing to help better our understanding of the distribution and abundance of organisms around us and why species are or are not in a particular area. The community ecologist, molecular biologist and evolutionary biologist are considering the relative importance of evolutionary and ecological processes in the distribution and abundance of epiphytic lichens on New Zealand mountain beech trees. Lichens are a symbiosis of up to three different kingdoms – the fungus provides the main body of lichen and living within it, is a photosynthetic partner, either a green alga and/or a cyanobacterium.

Dr Hannah Buckley says lichens are one of few groups of organisms that are a multikingdom symbiosis. “It’s relatively uncommon to get a group of organisms living together and reproducing as one unit. The value of molecular techniques is in being able to isolate microscopic individuals and identify which species they belong to, to work out what fungus is interacting with which alga and what patterns the relationship might have across the entire lichen community.” Dr Hayley Ridgway says this work is providing a fundamental ecological understanding of a poorly understood symbiosis which, until recently, people didn’t have the DNA tools to look at. “We’re trying to work out who’s who, who’s living with whom and why, how they got there, whether it’s a random grouping or whether there is some constraint on which individuals must match up together in order to form a viable lichen.” The researchers say that by understanding the relationships in a system like this, it may be possible to make generalisations about other types of systems, plant communities or animals in symbiotic relationships. The research is a multi-step process – sampling the lichens in the ﬁeld, ﬁnding out what organisms are present, then working out how they are related to those in other lichens by building a DNA ‘tree’. Dr Rob Cruickshank uses the DNA sequences to create such a ‘tree’ describing the evolutionary relatedness for all the fungi, algae and cyanobacteria in the lichen community. “There are two reasons for using DNA,” he says. “It makes it much easier to identify each

organism, but it also gives information that helps us decide which ones are more closely related to one another. We wouldn’t get that information if we simply tried to identify each lichen visually. Using the extra information from the relationships helps us ﬁgure out what affects the distribution of each species. By mapping the separate trees onto one another we can work out how the organisms relate to one another and ask questions about the development of the symbiosis.“ The researchers describe their work as looking at the fundamental drivers of ecology on a microscopic scale. They say there are many

different questions they can ask through this work. “It’s pure research, not immediately applicable to solving the world’s problems but it is telling us more about how the world works,” they say. Project: DNA reveals the hidden ecology of New Zealand Researchers: Dr Hannah Buckley, Dr Hayley Ridgway, Dr Rob Cruickshank Funder: Lincoln University

Grapevine trunk diseases are a source of increasing concern to the New Zealand wine industry . Now vineyards the world over look set to beneﬁt from studies by Drs Hayley Ridgway, Marlene Jaspers and Eirian Jones into how plant pathogens operate in vineyard/ viticulture systems.

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The lifestyle of plant pathogens

The research programme involves identifying the sources of the pathogens and the refuges they ﬁnd, such as soil and bark, in order to develop ways to reduce the spread of these diseases. The three scientists and their seven postgraduate students are using fundamental DNA technology to identify the habits of microscopic fungal pathogens. This technology has been developed in order to ‘see’ organisms that are invisible to the naked eye and has allowed the scientists to discover the lifestyle of fungal pathogens in vineyards. The scientists have even found a way to identify individual pathogens, by their natural ‘DNA tags’, and to follow them around vineyards – and beyond – using release and recapture experiments.

“The pathogens we are particularly interested in are very widespread,” says Dr Ridgway, “so we use these ‘tagged’ representative individuals, which we can differentiate from the numerous other fungi in the environment, to track how fast and far they can go, as well as the circumstances under which they disperse. This enables us to predict the pattern and rate at which the diseases can spread in vineyards and viticulture systems. It also shows us how they survive and spread, so we can devise ways to interfere with these processes and, therefore, reduce disease development.” In one experiment, the researchers worked with grapevine canes which had been deliberately infected by the ‘tagged’ pathogen, causing spores to be produced on the cane surface. When the canes were put outside during rainfall, the individual pathogen spores moved up to three metres across the vines during just one rainfall event.

Other experiments have identiﬁed the movement of pathogens during the vine grafting process. “New Zealand vineyards routinely use grafted vines”, says Dr Jaspers. “We can now identify danger points and offer protection methods for the young vines during propagation”. They can also determine how long some of these pathogens can survive in the soil which, in turn, means they can advise growers how long soil should lie fallow before being replanted.

other projects, such as other pathogen and crop systems .”

This work is so valuable because infection can take up to eight years to show up. When it does, vines, which should be at their peak production levels, may instead weaken and die.

Researchers: Dr Hayley Ridgway, Dr Marlene Jaspers, Dr Eirian Jones, Carolyn Bleach, Chantal Probst, Blessy Pathrose, Nicholas Amponsah, Jeyaseelan Baskarathevan, Regina Billones, Dalin Dore

The researchers says their work clearly demonstrates the value of a multi-disciplinary team tackling questions together that may be difﬁcult for an individual with only one set of skills to work on. “Lincoln University often puts clusters of people together in this way,” says Dr Jones. “It means we can work on one project, but with a view to extending the ﬁndings to

This research is being closely watched by the industry body, New Zealand Winegrowers, who have funded it and are mindful of its worldwide implications. Presentations about this work at a recent conference in Chile were well received by researchers from several major wine producing countries. Project: Grapevine Trunk Diseases

Funders: New Zealand Winegrowers, Lincoln University, TIF Scholarship, Foundation for Research, Science & Technology, Corbans Viticulture

Above left: Grapevine trunk crosssection showing an internal lesion Above right: A grapevine killed by “black foot”

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How does nitrate get into our water? Lincoln University-based researchers are using cutting-edge scientiﬁc techniques to accurately determine and precisely quantify where and when agricultural contamination of waterways occurs. They hope this work will enable producers to minimise economic losses caused by inefﬁcient fertiliser application .

Five researchers in New Zealand are involved in the larger project spearheaded by Dr Troy Baisden at GNS Science and funded through the Foundation for Research, Science & Technology. Through a Fulbright scholarship, the primary investigator PhD student Naomi Wells, has expanded the project to include work at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, developing new methods to measure where nitrogen is being lost from agricultural systems .

She says the work in New Zealand and the Philippines will give a comparison across two different biomes – one temperate, one tropical. “The issue of nitrogen in our waters is especially topical in New Zealand, because of concern about the growth of the dairy industry,” she says. “In the Philippines, nitrogen is a big concern for the rice industry. Rice is a nitrogen limited crop and farmers have to put a lot on their crops, so we want to help them limit that.” The research team is monitoring waterways around dairy farms in Canterbury to understand, through analysing samples, what happens when nitrogen moves from ﬁeld to stream.

“This work aims to provide a tool that will enable producers to more accurately understand how their management strategies are impacting on their own land, as well as the environment,” says Naomi Wells. “It should enable better monitoring of where pollution is going and where it’s coming from, and this should assist farmers to achieve more efﬁcient production.” The researchers hope their work will enable individual farmers to make more informed nutrient management decisions, as well as offer more complete monitoring and assessment of water quality. The strong international and cross-biome components of this research are a direct response to mounting evidence

that environmental management must be understood on a global scale. Project: Attenuation of nitrate in the New Zealand landscape Researchers: Naomi Wells, Professor Tim Clough, Associate Professor Rob Sherlock, Dr Troy Baisden, Dr Sarah Beebout, Dr Roland Bureshw Funders: Foundation for Research, Science &Technology, Fulbright Scholarship

A research breakthrough at Lincoln University led to the development of Eco-n™, a new nitriﬁcation inhibitor technology/product that not only signiﬁcantly reduces the environmental impacts of agriculture but also increases farm productivity and sustainability.

The invention originated in a research programme conducted at Lincoln University and funded by the Foundation for Research, Science &Technology where it was discovered that treating soil with DCD, a nitriﬁcation inhibitor, could reduce nitrous oxide emissions from pastoral agriculture by up to 70 percent and nitrate leaching losses by up to 60 percent; and increase pasture production by up to 15 percent.

Nitrate leaching from agriculture reduces water quality and reductions in nitrate leaching are needed to reduce pollution of groundwater, rivers and lakes. The development of Eco-n™ is an important contribution to continuing efforts to improve the sustainability of New Zealand agriculture and protect New Zealand’s environment. The environmental impact of intensive agriculture can be significantly mitigated through use of this technology. It will assist farmers to reduce agricultural impacts on water quality and help to secure the reality of New Zealand’s ‘100% Pure’ marketing brand for tourism. Based on Professors Di and Cameron’s scientific breakthrough, the Eco-n nitrification inhibitor technology was developed by Lincoln University and Ravensdown Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd. It was launched in 2004, and in 2008 over 70,000 hectares of land was treated with the inhibitor technology. The CEO of Ravensdown, Rodney Green, has said

that, “Eco-n is potentially one of the major agricultural developments of this decade.” In 2008, Professor Di and Professor Cameron were appointed by Her Majesty the Queen as Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in recognition of their “services to agricultural research” through the invention and development of Eco-n nitrification inhibitor technology. In 2005, the work also won them, and Ravensdown’s General Manager Richard Christie and Business Development Manager at the time Ron Pellow, the Agricom Significant

Achievement Award, Canterbury’s top prize for research and development contributions to agriculture/horticulture. The citation noted the team’s “excellent research, product development, commercialisation and technology transfer.”

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Eco-N is a world ﬁrst

Nitrous oxide emissions from agricultural land account for about 17 percent of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas inventory and about 33 percent of the country’s agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. Use of this nitrification inhibitor technology could significantly reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and will help the country meet its greenhouse gas reduction target under the Kyoto protocol agreement. In fact, this nitrification inhibitor technology has now been incorporated into New Zealand’s latest greenhouse gas emissions inventory as a mitigation technology. This inclusion of a mitigation technology for agricultural greenhouse gas emissions is a world first.

25 Project: Eco-n™ nitriﬁcation inhibitor technology/product Researchers: Professor Hong Di, Professor Keith Cameron Funders: Lincoln University, Foundation for Research, Science & Technology, Ravensdown Fertiliser Cooperative

Inventors of the Eco-n nitriﬁcation inhibitor technology, Professor Hong Di and Professor Keith Cameron

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Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the role of dust in forest ecosystems? When volcanic dust ďŹ lled the skies over Europe in April 2010, bringing air travel in the region to a standstill, some suggested it was the last wish of the dying Icelandic economy coming to pass: that its ashes be spread over Europe. All joking aside, atmospheric dust has a global impact that is only now starting to be understood.

Tiny particles of dust and aerosols suspended in the atmosphere play an important role in modifying the Earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s energy balance and are essential for the formation of cloud droplets. Dust transports pathogens over huge distances, contributing to the spread of human and agricultural diseases, but it has also become clear recently that dust particles containing essential minerals, also transported over enormous distances, are a vital mechanism for fertilising areas of ocean or land where productivity is limited by lack of usable minerals. A group from the Department of Soil and Physical Sciences is working on the West Coast of the South Island investigating the role dust plays in the evolution and function of forest ecosystems.

This page: Andre Eger samples a tree for foliage, Omoeroa Plateua, Westland National Park Next page: The Haast sand beach ridges Silt-sized dust (loess) blowing off a Westland riverbed

Forests and the soils they grow on coevolve. This co-evolution is regulated by the availability of phosphorus, an essential nutrient for metabolic processes that include energy transfer from photosynthesis and cell division. Initially, soil fertility, soil carbon, above-ground biomass and biodiversity increase as phosphorus, locked up in rock-

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derived minerals, is released by chemical weathering, but after a time these properties peak and the ecosystem enters a retrogressive phase as phosphorus is depleted by leaching. Vegetation succession mirrors the changes in soil fertility. Initially, light-loving, nitrogenﬁxing pioneers such as broom (Carmichaelia), tree daisy (Olearia) and tutu (Coriaria) thrive in the relatively phosphorus-rich, young soils. These are eventually out-competed by taller shrubs and trees including totara (Podocarpus hallii), kamahi (Weinmannia racemosa) and rata (Metrosideros umbellata) as soil organic matter and nitrogen levels increase. As continued leaching strips the soils of phosphorus and

other nutrients, low fertility-tolerant podocarps such as rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum) and miro (Prumnopitys ferruginea) gain dominance. From this stage onwards, soil carbon and nitrogen levels decline. At the extremes of low fertility even these species struggle and a stunted forest of rimu and silver pine (Manaoa colensoi) or heath (Pakihi) vegetation prevails. This retrogression, which involves loss of biodiversity, biomass and soil carbon, should be evident in forests growing on land surfaces about 100,000 years old, but despite an abundance of areas of this age on the West Coast, ecosystems in this state of retrogression in this part of the world are rare. Some process

(or processes) must therefore be maintaining ecosystem nutrient levels. The Lincoln University group, led by Dr Peter Almond, is looking at the role dust plays in augmenting the forest nutrient balance. Their work widens the scope of global research into the role of dust in terrestrial and marine ecosystem fertilisation. The group is using a sequence of coastal dunes of varying age and a natural gradient of dust deposition downwind of the Haast River as a natural laboratory to disentangle the effects of fertilisation caused by dust deposition and the loss of nutrients through leaching. The team is measuring nutrient contents of soil and foliage samples along the dust gradient in order to ﬁnd out how much dust is needed to offset the large leaching losses under Westland’s persistent and heavy rain. This will allow the importance of dust blown around in the much dustier times of the last glacial period to be assessed.

Dr Almond says that during the last Ice Age, stronger winds and ample sources of dust from glacially fed rivers would have produced a chokingly dusty environment in places. “It might be that some of the lushness of today’s forests in Westland is in part a legacy of that dust.” Variations in dust ﬂux, through its effect on forest nutrition, may alter the resilience of forests to external stresses such as introduced herbivores and climate change. “Understanding past and present dust additions to soils will add to our understanding of the forest and make us better managers of it.” Project: The role of dust fertilisation of natural forest ecosystems Researchers: Dr Peter Almond, Andre Eger, Professor Leo Condron Funders: Brian Mason Trust, Robert Bruce Trust, Lincoln University

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An alternative to 1080 Against a backdrop of vehement disagreement over the use of 1080 pesticide, a team of scientists and industry associates has been assembled under Lincoln University leadership to move pest control to a whole new paradigm.

management of biosecurity risks, thus reducing or eliminating community conﬂict over 1080,” he says .

Heading the group is Dr Charles Eason, Professor in Wildlife Management at Lincoln University and Director of Research for Connovation Ltd, a company dedicated to the development and provision of tools to monitor and control invasive animals. Dr Eason is a specialist in vertebrate pesticide toxicology and product development and has been responsible for all the new toxins and most of the new control tools currently being employed in New Zealand. “Our aim is to replace conventional and unpopular poisons with innovative biologically sound alternatives, enabling better

“In fact, we will produce the ﬁrst major advance in mammalian pest control since the 1980s. A new generation of toxins and associated delivery methods will be developed, designed to minimise the impact of invasive animals on the environmental, economic, social and cultural wellbeing of New Zealand.” In a particularly exciting move, members of the research teams with Matauranga Ma-ori expertise will be working alongside physiologists and chemists to jointly produce options that meet the needs of kaitiakitanga. These tools will be of direct relevance to Ma-ori who are universally concerned about the adverse impacts of animal pests on taonga species, such as native birds, and on the holistic environments of which these species are part.

Co-leading the project is Associate Professor Shaun Ogilvie (Te Arawa and Ngati Awa) whose research interests have included predator impacts on kereru and the fate and persistence of 1080 in plants and ﬁsh of cultural importance. Associate Professor Ogilvie is Tumuaki of the Kaupapa Ma-ori Unit in the Department of Ecology of Lincoln University’s Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Project: Pest Control for the 21st Century Researchers: Professor Charles Eason, Dr Shaun Ogilvie, Dr Aroha Miller, James Waiwai, James Doherty, Dr Nick Tucker, Dr Ivan Sammut, Professor Margaret Brimble, Dr EC Murphy, Dr Helen Blackie. Connovation Ltd and Animal Control Products Ltd (manufacturers of 1080 baits) are also taking part in the project. Funder: Foundation for Research, Science & Technology

Lincoln University researchers Professor Grant Edwards, Professor Keith Cameron, Professor Bruce McKenzie, Dr Jim Gibbs and Dr Sabrina Greenwood are undertaking a multi-milliondollar study over ﬁve years to create new management systems.

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Sustainability in the dairy industry

The Lincoln University-led research project has the potential to literally change the way New Zealand’s $8 billion export dairy industry operates and to ensure its environmental, economic and social sustainability. The team have set themselves some challenging goals, including a 50 percent reduction in nitrate leaching per hectare and a 30 percent increase in milk solids production, by 2020.

Professor Edwards says the project explores how advances in technology will lead to the redesign of more efficient farm systems. “There are several methods that can be employed to reduce the impact of dairying on the environment,” he says. “Advances in animal selection and pasture, as well as nutritional information technology, will lead to farm systems featuring fewer but more nitrogen-efficient cows. “These cows will be able to produce higher milk yields from grazing on more diverse and higher quality pastures. The reduced stock numbers required will decrease their impact on the environment.” Professor Edwards says the quality of stock on a dairy farm can be improved in a number of ways. Alterations can be made to the cows’ forage to help reduce the nitrogen concentration of urine, the main source of nitrate leaching. Techniques can also be used to ensure the vegetation absorbs more nitrate. Professor Edwards says the team expects the dairy industry will benefit in several ways from following this new form of farming. Those

benefits include: significant gains in on-farm profitability; increases in export values; a reduction in the environmental footprint of dairying; as well as other spill-over benefits to agribusiness and the tourism industry. The research team hopes this work will provide the industry with the tools and systems required to achieve sustainability. “Increasing milk production to meet demand and improving the profitability of dairy farms is vital to New Zealand’s economy,” Professor Edwards says. “The intensification of dairying has meant the industry’s environmental impacts are becoming increasingly important in a consumer-driven market, so it is important to mitigate these concerns.

“Early indications from our study are that farmers should be able to significantly reduce the nitrogen levels in cows’ urine without affecting milk yield,” he says. Once the new dairy farm management systems are developed, the research team and five postgraduate students will test them at Lincoln University’s Dairy Research farm, which was set up specifically to provide a dedicated research facility and to help foster links with external organisations such as DairyNZ. The 55-hectare facility began milking in August 2009. Project: Dairy Systems for Environmental Protection Researchers: Professor Grant Edwards, Professor Keith Cameron, Professor Bruce McKenzie, Dr Jim Gibbs, Dr Sabrina Greenwood Funders: Foundation for Research, Science & Technology, DairyNZ

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Dairy lameness

Dairy lameness is a major animal welfare issue in New Zealand and, along with infertility and mastitis, is one of most economically important health problems in the national dairy herd.

As well as reducing the mobility, lameness – a catch-all term for a variety of painful hoof disorders – may result in reduced food intake and consequent decrease in milk production and fertility. It’s estimated that about 10 percent of New Zealand’s ﬁve million dairy cows will suffer from lameness over the course of a dairy season. With treatment costs thought to be up to $150 per cow, the problem has a large potential impact through lost production, veterinary bills and demands on farmers’ time. Anecdotal reports from the dairy industry had suggested lameness was a particular concern in the South Island. In 2005, the South Island dairy industry proactively addressed the problem, establishing the South Island Dairy Lameness Project to work through whether the reports were true and, if so, why. Funding was obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture Sustainable Farming

Fund, the national dairy research body, Dairy NZ, and the South Island Dairy Event, and then Dr Jim Gibbs, Senior Lecturer in livestock health and production at Lincoln University, began gauging the size of the problem and gathering information about the risk factors that might be speciﬁc to the South Island dairy industry. A new on-farm recording system was developed and used to record all the lame cows treated on 70 farms throughout the South Island, along with information about each farm’s pasture and supplementary feed, production, reproduction, herd health and physical infrastructure (tracks, yards, milking sheds, farm terrain). Detailed interviews were conducted with farm owners and managers to determine existing farm protocols for lameness prevention and treatment approach. Dr Gibbs says the project found 20 to 25 percent of South Island dairy herds affected compared with ﬁve to ten percent in the North Island. The research suggests some of the reasons for the disparity may lie in the nature of the South Island dairy industry itself. The farms are large, intensively managed operations with herds of up to 3000 animals in the highest producing regions. (The average herd size nationally is 392 animals.) Cows spend more time walking to and from milking and standing on concrete surfaces than on some smaller operations, increasing hoof wear and the likelihood of hoof damage. On South Island farms, irrigation, higher fertiliser use and aggressive programmes of

pasture cultivation and renewal using high production contemporary cultivars result in so-called ‘rocket fuel’ pastures – extremely high quality pasture that maximises milk production. The research asked whether these pastures contributed to the problem somehow by making the animals’ hooves susceptible to physical damage. Overseas research on stall fed animals suggested diets high in rapidly fermentable carbohydrates lower the pH balance of the rumen, upsetting its microbial ﬂora. Perhaps this impaired horn production, resulting in soft hooves?

Fifteen high-production cows at the Lincoln University Dairy Farm had rumen cannulae ﬁtted, allowing sensors to be placed directly into their rumen, so that researchers could measure rumen pH, temperature and pressure in the cattle as they grazed alongside the rest of the commercial herd on the farm’s very high quality pasture. The work did not establish a link between feed, the rumen, acidosis and lameness, Dr Gibbs says, but did demonstrate that many of the prevailing ideas around how the rumen functions in grass based systems were clearly incorrect.

The dairy industry can usefully look at the heritability of lameness and consider the merits of selecting against it, Dr Gibbs says. He suggests that, at present, lameness may actually be being unintentionally selected for: as the South Island dairy industry expands, farmers are selecting replacement cows for traits that lameness appears to be associated with. North Island cows bought to stock South Island farms may carry attributes for which they would normally be culled, further exacerbating the problem. The research programme has attracted ongoing funding from DairyNZ and is now focusing on identifying genetic markers that may be used to select for elite â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;lame proofâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; cattle â&#x20AC;&#x201C; those with high fertility and milk production, and resistance to lameness. Project: Dealing with welfare concerns due to Dairy Lameness Researcher: Dr Jim Gibbs Funding: DairyNZ, Sustainable Farming Fund, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, South Island Dairy Event

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However, the results did suggest a link between genetics and lameness. On-farm work identifying cows that became lame in consecutive years suggests lameness is not randomly distributed within herds. In some herds, more than 50 percent of the recorded cases occurred in just 25 percent of the cows.

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Farm to fork: food research at Lincoln University New Zealand’s food and beverage sector is responsible for over half of this country’s export earnings, with $22.7 billion of food and beverage products exported in 2009.

Directly or indirectly this sector employs one in ﬁve of the working population. However, international trends suggest continued economic growth will not be achieved by simply increasing the quantity of primary sector exports. The traditional core sectors of the New Zealand economy such as food and beverage therefore need to be transformed to take advantage of new technologies and trends in international markets. This will require optimisation of every link in the value chain from the animal or crop through to the consumer – from the farm to the fork - and the application of science to meet the challenges faced by New Zealand food companies. Research in the Department of Wine, Food and Molecular Biosciences at Lincoln University is uniquely placed to do just that. A key focus is ensuring traditional export products, such as meat, are of consistent and high quality. Professor Roy Bickerstaffe and Associate Professor Jim Morton work closely with industry and retailers to understand the

biochemistry of meat quality. One of the results of their work was the ‘guaranteed’ beef and lamb available at New World supermarkets. Associate Professor Geoffrey Savage has developed novel products, such as wasabi- and tomato-based foods which are now exported to Japan. Together with Dr Lemuel Diamante, a food engineer with patents for producing new snack foods from fruit, and Mike MorleyBunker, a horticulturalist, he is now exploring options for other new foods, with a particular focus on Asian markets.

The department is also researching processing methods which retain the positive attributes of food, such as antioxidants, or reduce less desirable characteristics such as oxalates. An extension of this is ‘functional foods’, like the deer milk products with potential health beneﬁts being investigated by Dr Sue Mason. Modern food research requires the input of many scientists. Lincoln University has recognised this by actively pursuing collaborative research with other Universities and Crown Research Institutes.

Achieving improved returns for our primary products will involve disciplines other than biological. In the future, marketing must draw on New Zealand’s emerging competitive advantages such as the country’s ability to meet segments of consumer demand for ‘green production’. Marketing and other commercial disciplines must become fully integrated into production systems. Dr Garth Carnaby, “Entrepreneur in Residence” at Lincoln University, is working with the department to develop the commercial aspects of research and has forged direct links with New Zealand food exporting companies. Researchers: Associate Professor Geoffrey Savage, Associate Professor Jim Morton, Professor Roy Bickerstaffe, Professor Ian Shaw, Dr Lemuel Diamante, Dr Sue Mason, Dr Garth Carnaby, Mike Morley-Bunker, Janette Busch, Chris Dawson, Leo Vanhanen Funders: Tertiary Education Commission, Foundation for Research, Science & Technology, Beef and Lamb NZ

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One recent example is the joint appointment with the University of Canterbury of Ian Shaw as Professor of Food Safety. There has also been investment in new facilities where food can be prepared and consumed safely. While primarily designed to allow undergraduate students to handle and process foods as part of their practical work, the facility meets food processing standards, allowing the food that is processed in this room to be eaten. Postgraduate students in food science also use the room for developing and analysing novel food products. These new foods require extensive storage studies and taste tests.

Photographs show students in the new food laboratory

Faculty of Commerce The Faculty of Commerce has over 70 staff who advance knowledge and contribute to the economic and social development of New Zealand and the wider Asia/PaciďŹ c region through research-informed education. We emphasise knowledge creation to develop outstanding commerce graduates who can apply their knowledge and skill to increase productivity, commercialisation and sustainability in their workplace environment.

To succeed on the global stage, New Zealand must be innovative, more efﬁcient and take into account an increasing array of factors that lie outside the main focus of conducting business. Sustainability, greening of the supply chain, productivity, carbon production, rising natural resource constraints, greater support for, and education of, the workforce and social responsibility are some examples. These once external factors have rapidly become more central to mainstream business activity, especially in developed economies, and as a consequence, they have also become integral to research in the Faculty of Commerce.

ecological and resource economics; international development; and sustainable property. Our research mix is dynamic. As a university, our programmes evolve alongside international economies. Ecological and resource economics are becoming an increasingly important area of work because of resource constraints on production systems. As a result, future research will focus even more on issues of performance standards, innovation, productivity assessment, aspects of sustainability and efﬁcient uses of natural resources.

Our researchers are highly internationalised, with staff from 13 different countries. This means we have greater access to researchers living overseas, allowing us to understand more readily the issues in those markets. As a result, Lincoln University graduates are in demand around the world because they have a research base that is immediately applicable internationally.

Our research is applied to a wide variety of business settings and to the increasingly serious issues around access to and use of natural resources, sustainable land-based systems, built environments and the socio-economic environment in which we live and work. With more than 70 staff spread over 10 disciplines, the Faculty brings extensive capability and capacity to its research programme, which is clustered into nine themes: sustainable businesses and business systems; supply chain management and lean manufacturing; ﬁnance and banking; agribusiness systems management; wine industry marketing; governance and professionalism;

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Introduction to the Faculty of Commerce

New Zealand’s economic growth is vitally dependent on its business community and the goods and services it produces. With the service sector now New Zealand’s largest employer, research into business services and associated production systems is becoming increasingly important.

Dr Patrick Aldwell Dean, Faculty of Commerce

Dr Patrick Aldwell Dean Faculty of Commerce

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LUCID research can clearly make its mark The Lincoln University Centre for International Development (LUCID) conducts research and research-based consulting that advances international development.

The Centre is led by LUCID Director Associate Professor, Dr Sandra Martin and Associate Professor, Dr Michael Lyne. It focuses on the management of natural resources in developing and emerging economies, with the aim of reducing poverty and food insecurity through encouraging sustainable growth of the rural economy. Linking small farmers to markets is a central theme of the research undertaken by LUCID to achieve its aim. Dr Martin says there are two parts to this. “The ﬁrst requirement to effectively link farmers to markets is to encourage smallholders in developing countries to pool their products and share marketing costs, to make the deal attractive to buyers.” To be successful, this pooling process requires organisational arrangements that promote investment and compliance with contracts. “Farmers must be encouraged to ﬁnance and manage shared resources, comply with standards, add value and jointly contract with agents in the chain,” says Dr Lyne, Deputy Director of LUCID. He recently completed work on an actionresearch project funded by the Ford Foundation with colleagues from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, to investigate and improve the organisational and contractual arrangements adopted by a group of South African organic smallholders. The study explained why the smallholders were reluctant to invest in value-added improvements and why they withheld their best quality produce from the organic market.

Dr Martin explains that the second part of linking farmers to markets focuses on vertical coordination.

creation, to ensure all parties gain sufﬁcient margins to encourage them to remain part of it,” she says.

“Vertical coordination is primarily about creating value along the chain in order to meet the needs of consumers of the product,” she says. “Associated with this is how to manage logistics and quality control and the transmission of information along the chain.

Dr Martin’s recently completed work, in conjunction with colleagues from the University of Hue, on a study of agricultural supply chains in the Central Provinces of Vietnam. The project, funded by AUSAID, uncovered evidence of very entrepreneurial and adaptive behaviour by both farmers and traders which has the potential to improve the livelihoods of farmers within this chain.

“A very important aspect of vertical coordination is how chains can be conﬁgured and relationships managed to enhance value

“All 192 member states of the United Nations have agreed to try to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger,” she says. “In 2000, the United Nations set the goal of halving the number of hungry people from 840 to 420 million by 2015. “Instead, the number of hungry people increased to more than one billion in 2009, a record high, following the food price crisis of

2008. An important lesson from this crisis was that very few of the world’s 1.5 billion poor smallholders beneﬁted from high producer prices because they lacked access to markets. This problem is worsening as small farmers struggle to meet the costs of complying with higher standards for safe food,” she says.

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Dr Martin says LUCID’s work is very important from an international perspective since the United Nations has agreed to make a concerted effort to help impoverished nations through its Millennium Development Goals.

In linking farmers to markets, LUCID takes an institutional perspective, which means it focuses on the formal and informal organisational and contractual arrangements that link small farmers to markets. Dr Martin says it is these systems that create the incentives which inﬂuence decisions to participate and invest in value chains. “The LUCID teaching and research programmes draw on Lincoln University’s strength in International Rural Development that is focused on land-based issues,” says Dr Lyne. “As a University we are recognised as having a niche position in this area within New Zealand and international student interest is strong and growing.” Research students from a number of developing and emerging economies, including Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, Nepal, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, are undertaking research on aspects of both horizontal and vertical coordination. Their work includes study on the performance of small farmer-owned companies and cooperatives, product labelling and returns to smallholders from Fair Trade chains, and the role of women in informal supply chains.

Researchers: Dr Sandra Martin, Dr Michael Lyne Postgraduates: Wayne Powae, Jetori Mauro, Ludia Wambraugh, Rohitha Rosairo, Mahendra Khanel, Salil Bhattarai, Huy Trieu Hoang, Hieu Chi Troung, Nguyen Tri Trung Overseas Research Linkages: Faculty of Economics and Development Studies, University of Hue, Vietnam. African Centre for Food Security, School of Agricultural Sciences and Agribusiness, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. PNG University of Natural Resources and Environment, Rabaul, East New Britain, Papua New Guinea Funding: AUSAID, Asian Development Bank, The Ford Foundation, The South African National Agricultural Marketing Council

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How much difference have the electricity reforms generated? The mid-1980s presented major challenges for the electricity industry in New Zealand as the energy sector underwent signiﬁcant deregulation, privatisation and restructuring.

As part of her PhD, Lincoln University postgraduate student Hafsa Ahmed is undertaking a detailed review of how effective the processes were that led to those changes.

“Our research aims to investigate the processes involved in these changes. We want to map the steps the New Zealand electricity industry took as it moved toward privatisation and beyond.

Hafsa is into the second year of a two-year project overseen by Dr Michaela Balzarova and Professor Clive Smallman.

“There has been little research done in this area to date, but we have already analysed vast amounts of information to identify the triggers and outcomes of organisational change,” he says.

Professor Smallman says an in-depth study into the electricity industry and where it is heading will be of great interest to the industry and its regulators. Before this can be done, however, a benchmark of how the industry has changed needs to be established.

The project has involved analysis of public records, interviews with key industry players, and reviews of ﬁnancial accounts, media reports and academic papers.

“Vast sums of money are required to set up new electricity assets and the return on investment can take years,” he says. “To get an understanding of what direction the electricity industry needs to take, we ﬁrst need to understand the structure and history of the industry in order to see how equipped it is to evolve.

“The end goal is to determine how the New Zealand electricity industry can come closer to its original objective of reducing costs and increasing efﬁciency,” he says. “We want to be able to provide recommendations to the industry on how it can develop the appropriate operational response in order to sustain performance into the future.”

“The fact that electricity reform is still very much on the agenda conﬁrms this is a topic that has immense relevance.”

Hafsa is expected to submit her thesis in early 2011. She intends to use it as a framework for conducting similar studies elsewhere, particularly in developing nations, where privatisation is often viewed as a universal prescription for economic growth.

Professor Smallman says the research will help determine how successful the electricity industry reforms were in providing actual benefits to consumers. “In the 1980s, it was thought the best way to provide long-term benefits to customers was to restructure the electricity industry, to increase competition and reduce the role of political influence,” he says. “This was done by creating wholesale and retail electricity markets.”

Project: Appraisal of the Evolutionary Change Theory based on the study of the New Zealand Electricity Industry Researchers: Dr Michaela Balzarova, Professor Clive Smallman, Hafsa Ahmed

More companies are considering the environmental implications of their ofﬁce spaces.

Current research shows buildings account for around 30 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, and the Australian and New Zealand governments have committed to limiting greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Kyoto Protocol. Lincoln University’s Professor Sandy Bond and PhD student Samantha Liew are working with Professor Peter Newman and research associate Chiara Paciﬁci from Curtin University in Perth to identify ways to increase the uptake of sustainable practices that will help improve building performance in Australia. The two-year research project, commissioned by the Australian Research Council, has

Professor Bond says existing research shows that improving the energy efﬁciency of buildings is the quickest and most cost effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “Research has shown it’s important to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the built environment, so we need to determine how this can be achieved. We are investigating the costs and beneﬁts of sustainable development and the effect demand and drivers for green performance are having on the market,” she says. Professor Bond says legislative pressure, energy cost savings and achievement of green rating tools are encouraging companies to seek sustainable buildings for their businesses. “The development of green rating tools and changes to The Building Code of Australia have seen improvements in the sustainability of commercial property,” she says. “However, these improvements have not been matched in the residential sector. “If barriers to the uptake of sustainability practices are addressed, both the residential and commercial property industries have a unique opportunity to achieve innovation and global best practice in sustainable outcomes

that contribute to improving the liveability and sustainability of cities. “While there has been extensive progress in this area, we need to create opportunities for change in business practices and user behaviour, then develop policy solutions for government for this change to occur. “The Australain Government’s rebates offered for rainwater tanks and solar heating provide a good incentive for homeowners to adopt sustainable living practices and ﬁgures show that the uptake of these rebates to date has been very high,” she says. As well as guiding Government policy, Professor Bond and the research team’s work will help create a platform for the development of business cases that outline the economic and environmental beneﬁts of sustainable living.

Cost has been identiﬁed as a common barrier to sustainable buildings, but Professor Bond says this is slowly reducing as a perceived barrier, as technology, skills and knowledge become more readily available and pricecompetitive.

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Sustainability in residential and commercial buildings

included ﬁeld tours of 22 of the greenest commercial buildings in Australia. Building owners, tenants, property and facility managers, and architects were surveyed about their experiences with these green buildings. At the household level research was also undertaken to determine what it would take for occupants to change their behaviour and adopt sustainable living practices.

Professor Bond also believes this study will provide an interesting, best practice case study that New Zealand could learn from. She is about to commence a New Zealand study on the drivers and barriers to sustainability in residential buildings. Project: Drivers and barriers to sustainability in residential and commercial buildings in Australia. Researchers: Professor Sandy Bond, Samantha Liew, Professor Peter Newman, Chiara Paciﬁci Funder: Australian Research Council

Below left: The GOL Green Building, Melbourne has won several sustainable building awards. Below: CH2, Melbourne, is rated 6 star Green Star.

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The impact of environmental management systems

As a result, many businesses have implemented environmental management systems to help clarify, monitor and mitigate their impact on the environment. Three Lincoln University Faculty of Commerce lecturers (Dr Michaela Balzarova, Dr TracyAnne De Silva and Dr Sharon Forbes) have been involved in a study to evaluate the impact of environmental management systems on environmental performance in New Zealand wineries. Anne Spicer, a Lincoln University summer research assistant, also contributed to the study by helping develop the questionnaire, review current literature, conduct the pilot study and organise the distribution of the questionnaire.

There is growing recognition among businesses that to remain competitive in international markets they can no longer ignore the environmental effects of their production processes.

The research team looked speciﬁcally at the use of environmental management systems in New Zealand wineries – with a particular focus on the Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand (SWNZ) environmental management system – and the effect such systems have on environmental performance. The project involved sending questionnaires to 102 SWNZ wineries and 200 non-SWNZ wineries. “Our study will contribute to the growing body of research examining the contributions of environmental management systems to improvements in environmental performance,” says Dr Balzarova. “Prior studies examining performance improvements suggest there is a small but positive relationship between environmental management systems and environmental performance.”

“The onus is on the producer to weigh up cost and beneﬁt considerations, as well as the extra work involved in introducing sustainable practices, to see whether the process is economical and achievable,” she says. “The case is a little different in the New Zealand market where price and quality tend to dominate the purchase decision. “The common perception in New Zealand is that our wine growing practices are very environmentally friendly, but this is often not the case. It is generally expected that wineries using a formal environmental management system will have better environmental performance than wineries using an informal environmental management system,” she says. Dr De Silva says there is a great deal of interest in their research from New Zealand wineries as well as from SWNZ. “Our research aims to provide New Zealand winegrowers with suggestions for improving the effectiveness of their environmental management systems and their environmental performance. Project: Evaluation of the impact of environmental management systems on environmental performance in New Zealand wineries Researchers: Dr Michaela Balzarova, Dr Tracy-Anne De Silva, Dr Sharon Forbes, Anne Spicer Funder: Lincoln University Summer Research Scholarship

The dynamics of new social spaces

The International Standards Organization (ISO) is an international standard setting body that creates globally adopted technical standards to assist trade.

Networking beyond national boundaries has resulted in a shift from a hierarchical state power toward networks of decentralised interacting bodies. One of the platforms used to manage this new environment is standardisation, described by scholars as a new institutional form of standard setting that involves multiple players who are often dispersed globally.

Following the meetings, Dr Balzarova and Associate Professor Castka reviewed more than 1,500 participant comments to consider how stakeholders inﬂuence and contribute to the standards development process.

When Standards New Zealand nominated four experts from New Zealand to meet with 350 other experts from 72 countries to contribute to the development of guidance standards on social responsibility, their choices included Lincoln University Senior Lecturer Dr Michaela Balzarova, and Associate Professor, Pavel Castka, from the University of Canterbury.

“Our findings show there has been a shift towards delegation of power and the creation of rules enforced on nongovernmental regimes,” says Dr Balzarova. “The dynamics of standardisation are quite complex and cover standards development, adoption and enforcement. Our study to date has focused on adoption and enforcement; there is little existing research on standardisation development. “Our intention is to determine how multiple stakeholders influence and contribute to the standardisation development process. We specifically address the notion of the opening up of new social spaces and looking at the dynamics of collaboration when multiple parties, with different requirements, enter a new social space,” she says.

Dr Balzarova and Associate Professor Castka’s research identified several facets of stakeholder involvement in standardisation. These included eliminating issues that are controversial, linking the standard to other developed standards, making sure stakeholder opinions are heard and, thus, consensus seeking, reinforcing their positions to promote tighter control of the standard enforcement and, finally, contributing to standards improving by highlighting the need for clarity and usefulness for the user. Dr Balzarova and Associate Professor Castka have jointly published their initial findings in prominent academic journals including the Journal of Production Economics and Human Systems Management. Project: Dynamics of new social spaces Researchers: Dr Michaela Balzarova, Associate Professor Pavel Castka Funders: Lincoln University Research Fund, College of Business and Economics Research Fund, University of Canterbury

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Dr Forbes says there is an apparent desire from international wine markets for sustainably made products.

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Fatigue in dairy farming

“The industry has great difﬁculty recruiting and retaining staff,” he says. “Productivity is growing only slowly and accident rates are high. Counsellors report many dairy workers also have problems with domestic violence and substance abuse.

International research has found links between workplace health and safety and the performance and productivity of businesses.

Lincoln University’s Dr Rupert Tipples is leading a programme working with industry to investigate how to make dairy farming a more socially sustainable, productive, innovative and efﬁcient industry. This team is one of the few working on the social aspects of dairy farming at present, and is supported by other dairy research initiatives the University is developing. Dr Tipples says the idea came from a Oncea-Day milking study, which highlighted the damaging effects of long hours of work in dairy farming. Dr Tipples’ initial research and literature review show job quality and satisfaction have fallen with a corresponding rise in work strain from work intensiﬁcation. Staff can experience feelings of increased emotional exhaustion and diminished personal accomplishment that can negatively affect employees’ workplace behaviour.

“Meanwhile, there is chronic overwork, with nearly one third of the workforce working at least 70 hours per week – twice the normal working week. This research seeks to explore the possible connections between fatigue from excessive hours of work and workplace health, safety, and performance.” Dr Tipples says that nationally there are now fewer but larger herds. Large herds on irrigated land typify recent South Island dairy developments. These are staffed largely by employees rather than the more traditional self-employed and family staff. Recruitment and retention can be problematic for these large, often corporate, enterprises. New Zealand research conducted in 2003 for all occupations found no one factor explained the intention to leave employment, but ‘interesting work’ was the strongest attractor and retainer of staff. A growing concern with work-life balance and maintaining good relationships with co-workers and supervisors were also important job satisfaction criteria. Larger farms provide scope for work specialisation, but such rationalisation may lead to loss of work variety and thus less interesting work. Dr Tipples says the demographic risk associated with declining birth rates and the ageing of the ‘baby boom’ generation is another problem facing the dairy industry.

“The dairy industry has traditionally depended on a high proportion of young workers for basic farm work like milking,” he says. “Not only are these workers difﬁcult to recruit and retain, but they are going to be increasingly difﬁcult to source, especially in districts where the ageing of the population is most prominent. “The ageing workforce implies a productivity risk, while ongoing recruitment and retention problems suggest a capacity risk. To retain the dairy industry’s competitive advantage in production, new sources of recruits must be developed,” he says. Dr Tipples says the attraction and retention of talented people continue to be key priorities for the industry. These problems have been alleviated to some degree by an increased number of migrant workers, but this is thought to be an uncertain foundation for the industry to build on. “A quality work environment will help ensure continued improvements in dairy farming productivity,” he says. “The aim of research in

this area is to explore whether dairy farming could avoid many of the problems described by adopting significant system changes, involving working shorter hours. “These new systems would provide more choice and discretionary time for people, lifting the resilience of dairy farming and making it and its communities more socially sustainable,” he says. Dr Tipples says the research project could take a number of years: “Once complete, this research could potentially achieve a significant resolution of many of dairy farming’s current employment problems, including recruitment and retention,” he says. “It might also enable dairy farmers to get a life,” adds Dr Tipples. The Lincoln University Research Fund is helping to develop the project and assist with obtaining outside finance. Project: Fatique in dairy farming Researchers: Dr Rupert Tipples, Dr Roberta Hill, Associate Professor Felicity Lamm, Dr Rebecca Lilley, Denise Bewsell Funding: Lincoln University Research Fund

As New Zealand increasingly moves towards being a service economy, roles in sectors such as tourism and professional services are becoming more dominant. Tourism, as an industry, is now New Zealand’s largest foreign exchange earner, employing one in ten workers.

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Measuring the effect of organisational social capital

“Compared to other OECD countries, New Zealand organisations struggle to compete in terms of productivity,” he says. “As of March 2008, New Zealand’s productivity was 60 percent of that of the United States and 80 percent of Australia’s.

“Research shows the inability to attract and retain a highly skilled workforce is a major contributing factor to New Zealand’s low productivity,” he says. Dr Brien says major hotels are a critical part of the tourism industry and are particularly labour and service intensive. He says this research project speciﬁcally considers the ‘people’ component of the industry and the impact they have on organisational performance. “Popular research suggests once the maximum investment in systems and technology has been made, it is up to the employees and their skills to increase productivity,” he says. “The level of increase may, however, be dependent on the level of organisational social capital and subject to the Baumol Effect, which suggests there is a limit to the amount of productivity enhancement possible before the service being provided changes from what it is intended to be.

Dr Anthony Brien and Dr Nazmun Ratna are leading research which aims to benchmark organisational social capital in a serviceintensive part of the tourism industry – major hotels – in order to investigate the relationship with organisational performance.

“Assuming this effect will always prove to be true, enhanced levels of social capital within an organisation could lead to increased innovation, workforce loyalty and reduced error rates. These factors should, collectively, help increase productivity and proﬁtability.

Dr Brien says increasing organisational effectiveness in terms of productivity is paramount for any economy to progress.

Dr Ratna thinks in an increasingly globalized world, an understanding of social capital is crucial. “Investing in social capital is

more crucial for service-intensive sectors like tourism, which attracts people from diverse socio-economic backgrounds. Trust or communication within an organization will be a vital component of business management, in the coming years with second generation or third generation immigrants entering the labour market,” she says.

Dr Brien says the research will provide a useful base for other service-intensive organisations and a constructive tool for the general service industry to gauge organisational social capital and report back results against organisational effectiveness measures such as productivity, increased innovation, reduced employee turnover and proﬁtability.

“This study will make a signiﬁcant contribution to the knowledge bank on organisational social capital in New Zealand. It will provide businesses with a deeper understanding of their organisation’s social capital, and enable them to adjust their business practice for better performance,” says Dr Brien.

Project: The Effect of Social Capital in Service-Intense Organisations on Organisational Performance: A Longitudinal New Zealand case study. Researchers: Dr Anthony Brien, Dr Nazmun Ratna Funder: Lincoln University Research Fund

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When the well runs dry, we know the true value of water Recently there has been a strong growth in demand from the agricultural sector in New Zealand to use fresh water for commercial uses such as irrigation.

Professor Ross Cullen, Dr Edward Hearnshaw and Professor Ken Hughey of Lincoln University have undertaken a study to determine the impact that the dam on the Opuha River in South Canterbury has on the river and its catchment. Professor Cullen says improved understanding of the impacts of water use is particularly topical in Canterbury. “Irrigation is extremely valuable to agricultural production and can help generate three times the income of non-irrigated farms,” he says. “Around 70 percent of the country’s irrigated area is in Canterbury, and the region’s high level of evaporation through its dry summers means even more water is required than in other agricultural areas. “Our research uses an ecosystem service benefits model to investigate what impact the dam and water use has on the ecosystem and what benefits have been derived.” Professor Cullen says water projects are typically evaluated using cost benefit analysis, but many ecosystem service benefits (the direct and indirect benefits people obtain from ecosystems) are difficult to value and include in cost benefit studies. “There is a growing appetite for understanding the full range of values gained from human manipulation of water resources. Typically, the approaches used have separate economic, social and environmental analyses, which do not allow an easy summary of the overall merit of projects,” he says. The Ecosystem Services Model, on the other hand, examines provisioning (for example,

Professor Cullen says the research team wanted to make all ecosystem services explicit and quantifiable so they can be accounted for in the evaluation of water use projects. “We want to provide insights for decision makers into the effects of human manipulation on the land for economic purposes,” he says. “This requires the development of a comprehensive set of indicators for ecosystem services to determine the true impact of water use on rivers. “Existing ecosystem service reviews have often lacked definitive outcomes because they lacked the indicators needed to gauge the effects of projects such as dams. Once a comprehensive set of indicators is developed, you can begin to look at establishing an ecosystem service index to help quantify changes to the ecosystem services,” he says. Professor Cullen says the Opuha Dam proved the perfect site to test the possibility of listing and quantifying ecosystem services after Environment Canterbury approached Lincoln University to conduct research into the impact the dam had on the river. The Opuha-Opihi catchment is prone to hot summers, and water extraction by the Levels Plains Irrigation scheme frequently resulted in a dry riverbed in summer, which stranded fish and halted irrigation. The degradation of the river and low river flows led to the Opuha Dam being constructed in 1998. It was created to store spring run-off water from the mountains which can then be released in summer and autumn to maintain

minimum ﬂows and allow continuous irrigation throughout the dry months.

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food), regulating (for example, water puriﬁcation) and cultural services (for example, recreation) to assess economic impacts.

As well as its water storage role, the lake created by the dam provides recreational beneﬁts such as ﬁshing, boating and rowing and also generates a small amount of hydro electricity.

“The first step in the research project was to assess what ecosystem services the river and its catchment provided before dam construction. We then hypothesised what changes we expected to see once a dam was built and tested these hypotheses,” he says. The research team sought data for a range of indicators to determine the impact of the Opuha Dam on 17 ecosystem services. A wide range of indicators were used, including salmon spawning numbers, water temperature, and gravel extraction. Pre-dam and post-dam data were compared to evaluate impacts. Professor Cullen says it is well known that the dam has led to significant increases in agricultural output because more water is available for irrigation. The research has also shown there have been three major impacts from the Opuha Dam. “The dam has created Lake Opuha, changed the river flow regime, and provided more water for consumptive uses,” he says. “This has resulted in a cascade of changes in ecosystem services. “The change in summer flows means the river no longer dries up and this has been favourable for recreational trout and salmon fisheries, but there has been a reduction

in the number of flushing flows. This has changed the river from a braided to a largely single-channelled form. The lack of flushing flows has also increased the risk of in-stream contamination, particularly as water quality has fallen due to land use intensification and reduced the amount and quality of habitat for native birds.” he says. The results of the study have been published in a report to Environment Canterbury and is publicly available at http://www. canterburywater.org.nz/downloads/ecosystemservices-review-the-opihi-river-case.pdf.

Further developments of the ecosystem services approach are underway. Project: Ecosystem services review of water projects Researchers: Professor Ross Cullen, Dr Edward Hearnshaw, Professor Ken Hughey Funder: Environment Canterbury

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Setting a green benchmark for New Zealand buildings

Associate Professor John McDonagh in Property Studies at Lincoln University, is conducting a study to identify trends in electricity consumption in New Zealand ofﬁce buildings by analysing data from the Property Council of New Zealand from 1990 to 2008.

Research shows that the built environment accounts for 40 percent of the world’s electricity consumption. This can put immense strain on often limited energy resources.

“A greater emphasis on sustainably and efﬁciently managing our scarce land resources is required in New Zealand,” he says. “This will beneﬁt the country economically by sustaining our clean green image, reducing our carbon footprint and making a positive contribution to reducing the impact of global climate change.

While New Zealand generates 72 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, and so hasn’t faced the same urgency to adopt sustainable practices, there are limited opportunities to expand existing renewable energy assets. The New Zealand Government has indicated a desire to focus on climate change and energy use and has been promoting energy efﬁciency as a way to reduce growth in electricity demand.

“Efficiency policies relating to office buildings have recently been proposed, but little research has been carried out on this sector in New Zealand,” he says. “This research project looked at more than 400 buildings in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch, to help establish a baseline against which future energy efficiency initiatives can be assessed.” Associate Professor McDonagh says the management of property is essentially about managing the resources of the land sustainably for the economic, social and cultural benefit of people.

“New Zealand needs to look at following world trends and developing a set of ratings for commercial energy consumption,” he says. Associate Professor McDonagh says support is gathering in New Zealand for sustainable building practices. “Tenants are becoming more conscious of their public image and what their tenure of a particular building says about the culture of the organisation,” he says. “There is a global

The ﬁve star green rated HSBC tower in central Christchurch.

trend towards businesses looking to base themselves in green buildings. “Green star ratings are also becoming more desirable, but they only rate buildings that have applied to be part of the scheme. Businesses need to start focusing on total occupancy costs and realise there are economic as well as social beneﬁts associated with green buildings,” he says.

Associate Professor McDonagh says the greening of New Zealand’s buildings will be a slow process because buildings themselves have very long life-spans. His ﬁndings have been presented at the European Real Estate Conference. Project: Sustainable Property Management in New Zealand Researcher: John McDonagh

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The real impact of low impact logging

Logging in the tropics is rapidly moving to low-impact systems that use a combination of machines and extensive pre-harvest planning.

As part of this shift, there is concern over the impact low-impact logging will have on profitability and whether the new systems are understood well enough to ensure they are being used in the most efficient way. Dr Hugh Bigsby has been working in Malaysia for about 12 years, running industry relevant postgraduate training courses. Now he is conducting a research programme in Sarawak to analyse two low-impact harvesting systems. The study involves analysis of a large data set on heli-logging operations that have been running for about 15 years and current projects involving the Logfisher Swingyarder. Conventional logging uses large bulldozers that can have a destructive impact on the surrounding environment. Low-impact logging methods don’t require the construction of as many roads or clearing of other vegetation to access the trees that are to be felled. Instead, an inventory of tree size, species, quality and age is made and their removal carefully planned. Longer cables to pull logs out of a forest also minimise the amount of track made in the forest and can make for a faster and more efficient process. “Sustainable, low-impact logging is crucial for tropical countries if they are to develop sustainable land-based economies,” he says.

“Our research seeks to determine key factors that underpin productivity and to provide logging managers with tools to use these logging systems most appropriately. “There is growing pressure from consumers for the timber products they buy to be sourced from low-impact methods such as helicopter logging and cable logging using a Logﬁsher. “In New Zealand, for example, both The Warehouse and Mitre 10 have a policy of stocking outdoor wooden furniture manufactured from timber products from forests that have been certiﬁed to be sustainably managed.

“It is vital for the industry to have a clear understanding of the impacts and systems involved with low-impact logging to ensure it remains economically viable for them,” he says. Project: Productivity of Low-Impact Logging in Tropical Forests Researchers: Dr Hugh Bigsby, Peter Ling

Above: Hugh Bigsby and Peter Ling at a Logﬁsher trial in Melatai FMU, Sarawak.

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Gaining access to microcredit Providing small loans to the unemployed and poor living in rural areas is becoming more popular in many developing countries. These loans, known as ‘microcredit’, originated in Bangladesh in the 1970s.

Microcredit often involves a small group of borrowers pooling their resources and knowledge to request ﬁnance from lending organisations. Research shows microcredit has reduced poverty and empowered the poor by providing them access to the economic resources required to participate in small agricultural practices. It is widely agreed agriculture plays an important role in developing national economies and creating employment, so Dr Christopher Gan is leading a team of researchers to identify the key factors affecting farmers’ accessibility to microcredit. The study also assesses the impact of microcredit in rural China on poverty reduction and women’s empowerment.

Microcredit was introduced to China as an efficient anti-poverty programme in the mid1990s to help improve credit access by farmers and mitigate rural poverty in China, but Dr Gan says evidence indicates many Chinese farmers still have difficulty accessing credit. “Our initial findings suggest many rural households are still having trouble accessing microcredit and many still rely on informal credit for their production and consumption,” he says. “This study will help to show that improving the accessibility of financial services to the poor is an important policy instrument in the fight against poverty. “These farmers need credit support to meet their living needs, including money for the purchase of durable goods, daily consumption, festivals and ceremonies. Accessing affordable agricultural credit also allows farmers to adopt new technology which, in turn, helps improve their production and income. “Without this opportunity, the growth of rural economies can stagnate and the gap between rural and urban living standards will continue to widen,” he says.

Dr Gan says this gap between rural and urban living standards, as well as the growing awareness of the signiﬁcance of agriculture, has led governments of developing countries to employ various agriculture-support policies focusing on farmer lending to help raise rural incomes and improve agricultural production. Dr Gan hopes his team’s research will provide the relevant information for policy makers in the need to establish supportive regulatory environments to sustain a viable microcredit sector.

As part of this work, Lincoln University students are undertaking postgraduate studies into microcredit in Vietnam, China, Malaysia and Thailand. Project: Various Researchers: Dr Christopher Gan, Dr Baiding Hu, Dr Gerry Nartea, Judy Xia Li, Phan Dinh Khoi, Suraya Hanim, Mokhtar Funders: Lincoln University Research Fund

Interest in the Lean philosophy of how to plan, organise and run an organisation is increasing around the world.

The philosophy is based largely on Toyota’s revolutionary production system and focuses on creating output only in response to customer demand, with minimal waste or excess. Research shows this can be achieved by focusing on continual improvement, process ﬂows and people’s speciﬁc roles in achieving these objectives. Dr Jeff Heyl and Dr Mark Wilson are conducting exploratory research to address a novel approach to Lean manufacturing implementations involving public/private partnerships and government support for productivity improvement schemes.

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Implementing lean systems

“Our research proposes to use a cost-benefit model to examine the veracity of the PublicPrivate Partnership (PPP) approach to Lean manufacturing implementations,” says Dr Heyl. “There is no clear picture of the economic benefits of government supported Lean manufacturing initiatives for the individual firm or for the wider economy. Establishing these facts is important for prudent public expenditure, to justify future interventions, and to focus any funding allocations by Treasury.”

Dr Heyl says this research is, in itself, a good example of a PPP initiative in action. In terms of the international academic literature, this PPP approach to Lean implementation is unique and has not been published before. Their study aims to quantify the benefits and the costs of the PPPs originally initiated by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. It will also examine the net cost-benefits for the individual firm and for the wider New Zealand economy. To do this, the team must analyse the operational-level performance measurement systems put in place to support a Lean initiative. “Published research and our initial studies in this area have demonstrated that traditional performance measurement systems are inadequate and probably misleading when an organisation is adopting a Lean approach to their operation,” says Dr Heyl. “New approaches to measurement are required to effectively manage and control organisations under these conditions.” He says developing a better understanding of how Lean systems and practices can be implemented in New Zealand and the role the Government could play in these activities

could significantly improve New Zealand’s productivity and competitiveness in the international marketplace. Dr Wilson says the research has significant implications for business, government and the overall economic health of the country as well as a range of industries and sectors. “There is often a degree of fear with Lean approaches to management,” he says. “Talk of streamlining and redundancies is common, but the approach can increase productivity allowing firms to capture market share and maintain, or even increase, staffing levels. “A Lean approach to managing an organisation is also transformational in nature

and can be applied in any industry or sector including primary production, manufacturing or services. Our initial research shows signiﬁcant improvements in performance in Lean ﬁrms, though measuring true performance remains a challenging issue.” Project: Lean manufacturing Researchers: Dr Jeff Heyl, Dr Mark Wilson, Associate Professor Charley Lamb, Ashleigh Davies, Emma du Buisson Funders: NZTE Research Grant, Lincoln University Research Funding

Faculty of Environment, Society & Design The Faculty of Environment Society and Design consists of almost seventy academic, research and administrative staff covering a wide range of disciplines from the social sciences to landscape architecture and engineering that combine scholarly understanding, critique, creativity and problem solving. Our role is to support and enable communities in New Zealand and internationally to meet the environmental, social and political challenges of the 21st century. We achieve this by understanding the past, shaping the present and envisioning the future.

One of our key contributions within this specialist land-based university is interdisciplinary research on environmental management and impacts. As well as substantial funded projects looking at tourism and peak oil, and tourism and climate change, our staff are involved in areas such as surveys of the state of the New Zealand environment, examining the relationship between landscape and human rights, and a number of projects focused on ecological and social issues in urban environments. Research ranging from the impacts of polar tourism to the applications of high speed computer networks in facilitating the research process also reveals a commitment to sustainability and the reduction of New Zealand’s carbon footprint. Future research plans and projects are so numerous that there is no room to mention them all here. However, as we move in

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Introduction to the Faculty of Environment, Society & Design

The Faculty of Environment, Society and Design has over 50 academic staff and nearly 200 postgraduate students. As well as the faculty’s three departments – Applied Computing, Environmental Management and Social Science, Parks, Recreation, Tourism and Sport – there is the School of Landscape Architecture and two research centres – the Isaac Centre for Nature Conservation and Land, Environment and People. Consequently, our research expertise ranges from practical and applied to theoretical; from the philosophy of video games to groundwater and surface water computer modelling.

new directions we are also very conscious of building on our history. We have New Zealand’s ﬁrst and oldest Landscape Architecture programme housed, since 2009, in a purpose-built and award-winning design facility. In 2010, we celebrated a quartercentury of tourism research and teaching. We also have within the faculty a number of senior staff who have received national and international honours for long service as research leaders and postgraduate supervisors.

Dr Greg Ryan Acting Dean Faculty of Environment, Society and Design

Dr Greg Ryan.

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Adapting to climate change in the arctic

Dr Emma Stewart, Senior Lecturer in Tourism and Parks, is involved in one of the University’s most signiﬁcant international joint research projects to date. This three-year study aims to clarify and expand strategies for managing tourism change and its interaction with climate change in several Arctic Canadian communities.

Over the years, Lincoln University has been involved with tourism related projects for many private, public and not for proﬁt organisations through the Tourism Recreation Research and Education Centre (TRREC). The aims of such projects are to provide enhanced understanding of the tourism industry, develop resources for use by agencies in planning, and deliver strategic and business planning to improve analysis and performance.

Since 1984, cruise travel to the region has been growing steadily thanks to increasing tourist interest in natural and cultural polar landscapes. While the Inuit are renowned for their ability to adapt to changing conditions, one of many questions Emma Stewart is seeking to answer is: how will they cope with climate change?

Above right: Pond Inlet, Nunavut, Canada Far Right: “Orlova”: An Inuit-operated cruise ship visits Pond Inlet, Nunavut, Canada

Tourism is heavily reliant on the climate, and any changes in the climate system not only impact directly and indirectly on the land upon which that tourism is based, they also affect the people who depend on tourism for their livelihoods. This is particularly so in Arctic Canada where the climate is warming at twice the global average rate.

In previous research, Dr Stewart and her colleagues revealed that climate warming is altering the character and distribution of sea ice and increasing the likelihood of hullpenetrating, multi-year ice that could cause major headaches for future navigation in some parts of Arctic Canada. The team surmised these changes could also have negative implications for cruise tourism in the Canadian Arctic and, in particular, for tourist transits through the Northwest Passage and High Arctic regions.

It was these ﬁndings and this hypothesis that led to the joint research project now underway between Lincoln University and Lakehead, Guelph and Calgary Universities in Canada. This project will help the team to better understand how climate change is transforming the landscape of Arctic Canada and the effects of these changes on the tourism industry. It will also help assess which factors may enable or constrain community-level adaptation as the region transitions to an icefree summer.

Using case studies in Nunavut, Nunavik and Nunatsiavut, the research will explore how changes in expedition cruising and terrestrial wildlife tourism will affect communities. Dr Stewart is taking the lead on ﬁeldwork in two communities involved in the cruise tourism aspect of the project, at Pond Inlet and Gjoa Haven in Nunavut. The goal is to identify appropriate communitylevel adaptation strategies – by focusing on changes in visitor numbers, expectations, experiences and impacts – that local

Project: Climate Change and Tourism Change in Arctic Communities: A Resilience Assessment

This research is the ﬁrst to undertake an empirical assessment of the interactions of climate change and tourism in Arctic communities. It is also critical for understanding how climate-related change will affect destinations across the globe, including New Zealand, which will need to adapt to the unavoidable impacts of a warming climate.

Funder: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

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stakeholders and decision-makers can use to take advantage of the opportunities and minimise the negative outcomes of a warming Arctic.

Researchers: Dr Emma J Stewart, Dr Margaret Johnston, Dr Jackie Dawson, Dr Dianne Draper, Dr Harvey Lemelin

Emma Stewart While Dr Emma Stewart’s interest is in tourism and the environment, she also has an interesting penchant for polar places. Originally from the UK, Dr Stewart left in 1995 to complete her Master’s in Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management at Lincoln University. She later worked with Lincoln University researchers Dr Gary Steel and Dr Val Kirby on various social science projects at Scott Base in Antarctica. So intrigued was she by this polar experience that she moved to Calgary in Canada to work with Arctic communities. Dr Stewart completed her PhD in Canada in 2009 working on a project on residents’ attitudes toward tourism in three Arctic communities. During that time she saw how quickly the effect of climate change was progressing in the Canadian Arctic and recognised the importance of assessing its impact at a community level. “It became apparent that climate change is happening quickly in the Canadian Arctic – at twice the rate of anywhere else in the planet. Over the last three summer seasons, parts of the Northwest Passage have been free of sea ice,” she explains.

Emma has two children: her eldest, Hannah, was born in the UK; her youngest, Benjamin, in Canada. Having a blonde, blue-eyed baby on her back when interviewing in the Arctic communities was a real ice breaker (no pun intended), explains Emma. It meant she was seen as a mum and someone they could relate to. This accelerated her acceptance within the Inuit communities. “It was wonderful to learn about Inuit ways, their society, the land, and how important it is to them and their culture. Through no fault of their own, their land is changing and they have to deal with the consequences of it. It’s a social justice and a human rights issue. “The world is going to have to adapt to climate change. This study is equally applicable to destinations in New Zealand, as it is to Antarctica and the Arctic. These are all special environments that we value; the adaptations are not limited to those that industry has to make, they also extend to what the community must do. It’s about taking a wider approach and assessing vulnerability as well as resilience,” says Dr Stewart.

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Accelerating research

Lincoln University has an enviable national and international reputation as a leading teaching and research facility. To build on this reputation and maintain a competitive advantage in the global research arena, researchers not only need access to advanced technology they also need to know how to use it for their best advantage.

Research is becoming more collaborative, more multi-disciplinary and more reliant on technology. High performance computing and high speed networking is enabling researchers to process and exchange highly complex data with colleagues around the world. ‘eResearch’, ‘eScience’ and ‘cyberinfrastructure’ are all terms used internationally to describe the development and use of high performance collaborative research infrastructure. Within New Zealand that infrastructure comprises: KAREN (the Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network); and the BeSTGRID (Broadband enabled Science and Technology GRID) collaboration, which provides access to high performance computing, including the BlueFern supercomputer.

Dr Stuart Charters is a lecturer in the Department of Applied Computing and a research specialist in visualisation, software engineering and grid computing. He is also the Lincoln University champion for KAREN and eResearch, and a member of the national BeSTGRID collaboration project. BeSTGRID provides a data grid that allows sharing of research information, a computational grid for sharing of computational resources, and collaboration tools that facilitate online visualization of instruments and experiments. An aspect of the BeSTGRID project that Dr Charters is particularly involved in is Accelerating Research, which involves helping researchers transition their research from traditional modes to take advantage of high performance technology infrastructures. The aim is to enable researchers to progress their projects and initiatives collaboratively, on faster timelines and with greater

computational power and data intensity, and to develop the infrastructure to support research in areas of national signiﬁcance - particularly the biological and geological sciences.

species to compute. With the new technology they were able to reduce that time to fewer than two hours. This meant the total time required to model all 30 species dropped from two months to just three days.

Access to data, knowledge, information and supporting infrastructure helps researchers to be more creative. They can work effectively together irrespective of their geographical location.

In another example, Dr Charters and research assistant, Paul Ronaldson, helped Dr Crile Doscher in the Department of Environmental Management to develop a pipeline that would recreate the data output of 3D laser scans of speciﬁc braided river models into visual simulations so he could study how these rivers evolve. The data processing and visualisation power of this advanced technology is now enabling the researcher to handle much larger datasets than ever before.

By moving to an advanced technology environment, researchers can also attract more research investment and provide services to the private sector, thereby increasing the competitiveness of the New Zealand economy. Dr Charters and the BeSTGRID team have been engaging with scientists to understand the bottlenecks in their research processes and to determine how the technology can best alleviate those. For example, scientists in the Bio-Protection Research Centre had invasive pest models that took roughly two days per

The scientists have all been very positive about the technology and the new opportunities it brings. Not only can they work faster, with larger datasets and with greater accuracy, researchers can now also make better use of their time to concentrate on the science, get their publications out faster and target more research funding. Dr Charters is currently developing resources and tutorials to enable researchers to make maximum use of advanced computational technology and the KAREN network. This will complete the transition from what has been a predominately technology focused role to a fully researcher focused project. The goal is to enable researchers to compete globally by ensuring their access to, and use of, advanced world class technology. Project: Accelerating Research Researchers: Dr. Stuart Charters Funder: Ministry of Research Science & Technology

Global concerns over climate change, food production and distribution, peak oil and natural resource extraction should be addressed in the framework of landscape. Today, it is no longer only about land and sovereignty, but about how people perceive and interact with their environment.

While governments, NGOs and the United Nations are working to address the complex global activities that impact on indigenous, local, regional and national populations, an urgent need has emerged for a new discourse that offers new and practical tools to safeguard human rights. This is because much of the current legal and policy architecture for dealing with international issues is no longer working. Addressing the challenges of burning environmental concerns, which have political implications and direct impact on wellbeing, requires innovative conceptual tools and solutions that can only come from incorporating diverse views and experiences.

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The right to landscape

Lincoln University’s innovative Right to Landscape© initiative is a collaborative programme with the UK Cambridge Centre for Landscape and People, (CCLP). Initiated and led by Dr Shelley Egoz, Senior Lecturer of the School of Landscape Architecture, it is starting to make waves internationally for creating a new platform for the type of public discourse needed to address current challenges involving environment and people in local and global contexts.

Landscape is increasingly a focus of global interest and concern. The European Landscape Convention (ELC), which is the ﬁrst legal framework to address the relationship between landscape and people, as well as acknowledging the value of everyday and degraded landscapes, has gained the public and government attention needed to drive signiﬁcant shifts in policy making. In academia, landscape has developed into a conceptual and theoretical framework to explore relationships between humans and their environment. Using landscape as a conceptual tool integrates the complex aspects of the lived-in world. It is a vital framework, as the impacts of climate change, food scarcity and energy security continue to put more and more pressure on civic structures, resources and the people charged with responsibilities for managing human and global stability. In December 2008, The Right to Landscape was launched at an international workshop at Jesus College, Cambridge UK, coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The initiative converges concepts of landscape and human rights as a tool to address some of the present and future environmental and human crises. It is based on the premise that landscape, as an umbrella concept for an integrated entity of physical environments, is imbued with meaning and comprises an underpinning component for ensuring wellbeing and dignity of communities and individuals. Using a series of books to launch international debates, the aim of the initiative is to enable academics to interact across disciplinary boundaries and build socially just responses to existing and anticipated conﬂicts, through broad discussion.

The objective is to generate a body of knowledge that will assist in ensuring human rights and global justice in the context of an environmental crisis. Dr Shelley Egoz welcomes PhD students who have topics they wish to research and who would like to apply their skills in this area, particularly those who wish to take landscape into a political dimension by bringing together ecology and politics. Project: Right to Landscape Researchers: Dr Shelley Egoz, Associate Professor Stefanie Rixecker, Dr Gloria Pungetti, Dr Jala Makhzoumi Funders: Lincoln University, University of Cambridge, American University of Beirut, Lebanon

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New ways of looking at tourism yield In 2010, Lincoln University celebrated its 25th year of involvement in tourism education and research. It was one of the ﬁrst universities in the country to offer tourism courses and has since established itself as a pre-eminent university for tourism research.

The tourism team at Lincoln University is extremely well-respected for its research contributions and has developed strong networks into industry and government agencies. The team is also known for its special focus on a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding tourism and, in particular, for an emphasis on exploring the connections between tourism, the New Zealand natural environment and society. Professor David Simmons is currently leading a project that examines tourism yield from a demand side perspective, on the hypothesis that it is possible to identify which tourists (and their itineraries) generate different yield outcomes – not just in terms of ﬁnancial or economic yield, but also sustainable yield. This innovative project involves leading-edge science with a strong spatial and geographic perspective on the economic, environmental and social ‘yields’ that arise from international tourist activity in New Zealand. It focuses on the ways in which tourists interact with New Zealand and produce various forms of yield and, thus, impact on the economy and New Zealand’s environmental and social aspects. ‘Sustainable yield’ refers to measures of both environmental and social returns from tourism by, for example, incorporating measures of carbon emissions and energy use (environmental), or the degree of regional dispersal of tourists in New Zealand (social). All three yield aspects – economic, environmental and social – are examined in terms of their spatial expression. That is, each measure of yield is, in part, determined by where and when within New Zealand these

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2. Develop an in-depth understanding of international tourist decision making processes, with emphases on understanding itinerary, activity and expenditure choices; 3. Develop an ‘agent-based’ simulation of international tourist decision making. The aim of this objective is to develop an ‘agent-based’ simulation model of yieldrelevant behaviours that can simulate and help predict movement, activities and expenditure around the country by international tourists. The model could eventually run scenarios based on alterations in tourist mix, infrastructure and so on.

components of yield arise. Put simply, different itineraries are associated with different yield outcomes. The research aims to enable product, policy and marketing interventions with the potential to improve yield per visitor by ﬁve percent. Given the importance of the international tourism sector to the New Zealand economy, this is a very signiﬁcant positive impact.

The research has three objectives:

Work is currently focused on the third of these objectives.

1. Derive yield-based international visitor and itinerary prototypes, i.e. look at the travel patterns of international tourists as they explore New Zealand, such as who they are, where they go and what they do when they are here. Data already available in the International Visitors’ Survey (IVS), and other databases was used to explore these patterns;

For the now completed second objective, the team interviewed over 180 tourists from a range of international countries in ﬁve locations around Canterbury (Akaroa, Kaikoura, Hanmer Springs, Christchurch and Tekapo). This produced huge amounts of data which was analysed in an attempt to understand the underlying dimensions of how tourists make decisions.

For example, it was discovered that while money and time are the main drivers behind tourist decisions, ease of navigation and the friendliness of New Zealanders are also important. Recommendations from iSites, hotel owners, other tourists and locals, all contribute to tourist decisions on where they go and what they do next. While such chance decisions are difﬁcult to model, recognising that it is the social encounter that is behind the decision enables researchers to model the behaviour. The applicability of a successful outcome of the research is widespread and ramiﬁes out into many of today’s most important global issues. Modelling tourist decision making and yield-relevant behaviours will become an increasingly sought after research goal given the possible impacts of climate change, access to fossil fuels and globalising economies. Project: Enhancing the Spatial Dimensions of Tourism Yield Researchers: Professor David Simmons, Professor Clive Smallman, Associate Professor Susanne Becken, Dr Crile Doscher, Dr Jude Wilson, Dr Kevin Moore, Professor Pip Forer Funders: Foundation for Research, Science & Technology

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Urban biodiversity and design

General Assembly, initiatives like the Urban Biodiversity & Design network (URBIO) took on implementing the Convention on Biological Diversity in towns and cities. URBIO was launched in Germany in 2008.

Populations in westernised countries have become very urbanised; 87 percent of New Zealanders, for example, now live in towns or cities. It is a sad fact, however, most of us know very little about nature in our urban surroundings, let alone what types of plants can grow there and what functions and roles they can play.

With the help of research assistants and PhD students, their research focuses on documenting urban biodiversity and exploring ways of enhancing biodiversity through design. They are also researching urban plant community composition, urban disturbance ecology, urban design principles, design alternatives and more.

New Zealand is one of 25 “biodiversity hotspots” around the globe. The country’s native ﬂora comprises only about 2500 species of native plants, of which 80 percent are endemic. With more than 30,000 introduced exotic species in their biosphere, though, New Zealanders are in danger of losing sight of, and appreciation for, native ﬂora and fauna. In recent years, there has been a growing awareness that, to preserve and enhance biodiversity across the globe, efforts should be focused on cities and towns. In the lead-up to the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity, declared by the United Nations

The research conducted at Lincoln University ﬁts within the framework of the URBIO network and Professor Maria Ignatieva, Associate Professor Glen Stewart, and Dr Colin Meurk have made signiﬁcant contributions to the network through keynote addresses, presentations and publication of book chapters.

These issues are addressed through empirical studies on the composition of urban plant communities, the ecological and social drivers of plant community composition, the application of ecological principles to design, and the enhancement of urban biodiversity through design. The aim is to transform attitudes to land and the environment in urban settings.

ecological design, it is possible to have all the formal components of a garden using native plants instead of introduced or pest species.

which aim, for example, to attract native birds through the use of stepping stones and corridors that join areas where they feed.

Over the years, the team’s research has generated articles in peer reviewed scientiﬁc journals, chapters in books, student work, extended publications, articles, public lectures, and keynote addresses at international conferences.

The research team, in conjunction with students in the Ecological Design Studio and Friends of Christchurch Botanic Gardens, have created demonstration gardens that show how it is possible to retroﬁt an area to incorporate biodiversity with native plants, such as rockeries, hedges, roof top gardens, road sides, street trees, swales, and ponds.

Urban biodiversity is an area that Associate Professor Stewart and his colleagues feel very passionate about, and it is a subject gaining increasing interest from local and international students alike.

A key objective is to show people how they can encourage nature back into their neighbourhood. For example, with good

In 2010, they presented at the URBIO conference in Nagoya Japan on the subject of developing ecological networks in cities,

Project: Low Impact Urban Design and Development Researchers: Professor Maria Ignatieva, Associate Professor Glenn Stewart, Dr Colin Meurk, Chundi Chen, Friederike Behrens, Isaac Centre for Nature Conservation, Landcare Research Funders: Foundation for Research, Science & Technology

Landscape change is the subject of some of the most heated debates over resource management. This is because, for many people, landscape is a powerful expression of their environmental and cultural identity and integrity.

Global capital, technology and markets are major drivers of landscape change, and much of the contention arises from conﬂict between two public policy agendas: the promotion of open global markets; and the sustainable management of landscape systems.

Co-edited by Land Environment and People Research Centre (LEaP) Fellow, Professor Jorgen Primdahl of the Centre for Forest, Landscape and Planning at Copenhagen University, the book is the result of a three-year international collaborative research on rural landscape change. It includes a series of case studies in countries with differing levels of producer subsidy – from Europe to the USA and Asia Pacific – and examines the way that global market liberalisation policies and international sustainability agendas intersect within local landscapes. The book, which also includes consideration of the consequences of globalisation of markets in food and fibre for New Zealand landscapes, identifies a series of policy challenges in managing local landscape change and proposes priorities for future research. The next stage of the project is to strengthen the international collaborative network aimed at identifying pathways to more sustainable landscape outcomes. Professor Swaffield has been granted a fellowship to undertake this work as a visiting professor at Copenhagen University in Denmark. Project: Globalisation and the Sustainability of Agricultural landscapes Researcher: Professor Simon Swaffield Funders: VELUX Foundation

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Globalisation and agricultural landscapes

Professor Simon Swafﬁeld is one of Lincoln University’s internationally recognised researchers on the subject of changing landscapes. His most recent work was published in a book entitled Globalisation and Agricultural Landscapes: Change patterns and policy trends in developed countries.

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Public perceptions of New Zealand’s environment To understand public opinion on environmental concerns, it is important that policy makers monitor the biophysical state – the connection between public perception and the ﬁndings of biophysical scientists – as differences between these groups can indicate potential problems.

If public perceptions are wrong, for example, the ramifications could force government to divert critical resources away from major environmental issues to deal with less serious issues, to the detriment of overall environmental quality. Since 2000, the biennial survey of people’s perceptions of the state of the New Zealand environment has given policy makers a better understanding of the connection between people and the environment. Headed by Professor Ken Hughey, the survey is the only one in the world to use the OCED’s Pressure-State-Response model of environment reporting to examine trends in people’s views about multiple resources, including freshwater and soil quality, native flora and fauna, marine fisheries, land and air issues. The survey research was used by the OECD in its 2007 review of New Zealand’s environmental performance. The survey itself consists of a questionnaire sent every two years to 2000 households chosen randomly from the New Zealand electoral roll. The survey has an average effective response rate of over 40 percent and it is hoped that the introduction of an online survey in 2010 will prove as consistently successful as the paperbased survey has been. After five surveys, Professor Hughey and his team have identified a number of key trends. Water quality for example has been consistently singled out as the most important issue of concern to New Zealanders. Also, in the 2008 survey, for the first time, farming superseded storm water and waste as the perceived top cause of damage to fresh water.

Professor Hughey suspects this is the result of heightened media interest in response to growing scientific evidence that farming is damaging the environment. But what is most startling is that New Zealanders place fresh water issues above climate change as the biggest domestic environmental problem in terms of pollution, quantity and quality. Professor Hughey postulates this could be because fresh water is a domestic issue of considerable importance that people feel is within their control – more so than climate change, which they might perceive as a more global problem. Conversely, given the importance placed on climate related issues as a global problem, New Zealanders would likely be supportive of policies that protect the environment on a global scale, such as signing up to the Kyoto Protocol. But when less than 10 percent of respondents see atmospheric and climate related issues as the most important problem facing New Zealand, it becomes difficult for policy makers to sell the idea that this country needs to tackle such problems for the benefit of all nations, including New Zealand. The Ministry for the Environment considers the data useful in terms of preparing New Zealand’s State of the Environment report. They too are interested in how well people’s perceptions match actual biophysical results. Project: Biennial survey of people’s perceptions of the state of the NZ environment Researchers: Professor Ken Hughey, Associate Professor Geoff Kerr, Professor Ross Cullen Funder: Ministry for the Environment

How sustainable are the landscape design materials we are using, and how might our choices contribute to a global goal for an overall reduction in carbon emissions? These were questions that a recent Summer Scholarship programme set out to answer.

Mike Barthelmeh and Dr Shannon Davis – both Lincoln University graduates – supervised Lincoln University Summer Scholarship student Kirsten O’Connor working on the topic of Carbon and Environmental Proﬁling of Landscape Materials. The objective of this scholarship project was to identify the carbon and embodied-energy costs of a range of hard materials commonly used by the landscape profession. This involved developing proﬁles of typical materials and techniques in regard to their carbon and environmental footprints. Kirsten also had to examine how this information might be applied as a tool to assist or promote the goals of sustainable landscape change, and how it might affect the decision-making process of professional landscape architects.

A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) model was applied to typical landscape materials, identifying key processes required for their production. The model looks at all costs associated with materials, from initial creation through to end-of-life, otherwise known as ‘cradle to grave’.

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material sustainability within the New Zealand construction context and the landscape architecture profession. Project: Carbon and Environmental Proﬁling of Landscape Materials. Researchers: Mike Barthelmeh, Dr Shannon Davis, Kirsten O’Connor, Craig Pocock

Funders: Lincoln University Summer Scholarship, Pocock Design Environment

Right: The pool is recharged through rainwater harvesting from the roof, and the plants are irrigated by greywater. All construction materials have low toxicity and low embodied energy. Below: This New York courtyard acts as a building support system by working as a ﬂood retention basin for ground water recharge, using materials with low toxicity and low embodied energy.

The contribution of appropriate material choices in urban and other implemented design projects has the potential to contribute in a tangible way to national and global goals to reduce carbon emissions in particular. Thus, the aim of this project is to provide landscape architects, designers and other stakeholders with an overview of the carbon and embodied-energy characteristics of these materials, so that they can make informed decisions. The findings not only have the potential to support landscape architects to be more sustainable by increasing their awareness about the consequences of design and implementation decisions, they also provide a blueprint for other nations to model how they specify and use hard materials in landscape and urban design. The project is a significant starting place for more defined and specific research into

Photos by Craig Pocock

Sustainable landscape materials

Kirsten worked closely with Craig Pocock of Pocock Design Environment, another Lincoln University graduate, who has worked extensively overseas and actively promotes sustainable landscape design. He has seen ﬁrst-hand a number of inappropriate choices involving hard and soft materials, such as landscape designs in deserts that demand precious drinking water.

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Seeing through shadows Lincoln Ventures is a research and development company owned by Lincoln University that has developed a range of sensor and measurement techniques for monitoring environmental and industrial conditions. Many of these techniques have involved the processing of digital images and have led to robust, video based detection applications for industry.

Researcher Dr Kenji Irie, who works at Lincoln Ventures, was recently awarded a PhD from Lincoln University for his very successful research project and thesis on noise-limited, scene-change detection in digital images. The technology he developed can automatically adapt to almost any scene change and illumination condition where surveillance and monitoring is required - from industrial application for improving processing efﬁciency, player analysis of video images during sporting events, to automated animal surveillance. Digital cameras are increasingly being used for surveillance. But rather than just recording the scene for later manual assessment, the cameras need to be able to automatically identify objects such as people or vehicles that enter the scene. Identiﬁcation of such objects is frequently confounded by the shadows they cast. This is because automated surveillance systems have no control over environmental lighting and cannot discern between shadows and dark objects. Dr Irie created a novel technique to address this problem by coupling image-noise statistics with a dual-illumination shadow-detection algorithm, producing a colour-based method for shadow-free scene-change detection. The technology works by isolating objects within the scene and removing the shadows to leave a very good outline of the objects. An important attribute of the algorithm is that it uses information from the noise inherent in the image to decide whether a change in the colour of a pixel is due to an introduced object or its shadow. This avoids the need to set arbitrary parameter values as is commonly done in many

image processing techniques. The algorithm works very well on a range of images. In fact, it is only limited by the noise present and if there is any colour ambiguity between genuine scene pixels and shadow pixels. Although further work is required to perfect the algorithm, this technique could be included as a valuable component in general surveillance systems. Lincoln Ventures has a strong track record for transferring the results from its basic research programmes into successful applications and it is hoped that Dr Kenji Irie’s noise-limited, scene-change image detection technology will also be successfully applied to assist

various industries both within and outside New Zealand. Aspects of the technology are already being used in the commercial FielderViewTM cricketplayer tracking system, enabling players to be accurately detected regardless of whether the ﬁeld is in bright light or in shadow. This real-time system provides live feedback and opportunities for post match analysis by coaches and viewers alike. Project: Noise-limited scene-change detection in images Researchers: Dr Kenji Irie, Professor Alan McKinnon, Dr Keith Unsworth, Dr Ian Woodhead Funders: Foundation for Research Science & Technology, Lincoln Ventures

New Zealand is often seen as a fantasy land by many around the world. Its remote and rugged landscapes, carved by years of environment extremes, present tourists with a breathtaking welcome that makes every minute of the long haul journey worthwhile. But with huge dependency on oil and vulnerability to climate change, how can the tourism sector adapt when oil prices rocket and the tourist experience changes?

Economies and societies need to understand the challenges ahead to develop strategies for coping under such uncertainties. Both energy security (predominately the supply of oil) and climate change are key challenges in this context, especially for New Zealand which is characterised by its geographical isolation and dependency on nature. Dr Susanne Becken is the Director of Land, Environment and People (LEaP) a Lincoln University research centre and Theme Leader for Climate Change, Peak Oil & Society. She specialises in energy use and tourism at Lincoln University and is currently leading two major Government-funded programmes on ‘Tourism

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More climate and less oil

and Oil’ and ‘Preparing the Tourism Sector for Climate Change’ that explore these important challenges faced by New Zealand tourism. Dr Becken and her colleagues are highly respected by researchers and institutions around the world and are frequently contacted by experts within and outside New Zealand to provide advice and input on these matters. Both these research programmes deal with future challenges and aim to prepare the tourism sector for a world of risk and adaptation. The first project, Tourism and Oil, researches the global availability and affordability of oil and how higher oil prices might impact on tourism. It identifies the market segments most at risk and analyses questions around vulnerable tourism industries and destinations. The objective is to prepare New Zealand tourism businesses for higher oil prices and help them reduce their vulnerability. Although current levels of oil price volatility have not been enough to lead to great reductions in tourists, the research highlights important vulnerabilities for the New Zealand tourism sector, largely due to macroeconomic income effects in tourism source countries. There is a link between when oil prices go up and the GDP in the economy goes down, as seen in the recent economic climate. The results confirm other research data that shows when economic activity and people’s ability to travel is reduced, long distance travel is particularly at risk. The second project relates to climate change and how it might affect the viability of the tourism sector. Currently, the New Zealand

climate is seen quite positively by tourists. But what if the effects of climate change were to create adverse weather or more severe events that would affect the tourist experience and business proﬁtability?

to present the oil results at a keynote address on Finite Resources in Oman at the Responsible Tourism Conference, as Oman itself considers whether to invest in tourism should they run out of oil.

This project focuses on potential climate impacts, such as more extreme events, and how they will affect tourist travel (for example, tourist satisfaction and safety) and the operation of tourism businesses. The tourism sector is an interesting case study, as it relies on cheap energy and a resilient environment. Oil shocks and climate impacts can disrupt its functioning. Skiing is one example of a potentially vulnerable industry. Two more case studies will be identiﬁed with input from tourism stakeholders.

Once the results from both projects are known, Dr Becken and her colleagues intend to marry the results and link them with the Tourism Futures project at Victoria University, Wellington.

Both research projects are unique and globally signiﬁcant and will be eagerly reviewed by other researchers and the tourism industry around the world. Dr Becken has been invited

For New Zealand, a measure of success for these projects would be if tourism businesses started to plan 10 - 20 years ahead and implement strategic plans accordingly. Projects: Tourism and Oil, Preparing the Tourism Sector for Climate Change Researchers: Dr Susanne Becken, Professor Ken Hughey, Dr Jude Wilson Funder: Foundation for Research Science & Technology

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Better performance, better recovery Most sportspeople want to get the best out of their bodies while staying injury-free, which is why researchers at Lincoln University are looking at solutions that help improve performance and recovery. Current research in the Faculty of Environment, Society and Design centres on the use and beneﬁts of sports compression garments, vibration therapy and ‘live high-train low’ altitude training.

Sports compression garments are being used increasingly by athletes of all abilities and disciplines to give them an advantage in training and competition. However, the effect of these garments worn either during or after exercise on performance is equivocal. The technology behind sports compression garments has been used medically for centuries in the treatment of venous and lymphatic disorders. The compression exerts graduated pressure along a limb enhancing blood ﬂow back to the heart and subsequently raising cardiac output. Multisport athletes often compete over several days, sometimes with short recovery periods, and these garments may offer an effective method of hastening overnight recovery. Under the supervision of Associate Professor Mike Hamlin, Kieran de Glenville, St Bede’s College science teacher and holder of a Royal Society of New Zealand teaching fellowship at Lincoln University investigated the beneﬁts of graduated compression garments when they were worn during recovery from a 40 kilometre time trial. In a randomised single-blind cross-over experiment, multisport athletes were given a graduated, full-leg-length SkinsTM compressive garment or a similar-looking, non-compressive Nike® control garment to wear continuously for 24 hours after the initial time trial. After 24 hours, a second time trial was completed to gauge the effect of each garment on subsequent endurance performance. One week later the groups were reversed and testing procedures repeated.

Relative to the non-compressive control garment, the compressive garment increased average power output over the second time trial by 3.3%, decreasing the average time to complete the distance by 29 seconds. The chance that the true effect on subsequent endurance performance is beneﬁcial was 99 percent. These results suggest wearing graduated compressive garments during recovery is likely to be worthwhile and very unlikely to be harmful for well-trained endurance athletes. In a recently completed study on 24 welltrained university rugby players, Mike and his

team again found positive improvements after wearing the compressive garments compared to the non-compressive garments. Together with Associate Professor Jenny Ross, Mike Hamlin is also supervising two PhD students from Thailand. Nuttaset and Apiwan Manimmanakorn are visiting New Zealand to study the physiological and performance effects of altitude training and the health-related effects of whole body vibration therapy. Project: Sports compression garments Researchers: Associate Professor Michael J. Hamlin, Kieran M de Glanville Funders: Lincoln University, Royal Society of New Zealand

Nuttaset Manimmanakorn is a medical doctor with an interest in rehabilitation medicine and vibration therapy. His wife, Apiwan, is interested in sports science and the effects of simulated altitude training on performance. Whole body vibration is a new tool that is being increasingly used in physiotherapy, rehabilitation and sport science to improve health. It is applied via a platform that transmits oscillatory motion to the patient. It has been shown to have positive health effects, including improved muscle strength, balance,

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Health-related effects of whole body vibration therapy

The physiological and performance effects of altitude training and bone mass, vascular blood ﬂow and nerve conduction velocity. Osteoporotic fractures, which occur mostly in elderly people, and diabetes are both serious health concerns in New Zealand. Vibration therapy can help elderly people increase muscle strength, balance and bone mass. These are major factors in the prevention of falls and fractures. It may also help diabetic patients to control blood sugar levels and reduce complications such as peripheral vascular disease and peripheral neuropathy. The aim of Nuttaset’s research is to determine the health effects of whole body vibration therapy in speciﬁc populations: postmenopausal women; and diabetic patients. Before conducting a randomised controlled trial in these two groups, a meta-analysis of previous research studies into the effects of vibration therapy will be performed. Results from this meta-analysis will then be used to provide a guide for appropriate vibration parameters, such as amplitude and frequency of oscillation, for the subsequent research trials. Altitude training has long been used to improve athletes’ performance in New Zealand, although the positive effects are still controversial. Project: Vibration Therapy and Altitude Training Researchers: Nuttaset Manimmanakorn, Associate Professor Michael J. Hamlin, Associate Professor Jenny Ross Funder: Lincoln University

Apiwan Manimmanakorn’s study of ten elite triathletes investigated differences between those who improved their performance (responded) and those who decreased their performance (did not respond) after a 20-day ‘live high-train low’ (LHTL) training camp.

The athletes underwent two 800 metre swim time trials at sea-level (one week prior to and one week after the altitude camp), and two ten minute standardised submaximal cycle tests at altitude (1650 metres) on the ﬁrst and last days of the training camp. Based on their swim time trial results athletes were divided into responders and non-responders. All subjects increased oxygen consumption during the cycle test on day 20 compared to day one; however, compared to responders, non-responders’ oxygen consumption increased even more. Substantial changes in responders relative to non-responders also included decreased carbon dioxide production after the 20-day training. Changes in other physiological variables in responders compared to non-responders during the cycle test (heart rate and arterial oxygen saturation) were beneﬁcial but unclear. The results suggest considerable individual variation exists in response to 20 days of LHTL in elite triathletes undergoing similar training, and that a simple ten-minute submaximal cycle test may be useful for predicting those athletes who are not responding to altitude training.

This investigation demonstrated that physiological variable changes during a moderately intensive submaximal cycle test at altitude may help coaches or sports scientists to determine which athletes will respond well to LHTL training. However, further research is required before any ﬁrm recommendations can be made. Project: Live High-Train Low Altitude Training Researchers: Apiwan Manimmanakorn, Associate Professor Michael J. Hamlin, Associate Professor Jenny Ross Funder: Lincoln University

Professor Ian Spellerberg is one of New Zealand’s most respected scientists and science communicators, and a consistent advocate for education to foster nature conservation and sustainable development.

He has won a number of awards over the years for his many books and publications including two ‘outstanding paper awards’ with colleague Graeme Buchan and, recently, the Science Communicator Award for 2008 from the New Zealand Association of Scientists. His book Monitoring Ecological Change is in its second edition and has been called a “must read” on the subject.”

He was a founding member of the Te Ara Kakariki Greenway Canterbury Trust, an ambitious native plant project that aims to create a broad green corridor of native plants extending from the foothills of the Southern Alps to the Canterbury coastline. The objective is to encourage the use of native plants and to research the beneﬁts of weaving native plants into the economic landscape, by examining their contribution to amenity values, tourism and agricultural values as well as educational and community development. The main aim of Professor Spellerberg’s research is to provide a better understanding of the need for sustainable use of nature and the environment, and his contention that nature and biological diversity issues are more important than climate change issues. He believes that encouraging and helping students to publish their theses is one the most exciting aspects of his research. A recent project with International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Chief Scientist, Jeff McNeely, to mark the UN 2010 Year of Biological Diversity has been to research opinion articles for the local media on the importance of biological diversity and also on whether the focus on climate change is overpowering a greater need for sustainable development. Thanks to his research and supervision of international students, Lincoln University has partnered with the University of Göttingen,

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A champion of sustainable development

A notable achievement was the establishment of the Lincoln University Isaac Centre for Nature Conservation in 1999 for research, education and advocacy of nature conservation.

Germany, to offer a jointly awarded Master’s Degree on International Nature Conservation (MINC). This initiative came from the Centre for Nature Conservation at the University of Göttingen and Lincoln University’s Isaac Centre for Nature Conservation. Professor Spellerberg is the lead editor for a new textbook on Nature Conservation and ecology; this book is one of many joint products from the MINC Programme. He has been invited to work with Berkshire Publishing as an editor and advisor on an Encyclopaedia of Sustainability.

Project: Environmental education for sustainable development Researchers: Professor Ian Spellerberg, Associate Professor Graeme Buchan, Jeff McNeely, Michele Frey, Komanthi Kolandai-Matchett Funders: Industry, EU Education, Local government, Lincoln University, Lincoln University Isaac Centre for Nature Conservation

Dr Suzanne Vallance, Dr Greg Ryan, Dr Joanna Fountain and Dr Roy Montgomery recently undertook a unique social science research project that delved into the history, tourism and food-gathering background of the AvonHeathcote Estuary Ihutai, an important body of water located in the New Brighton-Sumner coastline area of Christchurch.

The objectives of their research were to: • Assess mahinga kai impacts on eco-system health; in particular, to explore lay versus expert concepts of risk, particularly health risks associated with mahinga kai; • Identify the different cultural values around resource use; • Provide assistance to Avon-Heathcote Estuary Ihutai Trust in its decision on whether to seek

Ramsar Convention status for the estuary; and • Understand the recreational needs of estuary visitors, as well as attitudes and opinions of non-users in order to optimise the recreational opportunities available at the estuary and share information about these opportunities. The aim of the research was to get people to care about the estuary by inspiring interest in the area, demonstrating potential value (particularly now that the ocean outfall has been completed) and encouraging them to preserve the area for others to enjoy. The combined results of the four scholarship projects (mahinga kai; tourism operators’

mapping and survey; recreation; and social history) show that almost all estuary users agree that the area is a great resource with good facilities and a wetland of national signiﬁcance. However, most people, including tourist operators, knew little about the estuary itself and felt that pollution and smell needed to be addressed before the area could be regarded as ‘restored’. Project: Co-ordinated Social Science Research of the Avon-Heathcote Estuary Ihutai: History, Tourism and Food-gathering. Researchers: Dr Suzanne Vallance, Dr Greg Ryan, Dr Roy Montgomery, Dr Joanna Fountain, Kelly Fisher, Felicity Boyd, Catherine Lizamore, Sheena Crawford Funders: Lincoln University, Tertiary Education Commission, Environment Canterbury, Avon-Heathcote Estuary Ihutai Trust

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Exploring the AvonHeathcote estuary Ihutai

Four research students – Kelly Fisher, Felicity Boyd, Catherine Lizamore and Sheena Crawford – were awarded Lincoln University Summer Scholarships in order to explore both historic and current uses of the Avon-Heathcote Estuary Ihutai and how contemporary practice may change upon completion of the ocean outfall.

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Urban and rural transformation

The result, particularly in places of high amenity, is the development of multifunctional rural regions, where rural people are using natural resources and local and imported skills, ideas and capital to create opportunities alongside established and new variants of agriculture and horticulture.

While many in rural communities struggle to earn a good living from traditional forms of pastoral agriculture and horticulture, more and more people are looking at new ways to diversify their income.

Recent research, led by Professor Harvey Perkins, focuses on rural economic and social change in Central Otago. It is a three year project that looks at how land, people and economies are being transformed in rural New Zealand.

This trend toward multi-functionalism began decades ago with uncertain commodity prices and the restructuring of the rural economy, including the removal of agricultural subsidies, which made life particularly difďŹ cult for primary producers and rural communities.

Using the Cromwell and Makarora Districts in Central Otago as case studies, the research examines how rural change has centred on the development of three interlinked areas: old and new variants of pastoral and agricultural production; new forms of rural consumption (such as vineyards and wineries, tourism, multi-sport events, commercialised recreational opportunities, residential real estate development); and heritage and nature conservation. These changes are the subject of local and international scholarly and policy debates, and Professor Perkins anticipates that this project will contribute to an understanding of rural change in developed countries. Harvey Perkins is an accomplished and respected Professor of Human Geography at

Cromwell and Lake Dunstan in the Upper Clutha Valley, Central Otago, New Zeaalnd.

Lincoln University, with a strong interest in both urban and rural change. Over the years, he has published numerous articles on various aspects of urban and rural social and economic development ranging from urban residential intensiďŹ cation to the growth of adventure and eco-tourism in rural areas. The next research project to be embarked on by Professor Perkins, together with a team of eight researchers from several New Zealand universities, is Biological Economies: knowing and making new rural value relations.

This research will look at the tactics being adopted, and challenges faced, by those attempting to develop innovative ways of making a living in and from the countryside while also protecting and enhancing the natural and social rural environment. Project: Remarkable changes in the countryside: the development of multi-functional rural spaces Researchers: Professor Harvey Perkins, Dr Stephen Espiner, Michael Mackay Funders: Lincoln University, BRCSS Fund (Building Research Capability in the Social Sciences), Marsden Fund, Royal Society of New Zealand

Dr Sandhya Samarasinghe, Associate Professor in Engineering and Scientiﬁc Computing, has a diverse portfolio of research interests centred on the use of neural networks and computational intelligence methods to solve complex scientiﬁc and engineering problems.

Neural networks are computer models that mimic the information processing in the human brain. They are extremely useful for solving problems characterised by non-linear and complex interactions, a common feature of natural systems. Lincoln University is the only university in New Zealand that conducts multi-disciplinary, neural networks research in complex environmental, engineering and biological systems.

An engineer by training, Dr Samarasinghe has combined her expertise in computational intelligence, engineering, mathematics, computer vision, statistics and biology to develop research skills that can be applied in diverse fields, from engineering and life sciences to environment. Her research has made theoretical advances in methods and practical implementations of neural networks to address crucial problems in applied sciences, engineering, and environment. Specific areas of note include efficient computational diagnosis of mastitis that costs the dairy industry US$180 million dollars annually; solving ‘wicked’ water problems; and a fuzzy cognitive mapping computational framework capable of incorporating stakeholder perceptions, giving effective policy simulations in environmental and social decision making. In recognition of these efforts, Dr Samarasinghe has been invited to deliver talks nationally and internationally, including a keynote address at UNESCO on Neural Networks for Water Systems Analysis.

Another recent development is Computational Systems Biology, where neural networks and systems modelling approaches are used to: gain meaningful insights into genetic causes of diseases from biological data (a collaboration with Oxford University); model regulatory pathways in cells, whose malfunction causes diseases such as cancer; and model the olfactory system in wasps. Dr Samarasinghe’s neural networks research has, over the years, also provided solutions to various crucial problems in applied sciences, such as estimating energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture; better understanding the ‘noisy’ behaviour of wood, that could help improve efficiency in structural design; efficient approaches to forecasting river flows for improved management of water resources; and more. Often there is a commercial aspect to this research. For example, a recent kiwifruit project was jointly funded by the Kiwifruit Board and Lincoln Ventures to estimate the pre-harvest kiwifruit yield. The project used digital image processing followed by neural networks to identify clusters of kiwifruit and estimate the number of fruit. The results could potentially enable growers and the Kiwifruit Board to estimate yield and plan and budget for shipping costs in advance. Dr Samarasinghe also led a successfully completed 11-year Transpower funded project on automating the control of the New Zealand power transmission network using neural networks and computational intelligence methods.

Project: Systems Modelling with Neural Networks: Multidisciplinary research in environmental, biological and human systems Researchers: Associate Professor Sandhya Samarasinghe, Professor Don Kulasiri (Lincoln University), Professor Philip Maini (Oxford University, UK), Dr Ian Woodhead (Lincoln Ventures Ltd.), Dr Mario Lopez (DeLaval Inc. USA), Dr Jenny Jago (DairyNZ), Professor Glen Rains (University of Georgia, USA), Dr. Ramesh Rayudu (Massey University) Funders: Lincoln Ventures, Lincoln University Research Fund, Faculty of Environment, Society & Design, Lincoln University Doctoral Scholarships, NZODA scholarships and various international scholarships

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Systems modelling with neural networks

Over the years, Dr Sandhya Samarasinghe’s research on neural networks has grown into a systems modelling platform distinguished by the number of projects completed, the number of postgraduate student theses and articles published, and the number of research collaborations with universities around the world, including Oxford University, UK, University of Georgia, and De Laval Corporation in the US.

The Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit The AERU is the second oldest social science research unit in New Zealand and is looking forward to its 50th anniversary in 2012. The mission of the unit is to exercise leadership in research for sustainable well-being and the vision is to be a cheerful and vibrant workplace where senior and emerging researchers are working together to produce and deliver new knowledge that promotes sustainable well-being. The AERU has a long history of applied and relevant research for a range of clients in New Zealand and overseas including government agencies and businessesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.

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Introduction to the AERU

The Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit (AERU) at Lincoln University has four main areas of focus: trade and environment; economic development; non-market valuation; and social research. The AERU conducts research for a range of clients, including government departments, both here and overseas, New Zealand companies and international agencies, NGOs and individuals. Since it was formed in 1962, the AERU has grown in size and stature, and today produces work that is both inďŹ&#x201A;uential and internationally recognised.

The AERU employs fulltime researchers and also functions as a research coordinating body for staff of Lincoln University involved in economic, social and environmental research. It can call upon the expertise of staff in all faculties of the University and enjoys particularly close links with the Faculties of Commerce, and Environment, Society and Design.

Caroline Saunders

Caroline Saunders Director The Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit

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Reporting on New Zealand’s economic strategy issues Conventionally, national economic strategies have tended to look at the country’s economy without considering its positioning in the wider global economy. However, senior researchers at the AERU have concluded that this insular approach is inadequate for the 21st century. They argue, in a new AERU issues paper, that global economic integration and the relationship of the economy to wider society mean that the country’s economic strategy should take into account speciﬁc international and social contexts.

The AERU has been involved in many projects analysing strategic issues for industry or regional economic development and identifying international market trends that affect New Zealand producers. Drawing on this work, Professor Caroline Saunders, Professor Paul Dalziel and Associate Professor Bill Kaye-Blake have identiﬁed a set of key economic strategy issues for New Zealand. While they do not regard the paper as a full strategy, the authors say it is an advance on previous approaches that developed policy recommendations without analysing New Zealand’s positioning in international markets or considering human, social, cultural and environmental dimensions. Despite the international competitive advantage enjoyed by New Zealand’s primary sector, there

is a limit to potential growth in to the future as the share of expenditure on food declines (particularly the proportion of expenditure on commodity-based, farm-gate products) as world incomes rise. While expenditure in developing and emerging countries is rising in absolute terms for agricultural products (especially meat and dairy) it is falling in relative terms. Serious questions are also being asked about the future of international tourism if a combination of climate change responses and falling oil production signiﬁcantly raises the price of long-haul ﬂights. Using a method originally developed while creating the Canterbury Development Model (CDM) with the Canterbury Development Corporation, Saunders, Dalziel and Kaye-Blake

have identified sectors where New Zealand does have a competitive advantage and where there is strong potential for growth. Some knowledge-driven sectors have been identified –education, and a range of manufacturing sectors, for example – but the analysis rejected any view that the country’s existing core industries of forestry, fishing, wool, dairy, beef, tourism, horticulture and vegetables are ’the dull/old economy’. These core export sectors are internationally competitive and generate incomes that fuel domestic demand. Agribusiness and forestry (in their widest sense) are currently estimated to contribute around 20 percent of GDP and there is every possibility that this will rise further over time. Because of the large size of these sectors, small gains

Growth in capital (broadly understood) underpins a society’s rising economic wellbeing. The authors examined six major types of New Zealand capital: physical capital; ﬁnancial capital; human capital; natural capital; social capital; and cultural capital. The report considers how strategic investment in each of these can help match New Zealand’s capabilities with its international market opportunities. The authors argue that in order to succeed, the New Zealand economy must diversify through the development of new knowledgebased enterprises, but that the traditional export sectors must also be transformed using sophisticated knowledge-management systems. This transformation is required to take advantage of new technologies and changing international market trends. The authors also suggest more attention be paid to advanced, knowledge-intensive marketing of New Zealand products. This marketing should be fully integrated into New Zealand’s production systems and tightly focused. It should draw on New Zealand’s unique competitive advantages, such as the country’s ability to meet the needs of consumers and their concerns for environmental or animal welfare. Project: Economic Strategy Issues for the New Zealand Region in the Global Economy Researchers: Professor Paul Dalziel, Professor Caroline Saunders, Associate Professor Bill Kaye-Blake Funder: Lincoln University

Ranking sectors in Canterbury

The Canterbury Development Model analyses 48 sectors by multiple criteria, including two related to each sector’s international opportunities: international competitive advantage; and potential growth in global consumer demand. The model then ranks sectors from 1 (the strongest sector) to 48 (the weakest sector) on each criterion.

and health services, scientiﬁc research and computing. Services to agriculture also rated highly, as do business services, ﬁnance and insurance. The agricultural sectors of horticulture, meat manufacturing, livestock cropping also ranked fairly highly. These results are similar when employment output ratios are assessed.

In 2009, the Canterbury Development Corporation commissioned the AERU to produce an economic model of Christchurch. The model, which incorporates key aspects of the world economy, as well as Canterburyand Christchurch-speciﬁc information, is now being used to select options to stimulate economic growth in the city.

The sectors ranking highest on competitive criteria were mainly natural resource sectors, with the top eight rankings going to: ﬁshing; forestry and logging; services to agriculture; hunting and trapping; dairy cattle farming; horticulture and fruit growing; livestock and cropping farming; other farming; and mining and quarrying. Non-metallic mineral product manufacturing and wood product manufacturing were also in the top 12 sectors ranked by competitive advantage. However, all these sectors ranked very low on trend consumer expenditure, ranking 29th or more out of 48.

The Canterbury Economic Development Model distinguishes between export sectors and those focusing on domestic markets. Economic theories of growth emphasise economies of scale in producing competitive advantage. Sectors that rely on the New Zealand market will be limited in their size, and so may struggle to achieve the scale required to maintain competitiveness. Sectors catering for the New Zealand market will tend to follow rather than initiate the country’s economic growth, because they tend to rely on domestic consumption expenditure which, in turn, is strongly inﬂuenced by domestic incomes.

The top ranking sector by potential market growth was health and community services, suggesting strong possibilities for firms developing high technology medical products. Another sector in the top 10 by potential market growth was education, a finding consistent with the growth of the international education market in New Zealand schools and tertiary institutions. The model also considered the flow-on, value-added effects of different sectors across the New Zealand and regional economy. The Canterbury Development Model suggests the sectors with the largest overall impacts, when direct, indirect and induced impacts are incorporated, are education, hospitals

While there has been a long-standing view in New Zealand that national economic strategies should pay particular attention to export sectors, this doesn’t mean there should be a greater proportion of exports in the national economy. It does suggest though that growth in this sector will generate higher incomes which, in turn, will see higher spending in other sectors in the economy, raising economic activity in general. Project: Canterbury Economic Development Model Researchers: Professor Caroline Saunders, Paul Rutherford, Meike Guenther, Oliver Black Funder: Canterbury Development Corporation

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in their productivity could translate to major economic beneﬁts.

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Exploring consumer choices in theory and practice Does information about sustainability on food labelling inﬂuence buying decisions? Or, is it just more small print?

The AERU is using a new web-based surveying tool, jointly developed with Applied Computing at Lincoln University, to explore how ‘carbon labelling’ – labels bearing information about the carbon emissions produced in the production of a foodstuff – may impact on demand for New Zealand goods. The Web-Enabled Choice Analysis (WECA) consumer surveying technology is being used in an international survey for a major New Zealand exporter to assess consumer reaction to carbon labelling and to understand the role wider sustainability concerns play in consumer decision making. WECA can capture the types of information survey respondents use to make their choices so the program may shed some light on the mysterious process consumers use to make their buying decisions. A key initial concern is whether consumers actually pay attention to labels at all. If they do, which consumers are paying attention to what bits of information? This matters, because not all consumers use all the information available to them when making buying decisions. Associate Professor Bill Kaye-Blake says it’s a classic problem in surveying.

of the interaction between the environmental indicators and their relative importance in decision making.

“How much difference is there between what consumers say and what they do? With our new surveying tool, we are exploring decision behaviours. We’ve shown that we can get improved decision models by doing this.”

The project involves consumers in the UK, Japan and China, and examines their attitudes around food issues and sustainability. The AERU is working with experts on UK and Chinese consumers to ensure that the sample is as representative as possible and that the research methods are appropriate.

The AERU will use the software in key export markets to determine the relative value of information to segments in those markets and to provide the most accurate understanding

The empirical estimates achieved with WECA in the UK will be enhanced with actual purchase data. AERU researchers will collaborate with other modellers using a large

consumer data base from Tesco Supermarkets in the UK. Data collected through WECA will be placed alongside Tesco’s data to identify the ‘right’ consumers for their products and create improved estimates of the prices they are willing to pay. In marketing and economics terms, the research’s approach breaks new ground. Very little information is available at present to help primary producers decide how best to pitch their products’ sustainability properties, especially in Asian markets. It is unknown how consumers synthesise information about sustainability, particularly carbon labelling,

One of the stated aims of New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is to bring about behaviour changes that result in lower emissions. Effective labelling is one way of ensuring consumers reward ‘clean’ producers through their buying choices. Associate Professor Bill Kaye-Blake says the research fits into an overall MAF programme of understanding how to measure the environmental impacts of agriculture, how to reduce the negative impacts and how to profit from making those reductions. “An important part of profiting from the reductions is communicating with consumers so they know about the advances being made.” Ultimately, the project is about reducing emissions themselves. Project: Using technology to explore consumer choices in theory and practice Researchers: Associate Professor Bill Kaye-Blake, Meike Guenther, Sini Hakola Miller, Professor Caroline Saunders Funders: Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry

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with other product information. It is also unknown how Japan and China compare with other countries in this regard.

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What does scientific research contribute to New Zealand society? Scientific research is like the oil business. Many holes may be drilled; but only a few will yield oil. The true return from oil exploration must be based on the total cost of the operation, not just the cost of drilling the successful well. Similarly, returns to research must be based on all the investments made, not just on those projects with successful, easily identifiable outcomes.

Actually, measuring the value of science is a lot more complicated than that. Not only do economic factors have to be considered but the non-market impacts of research, such as social and environmental impacts, are also important and should be measured in some way. The AERU is conducting fundamental research into how best to put an economic value on science. The problem is a pressing one. While the positive impacts on society from research and development are well understood, it is becoming increasingly important for those investing in research to be able to identify whether their investment has been successful or worthwhile. The value of science has been measured in several ways: some approaches ascribe a dollar value to the benefits flowing from research; some calculate a ratio of costs to benefits; and others focus on research outputs, such as publications and patents, and use these as a measure of performance. All these conventional approaches have their drawbacks. Whichever accounting system is used, it has to accommodate real-world complications such as confidentiality issues and missing data. Researchers’ costs may be so intertwined in projects that it is impossible to disaggregate individually. Research and development typically involves several lags: it takes time to produce research; time to implement the changes or produce a product; time before the new processes/ products are taken up; and time before changes in productivity are observed. Non-economic impacts such as social and

environmental impacts are hard to measure and hard to accommodate. The upshot is that ascribing a value to research is difficult. Making comparisons across studies, disciplines and countries is a fraught process. The AERU has conducted a number of research projects over several years to estimate the economic impacts of scientific research. The work has included cost-benefit analysis of innovative products and theoretical research on methods for assessing the value of science. The AERU researchers have teamed up with Dr Garth Carnaby, Lincoln University’s entrepreneur in residence to build on his novel classification of scientific research, and to develop new methods for assessing the impacts of different types of research.

Following on from earlier work for the Bio-Protection Research Centre at Lincoln University, the AERU is identifying and developing methods or techniques that can be used to value bio-protection research. The methods and protocols developed for the Bio-Protection Research Centre may, with modiﬁcations, be applied to other disciplines. Project: Understanding the contributions of scientiﬁc research to New Zealand society Researchers: Associate Professor Bill Kaye-Blake, Professor Paul Dalziel, Professor Caroline Saunders, Dr Garth Carnaby Funders: Ministry of Research, Science & Technology, The Bio-Protection Centre, Lincoln University, Crop and Food Research

The model, now expanded to include forestry products, is being used to examine the impacts of climate change, climate policies and consumer preferences on New Zealand production, farm revenues and carbon dioxide and other GHG emissions.

Questions about how much moves to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions will cost the nation’s farmers and the impact that mitigation measures will have on trade are becoming increasingly pressing.

The impacts of projected population growth and other factors affecting the production of GHGs, and the impact of the associated climate change on farm and forestry production in different countries, have been factored into the model. Incorporating these impacts and factors required the model to accommodate a great deal of uncertainty as impacts vary by country and commodity and the timeframe being considered.

New Zealand is one of the very few countries to have an emissions trading scheme up and running and the only one to have included agriculture in its scheme. Critics say the inclusion of agriculture in the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) will cripple the sector as producers from other countries, unfettered by the requirement to pay for the GHG emissions they are responsible for and, in some cases, continuing to enjoy state protection and ﬁnancial encouragement, replace our goods on supermarket shelves around the world.

Mitigation technologies and strategies were factored in along with consumer willingness to support environmental values by paying more for goods and services. Again, some uncertainty was involved: although there is a clear willingness in some of New Zealand’s markets to pay for green products, the size of the premium and the products to which it would apply are unclear. The picture is further muddied by the confounding impacts of product labelling, consumer information, social norms, uncertainty and other intangibles.

By subjecting the trade model to a combination of supply and demand shocks, the researchers generated data necessary for analysing the potential economic impacts of climate change. Earlier modelling suggested mitigation strategies will reduce GHG emissions, but they may also reduce producer returns. If carbon emissions are traded, the amount saved by reducing emissions could potentially help to offset the fall in producer returns. The impacts depend on whether New Zealand goes it alone with GHG policies, or works cooperatively with other countries to have consistent international policies. Mitigation measures may also beneﬁt producers by allowing them to capitalise on increased consumer demand for ’environmentally friendly’ produce. A small price premium for such produce could lead to large economic gains for the sector.

Associate Professor Bill Kaye-Blake, the lead modeller on the project, noted that the results were important for the industry and government. “Farmers are concerned that carbon policies are going to cost them money; these results show that carbon policies could also be an opportunity. Complying with an ETS may give farmers the opportunity to target those consumers concerned about global climate change.” Project: Climate change: what will be the impacts on NZ trade and emissions? Researchers: Associate Professor Bill Kaye-Blake, Professor Caroline Saunders Funder: Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry

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Counting the cost of climate change modelling

Questions about how much trade protection measures, some of which may be enacted on spurious environmental grounds, could cost New Zealand have also grown more urgent recently, as nations get set to jostle for market dominance in the new carbon-constrained trading environment. The AERU’s computer model of international trade – the Lincoln Trade and Environment Model (LTEM) – provides some answers.

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ARGOS: The largest project of its type in the world How do farmers feel about their land and how does this inﬂuence their farming practices?

Comparisons between farmers have shown differing philosophical approaches to farming – speciﬁcally, different mixes of environmental, social and economic concerns – shape not only farming practices but also the sustainability and resilience of those practices. AERU researchers are studying these philosophical inﬂuences as part of the Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability (ARGOS) project, which is examining the pathways and tools available to farmers, farming industries and regulators to achieve more sustainable and resilient accommodations with the New Zealand environment at the same time as they continue to satisfy the demands of market and community stakeholders. Described as one of the largest farm-scale agricultural sustainability research projects in the world, the ARGOS programme, which involves researchers from Lincoln and Otago universities and from The Agribusiness Group, is comparing organic, integrated and conventional management systems in the sheep/beef, kiwifruit and dairy industries, and examining farming practices used on high country pastoral runs and farms operated by Ma-ori. AERU Social Scientist Lesley Hunt says, “In order to implement environmental policies for sustainable and resilient land use, we need to better understand how people relate to their agricultural land and how this affects their practices.” Part of Dr Hunt’s work in the programme involves inductive, qualitative analysis of data gathered from interviews with kiwifruit

Dr Hunt suggests orchardists experience their orchards in four different ways – as wild, challenging, needy or passive – and that these different perspectives result in practices which actually produce different kinds of orchards. Each type differs in its impact on an orchardist’s sense of sight, touch, hearing, taste and smell.

is tidy and kept under control by mowing it often and using weedkiller under the vines and shelter belts where the mower cannot reach. An orchardist with a needy orchard will make sure it is well fed and fertilised and has lots of biodiversity to demonstrate how safe it is for all living things. An orchardist with a passive orchard will treat it merely as a way of making money. Although each of these kinds of orchard complies with an audit system, each orchardist is still able to create an orchard that suits them and expresses their identity and autonomy.

For example, if an orchardist sees their orchard as wild, they will work hard to make sure it

Dr Hunt says this shows there is more than one acceptable way to grow kiwifruit.

orchardists and observations from their orchards to ﬁnd out how their interpretation of the relationship affects their management practices.

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“There are different practices available and if one fails there is another to choose from, demonstrating that the kiwifruit industry has a potentially sustainable and resilient production system. “This implies that land use policies that seek to change sensory aspects of the land and are in conﬂict with producers’/farmers’/growers’ sense of their relationship with the land and how the land ‘should be’ are unlikely to succeed.” Since it was established in 2003, ARGOS has planned and conducted studies on 36 kiwifruit orchards (in 12 clusters of Organic Green, Integrated Green and Integrated Gold kiwifruit), 36 sheep/beef farms (in clusters of organic, integrated and conventional), 24 dairy (12 pairs of organic and conventional farms) plus a sample of case studies, high country properties and Ma-ori land holdings. Because of its size, the project has enough statistical rigour to inform debates that were previously limited to speculative analysis based on a small number of cases. Dr Hunt and her fellow researchers have begun mining the collected quantitative and qualitative data to test the correlations between variables, develop

descriptive statistical models to examine why particular outcomes are emerging, build predictive models to envisage new farming system scenarios, and identify prudent pathways to improve sustainability and socialecological resilience. The project is about future-prooﬁng the agricultural sector, Dr Hunt says, by helping ensure the industry can effectively respond to market demands for assurance about the sustainability of production as well as helping to positively position products with a wider range of sustainability attributes. ARGOS results are available to government agencies and industry stakeholders to help them respond to international market and regulatory events. Project: Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability Researchers: Dr Lesley Hunt, Professor John Fairweather, Professor Caroline Saunders, Glen Greer, Jon Manhire, Dave Lucock, Dr Jayson Benge, Dr Chris Rosin, Professor Hugh Campbell, Professor Henrik Moller, John Reid Funders: Foundation for Research, Science & Technology, ZESPRI Innovation Company, Fonterra, Merino New Zealand Inc., Certiﬁed Organic Kiwifruit Growers Association, Organic Association of Aotearoa New Zealand, A meat company, Te Runanga O Nga-i Tahu

Bio-Protection Research Centre A New Zealand Government funded Centre of Research Excellence working with industry, innovation companies and leading research institutes to develop sustainable solutions to the threats presented by weeds, pests and diseases, at the border and across New Zealandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s productive industries. The Centre incorporates one of the strongest bioprotection postgraduate training groups in the Southern Hemisphere with former students employed in research, industry and policy positions throughout the world.

The Centre’s research is organised into four interlinking themes, focusing on: Biosecurity; Sustainable Bioprotection; Plant Bioprotection Systems Biology; and Ma-ori Bioprotection. Each theme incorporates a range of fundamental and applied research programmes. For example, in the Biosecurity theme, applied research has produced DNA-based diagnostic tools and technologies and new types of pest-prediction models, while fundamental research is providing new knowledge about weed invasion processes. Similarly, researchers in the Sustainable Bioprotection theme have made signiﬁcant international breakthroughs in mycological research while developing biologically-based products to protect horticultural crops and forest seedlings. This excellence in research and development is recognised by science and industry alike and Centre researchers are involved in numerous national and international collaborations and consultancies.

Postgraduate education is another key objective for the Centre whose researchers supervise more than 50 postgraduate students from around the world including 30 based at Lincoln University. These students are the bioprotection scientists of tomorrow and Bio-Protection Research Centre graduates are now employed in research and commercial laboratories throughout New Zealand and the world.

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Introduction to the Bio-Protection Research Centre

New Zealand’s economy is dependent on landbased industries and, as such, vulnerable to the threat of plant pests, weeds and diseases. These existing and potential threats provide the impetus for work carried out at the BioProtection Research Centre. Centre researchers are focused on the discovery and development of new techniques and products to protect our agricultural, horticultural and forestry systems and advance our reputation as a leader in sustainable plant and food production.

The Bio-Protection Research Centre is a Centre of Research Excellence, funded by the Tertiary Education Commission. The Centre comprises four partner institutes: Lincoln University; Massey University; and the Crown Research Institutes: AgResearch; and Plant & Food Research. It is hosted by Lincoln University.

Professor Alison Stewart, CNZM Director Bio-Protection Research Centre

Professor Alison Stewart, CNZM

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What makes insects sick? Humans are prone to thousands of bacterial, fungal and viral infections, some minor, others potentially fatal. The same goes for the rest of the animal kingdom, insects included.

Lincoln University’s Professor of Applied Entomology, Travis Glare, has been studying insect diseases for 25 years. He specialises in identifying naturally occurring microbes that kill insects and, where possible, ﬁnding ways of using them in a practical and controlled way. Professor Glare says that while scientists know a lot about insects and what kills them, there’s still much more that they don’t know. “There are as many as ten thousand known diseases of insects, each caused by a different bacterium, virus or fungus. We work on understanding how and why each microbe works and once we understand that, we look for ways to harness that action. This might involve something as simple as moving it around to help it spread, or working out what time of day or year to irrigate to provide a naturally occurring disease with the moisture it needs to infect. At the highly technical level we can also develop commercial products that look like chemicals but use live organisms as their active ingredient.” Before joining Lincoln University, Professor Glare helped develop a bacterially-based product for the control of New Zealand grass grub. He has also worked in Malaysia, on a virus for the control of rhinoceros beetle, which attacks oil and coconut palms and, in Kenya, on fungal controls for aphids and thrips in glasshouses. He now co-leads the Bio-Protection Research Centre’s Sustainable Bioprotection Theme and heads a team working on a range of biocontrol-focused projects. These include seeking a bacterial control for caterpillar pests, investigating insect pathogenic fungi that colonise plant roots and understanding

Above: Beauveria bassiana viewed through a scanning electron microscope (SEM).

the compatibility between different microorganisms for insect control. All of these ideas come together in an important project with the pine forestry industry. “Because proﬁt margins in forestry are small, spraying for pests and diseases is uneconomic. We are investigating ways of adding beneﬁcial microbes to the soil around the pine seedlings when they are planted,” says Travis. “Ideally, these microbes would provide pest and disease protection and aid plant growth right through until the trees are harvested, which would be an extremely cost effective option for a plant which is 25 years in rotation.” The microbes they are looking at are fungi: two species of Beauveria, (B. bassiana and B. caledonica) which infect pest insects, and

Trichoderma which can help control plant fungal diseases. “All these fungi are common in forest soils, but very little is known about how they work, the conditions they require to be most active and whether or not they are able to work in unison. For example, under laboratory conditions both Beauveria species attack insect pests, however, in the forests, only B. caledonica does. We’re beginning to think that in the forest B. bassiana may play a different role in protecting the trees, and perhaps its presence is sufﬁcient in some cases to deter insect feeding.”

Project: Various Researchers: Professor Travis Glare, Aimee McKinnon, Narges Askari-Nejad (Lincoln University), Tracey Nelson (AgResearch), Steve Reay Funders: Bio-Protection Research Centre, Tertiary Education Commission

The work also involves collaboration with other agencies, including AgResearch, where researchers are investigating the effects of plant root exudates on microbial communities, and Dr Steve Reay, an independent forest entomologist, who is investigating the natural occurrence of Beauveria associated with Pinus radiata. “Microbial control of insect pests relies on an intricate series of interactions”, says Professor Glare, “so developing effective technologies based on them requires a clear understanding of the inter-relationships between insects, their plant hosts and the disease causing organisms as well as a range of other environmental factors. All these projects are aimed at the development of a product that can be used to inoculate forest seedlings to provide them with a life-time’s protection from diseases and insect pests.”

Above: Metarhizium (l) and Beauveria (r) fungus on grass grub larvae Left: MSc student Aimee McKinnon checking the growth of Pinus radiata seedlings in pots which have been treated with Beauveria.

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Several projects are addressing these questions. For example, MSc student Aimee McKinnon is investigating the competence of various isolates of Beauveria spp. in the rhizosphere of different plant hosts, and how such competence inﬂuences the fungi’s persistence and pathogenicity, while Narges Askari Nejad is experimenting with the interactions between strains of Trichoderma and Beauveria to see if they are compatible. If they are, then it’s possible that a biological control approach using the two fungi could be more effective than one based on a single species.

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These theories are generally accepted worldwide, but relatively little research has been carried out globally. Now a Lincoln University-based group of scientists, led by Professors Leo Condron and Tim Clough, is involved in research in this demanding ﬁeld.

Biochar

The addition of biochar, a man-made charcoal, to soil is widely proposed as a means of improving productivity and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from primary production systems. There is particular interest about its role in sequestering carbon and mitigating nitrous oxide emissions, as well as its ability to enhance soil nutrient utilisation and retention which, in turn, enhances soil and plant health.

Scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of biochar.

Professor Condron says an important development is the establishment of the country’s first large-scale field trials on biochar at Lincoln and Methven. “These three-to-five year trials were initiated in 2009 and are designed to investigate and quantify the effects of biochar on soil properties and processes and productivity in pastoral and cropping systems,” he says. “We want to know what biochar does to nutrient cycling in soil. There’s a suggestion it might reduce emissions like nitrous oxide, but, if so, how, where, when and why – no-one knows. Biochar could be conserving nitrogen

in the soil or accelerating the rate of nitrogen cycling.” There is much international interest in this ﬁeld, especially since scientists working in the Amazon noticed that native farming methods, practised for thousands of years, have led to a build-up of biochar in soil, resulting in better crop yields and increased soil fertility. Professor Clough says Lincoln University researchers have been looking at the fundamentals of what happens to biochar in nitrogen cycling and linking it to studies of the effects of grazing animals on microbial populations and processes in soil. Research began with laboratory testing, then with funding moved to the ﬁeld. “We put biochar out in a paddock at two different rates with a control, sowed pasture over the top to replicate what a farmer might do during pasture renovation and placed

animal urine patch treatments onto the site. These are zones of high nitrogen concentrations and we monitored the fate of nitrogen using a stable isotope to see what was happening to the nitrogen cycle in those situations. We looked at the greenhouse gas production, and the plant uptake of nitrogen to see where the urine nitrogen went in the biochar-amended systems.” The research team uses stable isotope methods to track the fate of nitrogen in grazed pasture systems, a process that can be likened to tracing the movement of a dye through the system. They say the potential beneﬁts might only come after the biochar has been in the soil for some years, but early data is exciting. Project: Biochar and niotrogen cycling Researchers: Professor Tim Clough, Professor Rob Sherlock, Professor Leo Condron, Arezoo Taghizadehtoosi Funders: Foundation for Research, Science & Technology, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry

A multi-million dollar research programme led by Professor John Hampton from the BioProtection Research Centre has caught the eye of the seed industry in New Zealand and overseas.

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Smart seeds

The six-year research programme, which also involves researchers from AgResearch and Plant and Food Research, aims to develop microbial seed treatments for vegetable and forage brassica crops to overcome the losses caused by pests and diseases. Professor Hampton says the research programme is addressing a major seed industry problem.

“This programme emerged from consultation with the New Zealand seed industry, which wants to put a stop to the impact that seedborne plant diseases, and insects, can have on vegetable brassicas such as cabbage, and forage brassicas such as rape,” he says. “In particular, we are interested in black rot and diamondback moth, both of which can devastate seed crops. Traditionally, chemical approaches have been used for control, but consumers are now leaning towards more environmentally friendly methods and, in the case of black rot, there are currently no effective controls at all. We intend to develop biological control products to help reduce the financial losses caused by these diseases and pests.” The project has been running for two years and in this time it has concentrated on identifying potentially beneficial microbes from seed lots of cabbage and forage rape supplied by industry partners South Pacific Seeds (NZ) Ltd and PGG Wrightson Seeds Ltd. In all, more than 1300 microbes were isolated and identified from the seed lots using DNA technology. Laboratory and glasshouse trials have shown that three of the 1300 provide good control (better than 90%) of the seedborne bacterium that causes black rot.

Above: Professor John Hampton.

“The results are very promising and we are pleased to have these three microbes earmarked for further intensive trialling,” says Professor Hampton. “The challenge for us now is to develop a product, or Smart Seed, that will provide New Zealand seed exporters with a high value commercially viable product that meets grower and consumer needs. This will probably take the form of a biologically active seed coating. Once we have achieved this we expect to see a signiﬁcant increase in the export value of brassica seed.” He says the research has also produced another, unexpected, ﬁnding.

“We were delighted to discover one bacterium that has killed diamondback moth caterpillars in laboratory feeding studies. However, a lot more research is required before we will know if we can produce a commercially acceptable bioinsecticide.” Project: Smart Seeds for Export Researchers: Professor John Hampton, Professor Alison Stewart, Dr Eline van Zijll de Jong, Dr Andrew Pitman, Bronwyn Braithwaite, Adele Scott (Lincoln University), Dr Mary Christey (Plant & Food Research), Dr Phil Rolston (AgResearch), Jayanthi Swaminathan (AgResearch), Dr Alan Stewart (PGG Wrightson Seeds Ltd) Research funding providers: Foundation for Research, Science & Technology, Foundation for Arable Research, South Paciﬁc Seeds (NZ) Ltd, PGG Wrightson Seeds Ltd

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The past as a key to the future in weed research Each year weeds cost New Zealand billions of dollars, economically and environmentally. Much effort goes into controlling existing species and preventing new ones from entering the country. Yet, not all plants become weeds - many are productive and economically valuable, and rigorous weed prevention strategies can pose problems for the country’s horticulture and agriculture industries.

Being able to predict which plants may become weeds and which will stay put, would help to get around some of these problems, and scientists at the Bio-Protection Research Centre are receiving international attention for their novel approach to answering this very question. The group, led by Professor Philip Hulme who holds the Chair in Plant Biosecurity at Lincoln University (part-funded by MAF Biosecurity New Zealand) and Richard Duncan, Professor of Ecology, is working to understand what causes some plants to escape from gardens or farms, establish elsewhere and ultimately spread across the country as weeds. The team has taken a unique approach, looking back at historical records of weeds in New Zealand and using these to forecast into the future. Records of weeds in New Zealand stretch back to the days of early European colonists - even Charles Darwin noted weed problems on his brief visit in 1835. They examined more than 100 years of botanical records from Auckland that describe the habits of native and exotic flora as the city grew. The first pattern to emerge was that exotic plants were more likely to become established if they had native relatives in the region. This runs contrary to most people’s expectations and even Darwin proposed native relatives would resist newcomers. When the researchers looked more closely at specific habitats, they found the more abundant the native relatives were, the less likely it was for exotic weeds to become established. Professor Hulme points out these results have implications for assessing future weed risks in New Zealand. “It seems native relatives

can tell us much about the likelihood of new plants becoming established, but the native abundance can indicate the chance such exotic plants will become weeds.” Auckland is not the only part of New Zealand with historical botanical records. Since the early 19th century, botanists have collected weed specimens across the country and archived them in the National Herbaria in Lincoln, Wellington and Auckland. Professor Hulme’s team used the information on dates and locations of 1200 herbarium

specimens in an innovative attempt to reconstruct the spread of 100 of the worst weeds in New Zealand. They found most species did very little for between 25 and 40 years after arriving in New Zealand, but then began to spread rapidly and become noticeable problems. “Probably many of our future weeds are already here, apparently benign, but likely to become pests in the next decade,” suggests Professor Hulme.

Project: Several Researchers: Professor Philip Hulme, Professor Richard Duncan, Dr Jeff Diez, Dr Sami Aikio

Professor Hulme’s research is not conﬁned to New Zealand weed species. He is an international expert on the ecology, distribution and management of invasive species, and devised and led the European Commission’s Delivering Alien Invasive Species In Europe (DAISIE) project.

Funder: Tertiary Education Commission

Professor Hulme says the long-term nature of the herbarium records enabled the team to predict future patterns of spread of several species. “We can now predict which weeds will spread across the country and which will continue to be more localised problems.”

DAISIE set out to identify all the invasive species in Europe, and is now the largest database on invasive species in the world. It contains information on plants, vertebrates, invertebrates and marine and inland aquatic organisms from across Europe. It has documented more than 11,000 alien species and provided new knowledge about biological invasions. DAISIE also showed that the number and impacts of harmful alien species in Europe had been underestimated, especially for species that do not damage agriculture, forestry or human health.

This information has the potential to support new initiatives in weed management, but there is still more to be gained from further analyses of the herbarium data. “This same data may help to inform surveillance and monitoring of future weed threats. For example, whether roadside surveys have much value in picking out weeds of bush and tussocklands” says Professor Hulme. Further work will also look at whether particular plant traits are associated with rates of spread, types of habitats invaded, and distribution in New Zealand. This Lincoln University-based research is nationally significant and is gaining an increasingly high profile internationally. Professor Hulme says most countries in the world have herbarium collections that are under-exploited scientifically and this work is leading the way in innovative studies that will set a worldwide standard for excellent science.

Advising the European Commission combating invasive species

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The researchers then looked at how weed species spread across New Zealand and identiﬁed long-distance jumps of several kilometres per year as quite common. This could only be due to deliberate human movement of plants or accidental movement in sheep ﬂeeces, grain, gravel, etc.

Above: Evening primrose, a common roadside weed Left: Pig’s ear, an invasive weed of volcanic soils throughout New Zealand.

For Professor Hulme, the project resulted in key insights into the increasing biosecurity problems faced by Europe. His views, which beneﬁted considerably from his knowledge of biosecurity management in New Zealand, were published in the high proﬁle journal Science1. The paper highlighted the increasing rate of species introductions to Europe and recommended that the European Parliament and Council address the fragmented nature of biosecurity management in the region. It

also suggested that serious consideration should be given to the establishment of a single body, similar to Biosecurity New Zealand, to bring together invasive species related resources and activities currently dispersed among the various, often competing, European institutions. 1

Hulme PE, Pyšek P, Nentwig W & Vilà M. (2009) Will threat of biological invasions unite the European Union? Science 324, 40-41. Funder: Tertiary Education Commission, European Commission

Giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) can easily reach 3m in height and is a widespread problem weed in Europe that now has a toe-hold in New Zealand.

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Changing how the world understands spores Professor Alison Stewart, Director of the Lincoln University-based Bio-Protection Research Centre, says her research group develops microbial biocontrol products to control plant diseases on economically important crops. One of those beneﬁcial microbes is Trichoderma, a fungus which is naturally present in soil. Researchers have used it to develop a wide range of different products including Tenet®, where the fungus is incorporated into small granules applied to the soil to control onion white rot disease.

A major constraint though is making the commercial product cost effective, so underpinning the applied programmes is fundamental research to help understand all the factors that might inﬂuence the way this fungus will behave. “The spores of Trichoderma are used in commercial biocontrol products and we are interested in looking at how we can produce them cost-effectively,” explains Professor Stewart. “We want to help companies produce products whose prices match the cost of agrichemicals, so farmers can choose the biocontrol agents.” That requires working out how to produce premium quality spores by delving into the fundamental genetics of sporulation to understand what drives spore production and quality. Now, research in this area, undertaken by former PhD student Johanna Steyaert, is being praised as world-leading. Her PhD study looked at the factors which inﬂuence sporulation, offering commercial partners the opportunity to translate the information into better production practices. “Along the way, we did innovative fundamental research that advances knowledge of fungal biology. Spores are asexual reproductive structures and we needed to know how to get them to produce on demand and perform as a biocontrol agent. We discovered fungi are much more sophisticated than we realised,” says Professor Stewart. The research revealed the impact of abiotic factors such as pH, temperature, carbon and

nitrogen. During her PhD research, Johanna discovered she could get a thousand-fold difference in spore production depending on whether the fungus was grown on primary or secondary nitrogen. “In a world first, we discovered that conidiation in Trichoderma is controlled by a circadian rhythm, an internal biological clock that 'ticks' to approximately 24 hours. “This finding has revealed a whole new layer of complexity in Trichoderma sporulation”, says Dr Steyaert. The next challenge was to understand why. Dr Steyaert and the team worked out which genes were involved in sporulation and what specific factors influenced their regulation. “We cascaded down into more detail at the genetic level and found Trichoderma has similar genetic regulation mechanisms to a diverse range of other fungi, so we have gained a body of knowledge we’ve never had before.”

Above: Alison Stewart and Johanna Steyaert examine Trichoderma conidiation patterns.

Some of that new knowledge may help explain why beneficial fungi don’t always work in a particular field environment. For example, if growers put nitrogen-based fertiliser on at the same time as the biocontrol agent, the type of nitrogen could stimulate or inhibit the biocontrol agents. These findings have been published in the world-leading Fungal Biology journal, with the molecular genetics findings now being translated into significant applied outcomes. Project: Microbial Products Researchers: Professor Alison Stewart, Dr Johanna Steyaert, Dr Richard Weld Funders: Tertiary Education Commission, Agrimm Technologies Ltd

Scenario: a small breeding population of a new and potentially devastating agricultural pest is discovered near a New Zealand port. What happens next?

That depends on a number of factors including how far and how fast the pest is likely to spread. However, anticipating the spread of newly arrived pests is difﬁcult as the data required to set up predictive models doesn’t exist. Recognising this problem, Sue Worner, Associate Professor of Ecological Informatics for Biosecurity and fellow researcher, Dr Joel Pitt, set out to create a realistic model to provide decision support for pest containment or eradication programmes. They also wanted to progress practical understanding of the dispersal and spread of organisms. Their approach involved modelling dispersal processes within a geographic information system (GIS). Using GIS allowed the scientists to incorporate realistic landscape data which, in turn, yielded more accurate predictions

The Asian tiger mosquito is one of the exotic invertebrates investigated

Their new model applies concepts taken from traditional theoretical population and spread models to the simulation of the dispersal of the Argentine ant (Linepithema humile). This highly invasive species was already well established before it was identiﬁed in New Zealand in 1990, so was largely left to disperse unhindered. As such, it provides a good example of the spread of an invasive species not stiﬂed by eradication attempts. International data on Argentine ant distribution and spread were used to set parameters for the model that was then used to simulate Argentine ant spread from its initial New Zealand invasion site. These new models can generate realistic predictions of spread for use in the design of appropriate, balanced sampling programmes. They allow for designs with different sample sizes and spatial and temporal patterns to be tested over a realistic landscape and experiments using different eradication treatments to be carried out. Such experiments are rarely possible in reality. The GIS integration helps progress understanding of species spread in a complex environment as well as allowing predictions to be made about the direction and rate of spread. These predictions inform invasion biology and will assist climate change studies by simulating the movement of species into new areas that become climatically suitable. Finally, the simulations provide problem-based estimates that encapsulate some of the uncertainties involved in the prediction of invasive spread.

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Tracking how pests spread

than traditional models which have been based on uniform, one dimensional, abstract environments. The resulting work was published in the high impact journal Ecological Applications.

Identifying Potential Invertebrate Invaders Associate Professor Worner’s group also works to identify potential invaders and recently completed a project for MAF on exotic freshwater invertebrates. They modelled global distribution and environmental data for 21 species using nine different modelling approaches, then chose the ‘best’ model to project the potential distribution of each species globally and in New Zealand.

in New Zealand with the right combination of bioclimatic variables to support establishment. Map overlays identiﬁed the Manawatu, Rangatikei, Nelson and Marlborough catchments as the most likely bioclimatic hotspots for high risk exotic freshwater species. This knowledge will be used in the development of surveillance programmes which in turn should increase the chance of early detection and associated eradication, containment or suppression campaigns. Project: Intelligent Systems for Biosecurity

Along the way they developed a new procedure for choosing species absence data, thus reducing the problems often associated with this type of modelling. The work showed that all but three of the species modelled would ﬁnd at least one spot

Researchers: Associate Professor Sue Worner, Dr Joel Pitt Funder: Tertiary Education Commission

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Functional biodiversity

Biodiversity is decreasing at the fastest rate since the last Ice Age while, at the same time, there is a growing appreciation of its vital role in providing ecosystem services to both natural and productive environments. It’s an issue that has attracted the research focus of Professor Steve Wratten, Deputy Director at the BioProtection Research Centre.

Professor Wratten is a world leading researcher in biological control of insects, an ecosystem service. The research carried out by his group includes biological control, soil processes and even eco-tourism. “Productive systems are generally low in biodiversity. This leads to a low level of nature’s services. We are focused on identifying ways of reintroducing biodiversity to these modiﬁed ecosystems. We are particularly interested in ﬁnding the right type of functional biodiversity to improve nature’s services on farmland, and how to deploy it. Importantly, we use resource economics techniques to assess the value of the enhancements we achieve.” Professor Wratten’s research group draws on a range of disciplines, from plant/soil interactions and pest population dynamics to resource economics and marketing, and targets diverse systems, from vineyards, to mines, to marginal land. For example, Dr Stephane Boyer, with Solid Energy New Zealand, is researching the services provided by endemic earthworms and snails in restored mine sites. This work, using pyrosequencing, has shown that there are many more endemic New Zealand earthworm species than previously thought, they can be cultured in the laboratory and they are an important part of the diet of rare predatory land snails. His work is leading to the development of a protocol that can be used by Solid Energy to restore functioning ecological communities to mine sites. Vineyards are another system of interest to the group. PhD student, Jean Tompkins, is investigating the use of native plants for

undervine plantings and has shown that the right species can reduce herbicide use, improve soil water retention and provide food and habitat for beneficial insects. Professor Wratten explains that this research, which is part of the Greening Waipara project (www.bioprotection. org.nz/greening-waipara), is a great example of how functional diversity can work. “Earlier vineyard work showed that buckwheat flowers amongst vines can greatly enhance biological control of vine pests by providing a nectar food source to parasitic wasps. Appropriate buckwheat plantings can obviate pesticide use, saving up to $250 per hectare each year. This approach has been picked up by other vineyards throughout New Zealand and in Australia, where we have strong links with Charles Sturt University and CSIRO, Adelaide.” The group also works with European researchers on the benefits of enhancing ecosystems. Recent work with Danish colleagues has shown that redesigning agroecosystems to enhance ecosystem services and incorporate biofuel production in field margins can sustainably deliver US$1500 per hectare each year. If the European Union adopted a farming system similar to this, the ecosystem services value would exceed the annual value of all European Union farm subsidies. Professor Wratten says that functional biodiversity and ecological engineering can be employed in a range of natural, productive and otherwise disturbed ecosystems to improve environmental values as well as product quality.

“That’s the aim of our group at the BioProtection Research Centre - to enhance the environment and add science-based ‘green’ value to New Zealand exports.” Project: Various Collaborations with: CSIRO (Adelaide), Charles Sturt University (Australia), University of Copenhagen Researchers: Professor Steve Wratten, Dr Stephane Boyer, Jean Tompkins Funders: Tertiary Education Commission, Foundation for Research, Science & Technology, Solid Energy NZ, Four Leaf Japan Co. Ltd

Biosecurity is a key research theme at the BioProtection Research Centre, and an important facet of this research is the development of innovative tools to assist with the diagnostic challenges presented by high risk pests crossing our borders.

In 2002 Dr Karen Armstrong recognised the potential of DNA barcoding as a technique for distinguishing exotic species from their commonly intercepted egg and larval life stages. Working with MAF Biosecurity New Zealand, Dr Armstrong and postdoctoral fellow Dr Shelley Ball subsequently developed a barcoding tool for the identification of two of New Zealand’s highest risk pest groups, fruit flies and tussock moths. It is now routinely used by MAF BNZ allowing them to make rapid and effective biosecurity decisions. Important bioprotection spin-offs have also arisen from this barcoding work. For example, it was instrumental in the discovery of a new tussock moth forestry pest species, Lymantria flavida. It has also helped to identify species within the exotic yellow peach moth horticultural pest complex enabling correct pheromone surveillance lures to be produced, and is being used to triage previously undescribed New Zealand native flies to aid in the description of potential agricultural biocontrol agents. New Zealand’s application of this technology to biosecurity was a world first and Dr Armstrong is now working with a number of international agencies to take it further. Projects include the Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL), fruit fly Tephritid Barcode Initiative (TBI), the EU’s Quarantine Barcode of Life (QBOL), and the International Barcode of Life Project (iBOL). She is also working with postdoctoral fellow, Dr Laura Boykin, on the bioinformatic ‘rules’ around using barcodes to define a species and as a consultant to the New Zealand/Australia/

USA/Canada government QUADs group, which is developing international diagnostic standards for this technology.

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Protecting our land based industries and natural environment

DNA barcoding

However, Dr Armstrong’s key research challenge is tackling the limitations of the barcode gene. She is working with Dr Peter Johnston at Landcare Research to determine alternative barcodes for plant pathogenic fungi and, in an Australian CRC National Plant Biosecurity research project, using next generation transcriptome sequencing to search for novel markers for the most invasive fruit ﬂy group, the oriental fruit ﬂy species complex.

Determining the origin of exotic pests While Dr Armstrong focuses on identifying insects intercepted at the border, one of her PhD students, Peter Holder, is developing methods for determining whether individual pest specimens already in the country are new arrivals or part of established breeding populations. Peter is investigating the use of isotopes and trace elements as geo-location markers, an approach already used in food provenancing and forensics. It is based on the premise that plants take on a speciﬁc trace and heavy element chemical signature reﬂecting the soil and water where they grow and this signature is transferred to insects that feed upon them - hence matching chemical signatures should enable natal geographic origins to be determined. He is also examining the precision of locationto-plant-to-insect trace element and isotope ratio signatures. His novel approach of an integrated TC-IRMS, ICP-MS and MC-ICPMS method has proven that minute, natural

Above: The tomato fruit worm is the model for Peter Holder’s stable isotope research.

abundance quantities of key elements and their isotopes can be analysed in a single insect – a sensitivity that is essential for biosecurity. Signatures composed from the pooling of several elements show considerable promise, from comparisons within-regions to betweencountries. So already our appreciation of this approach to differentiate insect natal origins at a range of spatial scales has signiﬁcantly improved and is now enabling novel avenues of enquiry in other Lincoln University disciplines, such as ecology and pest management, to be considered. Researchers: Dr Karen Armstrong, Dr Shelley Ball, Dr Laura Boykin, Peter Holder, Dr Peter Johnston (Landcare Research) Funders: Tertiary Education Commission, Foundation for Research, Science & Technology, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, New Zealand Government Cross Departmental Research Pool (CDRP), Australian Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for National Plant Biosecurity

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