19366 research outputs found
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The effectiveness of safety signs in outdoor recreation settings: A research synthesis and annotated bibliography
No full textRecognising the lack of agreed best practice in outdoor safety signage in New Zealand, and the inconsistency in messaging styles, the Land Safety Forum commissioned Lincoln University to prepare a
literature review to document and synthesise available research on the effectiveness of outdoor safety signage. A key purpose of the review was to identify factors that impact signage effectiveness.
The resulting research synthesis and annotated bibliography includes available books, book chapters, reports, journal articles, theses and other research outputs pertaining to the use of hazard and safety signs in outdoor recreation settings. Approximately 90 individual English-language works authored between 1990 and 2023 were identified, summarised and evaluated
Walkability in aging Japan: Challenges for age-friendly design and health behavior change in urban Tokyo
No full textIntroduction
The Tokyo-Yokohama mega-city is confronting the twin challenges of demographic aging and urbanization. As Tokyo ages, more attention is required to evaluate and improve urban walkability, which is a key World Health Organization indicator of age-friendliness that supports physical activity and social participation.
Objective
This research aimed to systematically assess walkability in 10 super-aged neighborhoods across two growing cities in west Tokyo.
Methods
This mixed methods research incorporated population surveys, systematic walking audits, and streetscape photography. Assessment of walking behavior was undertaken among 1200 Tokyo residents aged 65 and older using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Walking audits of 10 super-aged neighborhoods in the Musashino and Mitaka were undertaken using the Microscale Audit of Pedestrian Streetscapes tool and a team of trained auditors. Audits charted the journey from older-adult housing to four typical walking destinations within 400m.
Results
In Tokyo, 30% of older adults are physically inactive and walking behavior has declined by up to 13% since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Walking audits of super-aged neighborhoods revealed statistically significant variations in urban conditions, with all locations scoring in poor-to-fair ranges in relation to international reference values. Prevailing challenges included discontiguous pedestrian infrastructure, limited traffic calming measures, trip hazards, land use constraints, and a lack of supportive urban amenities.
Conclusion
Implications for age-friendly planning will be discussed to inform targeted remediation of urban walking conditions for aging residents. The utility of grounded observational methods will also be addressed for elucidating interactions between aging, urban environment, and walking behavior
How deeply and profoundly important blue spaces are to humans
No full textQ & A with Timothy Beatley (TB) professor at the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning, School of Architecture at University of Virginia
Early vigour weed-competitive wheat as an integrated weed management tool
No full textWeeds are a major biotic stressor impacting successful crop production. Improving competitiveness of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) could provide a valuable tool for an integrated weed management strategy. While wheat typically exhibits conservative early growth, selection for early shoot vigour may improve crop competitiveness. A recurrent selection for early shoot vigour resulted in wheat germplasm with significantly higher early biomass and leaf area. However, the impact of integrating such vigour into breeding lines on physiological traits associated with competitive ability of seedling wheat remains relatively unknown. Here, a range of early vigour germplasm, commercial wheat cultivars and crosses between the two, as well as additional wheat cultivars, were grown in controlled environments and field conditions to assess the impact of early shoot vigour on plant growth and development. Total leaf area, root length, biomass accumulation, relative growth rate and specific leaf area were compared across genotypes. In addition, the competitive ability of these genotypes was assessed in the field and controlled environment. High vigour lines demonstrated increased leaf area, root and shoot biomass and root length from the first leaf stage onwards. Interestingly, differences in weed suppression in the field and controlled environment occurred earlier than previously documented. We conclude that improved wheat competitive ability could be a valuable, easy-to-apply tool in the integrated weed management toolbox
Optimal sample type and number vary in small shallow lakes when targeting non-native fish environmental DNA
No full textNon-native fish have been shown to have deleterious impacts on freshwater ecosystems in New Zealand. Early detection is critical for their effective management. Traditional capture-based techniques may not detect newly introduced fish, especially if they are present in low abundance. Molecular techniques that target environmental DNA (eDNA) have been shown, in many instances, to be more sensitive, cost-effective and require lower sampling effort. However, appropriate sampling strategies are needed to ensure robust and interpretable data are obtained. In this study we used droplet digital PCR assays to investigate the presence of two non-native fish in New Zealand, the European perch (Perca fluviatilis) and rudd (Scardinius erythrophthalmus) in three small lakes. Samples were collected from water and surface sediment at near-shore and mid-lake sites. Probabilistic modelling was used to assess the occupancy of fish eDNA and develop guidance on sampling strategies. Based on the detection probability measures from the present study, at least six sites and five replicates per site are needed to reliably detect fish eDNA in sediment samples, and twelve sites with eight replicates per site for water samples. The results highlight the potential of developing monitoring and surveillance programs adapted to lakes, that include the use of assays targeting eDNA. This study focused on small shallow lakes, and it is likely that these recommendations may vary in larger, deeper, and more geomorphologically complex lakes, and this requires further research
Reproducibility of a farmyard stress model used to evaluate predictive biomarkers for high pH in lamb
No full textWe have reported on a simple farmyard stress model which was a useful way of causing high pH meat under controlled yet realistic conditions for further research. The study showed that moderate stress resulted in changes to several important meat quality markers [1]. Samples from this trial have been used for fingerprinting mass spectrometry to identify new potential predictive markers of high ultimate pH [2]. The current study was designed as follow up validation trial to confirm the reproducibility of this model and potential metabolic biomarkers. These muscles in the early post-mortem period were also analysed for four protein biomarkers identified by our international collaborators [3]. This data will contribute towards defining and designing much larger experiments run in commercial processing plants. The aim is to develop rapid screening systems to predict ultimate pH as meat is processed. In future, biomarkers of high pH in the meat could be also used for enhancing animal welfare and confirm the relationship between minimising pre-slaughter stress and improving the consistency of meat quality
How are our landscapes valued by their users? Identifying the value of public open spaces using real estate market turnovers
No full textLandscapes provide significant intangible services such as mental and physical enjoyment. However, the intangibility of these services means they are difficult to quantify and tend to be overlooked when making design and development decisions. Such ill-informed decision-making processes are often linked to the fact that the ‘economics’ underpinning decision-making are not usually well-researched and understood in landscape architecture. This research explores a potential approach for revealing the overall perceived value of a landscape. Because intangible services cannot be quantified directly, we needed to find a way of measuring them indirectly. One way of doing this is to reveal what value people put on elements like parks and other public open spaces, as reflected in real estate turnovers. Our study focuses on Lincoln, New Zealand, and looks at how the publicly accessible landscape features are valued by their users. A hedonic price model was built to examine the relationship between the land prices from the last two decades of property turnovers in Lincoln and a series of land price-related factors (e.g. distance to the closest open space, travel times to schools and the university, land size). The results show that landscape features were highly valued by local residents, in comparison to other factors. Also, the ‘landscape premium’ remains significant throughout the two-decade observation period, even when major disruptions, such as the 2011 major earthquake in Christchurch and the recent Covid-19 pandemic, occurred and significantly affected the real estate market. The study also examined the possibility of monetising intangible landscape benefits and taking them into account when making landscape-related decisions. A possible method for this is demonstrated in the study
Paleo-diatom records reveal ecological change not detected using traditional measures of lake eutrophication
No full textLakes provide crucial ecosystem services and harbour unique and rich biodiversity, yet despite decades of research and management focus, cultural eutrophication remains a predominant threat to their health. Our ability to manage lake eutrophication is restricted by the lack of long-term monitoring records. To circumvent this, we developed a bio-indicator approach for inferring trophic level from lake diatom communities and applied this to sediment cores from two lakes experiencing eutrophication stress. Diatom indicators strongly predicted observed trophic levels, and when applied to sediment cores, diatom predicted trophic level reconstructions were consistent with monitoring data and land-use histories. However, there were significant recent shifts in diatom communities not captured by the diatom-based index or monitoring data, suggesting that conventional trophic level indices obscure important ecological change. New approaches, such as the one in this study, are critical to detect early changes in water quality and prevent the decline of lake ecosystems worldwide
Detection of fish sedimentary DNA in aquatic systems: A review of methodological challenges and future opportunities
No full textEnvironmental DNA studies have proliferated over the last decade, with promising data describing the diversity of organisms inhabiting aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The recovery of DNA present in the sediment of aquatic systems (sedDNA) has provided short‐ and long‐term data on a wide range of biological groups (e.g., photosynthetic organisms, zooplankton species) and has advanced our understanding of how environmental changes have affected aquatic communities. However, substantial challenges remain for recovering the genetic material of macro‐organisms (e.g., fish) from sediments, preventing complete reconstructions of past aquatic ecosystems, and limiting our understanding of historic, higher trophic level interactions. In this review, we outline the biotic and abiotic factors affecting the production, persistence, and transport of fish DNA from the water column to the sediments, and address questions regarding the preservation of fish DNA in sediment. We identify sources of uncertainties around the recovery of fish sedDNA arising during the sedDNA workflow. This includes methodological issues related to experimental design, DNA extraction procedures, and the selected molecular method (quantitative PCR, digital PCR, metabarcoding, metagenomics). By evaluating previous efforts (published and unpublished works) to recover fish sedDNA signals, we provide suggestions for future research and propose troubleshooting workflows for the effective detection and quantification of fish sedDNA. With further research, the use of sedDNA has the potential to be a powerful tool for inferring fish presence over time and reconstructing their population and community dynamics
Deterministic processes drive national‐scale patterns in lake surface sediment bacteria and eukaryotic assemblage composition
No full textBiological communities within lake surface sediments play a vital role in biogeochemical cycling and ecosystem services. Knowledge on abundance-occupancy patterns and assembly processes across large spatial scales and over multiple environmental gradients is limited, yet essential to aid in protection and restoration. In the present study, surface sediment samples were collected from 296 lakes across a wide spatial scale and covering multiple interacting environmental gradients including size, depth, altitude, and trophic state. A suite of physicochemical parameters were used to characterize the environmental conditions and bacterial and eukaryotic assemblages were determined using 16S and 18S rRNA metabarcoding. The majority (∼55%) of amplicon sequence variants were only found in a single lake with eukaryotes having a more restricted distribution than bacteria. Deterministic processes were inferred to be dominant for both bacteria (78%) and eukaryotes (51%), with variable selection being especially important for bacteria (49%). Variation partitioning indicated that land use in the catchment, which is strongly related to trophic state, was the most important environmental factor in explaining the assemblage composition. This nationwide study across broad gradients provides new insights into the ecology of bacteria and eukaryotes in lake surface sediments and a platform to better understand the effects of multiple environmental stressors on lake sediment assemblages