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How can the design of wineries support wellbeing? A study of wineries in Waipara, Aotearoa New Zealand : A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Landscape Architecture at Lincoln University
No full textWine and food share important connections to the landscape, and these connections are increasingly being recognised as important to wellbeing. Farmers’ markets and locally focused food menus, alongside the heightened awareness of the value of being in landscape settings, exemplify the significance of opportunities to enjoy the fruits of the earth within the landscape that produced them. However, while there is an established understanding of the connections between nature and wellbeing, and a growing number of studies of gastronomical aspects of the food-landscape relationship, there is little research on how wineries might also offer wellbeing benefits.
Locating and identifying patterns of how wineries are designed can offer insight into the place-specific experiences that are encouraged within wineries, the activities provided and how future wineries may be designed to support wellbeing. The goal of this research is to determine how wineries as places - including their location, design, and activities - support wellbeing. A two-phase process was used to identify potential winery cases across Aotearoa New Zealand, followed by a detailed selection based on their landscape, spatial settings, and location. Then from the samples identified, wineries with similar activities were selected and compared based on their landscape and spatial settings. Using a Mash-Up approach, categories and qualities were extracted from parallel studies of institutions known to support wellbeing such as hospitals, schools, and universities. The categories of Vegetation and Nature; Social; Environmental Control; Inclusivity; Spatial; and Multi-Sensory were identified from the parallel studies. Two additional categories were identified at the case study sites, they are: Animals and Time. Field work involved on-site inventorying at the four sites, using the categories derived from the parallel studies. Lastly, a normative critique of the case study sites was conducted that identified a wide range of landscape elements that echo those from the parallel studies, and indicate that wineries - like schools, hospitals, and universities - have a role to play in supporting wellbeing. This research identifies valuable insights into how wineries offer restorative environments and this in turn can inform other settings, such as those from the parallel studies
Novel contactless sensors for food, beverage and packaging evaluation
No full textThe use of traditional methods to evaluate food, beverages, and packaging tends to be time-consuming, labour-intensive, and usually involves high costs due to the need for expensive equipment, regular refill of consumables, skilled personnel and, in the case of sensory evaluation, incentives or payments involved for participants recruitment and/or panelists training and participation
Māori cultural values and soil fertility management – An exploratory study
No full textHighlights
• There have been limited studies to date specifically relating Māori cultural values to soil fertility management practices on farms.
• The deep-rooted connection between Māori people and the land is a critical feature of their land management decisions.
• Farms are food baskets for whānau and the wider community, as well as sources of income to provide other services and desired outcomes (e.g., social, cultural, environmental).
• Soil fertility maintenance is a high priority for Māori land managers, but there is a fine balance to strike between this, farm cashflow and other responsibilities (e.g., whānau, community, kaitiakitanga).
• Current environmental regulations present many complex challenges to Māori farms.
• Potential exists in unlocking Māori provenance through seeking business partners who share the same cultural values
Nitrogen source and Nod factor signaling map out the assemblies of Lotus japonicus root bacterial communities
No full textSymbiosis with soil-dwelling bacteria that fix atmospheric nitrogen allows legume plants to grow in nitrogen-depleted soil. Symbiosis impacts the assembly of root microbiota, but it is not known how this process takes place and whether it is independent of nitrogen nutrition. We use plant and bacterial mutants to address the role of Nod factor signaling on Lotus japonicus root microbiota assembly. We found that Nod factors are produced by symbionts to activate Nod factor signaling in the host, and this modulates the assembly of a symbiotic root microbiota. Lotus plants grown in symbiosis-permissive or suppressive soils delineated three nitrogen-dependent nutritional states: starved, symbiotic, or inorganic. We found that root and rhizosphere microbiomes associated with these states differ in composition and connectivity, demonstrating that symbiosis and inorganic nitrogen impact the legume root microbiota differently. Finally, we demonstrated that selected bacterial genera delineating state-dependent microbiomes have a high level of accurate prediction
Fragmentações, Violações, and Resistência: Weaving struggle and dreams in the Carajás corridor of the Brazilian Amazon : A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Lincoln University
No full textThe Estrada de Ferro Carajás is an 892 km railroad in Northern Brazil built to transports iron ore extracted by Vale S. A. from Serra dos Carajás in Pará state to ports in São Luís, Maranhão. Over the years, the connection between the railroad to other infrastructure and extractive projects has resulted on a logistics-export corridor – sometimes dubbed an “iron serpent” or “project of death” by local communities. Criss-crossing two Amazonian states, the Carajás corridor cuts through hundreds of territories of traditional peoples and communities, including Indigenous peoples, peasants, and quilombolas. Using document data and in-depth interviews interpreted through reflexive thematic analysis, this thesis aims to understand how the relationship between Vale, the state, and quilombolas contributes to the formation, expansion, and maintenance if the Carajás corridor.
This thesis identifies contradictions at the heart of the iron serpent: instead of a connecting entity promoting progress, development, and cohesion, this research positions the railroad as a place of ‘Fragmentação’, ‘Violações’, and ‘Resistência’. Processes of Fragmentação (fragmentation) separate a contiguous quilombola territory in more easily manageable entities to favour the corridor. Violações (violations) encompass the cumulative harm caused by Vale and the Brazilian state in the enactment of resource regulations. Meanwhile, processes of Resistência (resistance) challenge the formation, expansion, and maintenance of the corridor, and are performed by quilombola communities and allies.
This thesis brings important contributions to studies on development and resource extraction. Previous studies have tended to position mining companies as the most powerful actors in extractive areas, coercing the state to disregard regulations. My research points to a more nuanced scenario, in which the state itself enables, enacts, and relies on socioenvironmental harm - thus co-producing harm in the corridor alongside Vale. This thesis also introduces the concept of ‘silencing zones’ to reflect the physical, symbolic, and normative strategies enacted by Vale and the state to harm communities in the corridor. Finally, this study contributes to the growing literature on environmental justice by presenting community-led initiatives to resist extractive pursuits within and beyond the state, weaving new threads for state-making and territorial autonomy
A cross-national study in the US, China, India and New Zealand: Consumers' preferences towards collagen-based food products
No full textCollagen is the most abundant protein in mammals which provides the principal structure and mechanical support of several tissues. However, due to the process of aging, collagen levels in human body tend to reduce, resulting in wrinkling, dry skin, joint pains, etc. Consequently, collagen-based food products made from a variety of animal protein sources, including livestock industry byproducts, are widely consumed as a form of replenishment and nourishment for the human body. Furthermore, collagen is also used in cosmetic products and for medical applications such as hemostats, vascular grafts, etc. The market of collagen-based products in food and beverage are experiencing worldwide growth. The world’s collagen market was valued at US4.6 billion in 2023 . Understanding consumers is important for products’ success in market. Compared with the fast development of studying collagen’s characteristics from laboratories, consumer-centric research concerning collagen-based food products is rare to find, especially studies in a cross-national context. The present study aims to explore consumers’ attribute preferences on collage-based food products in a cross-national context, to provide greater market insights for agribusiness firms in the markets
Comprehensive uncertainty analysis for surface water and groundwater projections under climate change based on a lumped geo-hydrological model
No full textSustainable management of aquifers requires long-term predictions of their aquifer-scale groundwater balance under climate change with meaningfully quantified uncertainty. In our analysis, we account for uncertainty in model parameters, measured data, model errors, stochastic model inputs (e.g., rainfall, potential evapotranspiration), and climate scenarios. To afford this analysis, we rely on an extension of lumped hydrological models that includes groundwater flow and storage, called lumped geohydrological model (LGhM). It shows good model performance and is three orders of magnitude faster than 2D or 3D numerical groundwater models. We use Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) for Bayesian inference on a calibration period to quantify posterior parameter uncertainty and lumped data-and-model error. Then, we perform Monte Carlo forward runs with stochastic weather inputs under three different climate scenarios to quantify uncertainty in long-term predictions up to the year 2040. We apply our approach on a virtual reality representation of the Wairau Plain aquifer, New Zealand. We hypothesize that the variability in future climate is the most important impact factor. To test this hypothesis, we disentangle the overall uncertainty between data/model, parameters, weather, and climate inputs. We expect our approach to be highly useful for arbitrary types of catchments because the LGhM model structure can easily be adapted
Examining arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities and their influence on grapevine rootstock growth and nutrient uptake
No full textArbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are crucial components of sustainable agriculture, although the direct connection between AMF community composition and plant benefits still lacks comprehensive evidence. To bridge this knowledge gap, we conducted an experiment involving the manipulation of AMF communities in grapevine rootstock. Through this study, we examined plant growth parameters and physiological responses, aiming to shed light on the intricate relationship between AMF communities and grapevine performance. We conducted a glasshouse experiment employing a 'home' and 'away' approach. This design allowed us to investigate how different AMF communities, originating from both the same soil (‘home’) and other rootstock soils (‘away’), interacted with specific rootstock varieties. Our results showed that rootstocks grown in their 'home' soil AMF communities exhibited greater above and below ground biomass compared to 'away' soil AMF communities, highlighting rootstock specificity. Moreover, AMF communities influenced chlorophyll content and nutrient uptake in grapevine leaves. Our findings also revealed that the presence of specific AMF species in the different communities may deliver particular benefits to grapevine rootstocks. This study has enhanced our understanding of community level AMF-grapevine interactions and provided additional insights of the ecosystem services they deliver which could support sustainable winegrape management. Further research is needed to explore the direct and indirect effects of AMF communities on grape berry biochemistry and metabolic composition
Does well-being influence adoption of pro-environmental behaviours or the other way around?
No full textPresentation given at AARES 2023 - "Does well-being influence adoption of pro-environmental behaviours or the other way around?"
Volunteering for nature generates behavioural spillovers, increases pro-environmental orientation and improves wellbeing: A field experiment
Get PDFPresentation at MEEW 2023 - "Volunteering for nature generates behavioural spillovers, increases pro-environmental orientation and improves wellbeing: A field experiment