19366 research outputs found
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Corporate investment and government policy during the COVID-19 crisis
No full textWe investigate the impact of the US government response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including stringent social measures and economic support packages, on corporate investment. The empirical results show that despite the overall decreased investment due to the economic impact of the pandemic, the government response to COVID-19 and economic supports have a positive effect on corporate investment after subtracting the impact of the pandemic on firm-level investment. We find that the impact of economic support packages on corporate investment is stronger than that of health containment policies. Further analyses show that the effect is weak in firms with higher levels of political risk and investment irreversibility, while being more pronounced in firms with higher technology intensity. Our findings provide fresh insights into the firms’ reaction to the government policies during the pandemic and suggest that both social measures and economic support are vital to restoring corporate investment as well as the economic recovery process
Strategies to reduce the environmental footprint of dairy production by utilizing the dairy beef integration
No full textIn the coming decades, there is expected to be a significant increase in the need for animal protein
throughout the world. With this growing demand, both the dairy and beef industries will need strategies
in place that are adaptable and consider economic efficiency balanced with environmental impacts,
animal welfare outcomes and social perceptions. There is a compelling economic case for pasture-based
dairy farm businesses to invest in genetics to reduce animal wastage due to reproductive failure,
mastitis, and surplus calf wastage. The utilization of genomic selection, sex-sorted semen, and potential
dual-purpose breeds can improve growth rates compared to traditional dairy cattle while maintaining
similar milk solid production, fertility, and cow size. Currently, it is estimated over two million surplus
calves from the dairy industry are slaughtered at four days of age in New Zealand annually. Targeted
incorporation of sex-sorted semen to reduce surplus male calves, and the use of double-muscled
terminal sires to increase carcass yields in the remaining calves. This reduction of animal wastage is an
effective way to reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions in both the dairy and the beef industry. This review
aims to present strategic breeding objectives and solutions including sex-sorted semen, genomics
selection, using dual purpose and double muscled terminal sire and slaughtering beef animals at a
younger age to maximise genetic gain reducing surplus calf wastage
Benefits and risks of including the bromoform containing seaweed Asparagopsis in feed for the reduction of methane production from ruminants
No full textThe agricultural production of ruminants is responsible for 24% of global methane emissions, contributing 39% of emissions of this greenhouse gas from the agricultural sector. Strategies to mitigate ruminant methanogenesis include the use of methanogen inhibitors. For example, the seaweeds Asparagopsis taxiformis and Asparagopsis armata included at low levels in the feed of cattle and sheep inhibit methanogenesis by up to 98%, with evidence of improvements in feed utilisation efficiency. This has resulted in an increasing interest in and demand for these seaweeds globally. In response, research is progressing rapidly to facilitate Asparagopsis cultivation at large scale, and to develop aquaculture production systems to enable a high quality and consistent supply chain. In addition to developing robust strategies for sustainable production, it is important to consider and evaluate the benefits and risks associated with its production and subsequent use as an antimethanogenic feed ingredient for ruminant livestock. This review focuses on the relevant ruminal biochemical pathways, degradation, and toxicological risks associated with bromoform (CHBr₃), the major active ingredient for inhibition of methanogenesis in Asparagopsis, and the effects that production of Asparagopsis and its use as a ruminant feed ingredient might have on atmospheric chemistry
Performance of AI-adopted listed firms: Is artificial intelligence helpful?
No full textThis study estimates and compares the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the stock performance of AI-adopted and conventional listed firms worldwide. Using the single-group and multiple-group Interrupted Time-Series Analyses (ITSA) with panel data, the results show that the negative impact of COVID-19 on the AI stock market was less severe than the conventional stock market in the first month of the pandemic. The performance of the AI stocks recovered quicker than the conventional stocks as the pandemic went into the third month. The results suggest that the AI stocks were more resilient than the conventional stocks when the financial market was induced by COVID-19. The deployment of AI in firms serves as a resilient and crucial driver for sustainable performance in challenging environments
Landscape @Lincoln - Place and context in the development of an antipodean landscape architecture programme
No full textThe first 50 years of landscape architecture education at Lincoln University in Aotearoa-New Zealand is interpreted as four phases of development. First, the Landscape ‘Apostles’, a period in the 1960–70s establishing the country’s inaugural programme. Second, ‘No 8 Wire’, as the programme adapted to the socio-economic and political transformations of the ‘The New Zealand Experiment’ in the 1980s. Third, ‘Overseas Experience’ focused on building international relationships to enhance research capacity and student numbers. Fourth, ‘Future Shock’ involving local adaption to successive regional and global crises in the 21st century. The authors argue that the programme’s character expresses strategic adaptions to changing institutional, regional, national, and global contexts. Imperatives for the future include strengthening partnerships with Māori, the indigenous people of Aotearoa-NZ, and design and planning responses to climate change, within a context of sustainable development
Atmospheric methane oxidation is affected by grassland type and grazing and negatively correlated to total soil respiration in arid and semiarid grasslands in Inner Mongolia
No full textMethane (CH₄) is an important trace greenhouse gas and atmospheric CH₄ uptake by high-affinity methanotrophs in grassland soil accounts for an important proportion of the terrestrial CH₄ sink. However, our understanding of the comprehensive effects of grassland type and grazing treatment on active soil methanotrophs and atmospheric CH₄ uptake is still under debate. This study investigates the impact of grazing on CH₄ oxidation rate and active atmospheric CH₄ oxidizing methanotroph communities in two arid and semiarid grassland ecosystems (meadow and desert) by detecting transcripts of methane monooxygenase (pmoA) genes. Atmospheric CH₄ oxidation rates differed according to grassland type and grazing treatment. The highest activity was found in desert grasslands with moderate grazing and the lowest activity in meadow grasslands with exclosures. The differences in activities were linked with changes in abundance, composition and co-occurrence network patterns of active methanotrophs and CO₂ production rate. Redundancy, correlation and random forest analyses indicated that pmoA transcripts, available phosphorus (AP), NO₃‾−N, and CO₂ production rate were the most important factors predicting active methanotroph community composition and atmospheric CH₄ oxidation activity in these grassland ecosystems. A glucose amendment incubation experiment showed that addition of glucose increased heterotrophic microbial respiration and inhibited atmospheric CH₄ oxidation. This study provides evidence that CO₂ production rate is an important factor associated with atmospheric CH₄ oxidation activity in arid and semiarid grassland ecosystems and suggests that interactions between methanotrophs and other heterotrophs influence methanotroph activity in grassland ecosystems
Assessing thermal acclimation of soil microbial respiration using macromolecular rate theory
No full textSoil heterotrophic respiration is strongly controlled by temperature. Thus, understanding how soil microbial respiration will acclimate to global warming is important for accurate predictions of soil carbon loss. Thermal acclimation of soil respiration has typically been measured using the Q₁₀ temperature coefficient or comparing absolute rates of respiration with varying conclusions. Discrepancies in these findings may be a result of these approaches not accounting for the temperature optima associated with microbial respiration. To address this issue, we periodically measured the temperature response of respiration for soils incubated at 4, 10, 20, and 35 ºC for up to 310 days. We measured respiration rates from these soils placed in a temperature block for 5 h at ∼ 1 ºC increments with temperatures ranging from ∼ 4 to 50 ºC. To assess thermal acclimation, we used macromolecular rate theory to calculate the temperature optimum (Topt), the inflection point of the curve (Tinf), and the change in heat capacity of the transition state (ΔC‡p), as a measure of the temperature response. We compared changes in Topt, Tinf , and ΔC‡p over time between each of the long-term incubation temperatures. We found that Topt and Tinf increased and ΔC‡p decreased at higher long-term incubation temperatures after approximately six months. However, these results appear largely driven by changes in carbon availability, suggesting that the temperature response of soil microbial respiration changes only as soil carbon depletes. This novel approach offers a new perspective on how soil microbial communities may acclimate to climate change and may be relevant for modelling of soil carbon losses
Global urban environmental change drives adaptation in white clover
No full textUrbanization transforms environments in ways that alter biological evolution. We examined whether urban environmental change drives parallel evolution by sampling 110,019 white clover plants from 6169 populations in 160 cities globally. Plants were assayed for a Mendelian antiherbivore defense that also affects tolerance to abiotic stressors. Urban-rural gradients were associated with the evolution of clines in defense in 47% of cities throughout the world. Variation in the strength of clines was explained by environmental changes in drought stress and vegetation cover that varied among cities. Sequencing 2074 genomes from 26 cities revealed that the evolution of urban-rural clines was best explained by adaptive evolution, but the degree of parallel adaptation varied among cities. Our results demonstrate that urbanization leads to adaptation at a global scale
Variation in caprine KRTAP1-3 and its association with cashmere fibre diameter
No full textKeratin-associated proteins (KAPs) are components of cashmere fibres. The gene encoding the KAP1-3 protein (KRTAP1-3) has been described in goats, but little is known about sequence variation in this gene and if it affects cashmere fibre traits. In this study, we used a polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) technique to screen for nucleotide sequence variation in caprine KRTAP1-3 in 327 Longdong cashmere goats, then analysed association between the genetic variation that was revealed and some cashmere fibre traits. Six PCR-SSCP patterns representing six different variant sequences of KRTAP1-3 (named A to F) were revealed. Among these variant sequences, seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were detected, with two of them being non-synonymous. Goats with genotype AC had higher mean fibre diameter (MFD) than those with genotype AB (P < 0.001), while goats with genotype AB had higher MFD than those with AA (P < 0.001). The presence of C (P < 0.001) and B (P = 0.006) in a genotype was associated with increased MFD, and together this suggests that variation in caprine KRTAP1-3 affects the key fibre trait of MFD
Untangling the Gordian knot: Estuary survival under sea-level rise and catchment pollution requires a new policy and governance approach
No full textMany estuaries are squeezed between sea-level rise, coastal hardening and adverse cumulative effects from unsustainable catchment activities. In Aotearoa New Zealand, there is little planning to provide future accommodation space for estuaries. A complex knot of policies and plans, and accompanying poor implementation also affect ecological sustainability. We examine these issues for Brooklands Lagoon/Te Riu o Te Aika Kawa, a tidal lagoon northeast of Christchurch/Ōtautahi. It is within the takiwā of Ngāi Tahu iwi and Ngāi Tūāhuriri hapū, and the jurisdictions of Christchurch City Council and Environment Canterbury. The estuary is influenced by three rivers, and surrounding land use is managed under three different statutory resource management plans, along with several non-regulatory strategies and organisational management plans. However, these plans are poorly integrated and estuarine ecological health is compromised. The incoming tide of resource management and local government reform will add complexity, but also an opportunity to accommodate and enhance the estuary as a blue carbon sink, and to restore cultural and ecological values. This requires specific recognition of estuaries in the proposed managed retreat and spatial planning laws, and within the replacement resource management statute. Legal recognition of Indigenous customary rights could also produce novel governance models to improve management