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Soil and litter legacy effects of pine invasion on subsequent reinvasion and secondary invasion
No full textInvasive alien trees can alter the biotic and abiotic properties of invaded ecosystems. Even after intensive control programmes, areas can be prone to reinvasion by the same species or secondary invasion by other species. One key factor that might determine reinvasion or secondary invasion is soil and litter legacy effects of the primary invader. Alien conifers are a prominent case of invaders with the potential to create lasting soil and litter legacy effects. In New Zealand, lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) is considered the most problematic invasive conifer species posing a threat to biodiversity, farming productivity and landscape values. We assessed if soil and litter microbiome legacies of controlled P. contorta invasions can facilitate the reinvasion by conspecifics and potential secondary invasion by the two most abundant commercially planted alien conifer species (Pinus radiata, Pseudotsuga menziesii). We grew plants in a sterile background soil inoculated with live or sterile soil and litter samples sourced from uninvaded grassland and stands of P. contorta that had been controlled by herbicide 2 years previously. Our experimental design aimed to disentangle the total observed legacy effect into its components of soil and litter microbiome-mediated effects and their potential interaction on seedling establishment and early growth of the primary invader and the potential secondary invaders. We found an overall negative legacy effect of P. contorta invasion on its own performance, whereas P. menziesii and P. radiata were neutrally or even positively affected, respectively. This was mainly driven by the individual effect of the soil microbiome. In contrast, seedling establishment was positively affected by the physical litter component but negatively affected by the litter microbiome. Thereby, the soil and litter microbiome-mediated components can interact creating non-additive effects. Synthesis. Our results suggest an increased risk of secondary invasion by other alien conifers after control of P. contorta. The complex interactions of soil and litter effects on plant performance highlight the importance of simultaneously considering multiple dimensions of legacy effects and their possible interactions. Paying attention to such interactions may help to better understand reinvasion and secondary invasion processes and inform post-invasion management practices
Isolated from a ‘single source of truth’: Formats and sources of COVID-19 information utilised by linguistic minority communities in Aotearoa New Zealand
No full textThis paper explores the formats and sources of COVID-19 information that 85 linguistic minority participants in Christchurch, New Zealand, engaged with during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on in-depth interviews conducted in 13 minority languages and English, our findings highlight varied information consumption patterns and the importance of both written and audio/audiovisual information formats. Local news, governmental sources, and personal networks played key roles, but, while intersectional factors shaped these practices, our analysis draws attention to the significance of language. Notably, inadequate multilingual information about the pandemic in New Zealand meant some participants with limited English and/or (digital) literacy were unable to access reliable local COVID-19 information. Thus isolated from a ‘single source of truth’, these participants instead had little choice but to rely on family or friends, social media and/or overseas news, often seeking to corroborate information across languages and sources. As such, our study emphasises the need for inclusive, targeted multilingual crisis communication strategies that address linguistic diversity. By highlighting the unique information consumption of linguistic minority communities, this paper contributes to current discussions about equitable access to public health information and the role of government in this endeavour as a matter of human rights for linguistic minorities
The effect of freshwater regulation on farmland values in New Zealand – ‘Dairy farming in Selwyn Waihora, Canterbury’
No full textThe intensity at which rural land is producing consumable goods has, over the last century, increased to meet the demand of growing world populations, and been enabled by advancing technology. For the land to produce more from a fixed resource, more nutrients have been applied, and the surpluses are finding their way into waterways. This generates undesirable consequences for the environment. Policymakers have acted by implementing regulation that encourages or forces a change of behaviour from farmers. Freshwater regulation implemented in New Zealand, while good for the environment, is perceived to have negatively affected farm productivity, profitability, and land values. This study tests this perception and finds that farmers who are making the farm management and land transaction decisions are more positive than negative about how freshwater regulation is affecting their farm business and respective land values. Most participants in the study were favourable about the improvements they had made to their farms as a result of the rules and the efficiencies gained. Over half of the participants considered the changes had been positive or had no effect on land value. It was also found that these farmers were doing everything they could to remain compliant with freshwater rules, but no more, regardless of whether doing more would be good for the environment, instead saving some strategies for possible future changes to regulation
Grapevine trunk disease symptomology data to identify individual grapevines as candidates for the “disease escape” phenotype
No full textGrapevine trunk diseases (GTDs), caused by a complex of fungal pathogens, pose significant challenges to viticulture in New Zealand and globally. There are few effective controls for these fungal pathogens, with most management aimed at preventing new infections via wound treatments. Recent research has demonstrated that mature vines thriving in areas of high disease can contain distinctive trunk microbiomes. These vines have been termed “disease escape” vines. Further research has shown that reintroduction of microbial taxa recovered from such vines into young grapevine canes can confer some resistance to the causal agents of GTD. However, selection of “disease escape” vines is difficult and labour intensive, requiring the application of clear criteria such as vine age, and lack of symptoms. In New Zealand, manual surveys of vines in commercial vineyards have been undertaken over time to understand the effectiveness of current, limited, GTD management methods. We investigated if symptom expression over time coupled with relative chlorophyll measurements in a 34-year-old commercial block of Sauvignon blanc vines could be used to detect putative “disease escape” vines. The vines were
surveyed six times between 2018 and 2024. The trunk material of individual vines, with and without GTD
symptoms (short shoots, cankers, half-head, re-worked, replacements, gaps and dead vines), in areas mapped with high disease pressure were biopsied. Vines from other areas of the same block without symptoms and surrounded by other asymptomatic vines were also collected. DNA metabarcoding of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) and 16S ribosomal RNA gene was applied to the trunk samples. The identification of distinctive microbiomes in putative “disease escape” vines, and their correlation with the symptomology mapping, spatial proximity of “healthy” vines and chlorophyll measurements is presented
Confronting epistemic blinders in impact assessment and environmental health risk assessment processes
No full textThe driving epistemology of settler-colonial society in Canada is socially structured around the elimination of Indigenous Peoples’ access to territory to expropriate its resources for their own purposes, active within state legislation and policies that disproportionately harm Indigenous Peoples through the continual extraction of resources and control over territory. Impact assessment (IA) processes have been pivotal in this strategy, deployed to rationalize settler colonial rule over land and people under the guise of probabilistic risk assessment. This epistemology is critiqued for its propensity, particularly in environmental health risk assessment (EHRA) processes, to reduce Indigenous Peoples’ complex lives and land-based relations into reductive environmental exposures that serve to sanitize, homogenize, and normalize continued colonial violence on their bodies, to ‘talk away’ how Indigenous Peoples are impacted. This Perspective offers insight into how Indigenous Peoples’ epistemological frameworks for health and wellbeing are neglected in IA processes. We add our voices to others who insist that EHRA must reflect the diversity of place-based relationships and epistemological ways of approaching Indigenous health and wellbeing. Government and industry must remove their epistemic blinders to recognize the need for multiple approaches, knowledges, and value systems to reflect and measure the cultural, social, and ecological consequences of development on Indigenous Peoples
Events and empowerment: Progressing the research agenda
No full textEmpowerment is often an implicit goal of events hosted in/by/for marginalised groups and communities. However, many studies into events and power focused on the negative aspects which resulted in disenfranchisement and disempowerment (Batty, 2016; Benfari et al., 1986; Clarke and Jepson, 2011). Our paper titled ‘Positive power events as temporary sites of power which “empower” marginalised groups’ (Walters et al., 2021) extended and reframed how power can be understood in the context of events, seeking to understand the processes that facilitate empowerment for marginalised groups. We included 9 different events from across New Zealand and Australia, finding that that empowerment through events is possible but requires an explicit focus on creating both social-structural and psychological dimensions of empowerment. In our conclusion, we identified a number of future directions for researchers to engage with the framework, applying it and testing it in other leisure contexts and refining it further.
This interactive session will be a facilitated collaborative workshop aimed at progressing the research agenda around events and empowerment. The aims of the workshop are to:
• Identify researchers interested in working with the empowerment framework
• Form an international research consortium
• Generate a joint research project
• Progress the theoretical development of the framework
• Identify potential funding source
Effects of elevated atmospheric CO₂ concentration on growth, grain yield and grain macronutrient concentrations of wheat under different K supply
No full textBackground: Atmospheric carbon-dioxide concentration ([CO₂]) is increasing rapidly, but its interactions with potassium (K) fertiliser on wheat growth, grain yield and quality are not well understood.
Aim: We investigated the effects of ambient CO₂ (aCO₂, approx. 415 ppm) and elevated CO₂ (eCO₂, 760 ppm) on these growth parameters under optimum (2.01 mol m−3) and growth limiting (50 mmol m−3) K supply in controlled environment chambers.
Results: Potassium limitation decreased total biomass at anthesis and maturity by approx. 13% and grain yield by 7.4%. The decreased grain yield was linked to decreased grain number. Grain K, P and S concentrations decreased by 6.5%–20.6%, under K deficiency, whereas Ca concentration increased by 8.0% and N and Mg concentrations were unaffected. These changes were closely correlated with changes in total aboveground nutrient accumulation, which were interpreted as changes in nutrient uptake. However, nutrient harvest index (NuHI) changed little with K supply. Under e[CO₂], plant dry weight at anthesis, root + straw dry weight at maturity and grain yield were respectively 33.1%, 23.9% and 9.7% greater than at a[CO₂]. The increase in yield was linked to an increase in thousand grain weight. Grain macronutrient concentrations (except P) decreased by 6.38%–16.0% with e[CO₂]. Total aboveground macronutrient accumulation and NuHIs were unaffected by CO₂ supply, except for KHI, which decreased with increasing [CO₂]. Conclusion: It is concluded that uptake of nutrients and their translocation within the plant were not inhibited by eCO₂, and decreased grain macronutrient concentrations were attributed to nutrient dilution due to increased C fixation relative to nutrient uptake
Assessing the New Zealand organic winegrowing model : A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Applied Science at Lincoln University
No full textGlobal organic wine production is increasing in value and volume (Grand View Research, 2024). New Zealand’s organic wine sector is also growing (BioGro NZ, 2021; Organics Aotearoa New Zealand, 2022), but little research has been done to determine the economic viability of organic management principles in the New Zealand viticulture context.
The purpose of this research was to collect and analyse vineyard production and financial data from selected organic winegrowers in Marlborough and Central Otago to determine vineyard profitability. In order to participate, winegrowers needed to be certified organic by an external accrediting body, such as BioGro or AsureQuality, having fully completed the organic conversion period, and have detailed and accessible accounting records. Marlborough producers needed to be growing Sauvignon blanc on their vineyards; Central Otago participants needed to be producing Pinot noir.
Production and financial data were collected via a survey based on the Ministry for Primary Industries’ (MPI) Vineyard Benchmarking Reports. The survey collected detailed data from three-year period, 2020-2022, in an attempt to moderate any effects of atypical vintages on the results.
The collected data was analysed to determine vineyard revenues, production costs, and profitability of individual growers. The results were compared to identify outliers and trends before being aggregated to provide regional averages.
Five Marlborough Sauvignon blanc producers participated in the research. They were profitable in 93% of harvests surveyed, with an average profit of 2,291/t. Their major expenses were manual pruning, canopy & crop management, and other wages (mowing, mulching, seeding, and unallocated labour costs).
Two Central Otago Pinot noir producers participated in the research. They were profitable in 67% of harvests surveyed, with an average profit of 6,466/t. Their major expenses were vineyard management (viticulturist/manager wages), canopy & crop management, and other wages (mowing, mulching, seeding, and un-allocated labour costs). The two Central Otago producers provided some very disparate results, with large differences in fruit prices and expenses, but with similar yields, causing a wide range in revenue and profitability.
Expenses increased from 2020 to 2022. Over the three year period there was a 21% expense increase for Marlborough and a 24% expense increase for Central Otago. The largest increases were seen in various labour costs, which were subject to a rising minimum wage, inflation, and a more competitive labour market (Ministry for Primary Industries, 2023).
In both regions, achieving yields close to target volumes was instrumental in returning a profit. The Marlborough producers achieved target crop levels in only 20% of harvests, whereas the Central Otago producers obtained their desired yields in 50% of the surveyed vintages. For Marlborough Sauvingnon blanc producers the average gap between target and actual yield from 2020 to 2022 was -17% (1.76t/ha below target); for Central Otago Pinot noir producers the average gap between target and actual yield from 2020 to 2022 was -1% (0.07t/ha below target).
The research found that organic winegrowers in both Marlborough and Central Otago were profitable in most years, with reduced yields due to adverse weather conditions being the main cause of unprofitable vintages.
This project could serve as the starting point for longer-term reporting on the financial performance of organic vineyards. The scope could be expanded to include winemaking and sales data, or these results could be interpreted in conjunction with projects assessing those facets of organic wine production in New Zealand to provide a greater understanding of organic wine businesses in their entiret
Analysis of polymeric phenolic materials separated from 22 Pinot noir wines of a single producer
No full textColour and phenolic substances are important to red wine quality. This study investigated 22 New Zealand Pinot noir wines sourced from the same producer, consisting of various vintages and quality levels. Polymeric phenolic materials (PPMs) were separated from these wines by removing the monomeric anthocyanins using isoamyl alcohol. The colour properties by modified Somers assay and methylcellulose precipitable (MCP) tannins of PPMs were determined. With wine age increasing, the ratio of absorbance at 520 nm at pH 1.0 to that at 3.4 decreased from 2.6 to 1.1. This decreasing trend with wine age is reported for the first time in Pinot Noir wines. The presence of bleachable polymeric pigments was also observed in PPMs, and the degree of ionisation of these bleachable pigments increased along with wine age. Statistical analysis demonstrated the dominant effect of wine age on colour properties of PPM, and tannin concentration was mainly related to vintage
Research at the interface between Indigenous knowledge and soil science; weaving knowledges to understand horticultural land use in Aotearoa New Zealand
No full textAddressing the complex challenges of soil and food security at international and local scales requires moving beyond the boundaries of individual disciplines and knowledge systems. The value of transdisciplinary research approaches is increasingly recognised, including those that value and incorporate Indigenous knowledge systems and holders. Using a case study at Pōhatu, Aotearoa New Zealand, this paper demonstrates the value of a transdisciplinary approach to explore past Māori food landscapes and contribute to contemporary Māori soil health and food sovereignty aspirations.
Engaging at the interface between soil science and Indigenous knowledge (mātauraka Māori) in an Aotearoa New Zealand context, we provide an example and guide for weaving knowledges in a transdisciplinary context. Here, mātauraka Māori, including waiata (songs) and ingoa wāhi (place names), provided the map of where to look and why, and soil analysis (radiocarbon dating, profile morphology, microfossils and trace element analysis) yielded insight into past cultivation, soil modification and fertilisation practices.
Both knowledges were needed to interpret the findings and support Māori to re-establish traditional horticultural practices. Furthermore, the paper extends the current literature on the numerous conceptual frameworks developed to support and guide transdisciplinary research by providing an example of how to do this type of research in an on-the-ground application