Marsden Fund Newsletter
No 13 September 2000
Contents
State-of-the-art research gains $9.5m
A total of 73 new research projects at the international cuttng edge
of their discipline have won Marsden funding in 2000, worth $9.48 million. Younger
researchers figure prominently among the successful applicants.
The money is this year's share of a $25.8 million commitment of Government
funding to the Marsden Fund a $3 million increase on the previous year.
Each successful project receives funding for two or three years.
One of the biggest grants in the 2000 awards goes to a major Otago-based initiative
looking at the earliest stages of the development of atherosclerosis
a leading cause of premature death in New Zealand. A team of Wellington and
Auckland scientists who last year made a world breakthrough in the transmission
of data using light, also received funding to continue their pioneering work.
Other successful projects include an investigation into how iron affects the
uptake of greenhouse gases by the world's oceans and a study into the way muscles
develop in animals.
The 73 projects receiving funding have been selected in a two-step process.
From a total of 756 projects, 136 were asked to submit a full proposal, which
amounted to requests for more than $26.7 million.
"A $3 million increase in this year's funding round has allowed the Marsden
Fund to again support a significant number of New Zealand's best and brightest,
including many younger and emerging researchers. More than a quarter of the
principal investigators are within ten years of their PhD," said Professor
Diana Hill, chair of the Marsden Fund committee.
The Marsden Fund supports state-of-the-art fundamental research in a wide
range of areas covering the sciences, social sciences, humanities and engineering.
Government provides funding for projects that will widen the knowledge base
in New Zealand, enhancing the country's ability to participate in, and benefit
from, research of an international standard.
The Fund is a contestable one administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand
as part of its commitment to supporting a vibrant research community and retaining
New Zealand's highly skilled people. The Fund was named after Sir Ernest Marsden,
founding Permanent Secretary of the DSIR in 1926.
Many native plants recent arrivals
Harris, Emily Cumming 1837?1925. Reprinted with permission of Alexander
Turnbull Library
A landmark Marsden study has confirmed that many iconic native plants
like the Mt Cook lily, Ranunculus Lyallii (shown above), were originally
exotics but that they evolved quickly and dynamically when carried here
by birds, wind and ocean currents in the past five million years.
The findings back up an emerging view that much of New Zealand's flora evolved
in response to changes in climate overturning the myth that New Zealand
was a Noah's Ark of Gondwanan relics, isolated from the rest of the world for
60-80 million years.
Once established here, plants then began dispersing their seeds in all directions,
with the result that many Australian high country plants and many in
South America are descended from New Zealand species.
A team of Marsden researchers led by Dr Peter Lockhart from the Institute
of Molecular BioSciences at Massey University has been conducting a programme
of DNA studies of such plant families as southern beech, nikau, spear grass,
kauri, tree ferns, alpine buttercups (Ranunculus) and forget-me-not.
They do, however, confirm that plants like kauri are ancient citizens of Gondwana
overturning the theory that our landmass was completely submerged 30
million years ago in the so-called Oligocene Drowning and showing a key role
for plants in proving or disproving geological events.
"Corroboration of findings from fossil studies with recent analyses of
molecular sequences show that evolutionary events in New Zealand since the Late
Tertiary (within the last five million years) have had a major impact on the
diversity of the modern flora," Dr Lockhart said.
"Since this time and during periods of mountain building and glaciation,
many diverse types of plants have arrived in New Zealand via long distance dispersal.
Some of these underwent rapid evolution giving rise to extensive species radiations.
"Subsequent long distance dispersal from New Zealand has established
many novel species now found in other Southern Hemisphere locations, including
Australia and South America. However, not all species arrived in New Zealand
by long distance dispersal and some plants, like kauri, appear to be
Gondwanan relics.
"The rapid response of plants to global climate change of the last one
to two million years suggest striking parallels between the response of taxa
in New Zealand and the Northern Hemisphere. Extinction, speciation, range expansions
and contractions have all accompanied climatic and geological changes.
"Our DNA studies on buttercups and beech confirm earlier suggestions
that during glacial periods, northern and southern refugia existed for forest
and alpine species in New Zealand and their existence and legacy have
important consequences for conservation efforts.
"The importance of much maligned plant hybrids a striking feature
of the flora of New Zealand is also becoming more clearly understood
as a result of the genetic studies by ourselves and other scientists in New
Zealand.
"Far from being a scourge, plant hybrids need to be appreciated in the
context of dynamic plant evolution and response to environmental change."
For further information, contact Dr Peter Lockhart at the Institute of Molecular
BioSciences at Massey University, Palmerston North Phone: (06) 350 5799
ex 7053 Fax: (06) 350 5694 Email: p.j.lockhart@massey.ac.nz
From pulse-taking to protein research
In 1989, Chris Palliser left a 12-year nursing career to study mathematics.
This dramatic career shift later saw him employed as a Marsden researcher at
IRL investigating deep geothermal systems, paving the way for research in biophysics.
Here, Chris talks about his decision to take up a scientific career.
"I left nursing in 1989 to do full-time university study. I had been
a nurse for about 12 years. I had done some extramural study (nursing and psychology
papers) while nursing.
"I wanted a change from nursing and became interested in statistics while
doing some basic statistics for a nursing project. Initially I studied computing,
mathematics, statistics and operations research at Massey. As I neared the end
of my Bachelor of Science degree, I concentrated on maths.
"I did papers in pure and applied maths for my Masters and I was fortunate
to gain a scholarship with New Zealand Aluminium Smelters. My Master's thesis
was an applied maths problem based on a process in the aluminium industry. Professor
Robert McKibbin at Massey supervised this work and I enjoyed working with him.
"When I gained a Massey Doctoral Scholarship I decided to pursue doctoral
studies in the geothermal modelling area (one of Robert's areas of expertise).
I completed this in 1998.
"Towards the end of my PhD and for 6 months afterwards IRL employed me
as part of a Marsden Fund project investigating deep geothermal systems. In
March 1999 I took up a position as a Post Doctoral Fellow in Biophysics at Massey
University working under Professor David Parry, again on a Marsden contract.
"Although proteins were an unfamiliar field to me, David has patiently
helped me to learn enough so that we now have two papers submitted for publication.
In September of this year I take up a permanent position as a computer modelling
scientist with the Dairying Research Corporation in Hamilton."
News from Marsden Cottage
by Dr Valda McCann, Manager, Marsden Fund
Marsden Fund Applications
A total of 73 of the 136 full proposals submitted have been funded. The panels
and the Marsden Fund Committee noted that all proposals submitted at the full
proposal round were worthy of funding but limited financial resources meant
difficult decisions had to be made. The Fund received additional funding this
year to bring the total to $25.8 million for new and existing contracts: $9.5
million has been allocated to the first year of the new proposals. The total
requested for first year funding for all full proposals was $26.7 million.
Of the 756 separate preliminary proposals 73 (or 9.7%) have been successful
at the final stage. This percentage is not constant over the panels due to several
effects, a major one being the size of the successful proposals in different
panels. Further details of the applications are available on the Marsden
Fund web page on the Royal Society of New Zealand web site.
This year we gathered information about applicants for statistical purposes
only. In view of the Fund's part in fostering emerging researchers it is interesting
to note that a substantial percentage (26 percent) of the principal investigators
received their postgraduate degrees within the last 10 years. It is estimated
that about 40% of the projects will involve postdoctoral fellows and about 50%
will involve postgraduate students but these figures will not be confirmed until
the contracts are negotiated.
Marsden Update stories
Apart from the lead story on New Zealand flora, this issue features several
stories with a mathematical flavour, in fields as diverse as pure mathematics,
applied mathematics, geophysics, computing and biology. These are just a sample
of many such excellent mathematically based projects supported by the Marsden
Fund.
Job Search
The Marsden Fund has just set up a web-based "Job
Search", so that contract holders can advertise for postdocs, technicians,
postgraduate students and research assistants. Please support it, use it, and
tell people about it!
Marsden staff news
Earlier this year Peter Gilberd and Rachel Averill attended a two-day Treaty
of Waitangi introductory workshop. The workshop considered many issues, among
them ancestry and culture, pre-Treaty history, post-Treaty legislation and implications
of the Treaty today. The participants found the workshop enjoyable and stimulating
and considered it an excellent basis for increasing understanding of Maori issues.
As a follow up Peter and Rachel are now attending regular Te Reo Maori classes.
Group approach solves millennial maths question
Auckland mathematician and Marsden researcher Dr Eamonn O'Brien finally
cracked the ultimate Y2K algebraic problem during a visit to London University
in February.
In a fitting tribute to the start of the new millennium, he managed to tot
up the last of the distinct groups of order at most 2000, getting the mind-bogglingly
large total of 49,910,529,484.
O'Brien, from Auckland University, and German researchers Hans Ulrich Besche
(University of Aachen) and Bettina Eick (University of Kassel), got to the final
number after a rigorous programme of collaborative research spanning two continents
and a battery of computers.
In New Zealand, this forms part of a Marsden-funded project tackling questions
in group theory by a team involving Dr O'Brien along with fellow researchers
Dr Jianbei An and Professor Marston Conder from the Mathematics Department at
the University of Auckland.
Dr O'Brien explained how in mathematics a group was a set that satisfied some
additional algebraic properties.
"The number of elements in the set, its order, can be finite or infinite.
Finite groups are of particular interest and importance in various areas of
science as they are intimately linked to the symmetry of objects. For example,
in physics and chemistry, groups play a key role, as the basic properties of
materials depend critically on the symmetry of their atomic structure,"
he said.
Determining all essentially different groups of a given order has continued
to fascinate mathematicians for 150 years since foundational work was carried
out by Arthur Cayley at Cambridge University.
"Cayley solved this problem for the groups of order at most 6, Altogether,
there are 8 groups there is one group for each of the orders 1, 2, 3
and 5, and two distinct groups of each of the orders 4 and 6," O'Brien
continued.
"Somewhat eccentrically, Cayley changed his mind on the groups of order
6 some 24 years later. Many mathematicians have sought to extend his work by
hand. By the early 1980s, all the groups of order up to 100 were known.
The advent of high-performance computing in the 1980s provided the framework
for the development of procedures (or algorithms) which allow the groups to
be enumerated or determined by machine. These algorithms make extensive use
of the theory and structure of the groups.
O'Brien said that the project's findings would be made available to mathematicians.
"The groups of order at most 2000 will be accessible to the mathematical
community via computer algebra systems, and will provide fertile ground for
further research."
For further information, contact Professor Marston Conder at the Department
of Mathematics , University of Auckland Phone: (09) 373 7599 ex 8753
Email: conder@math.auckland.ac.nz
Paving the way for quantum computers
How do we design a molecule to penetrate a hole in a virus? How should
a pig be fed to maximise the producer's return? What is the most economical
way to build a composite carbon fibre material for aeroplane construction?
The thread linking these problems is what are termed methods for optimisation.
These complex mathematical tools help us find ways either to maximise an output
(e.g., gross return to the pig farmer or strength of the aeroplane material)
or minimise an output (e.g., the energy of a molecule).
Practical problems of the type described involve highly non-linear functions
with huge numbers of input variables, and for such problems, traditional optimisation
methods are of little use. They find 'local' solutions that are generally far
from the overall or 'global' solutions.
A simple example of this is a route-planning programme to determine the shortest
drive between two places. It may come up with the best streets around a particular
route but completely miss a quite distinct route that is potentially quicker.
To come up with theoretical tools for studying the general global optimisation
problem and ways to solve it, a major focus in recent years has been the Pure
Adaptive Search (PAS) algorithm. A group of Marsden researchers at Massey University
led by Professor Graham Wood is undertaking a local initiative in this area.
Other team members include Drs David Bulger, Bill Baritompa (University of Canterbury),
and Zelda Zabinsky (Washington University, USA), plus Mr. David Alexander.
"PAS progresses quickly and predictably to the optimal solution. However,
up to now PAS has been merely a tool for understanding global optimisation;
it is useful in theory, but in practice is too costly," Professor Wood
explained.
"Our research team has recently discovered a way to carry out this type
of optimisation problem, hitherto thought to be unattainable. The new approach
uses the fledgling theory of quantum computation."
Physicists studying quantum computing have found a way that opens up the possibility
of an efficient implementation of PAS in the future. If the current rate of
electronic miniaturisation continues, quantum computers are likely to be in
commercial production within two or three decades. These devices will be similar
to the computers of today, but will utilise components so small that quantum
effects will dominate their behaviour.
"While this has been a source of some concern, a growing body of study
now indicates that, with a few fundamental changes to the way we think about
algorithm design, quantum computers may be able to do many types of calculations
much more efficiently than today's computers," he added.
"Our team has recently found a new example of this. By extending a database
search technique proposed by Lov Grover of Bell Labs, we found that the basic
PAS step can be implemented much more efficiently by a quantum computer than
by a conventional one, as illustrated.
"While this may be enough to bring PAS from the theoretical to the practical
realm, it may be a decade or two until we find out."
For further information, contact Professor Graham Wood at the Institute of
Information Sciences & Technology, Massey University Phone: (06)
350 5799 ex 2483 Fax: (06) 350 2261 Email: g.r.wood@massey.ac.nz
Address: Private Bag 11222, Palmerston North
The graph shown depicts the probability of generating a solution within the
best one percent of possible solutions, plotted against computing time (on an
arbitrary scale). The lower curve uses conventional methods and the upper curve
takes a quantum approach. In the time the quantum computer takes to produce
the best result, the probability of the classical computer doing so is less
than 40%.
Funding highlights for 2000
How heart attacks have their origins
Dr Sally McCormick from the University of Otago leads a research
team that has received a 2000 Marsden Fund grant to study the earliest stages
of the development of atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries a leading
cause of premature death in New Zealand. The grant is worth $191,000 a year
for three years.
Studies of advanced lesions taken from coronary heart disease patients have
provided useful information about the late stages of this disease. But little
is known about the mechanisms responsible for the initial arterial weakening
that sets the scene for atherosclerotic lesions to develop. Tapping into the
resources of the University's recently established Genomics Facility, the researchers
will study these initial events. This will help them determine whether there
are changes in the 'genetic network' of the artery associated with the onset
of atherosclerosis at both a cellular and molecular level. State-of-the-art
'DNA microarray' and 'proteomic' technologies will help them identify arterial
genes that show changes in regulation in early atherosclerosis.
This pioneering work will lead to an understanding of the chain of events
that results in damage to the arterial wall. An understanding of these mechanisms
may pave the way for the development of interventions to block them, and thus
block the development of arterial disease. In addition, the development of skills
in these cutting edge molecular biology techniques will provide a national resource
that can be used for addressing the mechanisms of many other disease processes
in other tissues.
For this project Dr McCormick, a biochemistry lecturer, is joined by Dr Mike
Legge, also from the Biochemistry Department, and Dr Greg Jones from the university's
Department of Surgery.
How plants make the biomolecules of life
Dr Andrew Abell from the University of Canterbury has won an award to
study how plants, micro-organisms and fungi synthesise the biomolecules of life.
His research will focus on the particular pathways that help organisms make
important natural compounds like folic acid.
Together with Dr Chris Abell from Cambridge University, UK (no relation),
Dr Abell will design and synthesise pathway inhibitors. Blocking the pathway
is known to have important herbicidal and antibacterial effects and this research
may help in the fight against diseases caused by parasitic organisms such as
malaria.
The grant is worth $168,000 in the first year, $160,000 in the second year,
and $148,000 in the third.
Plants, micro-organisms and fungi are known to use the pathway to manufacture
amino acids, which are in turn used to build proteins. Without the ability to
synthesise these proteins, the organisms cannot survive. The key to blocking
the pathway is to design molecules that can inhibit the reactions of enzymes.
By designing a chemical compound that behaves very similarly to the chemicals
naturally used in the pathway (but which does not allow the reactions to be
completed), the enzymes involved will be inhibited and the pathway cannot operate.
Dr Chris Abell has expertise in a new technique known as combinatorial chemistry.
This permits groups of similar molcules to be made in a parallel process, instead
of synthesising each one individually from scratch. Researchers will travel
from Christchurch to the United Kingdom to learn the techniques of combinatorial
synthesis, and then return to New Zealand to set up the methodology at Canterbury.
Once the 'library' of new molecules is available they will be tested both for
their chemical behaviour in the reaction pathway, and in vivo for their
action as plant, bacterial and parasitic inhibitors.
Why spiders' silk is stronger than steel
A research team at Massey University led by Professor Paul Callaghan
has won a 2000 Marsden Fund award to continue their research into familiar but
complicated physical effects such as why margarine is thick, but still spreads
easily, and why spiders' silk is so strong and elastic. The grant is worth $180,000
a year for three years.
Over recent years, the Callaghan group has attracted international acclaim
with experiments using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) the precision
technology behind magnetic resonance imaging. The newest and safest form of
medical investigation inside the living human body, NMR finds the way in which
the nuclei of the atoms respond to magnetic fields. This allows it to find the
ways different atoms (notably hydrogen) are arranged and the manner in which
they move.
Callaghan's group is unique in the world in that it has explored NMR as a
way of measuring flow in pipes down to microscopic dimensions. For example,
the group has been able to measure the flow in the very small vessels that conduct
fluids in plants. Other results include finding out how molecules line up during
flow and discovering that there are regions of very sudden changes in flow rate.
For this project, the Callaghan group will explore the use of this tool to
find the effects of shearing in polymers, viscous and rubbery materials and
liquid crystals. Complicated kinds of distortions and instabilities can occur
under physical deformation and shearing. The molecules may suddenly rearrange
themselves in a new way, rather like the way a liquid crystal display on a digital
watch shows the time. NMR will allow the researchers to see the details of such
'phase transitions' and the way in which the systems approach and extract themselves
from such realignments.
The work is not only of real scientific interest but will be of practical
value to various industries, especially those associated with food, paint, plastic
and oil.
Why iron plays a role in global climate change
A team of scientists from Otago University and the National Institute
of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) has received an award to carry out
further study into how iron affects the world's oceans. Their focus will be
on the role of iron in controlling the oceanic carbon cycle one of the
keys to global climate change. The award is worth $180,000 a year for the next
three years.
Led by Dr Russell Frew from the Department of Chemistry, the project will
look at the biochemical processes behind iron's fertilising effect on the growth
of microscopic marine plants in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica. It will
investigate the detailed role that microbes have in enhancing iron retention
and extending biological growth.
In around a third of the world's oceans, the growth of floating plants like
plankton is directly controlled by the availability of iron. This new research
builds on a major international experiment conducted in the Southern Ocean from
the New Zealand research vessel Tangaroa in 1999 in which a patch of
water was seeded with the trace element iron (An a publication on the experiment,
for secondary school students, has just been published by the Royal Society
of New Zealand). It is similar to boosting the growth of land plants by introducing
trace elements.
What surprised the scientists in that experiment was not only the extent of
the increase in plant growth but also the growth spurt, observed later from
satellite imaging, unexpectedly lasting for several weeks. Significantly, enhanced
plant growth was accompanied by increased uptake of the greenhouse gas, carbon
dioxide, from the atmosphere where it is plays a major role in climate change.
Other members of the project team are Professor Keith Hunter and Dr Eng Tan
from the Department of Chemistry, and Dr Philip Boyd from NIWA. Postdoctoral
Fellow Robert Strzepek will also be assisting.
Understanding how society views the impacts of rape
A pioneering research project looking at how modern society understands
the impacts of rape has received an award worth $45,000 in the first year, $144,000
in the second, and $103,000 in the third year.
As part of her work, Dr Nicola Gavey from the Psychology Department at the
University of Auckland will focus on women's own accounts of their experiences.
She will also examine the accounts of the people who deal with the impact of
rape (such as rape counsellors and researchers), and those that appear in the
news media through newspapers, television and magazines.
Dr Gavey's research will focus on two inter-related sets of questions
one concerned with the social domain and one looking at the psychology of rape
victimisation.
Rape is commonly seen as deeply traumatic for those who suffer, endure and
survive this form of sexual violence. The experience of rape is talked about
in terms of its ability to violate and traumatize women by striking at the very
heart of their sense of self. The act of rape is deplored and feared at least
partly for the inherent psychological harm that is understood to accompany it.
The project will examine how the emphasis on the inevitable psychological
harm of rape impacts on women. It will also address such issues as where these
views come from, what their effects are, and what the alternatives might be.
As part of the study, Dr Gavey will try to unravel the role of views of rape
as inevitably psychologically damaging and evaluate the impact they have on
womens' recovery from rape. She is concerned about the various meanings around
the harm caused by rape.
Her research will contribute to understandings about the intersections and
contradictions among personal accounts about rape, expert knowledge, and popular
renditions of the experience and the problem.
Scientific breakthrough lights up the way we send data
A team of researchers from Industrial Research Ltd and the University
of Auckland has won a 2000 Marsden Fund grant to build on a local breakthrough
in optical data transmission. The new project will investigate ways image processing
can be performed using light rather than traditional electronics.
The work builds on recent Marsden-funded advances in so-called optical information
processing a new super-quick technology developed by local scientists
that is expected to advance the development of optical computing and, in time,
perhaps even revolutionise television. It is based on sending huge masses of
data along an optical-fibre cable simultaneously without the use of electronics.
The grant is worth $155,000 a year for three years.
Dr Tim Haskell of Industrial Research Ltd and Professor Tom Barnes from the
University of Auckland's physics department are leading the team of researchers.
Assisted by Dr CY Wu (also from Industrial Research Ltd) and a postgraduate
student, they will investigate how the mathematical aspects of image processing
techniques can be transferred from the current computer-based methods to the
optical methods of the future.
The project builds on an earlier Marsden project in which Professor Barnes
successfully showed that an entire TV picture, for example, could in principle
be broken down into its mathematical components, sent down a fibre cable, and
then reconstructed at the other end. Known as massively-parallel transmission,
the technique is carried out on a single optical fibre and allows the picture
to be sent as a whole image instead of bit by bit as at present. This work created
the platform for the current project.
Uncovering the origins of the civilisation of Angkor
A research team led by Professor Charles Higham from Otago University
has won an award to undertake further archaeological studies into the origins
of the Angkor state in Cambodia one of the world's least known civilisations.
Acknowledged as the world's leading authority on the archaeology of Southeast
Asia, Professor Higham from the Department of Anthropology will be joined by
Dr Nancy Tayles from the Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology at the
Otago Medical School. Several research students, for whom this archaeological
study of Angkor will be an important training ground, will participate in the
project. Cambodian scholars will also be involved. The grant is worth $140,000
a year for three years.
The rise of the pre-industrial state of Angkor has long been attributed to
the arrival of outside influences brought to the indigenous people of the area
by expanding maritime trade. However, the project will examine the alternative
hypothesis that the emergence of social complexity and the transition to statehood
was in large part internally generated. The researchers will explore evidence
for the interactions of such factors as increasing population, trade, conflict,
the control of strategic resources such as iron and salt, the control of water,
and the human impact on a fragile environment in the development of the state.
The civilisation of Angkor was set in the tropical lowlands of Cambodia. It
consisted of a series of cities dating between AD 800 and 1430 built on the
shore of the Great Lake. The traditional study of the origins of Angkor consists
of translations of inscriptions in Sanskrit and in archaic Khmer and the study
of the art history of the stone monuments.
Two fieldwork programmes are planned. One will explore the prehistoric and
early urban sites at Angkor in Cambodia. The other will focus on Iron Age sites
in the Mun Valley in Northeast Thailand.
Professor Higham was recently elected a Fellow of the British Academy in recognition
of his high international standing in archaeology. His work in uncovering the
secrets of the origins of the civilisation of Angkor featured in the August
2000 issue of National Geographic.
How the cell flexes its muscles
A world-leading team of scientists from AgResearch, Ruakura has won
a grant to investigate the way muscles develop. The award is worth $157,000
a year for three years.
Drs Ravi Kambadur and Mridula Sharma will lead research into myostatin, a
gene they have shown to be involved in significantly increased muscle growth
in cattle. Recently characterised by the researchers, this gene is known to
be a key regulator of muscle size and is likely to be linked into the signalling
pathways controlling how cells multiply and become specialised. The project
will look at how myostatin affects the way muscle cells multiply and specialise
and how they become activated by muscle damage to form new muscle tissue. It
covers many aspects of muscle cell biology relevant to the functioning of this
gene.
Other members of the research team are Dr John Bass and Brett Langley, also
from AgResearch.
The development of muscle in mammals is crucial to our understanding and control
of the quality of agricultural animals, for instance in improving animal muscle
production and the quality of meat, and in restoring function in muscle-wasting
diseases. This research will lead to a better understanding of muscle development
and hypertrophy, with implications for medicine, ageing, sports science and
the meat industry.
How do seaweed-eating fish digest their food?
A team of researchers led by Dr Doug Mountfort from Nelson's Cawthron
Institute has won a grant to study how vegetarian fish break down seaweed compounds
in their gut. The award is worth $109,000 a year for three years.
This new work will examine in detail the way local fishes digest their food.
It will provide information that will enhance understanding of the functioning
of New Zealand's reef ecosystems.
Land-based herbivores like cows and sheep digest their plant food with the
help of symbiotic gut micro-organisms. These convert complex sugars in plant
cells into simple compounds that provide nutrition for the host animal.
Knowledge of the interactions between plants, herbivores and micro-organisms
underpins both our livestock industry and our understanding of food webs in
terrestrial ecosystems. These complex relationships also take place under the
sea, yet unlike those on land, marine plant-herbivore interactions are poorly
understood.
In 1997 Mountfort, and Dr Kendall Clements from the School of Biological Sciences
at the University of Auckland, won a Marsden grant to investigate the role of
symbiotic gut micro-organisms in the digestion of seaweed by New Zealand herbivorous
fish. Their work showed that the action of micro-organisms provided an important
source of nutrients for the fish, and that the interactions between plant, herbivore
and micro-organisms were very different to those on land. In part this is because
seaweeds differ in composition from land plants.
In this new proposal, Drs Mountfort and Clements plan to build on their earlier
work by determining how seaweed compounds are broken down in the gut by the
digestive processes of both the fish and their symbiotic microbes. Assisting
them are Dr Sue Turner, also a molecular microbiologist with the School of Biological
Sciences, and Dr Ruth Falshaw, a seaweed chemist at Industrial Research Ltd
in Wellington.
Seeking new ways to manage cultural treasures
A team of Auckland anthropologists has won a grant to draw up systems
for jointly managing cultural treasures held in museums. The grant is worth
$128,000 a year for three years.
The research will focus on Maori and Pacific treasures in the Auckland Museum's
collections to help define customary care and management principles for taonga.
Both museum and indigenous perspectives will be incorporated.
Leading the team are Dr Karen Nero (University of Auckland), an authority
on Micronesian culture, and Dr Roger Neich (Curator of Ethnology, Auckland Museum),
a widely published scholar on whakairo. Assisting them are Dr Merata Kawharu
and Dr Paul Tapsell, recent graduates of the University of Oxford.
The museum's Taumata-a-Iwi will provide a critical reference point for the
project as the team investigates the joint management of taonga Maori and taonga
Pasifika at the local and regional museum level. The Taumata-a-Iwi is made up
of representatives of the tangata whenua of the Auckland isthmus.
How plants know when to flower
A research group headed by Dr Jo Putterill from the School of Biological
Sciences at Auckland University has won a grant to continue its pioneering work
into genes that regulate the timing of flowering. The award is worth $160,000
a year for three years.
In plants, flowering is synchronised with the seasons to ensure that growth
cycles are completed under favourable conditions. This is to allow the full
cycle of flower development, pollination and fertilisation, and seed development
and maturity. The practical implications, for example, in fruit development
and production are obvious.
In earlier collaborative work with HortResearch scientists Dr Bret Morris
and Kim Richardson, Dr Putterill and her PhD student Sarah Fowler, isolated
a gene called GIGANTEA that controls flowering in the model plant Arabidopsis
(thale cress). Mutations in the gene delay flowering when days are long,
but have little effect when days are short. This has led her to suggest that
GIGANTEA plays a key role in the regulation for flowering by day length.
Her new project is designed to confirm and characterise this role. Day length
and temperature are two seasonal signals used by plants to control flowering.
Despite the importance of the process in plants, little is known about the molecular
sequence of events underlying both the sensing of day length by the plant, and
the biochemistry of the response.
For this study Dr Putterill is joining forces with Professor Steve Kay at
the Scripps Institute in the United States, one of the leading research groups
on biological timing. The results of their work will lead to a greater understanding
of how plants keep time and control their daily and seasonal growth, issues
of great importance in agriculture and horticulture.
Why New Zealand is a top earthquake laboratory
Dr Martha Savage from Victoria University leads a research team that
has received a grant to study the deformation of plate boundaries in the Earth's
crust. Based at the School of Earth Sciences, Dr Savage heads a team of international
researchers who will use seismographs positioned throughout New Zealand to collect
information on seismic waves which originate from both distant earthquakes that
pass through the Earth's core, and local earthquakes. The award is worth $80,000
in the first year, $115,000 in the second year, and $75,000 in the third.
The earth's crust is broken up into many plates that move relative to each
other over time. New Zealand straddles the boundary between two plates and provides
an excellent natural laboratory for studying plate-boundary deformation.
In a recently completed Marsden project, Drs Savage and Ken Gledhill from
the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences studied this plate boundary.
During this work they found that seismic waves in the Earth's crust and mantle
below New Zealand do not all travel at the same speed; rather, that their speeds
depend on the direction in which the seismic vibrations occur. This indicates
that there are regions of deformation and gives a picture of the strain and
flow of matter deep below the Earth's surface. The results imply that boundaries
between plates in continental rocks can be much wider than previously thought.
The information from the new project will help determine more precisely how
wide the boundary zone is within the crust and mantle. It will also help resolve
whether it is entirely due to movements at the present plate boundary over the
last 45 million years or whether some of the structure is unrelated to the current
plate boundary. This will significantly advance our understanding of how plate
boundaries operate.
Other members of the team are Professor Peter Molnar from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, and Drs Craig Jones and Anne Sheehan, from the University
of Colorado (Boulder).
How an island of genes helps plants grow
A team of researchers led by Dr John Sullivan and Associate Professor
Clive Ronson from the Department of Microbiology at Otago University has won
a grant to carry out further research into a genetic element found in a soil
bacterium that boosts nitrogen-fixing nodules in lotus plants.
The so-called symbiosis island of Mesorhizobium loti enables the bacterium
to infect lotus plants, thereby forming an association with plant roots that
helps form 'nodules'. The bacteria in these nodules can 'fix' atmospheric nitrogen
and convert it to nitrogenous compounds that can be used by the plant.
The researchers have already determined the DNA sequence of the island and
defined its genetics. The aim of their new project is to gain insight into the
function of previously uncharacterised genes encoded on the island that are
likely to contribute to the plant-microbe interaction and/or the ecology of
the bacterium. The researchers will collaborate with Professor Frans de Bruijn
and colleagues at CNRS at Toulouse, and Dr Michael Udvardi at the Max Planck
Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology at Potsdam, Germany.
Providing nitrogen to agriculture in a cost-effective way will pose a major
challenge in the 21st century. This project is at the cutting edge of the field
and will make a major contribution to the area of biological nitrogen fixation.
The award is worth $178,000 for the first two years and $194,000 for the third.
Moa-browsing theory may be headed for extinction
A team of University of Canterbury researchers has won an award to investigate
a new climatic explanation for divarication (having highly tangled branches)
in native shrubs like Coprosmas, Corokias and Kowhai. Drs Matthew Turnbull and
Dave Kelly, both from the Department of Plant and Microbial Science, believe
divaricate plants may shield their functional leaves within an outer screen
of branches to create a screen against excessive sunlight. Their findings may
overturn the popular story that native shrubs shielded their leaves to avoid
moa browsing an explanation that has become a classic in New Zealand
botany. The award is worth $159,000 for the first year, $150,000 in the second,
and $146,000 in the third year.
About 10% of New Zealand's woody plants have this so-called 'divaricate' form,
which has evolved independently in 18 families. This feature has provoked some
imaginative explanations.
The project will address such basic questions as whether plants evolved this
way as a response to drought, wind or frost, and whether divarication was a
way to avoid browsing by moa.
While all free-living plants rely on sunlight for photosynthesis (the means
by which plants create sugars from water and carbon dioxide), it appears that
you CAN have too much of a good thing.
Turnbull and Kelly have shown that high light intensities coupled with cold
temperatures, such as occur in central Otago and Canterbury, cause a reduction
in photosynthetic rate. They plan to extend these experiments to see how divaricate
plants perform under a variety of environmental stresses.
By manipulating the canopies of these plants, they can expose the inner leaves
to more extreme conditions, and examine both the level of direct damage to the
photosynthetic machinery and the extent to which the plants respond physiologically.
They plan to conduct experiments in greenhouses and the field, in some cases
using hybrids between divaricating and non-divaricating species.
Creating shapes from the imagination
A team of computer scientists from Otago University has won an award
to develop an experimental computer console that allows for virtual sculpting
of objects as varied as machine parts, pottery, clothing and biological structures.
The three-year grant is worth $381,000 in total.
Associate Professor Geoff Wyvill will lead the effort to refine techniques
that will allow natural interaction with a 'virtual' model addressing
one of the design world's biggest problems. Members of his team include Drs
Kevin Novins and Brenda McCane.
The aim of the project is to allow virtual objects, such as 3D 'sculptures',
to be constructed in a manner closer to how a real sculptor works than is currently
possible using computer modelling.
Current methods are not able to handle objects with sharp edges or corners,
as is required in engineering applications. The researchers plan to use enhanced
gesture-based interactions, and virtual sculpting methods, and will develop
a computer console displaying a large 3D image of a virtual sculpture. Users
will be able to manipulate it with their hands, rather than having to use keyboard,
mouse, or data gloves.
Television cameras will track the operator's hand and eye movements, and convert
these into modifications to the object and the way it is viewed. The operator
is free to concentrate on virtually sculpting the object, rather than worrying
about converting natural movements into key sequence or mouse manipulations.
The project blends together leading edge computer graphics and computer vision
techniques to provide a novel way of interacting with computers
Ironing stiffness out of number crunching
So-called differential equations lie at the heart of mathematical modelling
of phenomena ranging from the spread of infectious diseases to the motions
of galaxies. But because these complex problems usually cannot be solved exactly,
numerical methods involving the use of computers are necessary.
A special difficulty, known as 'stiffness', hinders the solution of many differential
equations that arise in practice. Engineers began applying this colourful word
to such problems after it was first identified in the analysis of stiff mechanical
systems.
In problems of this type, the behaviour of the system is typically insensitive
to small changes in the exact starting values. Ironically, it is for just these
problems that numerical approximations tend to be most unstable, unless specially
designed numerical schemes are used.
Examples of stiff problems are found in the simulation of chemical processes
with widely different reaction rates, in the modelling of atmospheric flow and
in circuit simulation.
As part of a Marsden project investigating numerical analysis, Professor John
Butcher of the Mathematics Department at Auckland University recently discovered
a special sub-family from the so-called 'general linear methods' that seem to
be suitable for solving stiff problems.
At the same time, PhD student William Wright, found a way to adapt the basic
structure of these new methods for the solution of non-stiff problems.
Butcher explained how traditional numerical methods for differential equations
came in two forms. "On the one hand, Runge-Kutta methods, named after two
of the people who developed them around a century ago, are widely used for many
problem types but are regarded as unduly computationally expensive," he
said.
"On the other hand, linear multistep methods are cheaper to use but have
poorer reliability and are less accurate. A middle ground, which embodies characteristics
of each of the traditional types of methods, is found in general linear methods
and there seems to be a potential for finding good methods within this large
family."
The clue to the Auckland discoveries was a property known as 'inherent RK
stability' which forced the solution-finding properties of these methods to
be exactly the same as for the highly reliable Runge-Kutta methods, Butcher
explained.
"At the same time, they incorporate the advantages of the linear multistep
methods, such as low-cost error estimation.
"Even within this new and restricted family of methods we are spoiled
for choice. The choices have been made even wider by the discovery of a transformation
that allows for the two methods, for stiff problems and for non-stiff problems,
to be interrelated."
The research team has recently been looking at the selection of optimal methods.
Techniques for implementing them are being developed by Butcher and Mr Wright,
in collaboration with another PhD student Shirley Huang.
"We hope to construct, using the new methods, a general purpose solver
for a wide range of systems which change over time. The tentative name for this
package is 'GLIDE', and has been chosen to emphasise the nature of the methods
central to this 'General Linear Integrator for Differential Equations',"
Butcher explained.
For further information, contact Professor John Butcher at the Department
of Mathematics, University of Auckland Phone: (09) 373 7599 ex 8747 Email:
butcher@math.auckland.ac.nz
Testing the mettle of a continent
Measuring the strength of a bolt is no great problem to a smart engineer
but how to go about measuring the strength of a continent?
By establishing the effect of various natural forces, and relating these to
measurements of the movement of the lithosphere (the crust and part of the upper
mantle of the Earth), a team of Marsden researchers led by Dr John Haines has
cracked this complex question.
"On a human time scale, the Earth seems quite rigid. But we know it does
deform and, on a geological time scale, it is free flowing. Like any liquid,
its strength can be characterised by a viscosity, a measure of the speed at
which an object flows when subjected to a force," he explained.
"By using sophisticated technology such as the Global Positioning System
(GPS), we can measure the deformation of the Earth. From measurements over time,
the rate of flow of regions can be determined. However, to get the viscosity,
we also need the individual forces contributing to deformation.
"Two main forces cause deformation tectonic plate movement, and
the downward and outward pressure of heavier parts of the Earth's crust (such
as, for example, mountainous regions). While the position of the plates and
the heavier parts of the Earth's crust are known, the relative contributions
of these two to the overall force at a point is not."
To disentangle the two forces, the researchers used a neat trick. "Tectonic
plate movement tends to cause forces that are directed at 45° to the plate
boundary for regions like California," said Haines.
"On the other hand, the gravitational force is radially outward from
mountains and other raised areas. So, by looking at the directions of deformation,
as well the size, we managed to separate the individual forces."
So far, the researchers have obtained a viscosity map for the western United
States, finding, by the way, that the average viscosity is more than 20 orders
of magnitude greater than that of water. The method is also partly suitable
for New Zealand and the South Island in particular, with its high mountains
and well-measured deformation pattern.
"Somewhere like central Otago, away from the Alpine Fault, is likely
to be similarly viscous as the great bulk of the western United States, whereas
the Alpine Fault is the equivalent of the San Andreas in being a very narrow
zone of weakness where a large fraction of the deformation occurs," Dr
Haines explained.
"New Zealand, however, does not have the same area as the western United
States, nor the comparatively simple 2-dimensional nature of the deformation,
which are needed for the approach to be fully accurate."
He therefore believes that the real value to New Zealand of his team's work
will be in knowing what sorts of numbers to plug into the much more complex
3-dimensional problems that New Zealand presents.
Dr Haines, originally from the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences,
but now at Cambridge University, UK, is amused by comments by fellow Cambridge
geophysicist Professor Dan McKenzie that New Zealand is more difficult to figure
out than anywhere else.
"New Zealand geology and geophysics is for real men and women who know
where they are going, whereas the geology of the rest of the world is for wimps
who need somewhere simple to start."
For further information, contact Dr John Haines at Bullard Laboratories, Department
of Earth Sciences, Cambridge University, United Kingdom Phone: +441223
337101 Fax: +441223 360779 Email: haines@esc.cam.ac.uk
The region covered by the study includes California, Nevada, and the western
parts of Utah and Arizona. The strongest part of this region is the central
part of Nevada's Great Basin, which is about 100 times stronger than the area
of the San Andreas fault (approximate position marked).
How a schoolyard game echoes nature
The old schoolyard game of rock-scissors-paper is providing Marsden
researchers with some unusual insights about how species compete with one another.
In the game, players each choose one of three strategies. A rock beats a pair
of scissors, scissors beats a sheet of paper, and paper beats rock, so the strategies
form a competitive cycle. In natural ecologies, species p may be able
to invade species r, and r may do the same to a third species
s, which itself dominates p. Such cycles occur among coral reef
species and on rocky shorelines (for example, among seaweed, limpets and barnacles).
Other known examples range from competition between strains of yeast, to the
three mating strategies of male side-blotched lizards. Overall, however, and
particularly on land, it seems that curiously few such cycles have been found.
In their mathematical and computer simulation studies on how the invasion
rates in such a system would evolve, Dr Marcus Frean, an independent Marsden-funded
researcher, and Dr Edward Abraham from NIWA, have found not one but two paradoxes.
"The first is that the more efficiently a given species invades, the
lower its population becomes. In fact, the weakest species (with the lowest
ability to invade) is the one least likely to go extinct," Dr Frean explained.
"The species most likely to be driven to extinction turns out not to
be the so-called weakest but the one that invades it. The third species is then
deprived of its prey and itself dies out: the meekest do inherit the
earth.
"For example, for the three species in Fig. 1, p has the lowest
rate of invasion, yet it is this species that survives."
Dr Frean says one way to rationalize this odd result is that lessened pressure
on the r's hastwo benefits for the p's: (a) there are more sites
available for p's to invade, and (b) the r's in turn depress the
numbers of s's, which of course prey on the p's.
"Interestingly, if the individuals lie on a two dimensional plane and
only interact with their neighbours, extinctions no longer occur space
stabilises the system. Species p becomes the most common (Fig. 2a) but
both others survive. The counterintuitive effect still holds though: if we increase
p's ability to invade, it becomes significantly less populous (Fig. 2b).
"The spatial distribution of species is interesting in that, at small
to moderate scales, it is fractal that is, the pattern looks similar
at whatever magnification it is viewed. At larger length scales the fractal
nature breaks down there are no really large patches."
Dr Frean says he would have expected that the first paradox could explain
why so few competitive cycles have been seen in nature. They self-destruct because
species are better off decreasing the effort they put into being competitive.
"However, what is good for the species turns out to be bad for the individuals
in that species. For an individual, it is always better to invade as fast as
possible, and since this effect dominates the 'good of the species', what actually
happens is that evolution increases levels of competition."
The second paradox goes by the colourful name of the Prisoner's Dilemma. "Here,
each individual benefits from the co-operation of others in its species (i.e.
low levels of competition) but has no incentive to co-operate itself. The result
is that such co-operation ceases despite it being better for all concerned!
"Fig. 3 shows the rate for the species p evolving in time from
a low to a high level. Species p starts off being very weak (meaning
it is unlikely to invade successfully) and therefore populous. Higher levels
of competition then spread through the population at the expense of their less
competitive variants, with the end result that the population drops.
"The Prisoner's Dilemma here means that, rather than self-destructing
by slowing down, such cyclic competitions should speed up and stabilise at some
rate. The question, then, is why are they so rare?
"Perhaps the cycles are there in nature but are difficult to see, or
perhaps the model is just too simplistic. This is the subject of our current
work."
For further information, contact Dr Marcus Frean Phone: (04) 472 1000
Email: marcus@mcs.vuw.ac.nz
Fig. 1 Three species competing in a cycle. Arrows show the direction
of invasions, and their thickness indicates the rate of invasion.
A
B
Fig. 2 A snapshot of the spatial distribution of species, when species
p (black) is the slowest invader (2a) and when p is the fastest
invader (2b). Species r and s are shown as grey and white, respectively.
Fig. 3 Evolution of species p, an example of the Prisoner's Dilemma.
The vertical scale has an arbitrary scale for competitiveness/competition. The
horizontal scale represents time, again in arbitrary units.
Marsden Update is published quarterly by the Marsden Fund and is available
free on request. Editor: Redmer Yska Email: red.yska@clear.net.nz
