 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
MARSDEN FUND NEWSLETTERNo 29· October 2004
|
 |
| A team of scientists, led by Dr Tim Naish (GNS) and including Professor Peter Barrett (Victoria University), DR Lionel Carter (NIWA), and DR Stuart Henrys (GNS) has received funding to study sedimentary cores from beneath the Ross Ice Shelf - Earth's largest ice shelf system. The study will help to assess ice shelf responses to changes in past climate, and so increase our knowledge of possible future behaviour, especially in the context of greenhouse warming of between 2.4 and 5.4°C by the end of the century. It is thought that the marine-based West Antarctic Ice Sheet and its fringing ice shelves collapsed during past natural interglacial warm extremes, and that global sea-level was more than 5 m higher than today. Over timescales of decades to centuries the Ross Ice Shelf represents the most vulnerable element of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet system, and its demise will provide an important precursor to eventual ice sheet collapse. The researchers will study a series of short cores, and a 1 km-deep drill core record to be recovered as part of the international ANDRILL programme. The photo shows a hot water drilling system used during preparatory studies to penetrate the 70 m thick McMurdo sector of the Ross Ice Shelf, to allow sampling of the underlying 800 m of water and seabed. |
If you were to put a pack of cards in order by shuffling them, checking to see whether they were in order, and then reshuffling them until they were, how long would it take? By hand it would be impossibly long, but what about by computer? Well, as it turns out, the method would work well for a few cards, but sorting the whole 52 cards in this way might take more time than the universe has to offer.
With problems such as this one, the key questions for computer scientists are whether the problem can be solved at all (the field of computability) and, if the problem is solvable, whether it can be solved practically, in a reasonable time (the field of complexity).
For the deck of cards, the problem can be solved but the time taken increases significantly as the number of cards, n, is increased. The bad news is, however, that many problems are quite intractable. In fact, there are only about six basic problems (such as sorting, and inverting matrices) that can be solved within practical time limits. These are ones in which the mathematical routines (or algorithms) can be completed in a time which is, at most, a power (such as n3) of the number which defines the input data. Unfortunately, for the majority of problems, the time required increases exponentially with n (for example, 3n), and these problems soon become impossible, even with a modest data set.
However, over a period of nearly ten years, the Marsden Fund has supported the development of what is now recognised as a major new branch of theoretical computer science: parameterized complexity. The two principal originators of the field have been Professor Rod Downey of Victoria University, and Professor Mike Fellows, formerly at Victoria and currently at the University of Newcastle in Australia.
 |
| Mike Fellows (on the left) and Rod Downey. |
Professors Downey and Fellows have moved away from an emphasis simply on one number to describe the input data. They have recognised that in most situations there are extra quantitative and structural aspects of the situation, beyond the overall input size, that are relevant to the computational challenge. For example, in the case of the cards, there are four suits, which allows the shuffle to be applied to just 13 cards, rather than the full pack. This second parameter (which gives rise to the name parameterized complexity), not only simplifies the algorithm but, because it is small, it can be allowed to contribute exponentially to the time taken to achieve a solution, without making the time excessive. So, the researchers have not only simplified the solutions but have widened the range of problems that can now be solved.
Rod Downey and Mike Fellows' monograph, Parameterized Complexity, published in 1999 and based on a series of foundational papers written in the nineties, is the main reference for the subject. It will soon be joined by several new books from young researchers who have been drawn to the field, such as Rolf Niedermeier from the University of Tuebingen and Martin Grohe from Humboldt University Berlin. The subject is steadily making its way into undergraduate textbooks, into the descriptions of topics of interest to the major journals of computer science, into topical special issues of those journals, and into the proceedings of major research meetings in theoretical computer science.
However, the effort is not purely theoretical, and much effort is going into supporting the development of computational tools for other disciplines. Parameterized complexity will have wide applicability in fields such as linguistics, cognitive psychology, economics and, of particular importance, biology.
For a metaphorical example of parameterized complexity, look at your hands. They have 8 fingers (n = 8), and 2 thumbs (i.e., the parameter is 2). Because objects in the world are not always round, but generally have extra structure, hands work well. In the same way, the data for computational problems generally have extra structure and the further dimension provided by parameterized complexity is providing a new way of coming to grips with difficult computational problems.
|
For more information, contact
Professor Mike Fellows Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering The University of Newcastle Callaghan, NSW 2307 Australia Tel: (00612) 49215291 Email: mfellows@cs.newcastle.edu.au or Professor Rod Downey School of Mathematical and Computing Sciences Victoria University of Wellington PO Box 600, Wellington Tel: (04) 4635067 Email: rod.downey@vuw.ac.nz |
Note: Listing shows Principal Investigators only.
AGR0401, DR WN Grant (AgResearch), DR C Shoemaker (Ag Research), DR M Viney (UK), The dauer-gene hypothesis for the origin of parasitism in nematodes, $638,713
ARL0401, DR MD Jones (Analytic Research Limited), Archaeological patterns in space and time, $99,000
GNS0401, DR TR Naish (GNS), Stability of the Ross Ice Shelf in a warming world, $1,166,644
GNS0402, DR LM Wallace (GNS), How is crustal extension created at plate boundaries by convergence of tectonic plates? $140,000
GNS0403, DR IA Pecher (GNS), How do gas hydrates weaken the seafloor, causing submarine slides and tsunamis? $686,173
GNS0404, Dr JS Crampton (GNS), Evolution in deep time and shallow seas: fossils and genes of marine molluscs, $987,790
IRL0401, Dr GF Painter (IRL), Dr WB Severn (AgResearch), Rational discovery of synthetic immune modulators, $645,000
LCR0401, Dr CJ MacLeod (Landcare Research), Lost parasites: did they miss the boat or drown on arrival? $140,000
LCR0402, Dr JM Wilmshurst (Landcare Research), Prof AJ Anderson (Australia), Dr T Higham (UK), Solving the kiore controversy - when did people bring the Pacific rat to prehistoric New Zealand? $660,426
LCR0403, Dr J Laubach (Landcare Research), How does the atmospheric boundary layer adapt to landscape irregularities? $357,048
MAU0401, Dr JM O'Sullivan (Massey), Do DNA loops actively regulate rRNA synthesis? $140,000
MAU0402, Prof D Lambert (Massey), Prof JC Belmonte (USA), Prof A Meyer (Germany), Prof L Wolpert (UK), The molecular basis of an extinct phenotype: do wingless moa have functional limb genes? $711,429
MAU0403, Prof B Scott (Massey), Reactive oxygen species generated by a fungal NADPH oxidase regulate hyphal differentiation and growth in Epichloe festucae, a mutualistic symbiont of temperate grasses, $759,300
MAU0404, Dr DP Armstrong (Massey), An experimental test of metapopulation theory using reintroductions of a New Zealand bird species, $818,100
MAU0405, Dr FE Gray (Massey), Transfigurations: Christian and lyric tradition in Victorian women's poetry, $108,504
MAU0406, Dr U Zuelicke (Massey), Spintronics without magnets: A new road to nanodevices and quantum information processing, $140,000
MAU0407, Prof DL Officer (Massey), Prof PL Dutton (USA), Artificial photosynthesis: Mimicking light harvesting, $742,166
MAU0408, Dr S Marsland (Massey), A principled approach to the non-rigid registration and structural analysis of groups of medical images, $140,000
MAU0409, Dr CM McCartin (Massey), Online model theory and online algorithms, $140,000
MAU0410, Dr KM Stowell (Massey), Dr AN Pollock (Palmerston North Hospital), Controlling calcium flux in skeletal muscle, $717,000
MAU0411, Dr AJ Sutherland-Smith (Massey), Prof SP Robertson (University of Otago), How does the cytoskeleton regulate cell signaling? $744,800
NIW0401, Dr S Clearwater (NIWA), Biobombs - Aquatic insects strike back at fish, $140,000
NIW0402, Dr M Ellwood (NIWA), Reconstructing paleonutrient distributions using the germanium signature of deep-sea sponges, $140,000
SRA0401, Prof D Vere-Jones (Statistics Research Associates Limited), Hidden Markov models for earthquake processes with ancilliary measurements, $529,400
UOA0401, Assoc Prof PE Lobie & Dr BD Starling Emerald (University of Auckland), One step human oncogenesis, $759,756
UOA0402, Prof RC Gardner & Dr AK Mitra (University of Auckland), Moving magnesium: the structure of CorA, $613,900
UOA0403, Assoc Prof RD Gray (University of Auckland), Prof L Campbell (USA), Tongues and trees: phylogenetic tests of agricultural dispersals in the Americas, $580,688
UOA0404, Dr D Raubenheimer & Dr K Clements (University of Auckland), Foraging decisions and nutrient regulation in marine herbivorous fishes, $686,132
UOA0405, Dr MM Abbenhuis-Ash (University of Auckland), Neutrality, identity and the experience of the Great War in the borderlands of the Netherlands, 1914-1918, $61,320
UOA0406, Dr KM Phillips (University of Auckland), Before orientalism: Sexualities and gender in medieval representations of the East, $140,000
UOA0407, Assoc Prof RF Anderson (University of Auckland), Prof RAJ Smith (University of Otago), Revealing the mechanism of superoxide decomposition by manganese enzyme mimics using pulse radiolysis, $620,000
UOA0408, Dr J Travas-Sejdic & Dr C Soeller (University of Auckland), Spicing up conducting polymers with quantum dots: Toward a new generation of biosensors, $739,730
UOA0409, Dr SX Coen (University of Auckland), Stimulated Raman scattering in next generation optical fibres, $140,000
UOA0410, Dr NP Smith (University of Auckland), Virtual heart disease, $140,000
UOA0411, Prof W Gao (University of Auckland), Dr VJ Kennedy (GNS), Formation of highly conductive p-type zinc oxide, $567,700
UOA0412, Prof MDE Conder, Assoc Prof J An & Assoc Prof E O'Brien (University of Auckland), Group actions, representations, structure and algorithms, $513,956
UOA0413, Prof GJ Martin (University of Auckland), Geometry and analysis, $507,000
UOA0414, Dr RE Moss-Morris (University of Auckland), The physiological effects of emotional repression on the central nervous and immune systems, $140,000
UOA0415, Dr IG Boswijk (University of Auckland), Dendrochronology and the investigation of colonial-era buildings in New Zealand, $140,000
UOA0416, Prof P Davis (University of Auckland), Modelling social change in New Zealand: social simulation applied to a census "test-bed", $594,375
UOA0417, Prof CR Green & Assoc Prof LFB Nicholson (University of Auckland), Spinal cord repair: Blocking the major side effects of intervention, $674,520
UOA0418, Dr BJ O'Brien (University of Auckland), Retinal fireworks: Shedding light on starburst amacrine cell function, $140,000
UOA0419, Dr S Hughes & Dr BJ Connor (University of Auckland), Directing neurogenesis: using proteomics and gene transfer to define the regulation of neural stem cell differentiation, $745,980
UOA0420, Dr Y Wang (University of Auckland), Adiponectine as a novel drug target for the treatment of obesity-related metabolic disorders, $140,000
UOA0421, Prof J Sneyd, Prof PJ Hunter & Prof M Cannell (University of Auckland), Modelling the calcium cardiac transient on multiple spatial scales, $610,000
UOA0422, Dr W Moors (University of Auckland), Analytic topology and its applications, $250,000
UOC0401, Dr IAW Scott (University of Canterbury), How does local adaptation maintain genetic diversity? Direct evidence for natural selection in wild populations, $140,000
UOC0402, Dr NJ Gemmell (University of Canterbury), When good molecules go bad: how common are paternal inheritance of mitochondria and mitochondrial recombination? $794,832
UOC0403, Assoc Prof D Kelly (University of Canterbury), Dr E Brockerhoff (Forest Research), Evolving with feast and famine: the dynamics of tri-trophic mast-seeding food chains, $825,000
UOC0404, Dr PC Armstrong (University of Canterbury), Dr A Potts (USA), The animal in culture in Aotearoa New Zealand, $465,000
UOC0405, Prof LF Phillips (University of Canterbury), Prof BJ Finlayson-Pitts (USA), The Onsager project: Understanding the gas-liquid interface, $450,000
UOC0406, Prof LT Oxley & Prof D Thorns (University of Canterbury), Winners and losers in the knowledge society, $641,081
UOO0401, Dr PK Dearden (University of Otago), Shaping animals: the evolution of developmental pathways, $709,125
UOO0402, Dr P Heyward (University of Otago), Timing and sense of smell: how does the brain use time to identify an odour? $643,624
UOO0403, Prof R Poulin (University of Otago), Genetic relatedness and optimal life history strategies in parasites: is blood thicker than water? $812,915
UOO0404, Dr JM Waters (University of Otago), Geological dates and evolutionary rates: using river vicariance to pinpoint the pace of molecular change, $826,555
UOO0405, Dr HG Kjaergaard (University of Otago), The role of hydrated complexes in atmospheric reactions, $707,250
UOO0406, Dr MD Barrett (University of Otago), Micro-fabricated atom traps for quantum information processing, $140,000 UOO0407, Dr HR Buckley (University of Otago), Human skeletal biology in prehistoric Vanuatu, Pacific Islands: Human adaptation to the island environment from initial settlement to post-European contact, $140,000
UOO0408, Prof H Leach (University of Otago), The development of New Zealand's culinary traditions, $582,750
UOO0409, Dr FJ McDonald (University of Otago), Murr1 - a new regulator of ion channel ubiquitination? $627,000
UOO0410, Dr JNJ Reynolds & Dr DE Oorschot (University of Otago), Spreading the word: how sparsely-distributed brain cells learn to respond to the same stimulus, $856,200
UOO0411, Dr CW Beck (University of Otago), The molecular basis of amphibian limb regeneration, $140,000
UOW0401, Dr DJ Hodgetts (University of Waikato), What does it mean to be a man today? "Bloke culture" and the media, $140,000
UOW0402, Dr ES Ho & Prof J Poot (University of Waikato), Settlement and circulation of New Zealanders living in Australia: patterns, dynamics and analysis, $557,040
VUW0401, Dr BR Patterson (Victoria University), Assoc Prof TWH Brooking (University of Otago), Scottish migration to New Zealand to 1950, and its contributions to the development of New Zealand society, $510,000
VUW0402, Dr D McKee & Dr RL McKee (Victoria University), Sociolinguistic variation in New Zealand sign language, $333,000
VUW0403, Prof RG Downey (Victoria University), Aspects of computability and randomness, $475,881
VUW0404, Dr M Garry (Victoria University), The role of placebos in reducing memory distortions, $412,103
VUW0405, Dr K Baehler (Victoria University), Fresh perspectives on liberty and equality: A New Zealand brand of meso-justice, $140,000
VUW0406, Dr J Lauwereyns (Victoria University), Dopamine receptor contributions to the implementation of reward value during the control of action, $140,00
 |
by Dr Don Smith, Manager, Research Funding
The results of this year's funding round have just been announced. Projects totalling $32.8 million in value have been awarded funding over the next three years. Although this is a smaller amount than last year when additional money was available for distribution, it is nevertheless the third largest amount of money ever allocated to awards. A total of 71 proposals will receive funding (46 standard awards and 25 Fast-Start awards).
Interest in the Fund increased substantially this year. A total of 972 preliminary applications were received (744 standard applications and 228 Fast-Start applications). This was a large increase on last year when 741 applications were submitted. The increase was across the board, but was particularly noticeable from younger researchers for Fast-Start awards and in mathematics, the earth sciences and the social sciences.
Although, with the money available, it was not possible to match the overall success rate of last year, it has still been possible to provide funding to many new researchers. A noteworthy feature of this round is the number of new researchers receiving awards. There are 103 Principal Investigators on the 71 projects that have been awarded funding and 64 of them have not been a PI on a Marsden project before.
Another feature of this year's round was the continuing trend for proposals to the Fund to become larger and more expensive. This has put pressure on the Fund and has limited the number of proposals that can be funded. Fast-Start awards have a fixed value. This was increased by the Marsden Fund Council from $50k per year to $70k per year as from 2004. Standard awards do not have a fixed value and because they are usually larger, they receive a substantial share of the Fund each year. The average cost of full standard proposals submitted rose from $241k last year to $275k this year. It has sometimes not been possible to provide funding at the level requested. Standard awards this year will receive on average $218k per year compared with $180k last year. The Marsden Fund Council and the panels would prefer to be able to fully fund proposals as submitted and so applicants will be asked in future years to take note of the likely range of funding levels.
Another issue we face each year is comment from the research community about the fact that some of the awards each year go to people who have been on the panels reviewing the proposals. We acknowledge that this is not an ideal situation, but with the research community in New Zealand being as small as it is, it would be very difficult to find enough experienced researchers from all disciplines for the panels who are prepared to forego the opportunity to submit a Marsden proposal for at least 3 years. Instead we have in place a very clear process for dealing with conflicts of interest. Anyone who has an application in the round, whether they are the lead applicant, a co-Principal Investigator or an Associate Investigator does not see any material associated with the evaluation of that proposal. They leave the room when it is discussed and they are unaware of its fate until they receive notification at the same time as all other applicants. Panellists also declare other types of conflict of interest, such as a close association with an applicant. In those cases, the panellists also do not contribute to the evaluation of the proposals.
The Marsden Fund is being reviewed at present. Each year MoRST undertakes reviews of a number of the components of Vote RS&T. This year it is the Marsden Fund's turn. MoRST have engaged the Centre for Research on Work, Education and Business Ltd (WEB Research) to undertake the review. They are being assisted by Technopolis Ltd from the UK. This is a high level review looking at the effectiveness of the Marsden Fund as a funding instrument. We have supplied a lot of information from our database for this evaluation and personnel from WEB Research and Technolpolis recently completed a round of interviews with a small group of stakeholders. A draft report is due with MoRST shortly, and the final report is due in mid November.
We are shortly to farewell one of our staff members. Andrea Knox, who is the Evaluation Officer at the Royal Society of New Zealand, and who spends a large part of her time on Marsden issues, is leaving to join the Foundation for Research, Science & Technology. We wish her well in her new position
 |
|
Discrete droplet oil-in-water emulsion
low oil content. |
 |
|
Bicontinuous emulsion.
|
 |
|
Discrete droplet oil-in-water emulsion
high oil content. |
 |
|
Closed-cell foam emulsion. |
Oil and water don't mix right? Perhaps someone needs to let emulsions know! Emulsions occur when a fluid becomes dispersed in another fluid that it normally does not mix with. The mixtures exist due to the presence of an emulsifier: an agent that resides predominantly at the oil/water interface, reducing the tension between the two liquids, and stabilising the system. A familiar example of an emulsion is milk, which consists of liquid fat droplets dispersed in water, with the aid of additives such as proteins and lipids.
Emulsions exist in a wide range of forms and are used in a variety of industries, for example in dairy products, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Despite their wide use and long history, however, the current theory of emulsion preparation and stability is quite limited. It is not possible at present to produce a formulation for an emulsion with particular physical properties, a known shelf life, and known mechanism through which destabilisation of the emulsion occurs. Milk, for example, has a smooth consistency, a shelf life of a few days, and destabilises by creaming, but just what it is about milk that gives it these characteristics is not known in detail. As a result, creating an emulsion to fulfill a particular requirement is very much a trial and error procedure.
Dr Kathryn McGrath, formerly from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Otago but now at Victoria University of Wellington, has conducted Marsden-funded research to better understand the chemistry behind emulsions. Specifically, Dr McGrath's research aims to examine the different microstructures that emulsions can have, and how these different structures affect the stability of an emulsion.
By varying factors such as emulsion composition, formulation energy and emulsifier
type, Dr McGrath and her team have shown that four different emulsion microstructures
can exist. These include two different types of oil droplet emulsions, as well
as two other structures that had never been seen in an emulsion
before a 'bicontinuous' emulsion, and a 'closed-cell foam' emulsion.
The bicontinuous emulsion, which is the most unstable structure, consists of
the oil and water arranged as continuous, interleaved three-dimensional arrays.
The research group believes that this is a transitory state between the two
discrete oil droplet emulsions. The closed-cell foam emulsion is the most stable
of the four microstructures, and looks much like any other type of foam, except
the 'cells' are made of oil, rather than air.
The team has also discovered that in the two discrete oil droplet emulsions, the oil droplets undergo continual, rapid joining together and rupturing. This effect can be manipulated by varying the oil used to prepare the emulsion.
The fundamental knowledge that is arising from Dr McGrath's research could lead, ultimately, to an expansion of emulsion uses, and more precise tailoring of emulsions for specific purposes.
|
For more information, contact
Dr Kathryn McGrath School of Chemical and Physical Sciences Victoria University of Wellington PO Box 600, Wellington Tel: (04) 4635963 Email: kathryn.mcgrath@vuw.ac.nz |
|
Fragmented forest, central North Island.
|
Principal Investigator: Dr Doug Armstrong, Institute of Natural Resources, Massey University
Most ecologists assume that if a population of a species is small and geographically isolated from other populations, then it is at risk of becoming extinct. The obvious reason for this risk is lack of immigration from the main populations, but it is also possible that small isolated populations tend to be in poor habitat.
Conservation managers worldwide generally accept the idea that isolation puts populations at risk, and may attempt to manage this by creating corridors or stepping stones, or translocating animals among patches. However, this idea has never been experimentally tested until now.
Dr Doug Armstrong from Massey University has received a Marsden grant to examine the importance of linkages between different populations of the New Zealand robin living in forest fragments in the central North Island. The aim is to see if isolation really is as risky as everyone currently assumes.
|
|
| New Zealand robin. |
Native robins are an ideal animal for this type of study as they are relatively sedentary, a feature which makes them easy to monitor. In order to carry out the study, Dr Armstrong, in collaboration with Professor Hugh Possingham from the Ecology Centre at the University of Queensland, will remove birds from a soon-to-be logged pine plantation, tag them, and introduce them to a variety of forest fragments which currently lack robins. The fragments have a range of different sizes and are of varying distances from neighbouring forest patches.
Over three years, the researchers will measure predators, food, and patterns of movement of robins between adjacent forest fragments.
The research will establish whether remote populations really are at greater risk of extinction and, if so, which factors are responsible. Because human modification of natural vegetation is creating increasingly fragmented habitat patches for wildlife, knowing the best strategy for conserving the animals that live within these habitats will be of interest to conservation ecologists worldwide.
Principal Investigators: Dr Warwick Grant, AgResearch, Wallaceville; Dr Chuck Shoemaker, Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine, USA; and Dr Mark Viney, University of Bristol, UK
It's a sad fact of life that we all eventually have to grow old and die. All animals, from humans to worms, ultimately suffer this fate. Although there is generally little variation in the normal lifespan within a species, research has shown that there are genes which determine the rate at which ageing occurs. Mutations to these genes can sometimes lead to greatly accelerated ageing for example, the condition in humans known as progeria.
The opposite is also true. In nematodes, which are a group of small worms, mutations in some genes have been shown to actually extend their lifespan by a significant amount. In fact, in one small group of nematodes, a simple genetic choice during development to become a possum parasite, rather than be free-living, can also prolong life by a staggering 30-fold. This would make the most geriatric worms the equivalent of a 2400-year-old human!
Dr Warwick Grant from AgResearch believes that his team has identified the key genes that control this simple developmental choice in these nematodes. Now, he has been awarded a Marsden grant to investigate these genes further.
Specifically, Dr Grant plans to test the idea that these genes were a key factor in the evolution of parasitism in these nematodes and in the extreme longevity of parasitic nematodes, and that parasitism and longevity are directly related to each other via the genes. If true, this idea could have significant ramifications. Most importantly, genes that prolong life in nematodes are likely to play the same role in other animals, including humans, and this type of research may throw light on human ageing. Confirmation of the identity of these genes may also lead to more effective treatments for the parasitic nematodes that infect more than half of the world's population, and which plague agriculture.
Principal Investigator: Dr Johannes Laubach, Landcare Research, Lincoln
If you are a regular plane traveller, you will no doubt be very familiar with the phenomenon of air turbulence. The lowest level of the atmosphere above land surfaces is in fact renowned for its turbulent air flow. This turbulence is caused by two separate processes. First, there is 'shear', which occurs when horizontal windspeed decreases towards the ground as friction at the Earth's surface slows it down. This process causes regions of air to overturn and move vertically, causing turbulence. Second, there is buoyancy. This occurs as the land surface is heated by the sun, which causes the air near it to warm up, become less dense, and rise.
Although seemingly simple when outlined like this, turbulence has in fact proved quite hard to model accurately, and as a result, it is considered one of the classical unsolved problems in physics. Now, Dr Johannes Laubach from Landcare Research has been awarded a Marsden grant to develop a better model of air turbulence.
Established air turbulence theory says that during the daytime, when both shear and buoyancy are present, the air flow adapts continuously to changes in either of them. However, tests of the equations describing this adaptation show more irregularities than they should, and the exact structure of the flow has been elusive.
Dr Laubach's team, which includes Dr Keith McNaughton from the University of Edinburgh and Professor John Wilson from the University of Alberta, has developed a new structural model of the flow. The model predicts that over even land surfaces the buoyancy process is suppressed by the shear process, rather than combining with it, while over irregular land surfaces the flow structure is dislocated and updrafts are driven by buoyancy. Intriguingly, this new view of surface-layer turbulence matches glider pilots' experience, that surface irregularities, such as buildings and hedges, are sources of strong lift.
Dr Laubach now plans to conduct experiments, with ground-based and airborne measurements, to test the new model's predictions.
Principal Investigators: Dr David McKee and Dr Rachel McKee (both from the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, Victoria University of Wellington)
|
|
| Drs David and Rachel McKee. |
Even within a single language, different groups of speakers often have different ways of using words and sentence structures to say the same thing. Whether spoken or signed, all languages exhibit these regular patterns of internal variation.
New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) has recently been legitimised as a unique
language, with its own vocabulary and grammar. It is distinct from, but closely
related to, British and Australian Sign Languages. Longstanding stigma attached
to signing meant that it was not until the 1980s that linguistic
research brought recognition and documentation of NZSL as an independent language.
Until then, sign language was proscribed in favour of speech and lip-reading,
even though this hindered most Deaf children's access to language and a proper
education.
Research has indicated that within the Deaf community there is considerable diversity in NZSL usage, which reflects both its changing use through the past century, and also the normal linguistic processes which occur in the evolution of natural signed languages.
Drs David and Rachel McKee from Victoria University of Wellington have been awarded a Marsden grant to examine the variation in New Zealand Sign Language. The aim is to analyse how specific parts of NZSL vary in relation to factors such as signers' region, age, gender, and ethnicity.
The 2001 NZ Census reported 28,000 users of NZSL, although the core Deaf community is more realistically calculated to number between 4,700 7,700. This project will extend knowledge about NZSL and its community of users. New information about NZSL can be applied to the development of resources for the teaching and assessment of NZSL, interpreter training, and dictionary making. These demands are particularly pressing in view of the Bill currently before Parliament to recognize NZSL as an official, indigenous language of NZ.
Principal Investigators: Dr Elsie Ho, Department of Geography, University of Waikato; and Professor Jacques Poot, Population Studies Centre, University of Waikato
One in ten New Zealand citizens lives in Australia, making up the largest concentration of New Zealanders in any overseas country. Trans-Tasman migration is a major driver of New Zealand's international migration system, and New Zealand is Australia's largest single-country source of migrants. Yet despite the importance of this population movement for both countries, very little is known about the ongoing movement of New Zealanders who have gone to Australia.
Dr Elsie Ho and Professor Jacques Poot from the University of Waikato have been awarded a Marsden grant to examine for the first time the multiple moves of individual New Zealanders who have moved to Australia.
Their study will concentrate on people who moved to Australia between August 2000 and July 2002. This was a period of considerable volatility in trans-Tasman migration.
The researchers will trace these New Zealanders' subsequent moves out of, and back to, Australia over the period August 2000 July 2006, and will use census data for both Australia and New Zealand to examine the living arrangements and socio-economic characteristics of these movers.
This research will give a new understanding of current patterns of settlement and circulation of New Zealanders living in Australia. This is important in a world where migration is increasingly driven by short- and long-term job opportunities, rather than permanent migration to life in a new land.
Principal Investigators: Professor James Sneyd, Department of Mathematics; Professor Peter Hunter, Department of Engineering Science; and Professor Mark Cannell, Department of Physiology (all from the University of Auckland)
 |
Modelling of a pig heart: In a multidisciplinary project at the University of Auckland, the action of the whole heart will be developed from models of calcium transport at cellular and sub-cellular dimensions. |
However, despite its importance, we still do not have a good understanding of the exact processes that control the release and re-uptake of calcium during the heartbeat cycle.
Professor James Sneyd and a team from the University of Auckland have been awarded a Marsden grant to conduct research in this area. Specifically, the team's goal is to construct a new mathematical model to further the understanding of how the heart works, in healthy people, as well as in those with heart failure.
To tackle such a complicated problem, a diverse team from three different disciplines has been assembled. Professor Mark Cannell and Dr Christian Soeller, from the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, have extensive laboratory experience in physiology. Professor Peter Hunter, from the Bioengineering Institute, brings expertise in engineering and mathematical modelling of human physiology. Professor Sneyd, from the Department of Mathematics, is a mathematician who is interested in physiological applications. The team also includes Professor Donald Bers from Loyola University, Chicago, a world-leading expert in cardiac calcium.
The proposed work is at the cutting edge of modern computational and interdisciplinary methods, is based upon the latest and most sophisticated experimental results, and has the potential to improve dramatically our understanding of how the heart functions.
Principal Investigators: Dr Kathryn Stowell, Institute of Molecular Biosciences, Massey University; and Dr Neil Pollock, Palmerston North Hospital
For members of some New Zealand families, even a simple operation could be extremely dangerous, and possibly even fatal. Malignant hyperthermia is a genetic disorder which leads to complications when patients undergo general anaesthesia. During operations, sufferers can experience excessive muscle contraction and very high temperatures so severe that in extreme cases it can cause death.
Malignant hyperthermia is caused by mutations in genes for the proteins that make up calcium release channels in muscles. These channels release the calcium required to trigger normal muscle contractions. Patients with malignant hyperthermia release more calcium than is necessary, leading to the extreme contractions and rise in body temperature.
Now, Dr Kathryn Stowell from Massey University and Dr Neil Pollock from Palmerston North Hospital have been awarded a Marsden grant to unravel more of the details of malignant hyperthermia.
In New Zealand, approximately 40 extended families susceptible to malignant
hyperthermia exist, with a higher concentration in the lower North Island. Dr
Stowell has studied
susceptible New Zealand families, and found mutations that cause the disorder.
This has allowed family-specific DNA-based diagnostic tests for susceptible
families to be developed, meaning that individual members of susceptible families
can now be tested for the disorder before undergoing anaesthesia.
While conducting this research, Dr Stowell noted that there are differences in how individuals affected by malignant hyperthermia respond to anaesthetics both within and between families, with some patients being affected worse than others.
Dr Stowell and Dr Pollock now plan to study both genes and proteins from selected individuals of these families to find out what causes these differences. The results of this investigation will help in the understanding of the complex biology of calcium release in muscle. It will also help in the development of more effective clinical diagnoses, thereby enabling the implementation of safer management of malignant hyperthermia patients during general anaesthesia.
Principal Investigators: Dr Janet Wilmshurst, Landcare Research, Lincoln; Professor Atholl Anderson, Australian National University; and Dr Thomas Higham, University of Oxford, UK
 |
| Kiore teeth marks on miro seed case. |
The kiore, or Pacific rat, spread throughout the islands of the Pacific with voyaging humans, tagging along as a stowaway in Polynesian canoes. Because of its close association with human migration, knowing the time of the earliest presence of the kiore in New Zealand accurately can help to pin down the date that people first arrived in Aotearoa.
Radiocarbon dating of kiore bones suggests they came to New Zealand as long ago as 100AD. However, this date is very controversial because there is no supporting ecological or archaeological evidence for the presence of either kiore or humans until about 12801300 AD. The reliability of the bone dating has been questioned, with environmental contamination being one explanation for the unusually old ages for the kiore remains.
Dr Janet Wilmshurst from Landcare Research has been awarded a Marsden grant to conduct an investigation to resolve the kiore debate once and for all. The research will use two approaches. First, as an alternative to dating kiore bones themselves, Dr Wilmshurst will date seeds preserved in sediment that show clear evidence that they have been gnawed by ancient kiore. This will give a reliable date for kiore arrival by bypassing the problems that occur when the kiore bones themselves are dated.
Second, Dr Wilmshurst will test the reliability of the early kiore bone ages by collecting more rat bones from the original sites and from archaeological collections, and using new methods to date the bones and investigate contamination. Since all but one of the old rat bone ages are from the South Island, Dr Wilmshurst will be looking to see whether kiore did indeed populate the South much earlier than the North. This is crucial to solving the kiore controversy, given that the arrival in the North Island has been definitively established as late thirteenth century.
A precise date for the arrival of New Zealand's first rodent predator will allow us to fully understand both the history of human settlement, and the past and present ecological impacts of kiore on New Zealand's native fauna and flora.
Principal Investigator: Dr Maartje Abbenhuis-Ash, History Department, the University of Auckland
 |
| Dr Maartje Abbenhuis-Ash. |
The Netherlands remained neutral in the First World War, while its neighbours, Belgium and Germany, were at war. The border was an all too physical reality in Netherlanders' lives, and was guarded by armed customs officials, military patrols, and a lethal electric fence. However, it was also a line which defined identity at a national, regional and individual level. The border marked a differentiation between neutrality and war and altered people's ideas about themselves and their neighbours.
Dr Maartje Abbenhuis-Ash from the University of Auckland has been awarded a Fast-Start Marsden grant to carry out research into the Dutch war experience in the border region of the Netherlands.
Through the study of letters, diaries, newspaper articles, court proceedings and memoirs, Dr Abbenhuis-Ash will analyse how border residents witnessed the war waged across the frontier in Belgium and Germany.
The aim is to learn more about Netherlanders' loyalties to neutrality and nationality, and about their communities and warring sides. To do this, Dr Abbenhuis-Ash will analyse the ways in which Netherlanders encountered the border, crossed the frontier, or witnessed the crossings of 'others'. The project will answer why people traversed the neutral frontier, how the border became a key component of their identity and how it created a significant and unique 'neutral' war experience.
Principal Investigator: Dr Murray Barrett, Physics Department, University of Otago
 |
| Dr Murray Barrett. |
Today, our reliance on electronics means that there is a constant search to make electronic components that are smarter, faster and, particularly, smaller. The race is on to turn the microelectronic revolution into a nanoelectronic one, with components that are a thousand times smaller and operate on the logic of quantum physics. Ultimately, this means that information will be encoded onto just a single atom. Dramatic progress in the production of hardware for information technology in recent times has meant that this is now approaching a practical possibility.
A great deal of effort is being made at the moment to try to develop a suitable microelectronic design on which to base these information-carrying atoms. One promising approach is known as the 'atom chip', which is a system that uses information-carrying atoms arranged in tiny magnetic traps made of microscopic current-carrying wires.
However, if information is to be extracted from the atoms, they have to be seen. A problem that needs to be solved, then, is how to design and use an efficient detection system for single atoms. Currently, detection involves the release of atoms from the chip, a process which is not suitable for many of the chip's applications.
Dr Murray Barrett from the University of Otago has been awarded a Fast-Start Marsden grant, to design and fabricate an atom chip which incorporates a detection system for single information-carrying atoms.
If an atom chip can be developed which can detect single atoms, this would be an important advance in this field, and a significant step towards computing with single atoms.
Dr Barrett is a New Zealander who has returned to a lectureship at the University of Otago, after 8 years overseas. During his time away he developed a reputation as a leading international researcher in the field. He has had articles published in the prestigious journals, Science and Nature, most recently as lead author of an article on quantum teleportation in the 17 June 2004 issue of Nature.
Principal Investigator: Dr Sue Clearwater, NIWA, Hamilton
 |
|
Dr Sue Clearwater. |
Studies have shown that aquatic insect larvae living in an environment contaminated
with metals can act as a fatal 'biobomb' when they are eaten by a predatory
fish. In some cases, fish have even suffered perforated intestines after eating
larvae from metal-contaminated streams.
These findings were surprising, because it turned out that the insects had actually accumulated only relatively low concentrations of metals. Also, previous studies of metal toxicity had used insects exposed to dissolved metals, and these insects had shown little effect on fish. Therefore, something unique about the way in which the aquatic insects had stored the metals had made them extra-toxic to fish.
Dr Sue Clearwater from NIWA has been awarded a Fast-Start Marsden grant, to unlock the secrets of the biobomb.
Instead of exposing insects to metals dissolved in water, Dr Clearwater will first feed aquatic insect larvae a diet of plants contaminated with cadmium, and then feed these insects to fish. Feeding the insects a metal-contaminated diet will better mimic the biological processes that increase the toxicity of metals. The location of the cadmium within the insect larvae, and also within the fish, will be determined. Dr Clearwater will also analyse the chemical form of the metal within the insects, and will conduct experiments to determine exactly how the cadmium gets transported around the fish.
Principal Investigator: Dr Darrin Hodgetts, Department of Psychology, University of Waikato
Over the last three decades a lot of attention has been devoted to the question: "What does it mean to be a man?" These days, the media provides a range of contrasting images in answer to this question. For instance, there is the new domesticated and sensitive man, and his counterpart, the undomesticated, inarticulate and emotionally detached man.
Previous research has focused on the effects that negative images of men in the media have on men in society, but not much is known about how more positive images might contribute to men developing supportive relationships with their families, friends, and work mates. Given the importance of media messages today, and the engagement of media in everyday life, a focus on the media is a vital component of research into men's daily lives in New Zealand.
Dr Darrin Hodgetts from the University of Waikato, in association with Mr Mohi Rua (also from Waikato University), has been awarded a Fast-Start Marsden grant, to investigate how images of men in the media affect the day to day lives of ordinary, working men.
For this research, Dr Hodgetts and Mr Rua will use men involved in a Territorial Army reconnaissance unit. Here, Pakeha and Maori men come together through shared interests and negotiate their relationships across cultural similarities and differences. Through interviews, media diaries and group discussions, Dr Hodgetts will explore the lives of these men within our media-saturated society.
Principal Investigator: Dr Stephen Marsland, Institute of Information Sciences and Technology, Massey University
|
|
| Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. |
From X-rays to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), there are a wide variety of medical imaging methods available today in hospitals around the world. The purpose of these imaging methods is to assist doctors in diagnosing disease without the need for surgery, by providing images of regions deep inside the human body.
The problem is, that even in healthy individuals, biological structures such as regions of the brain, for example can vary widely from person to person, making it difficult to reliably detect diseases from these images. Complicating the matter, the appearance of disease on the images can also vary a great deal amongst individuals.
Dr Stephen Marsland, a recently-appointed lecturer at Massey University, has been awarded a 2-year Fast-Start Marsden grant to develop advanced mathematical and statistical approaches for dealing with data from MRI scanners.
Dr Marsland will develop new methods to help measure the differences in the 'shapes' of biological structures between individuals, and thereby improve the detection of irregularities that are due to disease rather than natural variation. The new techniques involve a combination of advanced and challenging mathematical and statistical techniques.
Overall, the aim is to help doctors more accurately diagnose diseases such as brain tumours, Alzheimer's disease and other conditions.
Principal Investigator: Dr Catherine McCartin, Institute of Information Sciences and Technology, Massey University
 |
| Dr Catherine McCartin. |
Suppose that you are directing the packing of three trucks with crates of varying dimensions, and you want to pack them as efficiently as possible but there's a catch! You are only given the crates one at a time. You must make a decision about what to do with each crate as soon as you receive it, but you have no certain knowledge of the dimensions of the crates that you haven't seen yet. You are dealing with an 'online problem'.
Many situations occur where decisions have to be made about things where only some of the background information is available, and nothing is known of the events that will occur in the future. In computer science these situations are called online problems. Online problems occur everywhere, from investment of sharemarket funds, to the operation of robotic machines like the Mars Rover.
Dr Catherine McCartin, a recently promoted Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at Massey University, has been awarded a Fast-Start grant from the Marsden Fund to undertake research in this field.
Dr McCartin will carry out two related projects. First, even though online problems are so common, virtually no techniques currently exist for mathematically analysing them. Dr McCartin will develop a systematic mathematical framework for online problems, in joint work with Professor Rod Downey from Victoria University of Wellington.
Second, Dr McCartin will aim to use the theory from the first part of the project to develop practical methods for the operation of 'reactive sensor networks'. Reactive sensor networks are networks of sensors that can perceive and respond to their environment, by repositioning themselves to acquire and deliver information in the best possible way. This work will be done jointly with robotics expert, Professor Daniela Rus from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Principal Investigator: Dr Brendan O'Brien, Optometry & Vision Science, the University of Auckland
 |
|
Directional dependence in the response of the eye.
Upward motion triggers less response than downward motion. |
In order for us to see, a vast array of coordinated processes has to be carried out flawlessly by our visual system. This includes things like the transformation of light into a signal in the nervous system, extraction of visual 'features' such as colour, form and movement, and stabilisation of images to prevent distortion. If any of these processes fail, this can lead to impaired vision, or even blindness.
Dr Brendan O'Brien, from the University of Auckland, has been awarded a Fast-Start Marsden grant to learn more about one particular aspect of visual processing by the retina, known as retinal image motion.
Retinal image motion is the process that allows the direction of a moving image to be signalled to the brain. The underlying mechanism behind retinal image motion is complex, but the retina is so sensitive to movement that it can detect the Earth's rotation using the motion of stars in the night sky.
Dr O'Brien intends to unravel how one particular nerve cell of the retina, known as the starburst cell, computes and signals the motion of the retinal image. In the last few years, this has been one of the hottest areas in visual neuroscience, and research from a number of laboratories has established a basic framework. However, many questions remain unanswered, particularly concerning how the direction-selective signal is initially produced by the starburst cells, and how the signal is then selectively transmitted to the rest of the visual system.
Dr O'Brien's research will involve a carefully crafted set of experiments, which are designed to ask the starburst cell how exactly it can tell "Which way did he go?"
Principal Investigator: Dr Ian Scott, School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury
 |
| Dr Ian Scott. |
Charles Darwin's famous theory of natural selection is widely recognised today as the mechanism by which life evolves. Part of natural selection is a phenomenon known as adaptation, a process which occurs when traits evolve to allow organisms to function better in a particular situation in other words, to become 'adapted' to their environment.
Adaptation is a major process which creates the diversity of life, and because of this, biologists have a long-standing interest in understanding just how it works. One method that can be used to understand, in a relatively short time-frame, the way adaptation operates is to study the genetics of the immune system, and the effects diseases have on it. Diseases lead to adaptation in the immune system in populations because they kill or weaken certain individuals, leaving others intact. This process causes rapid changes in the genetic makeup of the immune systems within a population.
Dr Ian Scott from the University of Canterbury has been awarded a Fast-Start Marsden grant in order to look in more detail at the effect of natural selection on the diversity of the genes that make up the immune system.
Dr Scott will study a group of genes known as the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), which is responsible for the functioning of the immune system. There are many forms (alleles) of these genes in every population. The numbers of each allele in the population and the combinations in which they occur in individuals influence how effective an immune response is, and also how strong the process of natural selection is in that population when it becomes infected with a particular disease.
Using frog species from both New Zealand and the rest of the world, Dr Scott will compare MHC gene diversity in frog populations before and after exposure to a disease-causing fungus. DNA from frogs that were sampled before the population was infected will be compared to the DNA of samples from the same populations after infection. This 'before and after' method is a new way to directly study the genetic effect of selection by a disease.
Principal Investigator: Dr Nic Smith, Bioengineering Institute, the University of Auckland
 |
|
Blood flow in the presence
of a blocked coronary artery. |
The main cause of death in the Western world is a reduced blood supply to the heart due to the blockage of a coronary artery a condition known as ischaemia. This reduced blood supply causes many changes to the mechanical and electrical properties of heart cells, ultimately leading to heart disease.
A large number of experimental studies have been carried out to try to understand ischaemic heart disease but, frustratingly, the complicated sequence of events that lead from the initial trigger, the blockage of a coronary artery, to life-threatening heart failure is still not well understood.
Dr Nicolas Smith from the University of Auckland has been awarded a Fast-Start Marsden grant to undertake research in this area.
In this project, Dr Smith will use mathematics to link the underlying changes that occur during ischaemia to the mechanical performance of the whole heart. The aim is to understand exactly how heart function is impaired in ischaemic heart disease.
To achieve this goal, Dr Smith will develop mathematical equations that represent the ischaemic heart cells. Individual 'virtual cells' will then be combined using high performance computers to construct a 'virtual' heart. The heart's pumping capacity will then be computed under different degrees of ischaemia, and will be linked both to laboratory experiments and clinical observation.
The study will provide a new method to investigate and understand the progression of ischaemic heart disease and, ultimately, to improve its diagnosis and prevention.
Principal Investigator: Dr Laura Wallace, Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences, Lower Hutt
As most New Zealanders are all too aware, the Earth's crust is broken into tectonic plates that move relative to each other at up to several centimetres per year. As well as the earthquakes that we're all familiar with, this movement results in large amounts of deformation at the plate boundaries.
One type of deformation occurs at 'convergent' plate margins, or subduction zones, which is where two tectonic plates collide and one sinks beneath the other. These types of plate boundaries occur throughout the world, including New Zealand. Interestingly, even though the whole plate boundary should be under compression, areas of crustal extension, or 'rifting', can be found. An example of this is the Taupo Volcanic Zone, where the crust is being stretched by rifting. Just why rifting occurs at these plate boundaries is something that no-one knows at present.
Dr Laura Wallace from the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences has been awarded a Fast-Start Marsden grant to take a new look at this phenomenon.
 |
|
Local supporters of Dr Laura Wallace's field work
in Papua-New Guinea. GPS measurements from here will contribute to her Marsden Fast-Start project. |
Dr Wallace has developed a new model which explains how the initiation and maintenance of rifting at convergent plate boundaries may occur. The model proposes that the Earth's crust is pulled apart as a result of rapid rotation of the overriding tectonic plate. In this model, these rotations are caused by unusually thick, buoyant areas of crust on the subducting plate. These areas of crust could, for example, be oceanic plateaus, seamount chains, or continental fragments.
Dr Wallace plans to use newly available Global Positioning System (GPS) data, together with geological data from subduction zone boundaries around the world to test this hypothesis.
This work will provide key insights into the physical processes producing
rifting at subduction zones, and will have important implications for our knowledge
of tectonics and earthquake hazards of some of the Earth's fastest moving plate
margins. Understanding this mechanism is particularly important to New Zealand,
as this phenomenon may explain much of the geographic development of the North
Island.
 |
|
The basics of gravitational lensing. Light from a distant
star (the source) is deflected
by the gravitational field of a closer star (the lens) along the line of sight, resulting in the formation of an Einstein ring. |
The beautiful images seen in coffee-table books on astronomy give little hint that the stars which comprise most of the visible matter out there are so distant that even the largest and closest of them are very difficult to see clearly. For example, the giant orange star Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion, appears only as a hazy blob when viewed through the Hubble Space Telescope, and this star is only 400 light years away. This distance is less than 1% of the diameter of our Galaxy, the Milky Way, and other galaxies are billions of light years further away.
Nature can lend a helping hand here, however. As Einstein predicted in 1936, the gravitational fields of stars bend light, and this bending effect can be used to mimic a lens. Thousands of instances of gravitational lensing have now been detected, and they are being put to good use, enabling stars to be seen more clearly, and distant planets to be detected.
The MOA (Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics) group in New Zealand is one of several involved in this field of endeavour. MOA is a New Zealand-Japan group that is supported by the Marsden Fund and by the Department of Education of Japan. It is based at Canterbury University's observatory at Mt John, and includes Dr Ian Bond from Massey University (Albany), Professor John Hearnshaw from the University of Canterbury, Dr Denis Sullivan from Victoria University, and Associate Professor Philip Yock from the University of Auckland.
The basics of gravitational lensing are as follows: when two stars, as seen from Earth, are aligned, the gravitational field of the nearer star (the lens) bends the light from the more distant star (the source), and it appears as a ring of light surrounding the lens the famous 'Einstein ring'. Star alignments are rare and fleeting, especially perfect alignments, but astronomers can maximise the chance of seeing them if they monitor large numbers of stars in the dense stellar fields at the centre of the Milky Way. Since all stars are in motion, these alignments result in magnified but distorted images that only persist for a few days.
The MOA group has now discovered about 200 gravitational lenses, using the telescope at the Mt John Observatory. Three interesting examples of these are known as MOA 2002BLG33, MOA 2003BLG32 and MOA 2003BLG53.
MOA 2002BLG33 was an exceptional event where the lens was a 'binary star', which is a pair of stars orbiting each other. They acted as side-by-side lenses, which produce a diamond-shaped contour in space where the magnification is extremely high. The left-to-right motion of the source star took it right through the diamond, meaning that it was profiled twice, as it entered the diamond, and as it exited. This enabled the image of the star to be constructed, with remarkable resolution. The resolution was so high, that it corresponds to the resolution needed to read this article if it were on the moon. This is nearly one million times better than the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope. The image for MOA 2002BLG33 was used to test stellar atmosphere theory.
MOA 2003BLG32 was also an event of extraordinarily high magnification, which enabled a search for planets orbiting the lens star to be carried out. This was the most sensitive search to date for planets orbiting any star except the Sun. The results were published in the 27 August issue of Science. Surprisingly, no planets were found, indicating that many stars in the Milky Way do not have planetary systems like our own. Until recently, most planetary scientists assumed our planetary system was typical. This type of information is needed to estimate the likely prevalence of life in the Milky Way.
MOA 2003BLG53 was another example where side-by-side lenses produced a contour of very high magnification, and again, the source star crossed the contour twice. Detailed analysis of the event showed that the binary partner for the lens was a planet similar to Jupiter, and that it was nearly 17,000 light years away. This is the most distant known planet.
Although spectacular, the observations from Mt John have been limited so far
by the relatively modest size of the telescope being used, which is only 0.6
m in diameter. In 2002, Professor Yasushi Muraki of Nagoya University and MOA's
other Japanese collaborators were successful in obtaining a grant for a telescope
of 1.8m diameter approximately 10 times the team's current light gathering
capability. The telescope, for which the optics were designed by Industrial
Research Ltd in Lower Hutt, is under construction in Japan, and first light
is planned for later this year. This telescope will be the largest situated
in New Zealand, and should ensure that MOA remains competitive for several years
to come.
 |
|
Contour in the sky of very high magnification of the
gravitational lens MOA 2002BLG33 and the star that was profiled by it. |
 |
|
Dome under construction at Mt John for the new MOA telescope that is being supplied by Japan. Also in the picture is Pam Kilmartin, MOA's chief observer. The observatory shown above is funded in part by Earth and Sky Ltd of Lake Tekapo, a company which provides international tourists with views of the southern sky. Earth and Sky is headed by co-directors Hide Ozawa and Graeme Murray of Lake Tekapo. |
|
For more information, contact
Associate Professor Philip Yock Physics Department The University of Auckland Private Bag 92019, Auckland Tel: (09) 3737599 ext. 86838 Email: p.yock@auckland.ac.nz |
New Zealand's coastline is home to a large number of forest-like communities of the kelp Ecklonia radiata. Amongst the root-like branches which anchor the plant to its home on the sea floor (called a 'holdfast') lives an enormous variety of animal life, for which the kelp provides essential food and shelter. Like other parts of the marine ecosystem, these kelp holdfast communities are very sensitive to changes in the environment, with the abundance and precise makeup of marine life affected by ecological events such as sedimentation, pollution, and temperature change.
Now, a team of scientists led by Dr Marti Anderson from the University of Auckland, and including Dr Carol Diebel, Director of Natural Environment at Te Papa, and Dr Wilma Blom from the Auckland War Memorial Museum, has conducted a project to gain a new understanding of the animals which live in kelp holdfasts, and to assess the potential use of these communities in the evaluation of the effects of environmental change.
A major aim of the research was to examine the biodiversity, or the number and variety of species, of animals living in kelp holdfasts in north-eastern New Zealand at different spatial scales. The team sampled subtidal holdfast communities along the coast that were spaced only metres apart, tens of metres apart, hundreds of metres apart, and hundreds of kilometres apart. Dr Blom then painstakingly dissected the samples to identify and quantify all of the animals contained within. Special multivariate statistical methods, developed by Dr Anderson, were then used to analyse the spatial variation in biodiversity amongst the different kelp holdfast communities.
 |
| Kelp holdfast. Photo: Dave Abbot |
The results of the research to date indicate that kelp holdfast communities are home to an intense and wonderful variety of animal life: 351 different species belonging to 213 families and 15 different phyla were uncovered. The work indicates that these habitats may in fact be one of the most biologically diverse per unit area yet encountered and documented in any New Zealand ecological system. The invertebrate animals in the kelp holdfasts ranged from crustaceans (including crabs, shrimps, and barnacles), to polychaetes (segmented worms), molluscs (such as octopus, snails, chitons and limpets), echinoderms (including urchins and seastars), and even small fish. Reference collections of the fauna have now been made, which are housed at the Auckland War Memorial Museum and at the Leigh Marine Laboratory.
The ongoing project also involves comparisons of kelp holdfast communities in New Zealand with other parts of the world. Preliminary results indicate that the diversity in New Zealand kelp communities is much greater than that documented for similar communities from Northern Europe, the West Coast of North America and South America, but is comparable to that found in Australia.
The results of the research also support the idea that kelp holdfast communities could potentially be used as environmental 'sensors'. There is increasing public concern over the possible environmental impacts of a variety of activities on marine communities. As a result, there is great interest in developing ways to detect and predict how whole sets of species or ecosystems may be altered by environmental change.
Dr Anderson's work revealed that, although small-scale variation in species-level diversity is very high, there is little variability from one holdfast to another at the level of whole phyla (arthropods, molluscs, echinoderms, etc.), even amongst communities separated by hundreds of kilometres. These consistencies suggest that the relative proportions of phyla in these communities are potentially excellent candidates for modelling the effects of environmental change. Future sampling of kelp ecosystems in the context of environmental impact may be assessed against expected models of proportions, even in areas that have never been previously sampled.
This research has led to new and exciting knowledge of biodiversity in New Zealand marine communities. The team's ongoing work this year is to combine quantitative taxonomic databases of the New Zealand fauna with similar databases collected across Australia using the same design over the same period. This will provide unprecedented biogeographic biodiversity information across vast spatial scales at similar latitudes. Future research is also planned to investigate the potential role of marine reserves in protecting or providing a source of biodiversity in kelp holdfast fauna. In addition, the statistical and environmental methods pioneered in this Marsden Fast-Start project may be applied to other similar types of multivariate data around the globe, wherever whole biological systems may respond to environmental change.
|
For more information, contact
Dr Marti Anderson Department of Statistics The University of Auckland Private Bag 92019, Auckland Tel: (09) 3737599 ext. 85052 Email: mja@stat.auckland.ac.nz |
Over the last 200 years, commercial whaling has seen many species of whales reduced in number to precariously low levels. Whalers in the Southern Hemisphere, for example, pursued first the right whale, then the humpback, blue and fin whales, driving each to near extinction. Even though whales are now protected, some populations, including the humpback and right whales around New Zealand, have shown little sign of recovery.
In 1986, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) agreed to a moratorium on commercial whaling. The agreement also called for a comprehensive assessment of depleted whale populations, to assess just how much damage whalers had actually caused. This research involved determining how many whales existed before commercial whaling began, and also how many were hunted. These numbers, however, have proved surprisingly difficult to estimate, confounding attempts to assess how similar today's whale populations are to their original pre-exploitation population levels. Now, Associate Professor Scott Baker and Professor Allen Rodrigo from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland are conducting research, funded by a Marsden grant, to try to obtain a more accurate picture of pre-exploitation abundance of whales.
Currently, the IWC relies on historical catch records to model historical whale population dynamics. These catch records are summarised from logbooks, and the total number of whales killed is added to estimates of current whale abundance from sighting surveys or capture-recapture analysis of naturally marked individuals. These catch records, however, are often incomplete, and are sometimes actually falsified, leading to erroneously low estimates of how many whales existed before whaling began.
 |
|
Steel engraving by William Lizars of J. Stewart's,
"The Spermaceti whale" (1837). Alexander Turnbull Library Collection |
Another way of looking at whale population dynamics has been through whale population genetics. Populations, like living individuals, include a record of past events in their genetic legacy. Large, stable populations harbour greater genetic diversity than small or fluctuating populations. Even when a large population, like the Southern Hemisphere humpback or blue whale, is reduced to low numbers, this diversity of the nuclear genome, which is inherited from both parents, persists for many generations. The diversity of maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA, however, can be lost very rapidly as a population passes through a 'bottleneck'. As a consequence, population surveys of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA can be used to describe the historical demography of numerous whale and dolphin species, providing evidence of the minimum size and length of a bottleneck.
There is, however, a significant discrepancy between calculations of original whale populations from catch records, and those from analysis of genetic markers. Currently, the genetic markers are showing that the original populations may actually have been 5 10 times larger than the estimates suggested from catch records. This disagreement between demographic and genetic estimates points to specific deficiencies in each, and highlights the general lack of available methodology for integrating these two approaches.
The team's research aims to address the deficiencies in each approach, and to synthesise both the demographic and genetic models, in order to better reconstruct the dynamics of whaling. The proposed synthetic model, to be called 'Ishmael' after the narrator of Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick, will improve estimates of pre-exploitation whale abundance by including corrected catch records, life history data from living whales, and genetic diversity from present-day populations, as well as the range of uncertainty in these estimates.
This work is not only of historical interest, but is also essential for the future management of whales, including restoration of the Southern Ocean ecosystem, and in the assessment of the impact of any future whaling. Under an agreement accepted in principle by the IWC, commercial whaling could resume on populations that have reached 54% of pre-exploitation abundance. If the pre-whaling numbers of a whale population is underestimated, the level of current recovery will be overestimated, increasing pressure to resume hunting of depleted populations prematurely. Using the conservative extrapolation of current demographic models, several populations of humpback whales are nearing this level, and could become targets of commercial hunting in the near future if the current moratorium is lifted. Even in the absence of whaling, a better understanding of historical whale population dynamics could also help in the assessment of future responses of whale populations to global warming, ozone depletion and overfishing.
|
For more information, contact
Associate Professor Scott Baker School of Biological Sciences The University of Auckland Private Bag 92019, Auckland Tel: (09) 3737599 ext. 87280 Email: cs.baker@auckland.ac.nz |
|
Professor Diana Hill |
Global Technologies (NZ) Ltd
|
|
Dr Garth Carnaby
|
Canesis Network Ltd
|
|
Professor Rob Ballagh
|
University of Otago
|
|
Professor Pat Bergquist
|
The University of Auckland and Macquarie University
|
|
Professor Sally Casswell
|
Massey University
|
|
Professor Marston Conder
|
The University of Auckland
|
|
Professor Charles Daugherty
|
Victoria University of Wellington
|
|
Mr Jonathan Mane-Wheoki
|
Te Papa Tongarewa
|
|
Professor Pat Sullivan
|
Massey University
|
|
Dr David Wratt
|
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd
|
Dr Don Smith, Manager. Tel: 04-470 5776; Email: don.smith@rsnz.org
Dr Peter Gilberd, Deputy Manager. Tel: 04-470 5778; Email: peter.gilberd@rsnz.org
Dr Rachel Averill, Research Assessor. Tel:04-470 5774: Email: rachel.averill@rsnz.org
Dr Tasha Black, Research Assessor. Tel: 04-470 5774; Email: tasha.black@rsnz.org
Rochelle Barton, Administration Officer. Tel: 04-470 5799; Email: rochelle.barton@rsnz.org
Janet Sorensen, Administration Officer. Tel: 04-470 5788; Email: janet.sorensen@rsnz.org
 |
Marsden Update is published quarterly by the Marsden Fund and is available free on request. Editor: Anna Meyer. Email: ameyer@paradise.net.nz
