New Zealand Geographer Research Articles

Outcomes of rectal cancer treatment in rural Australia and New Zealand: analysis of the bowel cancer outcomes registry.

The demographics and geography of Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), with few metropolitan centres and vast, sparsely populated rural areas, represent a challenge to providing equal care to all patients. This study aimed to compare rectal cancer care at rural and urban hospitals in ANZ. From the Bowel Cancer Outcomes Registry (BCOR, formerly known as the Bi-National Colorectal Cancer Audit; BCCA), rectal cancer patients treated between 2007 and 2020 were compared based on hospital location (urban versus rural). Propensity-score matching was performed to correct for differences in baseline characteristics between groups. A total of 9385 rectal cancer patients were identified from the BCOR: 1329 (14.2%) were treated at rural hospitals and 8056 (85.8%) at urban hospitals. Propensity-score matching resulted in 889 patients in each group, matched for age, ASA score, hospital type (public/private), tumour height from the anal verge, and pre-treatment cT- and cAJCC-stage. Rural patients had fewer pre-treatment MRIs (67.9% versus 74.7%; P = 0.002), and underwent less neoadjuvant therapy (44.7% versus 50.9%; P = 0.01). Rural patients underwent fewer ULARs (39.4% versus 45.6%; P = 0.03), and fewer anastomoses were formed (67.9% versus 74.4%; P = 0.05). CRM rates and postoperative AJCC stages (P = 0.19) were similar between groups (P = 0.87). Fewer rural patients received adjuvant chemotherapy (37.8% versus 43.3%; P = 0.02). There are significant differences in pre-treatment MRI rates, (neo)adjuvant treatment rates and surgical procedures performed between rectal cancer patients treated at rural and urban hospitals in ANZ, while CRM rates and postoperative AJCC stages are similar.

A review of grass species yields and growth rates in Northland, New Zealand

ABSTRACT Pastoral farming is a major land use in New Zealand's Northland region, with 3,171 farm holdings and a total area of 637,500 hectares in 2022. The region's pasture grasses include temperate (C3) and subtropical and tropical (C4) grasses which support dairy, and sheep and beef production from grazing. In lowland areas, C3 and some annual C4 grasses are prevalent where cultivation occurs, while perennial C4 grasses dominate areas with low soil fertility and summer dry conditions. Grass-based pasture growth rates (kg dry matter/ha/day) from published and unpublished sources were assembled into the AgYields database. Among the resident and sown grasses tested in Kaitaia, Kaikohe, Whangarei and Dargaville, perennial ryegrass represented ∼60% of the total data points. Dominant kikuyu pastures represented 23% and the remaining species represented 17%. Rates of growth ranged from 5 to 120 kg DM/ha/day, being lowest in late autumn-winter and highest in early summer. Data were compared and agronomic traits (i.e. drought tolerance, biomass production and tillering) are discussed to assess species suitability for the Northland environment. The medium-term prospect suggests an urgent need to improve research into management of cocksfoot and tall fescue-based pastures to provide viable alternatives to overcome the decreasing persistence of perennial ryegrass.

Quantifying contaminant losses to water from pastoral landuses in New Zealand I. Development of a spatial framework for assessing losses at a farm scale

ABSTRACT Assessing the effectiveness of mitigation measures for reducing contaminant losses to water from pastoral farming systems is a challenging task. Two important factors that contribute to this challenge are (i) the considerable spatial variability in landscape vulnerabilities to contaminant loss and (ii) differing land use pressures created by contrasting land management practices that are employed on farms. An approach is described that benchmarks nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and sediment discharges for representative dairy and sheep-beef farming types (hereafter referred to as ‘typologies’) that differ according to inherent landscape vulnerability features or land use pressures created by some key management practices. Landscape vulnerabilities can be defined as the soil, topography and climate factors that are known to influence the inherent risk of contaminant transport to water, whereas land use pressures reflect the diverse set of farm inputs and feed, stock and soil management practices that determine contaminant sources. The analysis was constructed using land use pressure information for the year 2015 contained within Dairybase records held by DairyNZ and farm class surveys reported by Beef + Lamb NZ. Published information sources and expert opinion from rural professionals were also used to define land use pressures for typologies in 1995.

Quantifying contaminant losses to water from pastoral landuses in New Zealand II. The effects of some farm mitigation actions over the past two decades

ABSTRACT In New Zealand the primary sector together with central and local government agencies have been promoting measures to mitigate the adverse effect of farming practices on water quality over the last few decades. We assessed the effectiveness of some key measures such as stock exclusion, riparian protection, and nutrient and effluent management on reducing losses of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and sediment to water. Our aim was to determine how much progress has been made in decreasing contaminant discharges between 1995 and 2015 and to determine what the loads would have been if no mitigation had occurred. To do this we estimated losses from 37 dairy and non-dairy/sheep/beef farm typologies that captured the main attributes of production and contaminant loss pathways, nationally. We also accounted for the rate of uptake of measures. Our findings indicated that while the implementation of these measures has helped to reduce P losses (an estimated 20%–25% reduction) to water, they have not been sufficient to off-set estimated increases in N losses (25%) due to expansion of dairy land over the same period. National sediment load is estimated to have decreased (29%) because of afforestation and other soil conservation works.

Lake sediment fecal and biomass burning biomarkers provide direct evidence for prehistoric human-lit fires in New Zealand

Deforestation associated with the initial settlement of New Zealand is a dramatic example of how humans can alter landscapes through fire. However, evidence linking early human presence and land-cover change is inferential in most continental sites. We employed a multi-proxy approach to reconstruct anthropogenic land use in New Zealand’s South Island over the last millennium using fecal and plant sterols as indicators of human activity and monosaccharide anhydrides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, charcoal and pollen as tracers of fire and vegetation change in lake-sediment cores. Our data provide a direct record of local human presence in Lake Kirkpatrick and Lake Diamond watersheds at the time of deforestation and a new and stronger case of human agency linked with forest clearance. The first detection of human presence matches charcoal and biomarker evidence for initial burning at c. AD 1350. Sterols decreased shortly after to values suggesting the sporadic presence of people and then rose to unprecedented levels after the European settlement. Our results confirm that initial human arrival in New Zealand was associated with brief and intense burning activities. Testing our approach in a context of well-established fire history provides a new tool for understanding cause-effect relationships in more complex continental reconstructions.

Mapping of Escherichia coli Sources Connected to Waterways in the Ruamahanga Catchment, New Zealand.

Rivers and streams in New Zealand are natural with free access and used by many people for swimming and fishing. However, pastoral farming with free grazing animals is a common land use in New Zealand and faecal microorganisms from them often end up in waterways. These microorganisms can seriously affect human and animal health if ingested. This paper describes spatial modeling using GIS of Escherichia coli sources in a large catchment (350 000 ha), the Ruamahanga. By examining the pathway of water over and through soils, it is possible to determine whether E. coli sources are connected to waterways or not. The map of E. coli sources connected to waterways provides useful context to those setting water quality limits. This approach avoids the complexity of modeling the fate and transport of E. coli in waterways, yet still permits the assessment of catchment-wide mitigation and best management practice. Fencing of waterways would minimize E. coli sources directly defecated to water and would reduce total E. coli sources by approximately 35%. Introduction of dung beetles would minimize sources connected to waterways by overland flow and would reduce total E. coli sources by approximately 35%. Construction of dairy effluent ponds would minimize sources connected to waterways through high bypass flow in soils and would reduce total E. coli sources by approximately 25%.

Simulation vs. Definition: Differing Approaches to Setting Probabilities for Agent Behaviour

While geographers and economists regularly work together on the development of land-use and land-cover change models, research on how differences in their modelling approaches affects the results is rare. Answering calls for more coordination between the two disciplines in order to build models that better represent the real world, we (two economists and a geographer) developed an economically grounded, spatially explicit, agent-based model to explore the effects of environmental policy on rural land use in New Zealand. This inter-disciplinary collaboration raised a number of differences in modelling approach. One key difference, and the focus of this paper, is the way in which processes that shape the behaviour of agents are integrated within the model. Using the model and a nationally representative survey, we compare the land-use effects of two disciplinary-aligned approaches to setting a farmer agent’s likelihood of land-use conversion. While we anticipated that the approaches would significantly affect model outcomes, at a catchment scale they produced similar trends and results. However, further analysis at a sub-catchment scale suggests the approach to setting the likelihood of land-use conversion does matter. While the results outlined here will not fully resolve the disciplinary differences, they do outline the need to account for heterogeneity in the predicted agent behaviours for both disciplines.

Modelling Changing Rural Land Use in New Zealand 1997 to 2008 Using a Multinomial Logit Approach

Rural land use in New Zealand is an important driver of economic activity and has clear implications for the environment, including for biodiversity, climate change emissions and water quality. The spatial distribution and aggregate shares of rural land use is always changing, but change occurs slowly. To better understand the drivers of rural land use change, this paper addresses three questions using the popular multinomial logit modelling approach. First, do recent commodity prices have any predictive power on land use conversions? Second, is recently sold land more likely to change use? Third, does land which is marginal between uses have identifiable characteristics? The data used consists of the New Zealand Landcover Database version 3 (LCDB3), with observations in 1997, 2002 and 2008; 6 year average profitability data for dairy, sheep and beef and forestry; QVNZ land sales data; and I control for land quality and Maori tenure. In answering the first and third questions, I evaluate the predictive power of a spatially explicit land use share multinomial logit model, estimated from 2002 cross-sectional variation. To supplement the land use share multinomial logit for questions one and three, and to address question two, I use a land use transition multinomial logit, estimating the likelihood of transition from a single starting land use between 1997 and 2002, similar to Lubowski et al. (2008). Finally, I compare the two modelling approaches.

Neoliberalism, science institutions and new experiments in knowledge production

The work of Larner on neoliberalism (e.g. Larner, 2003 , 2011 ) has had an important influence on scholars in the arguably most neoliberalized of economies – New Zealand ( Larner et al., 2007 ). Of particular importance is the direct confrontation of one of the key implicit framings within the prior scholarship on neoliberalism which has tended to equate all economic change during the last two decades as being caused by neoliberalization and all outcomes of these transformations as automatically bad. Larner (2011) argues for a decentring of the neoliberalism narrative as a sole explanation of all change in places like New Zealand. This commentary uses the revised approach of Larner and her New Zealand collaborators – Richard Le Heron and Nick Lewis – to briefly examine the consequences of neoliberalization in the context of state-funded science institutions in New Zealand. The result is an understanding of neoliberalization in the context of state-funded knowledge-production that recognizes multiple outcomes which resulted in both a reaffirmation of a core political project around traditional agricultural science, as well as the simultaneous emergence of new approaches, concepts and challenges. These new approaches are demonstrated by a group of new ‘transdisciplinary’ or methodologically innovative projects that are producing new kinds of knowledge about key transformations in primary production and new economic land use in New Zealand.

An investigation into the effects of an emissions trading scheme on forest management and land use in New Zealand

An econometric-process simulation model was constructed to investigate the effects of an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) on forest management and land use in New Zealand. Profit maximising agents which choose between forestry and agricultural land uses were simulated under carbon price scenarios of $20, $50 and $0 per tonne CO2 equivalent. The model suggests that an ETS will lead to increased afforestation and rotation age, and decreased silviculture and deforestation. A $20 carbon price or higher led to an overall increase in carbon sequestration by the forestry sector, driven predominantly by afforestation on lower fertility sites. Higher carbon prices increase the range of available land for planting. Future carbon price expectancy was critical. Rising carbon price expectancy led to large scale afforestation, but also to significant deforestation. A falling expectancy prevented deforestation but also stifled afforestation. The most sustainable solution was a stable carbon price expectancy allowing land to consistently work towards an economically optimal use. The recommendation of this report is for policy which promotes a stable long-run carbon price and flexibility for change between land uses. Suggestions include a guaranteed maximum carbon price, or allowing a forest to be felled at reduced penalty if another is concurrently planted.

How Does Changing Land Cover and Land Use in New Zealand Relate to Land Use Capability and Slope?

Land cover and use are critical for climate change, water quality and use, biodiversity and soil conservation as well as important drivers of rural economic activity and the evolution of rural communities. The Land Use in Rural New Zealand (LURNZ) model is a simulation model that predicts overall shifts in land use at a national scale and then allocates those changes spatially. We create a new dataset that allows us to consider fine scale land cover and use on private rural land and land characteristics associated with those land covers and uses. Second, we produce some summary statistics on the land cover transitions that were observed from 1996 to 2002. We find some evidence that supports our simple model of the relationship between land use changes and observable land quality, and the use of Land Use Capability and slope in rules to simulate the location of changes in land use and cover and also identify some directions for future work.

LOOKING AT NEW ZEALAND GEOGRAPHY

New Zealand Journal of GeographyVolume 51, Issue 1 p. 34-34 LOOKING AT NEW ZEALAND GEOGRAPHY A. E. D. Dowall, A. E. D. Dowall South Otago High School.Search for more papers by this author A. E. D. Dowall, A. E. D. Dowall South Otago High School.Search for more papers by this author First published: November 1971 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0028-8292.1971.tb00496.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume51, Issue1November 1971Pages 34-34 RelatedInformation

SOUTHWEST PACIFIC, A GEOGRAPHY OF AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND AND THEIR PACIFIC ISLAND NEIGHBOURHOOD

New Zealand Journal of GeographyVolume 49, Issue 1 p. 31-31 SOUTHWEST PACIFIC, A GEOGRAPHY OF AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND AND THEIR PACIFIC ISLAND NEIGHBOURHOOD M. M. McQueen, M. M. McQueen Melville High SchoolSearch for more papers by this author M. M. McQueen, M. M. McQueen Melville High SchoolSearch for more papers by this author First published: November 1970 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0028-8292.1970.tb00460.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume49, Issue1November 1970Pages 31-31 RelatedInformation

Nitrogen dynamics in grassland streams along a gradient of agricultural development

We examined nitrogen (N) uptake in seven grassland streams lying in catchments along a gradient (0–84%) of agricultural land use in New Zealand using a stable isotope (15N) addition of NH4+ to quantify whole‐stream uptake rates and uptake by specific compartments within the streams. Whole‐stream uptake of NH4+ ranged from 1.2 mmol N m−2 min−1 to 7.9 mmol N m−2 min−1 and showed no evidence of strong saturation of uptake with increasing NH4+ availability along the land use gradient. The relatively simple pattern of increasing N uptake along the gradient occurred despite substantial shifts in uptake among community members. Uptake of NH4+ by epilithic biofilms followed a subsidy‐stress relationship, with highest uptake rates at intermediate levels of pastoral development and lowest uptake rates at high pastoral development. At high (>60%) pastoral development, reduced uptake by epilithon was compensated for by enhanced uptake by macrophytes. Compensatory uptake can play an important role in streams when community composition is reorganized by human activity.

Measured and modelled estimates of nitrous oxide emission and methane consumption from a sheep-grazed pasture

Abstract Sheep grazing, one of the major land-uses in New Zealand occupies 7.1 million hectares and provides forage for about 40 million sheep. Spatially and temporally explicit data on nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) fluxes from soils under this land use are needed at farm-scale to better estimate regional and national greenhouse gas inventories. In this study, we measured N2O and CH4 fluxes at the soil surface of a sheep-grazed pasture over a 20-month period, to assess the influence of soil moisture, temperature and seasonal variations in the emissions of N2O and CH4, and to calculate an N2O emission factor. The farm-scale N2O emissions were also simulated using a process-based NZ-DNDC model, and the model was tested against measurements of CH4. Measured annual N2O emissions from this pasture site are estimated to be 3.7 ± 2.2 kg N2O-N ha−1 year−1. The mean of daily N2O emission measurements (7.4 g N2O-N ha−1 day−1) for this sheep-grazed pasture was higher than the mean of daily emission measurements from ungrazed control site (3.4 g N2O-N ha−1 day−1) but significantly lower than reported value of 32.0 g N2O-N ha−1 day−1for pastures grazed by dairy cows on the same soil type at an adjacent farm. The emission factor (EF), i.e. amount of N2O-N emitted expressed as a percentage of excretal and fertiliser N input for this site, is 0.99, which is essentially the same as the New Zealand specific N2O emission factor of 1.0 for excretal N. The sheep-grazed pasture acted as a CH4 source and sink but was an overall annual CH4 sink (0.64 ± 0.19 kg CH4-C ha−1). Methane consumption was highest in the summer and lowest during the wetter, colder winter months. Thus mitigation strategies for reducing anaerobic N2O emissions will also favour greater CH4 oxidation at the soil surface. NZ-DNDC model simulated effectively general pulses and trends in both N2O and CH4 fluxes.

The ethnic geography of New Zealand: A decade of growth and change, 1991–2001

Abstract: New Zealand's population growth of 10 per cent over the decade 1991–2001 resulted substantially from an increasing number of those claiming Pacific Island and Asian ethnicity, and to a lesser extent of the New Zealand Maori. Using census data for a comparable set of small areas with average populations of just over 100, this paper examines the changing geography of the four main ethnic categories – New Zealand European, New Zealand Maori, Pacific Island Peoples, and Asians – across the country as a whole and in its major settlements, especially Auckland. There is little extreme segregation of the three minority groups, but most of the Europeans live in areas where there is little exposure to those of other ethnicities. Most of the changes in segregation reflect the growth of Auckland's Pacific Island and, especially, Asian populations.

PROFILE: Comparative Analysis of New Zealand and US Approaches for Agricultural Nonpoint Source Pollution Management.

/ Nonpoint source (NPS) pollution from widespread agricultural/pastoral land use in New Zealand can result in receiving water quality problems, but the Resource Management Act of 1991 requires the sustainable management of land and water resources. Many similar types of problems occur in the United States, where the Clean Water Act is the primary legislation addressing NPS pollution and progress has been made on the development and use of a variety of management approaches. However, little evaluation and comparison of approaches or cooperation between the two countries has occurred in the past. This type of analysis could provide information that is useful for more effective management of the problem. The goal of this study is to evaluate and compare approaches used in New Zealand and the United States for management of agricultural NPS pollution.The role of the central government in New Zealand is generally limited to research and policy development, and regional councils are responsible for most monitoring and management of the problem. The role of the federal government in the United States includes research and monitoring, policy development, and regulation. States also have a significant management role. Both countries rely on voluntary approaches for NPS pollution management. Very few national water quality standards exist in New Zealand, whereas standards are widely used in the United States. Loading estimates and modeling are often used in the United States, but not in New Zealand. A wide range of best management practices (BMPs) are used in the United States, including buffer strips and constructed/engineered wetlands. Buffer strips and riparian management have been emphasized and used widely in New Zealand.Many approaches are common to both countries, but management of the problem has only been partly successful. The primary barriers are the inadequacy of the voluntary approach and the lack of scientific tools that are useful to decision-makers. More work needs to be performed on the evaluation of approaches developed in both countries that could be applied in the other countries. In addition, more cooperation and information/technology transfer between the two countries should be encouraged in the future.

Modelling the effect of land-use practices on greenhouse gas emissions and sinks in New Zealand

Abstract Data are presented for New Zealand on carbon stocks and flows, for pasture, agroforestry, forestry and land abandonment. The impact on the carbon stock of changing from pasture to other land-uses is investigated at the single-hectare scale and at the national scale. Included are the carbon in vegetation and soil and methane production from livestock. A model is described whereby the user can graph changes in carbon stocks for combinations of soil type, browsing animal, livestock carrying capacity and site productivity. The carbon balance of pasture systems is the least beneficial in terms of atmospheric carbon levels and the trend is downwards due to the continued methane emissions. Since pastoral systems are the predominant land-use in New Zealand this has major implications. The afforestation of marginal pasture will make a significant contribution to meeting the national obligations of the Kyoto Protocol. Carbon uptake by afforestation of pastures in New Zealand since 1990, during the first reporting period defined in the Kyoto Protocol (2008–2012) could be as high as 38 million tonnes of carbon. The change in carbon in the mineral soil may affect this result. There is insufficient data to assess the change in soil carbon over the whole profile, but preliminary data on soil carbon changes in the top 10 cm with afforestation suggests this sequestration value could decrease by 10% due to soil carbon losses over the same period. This loss is almost offset by avoided methane emissions due to the removal of livestock. It should be noted that there is a lack of data available on carbon sinks and sources, associated with land-use, other than radiata pine plantations.

Landslide erosion risk to New Zealand pastoral steeplands productivity

Pastoral land use in New Zealand's North Island hill terrain has led to high rates of rainstorm-induced landslide erosion higher than existed under the indigenous forest regime, with consequent soil productivity declines in the long term. To assist extrapolation of research results to other areas, and to shed light on long-term erosion risks, a simple model was developed that simulates the evolution of hillslope soil productivity, taking into account the effect of slope, rainstorm magnitude–frequency relations and soil recovery rates. Risks are evaluated by Monte Carlo simulation, and reflect parameter uncertainty as well as the natural randomness associated with climatic events. A sensitivity analysis showed that landslide risk was most affected by the rainfall threshold for landsliding, the mean of the extreme value distribution for annual maximum storm rainfall, and the maximum degree of recovery of pasture productivity following landsliding. Simulations suggest productivity stabilizes at a reduced level well before all steep terrain is affected by landsliding, and that subsequent expected landslide-induced productivity declines are too slow to provide sufficient economic motivation for measures to prevent landslide damage. A refined model showed that long-term average rates of productivity decline are sensitive to changes in recovery rates resulting from progressive removal of the soil resource. Charts summarizing simulation results can be used to estimate long-term productivity declines. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Scales and Causes of Patchiness in Stream Invertebrate Assemblages: Top-down Predator Effects?

Streams are organized with a spatial hierarchical pattern. Investigations of patterns or processes, or both, could be designed to ask questions about variance among basins, stream channels, geomorphic reaches, habitats or solely with respect to physical/biotic processes independent of spatial scale. In this paper, we present data from large- / and meso-scale experiments performed in the Taieri River, New Zealand, and in a stream in the Uinta Mountains, Utah. For each of these experiments, large-scale variance (such as land use in New Zealand) was investigated with finer-scale sources of variance such as fish predators nested within the overall design. These designs have allowed us to make inferences regarding the relative importance of native versus nonnative predators in the context of existing background variation such as riparian vegetation, geomorphic form, and land uses within the watershed. We use these hierarchically organized data to ask whether the spatial scale of variation in abundance of mayflies and caddisflies (the most numerically abundant aquatic invertebrates) is dependent on the type of predator in the stream. Specifically, we hypothesize that large, relatively mobile predators such as trout should homogenize local environments (within riffle variation), show moderate effects within streams, and result in highly variable distributions among streams. Benthic fish, because of their moderate mobility should cause the highest variance at intermediate scales. Finally, in the absence of fish, stoneflies, which show localized predator effects, should cause a high level of variation in the distribution of prey within riffles with decreasing variance as scale increases.