scholarly journals The impact of cutting prior to goat grazing on variegated thistle (Silybum marianum)

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 ◽  
pp. 158-165
Author(s):  
Rose Greenfield ◽  
Katherine Tozer ◽  
Gosia Zobel ◽  
Catherine Cameron ◽  
Elizabeth North

Variegated thistle (Silybum marianum) is a prevalent weed on the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand. Goats may provide a novel management tool to control thistles, but little is known about how cutting thistles prior to grazing affects thistle consumption by goats. This study investigated the extent to which goats consume either uncut entire variegated thistle plants or cut thistles. Eight groups of three goats were presented with thistle vegetation in each of two replicate 1-hour feeding sessions on 2 consecutive days. Averaged over both days, in the cut treatment, goats consumed 99% of the leaves that had been removed from the thistles and reduced the ground cover of the thistle plants by 68%. In the uncut treatment, ground cover of the thistles was reduced by 46%. A combination of cutting and goat grazing is likely to be a useful tool for stopping variegated thistle debris from smothering pasture and for inhibiting seed setting. Further work is required to test this at paddock scale.

Author(s):  
M.F. Hawke ◽  
A.G. Gillingham ◽  
M. Gray ◽  
M. Dean

Shelterbelts are a feature of the New Zealand landscape and in the dryland East Coast regions of the North Island, are seen in a diversity of planting patterns, species and silvicultural practices. To date, their economic benefits have not been assessed, partly because of the difficulty in evaluating the many interrelated pasture, soil, animal and forestry factors. Recent shelterbelt research in New Zealand has been conducted as a collaborative approach by AgResearch, Forest Research and Hort Research. Results of pasture, soil and tree measurements in the East Coast region indicate that shelterbelts, however managed, do not significantly increase pasture production in the sheltered zone. The competitive effects of trees reduce soil moisture in zones close to the shelter, which also encourages the accumulation of dung and urine nutrients in this zone by animals seeking protection. The modification in resting patterns as a result of shelter may be reflected in improved animal welfare and production but this was not measured. The value of timber from shelterbelts on the East Coast indicates that they have a role in diversifying farming income and offering a modified land use, which will help to sustain productive farming practices. Keywords: livestock, log value, pasture production, Pinus radiata, shelter, shelterbelts, soil moisture, soil nutrients, wood yields


2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Cogswell

AbstractHistorians have not paid close attention to the activities of freebooters operating out of Dunkirk in the late 1620s. This essay corrects that omission by first studying the threat from Dunkirk to England's east coast and then addressing how the central government, counties, and coastal towns responded. A surprisingly rich vein of manuscript material from Great Yarmouth and particularly from the Suffolk fishing community of Aldeburgh informs this case study of the impact of this conflict around the North Sea.


The Festivus ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-54
Author(s):  
John Daughenbaugh

For researchers, isolated regions at the periphery of species’ distributions hold a peculiar fascination. The causes of their remoteness vary based on: distance (e.g. the Tropical Eastern Pacific), distance and countervailing currents (e.g. the Marquesas), location in a present day gyre (e.g. the Pitcairn Group) or the absence of present day means of veliger transport (e.g. the Vema Seamount). (Daughenbaugh & Beals 2013; Daughenbaugh 2015a & b, 2017). The northern New Zealand Region from the Kermadec Islands (Kermadecs) to the coastal and shelf areas in the northernmost part of New Zealand’s North Island (Northland), including the Poor Knights Islands (PKI), constitute the distributional boundaries for a number of Cypraeidae species. The boundaries are the result of the absence of coastal shelves along the east side of the Kermadec Ridge (Ridge) and precipitous drops to abyssal depths along Northland’s east coast continental shelf. Tropical waters, with their potential to transport Cypraeidae larvae, flow eastward from southern Queensland, Australia, entrained in the Tasman Front which terminates when reaching North Cape, the northernmost tip of Northland. There, the North Cape Eddy captures most of this flow while the remainder, the East Auckland Current (EAUC), flows intermittently southward along the eastern coastal, shelf and offshore areas of Northland into waters incapable of supporting Cypraeidae populations.


Author(s):  
A.G. Elliott ◽  
T.W. Lonsdale

IN two papers read by officers of the Department of Agriculture at the 1936 conference of the New Zealand Grassland Association, the growing of lucernc as a forage crop in districts of relatively high rainfall was dealt with. The area covered by the papers included the Manawatu and west coast from Paraparaumu to the Patea River(I) and Taranaki(n). During the subsequent discussion on these and other papers the present position and general trend in regard to lucernegrowing in the Wairarapa, Eiawke's Eay, and Poverty Bay districts were also touched on. It is the intention here. to review briefly some of the more important points in regard to the cultivation of lucerne in the southern portion of the North Island as discussed at the conference.


The subduction zone under the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand comprises, from east to west, a frontal wedge, a fore-arc basin, uplifted basement forming the arc and the Central Volcanic Region. Reconstructions of the plate boundary zone for the Cainozoic from seafloor spreading data require the fore-arc basin to have rotated through 60° in the last 20 Ma which is confirmed by palaeomagnetic declination studies. Estimates of shear strain from geodetic data show that the fore-arc basin is rotating today and that it is under extension in the direction normal to the trend of the plate boundary zone. The extension is apparently achieved by normal faulting. Estimates of the amount of sediments accreted to the subduction zone exceed the volume of the frontal wedge: underplating by the excess sediments is suggested to be the cause of late Quaternary uplift of the fore-arc basin. Low-temperature—high-pressure metamorphism may therefore be occurring at depth on the east coast and high-temperature—low-pressure metamorphism is probable in the Central Volcanic Region. The North Island of New Zealand is therefore a likely setting for a paired metamorphic belt in the making.


1875 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 236-240
Author(s):  
T. H. Cockburn-Hood
Keyword(s):  

Impressions of the tracks of large birds from this locality have lately been objects of attraction to visitors to the museum at Wellington, New Zealand. To these Dr Hector, F.R.S., has affixed a label, stating that they are from the “Sea shore sand” at Poverty bay, a harbour on the east coast of the north island. “Sand rock” would have been a preferable term, as to most observers the description is calculated to convey the idea that these footprints are but of yesterday's date.


2008 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Uruski ◽  
Callum Kennedy ◽  
Rupert Sutherland ◽  
Vaughan Stagpoole ◽  
Stuart Henrys

The East Coast of North Island, New Zealand, is the site of subduction of the Pacific below the Australian plate, and, consequently, much of the basin is highly deformed. An exception is the Raukumara Sub-basin, which forms the northern end of the East Coast Basin and is relatively undeformed. It occupies a marine plain that extends to the north-northeast from the northern coast of the Raukumara Peninsula, reaching water depths of about 3,000 m, although much of the sub-basin lies within the 2,000 m isobath. The sub-basin is about 100 km across and has a roughly triangular plan, bounded by an east-west fault system in the south. It extends about 300 km to the northeast and is bounded to the east by the East Cape subduction ridge and to the west by the volcanic Kermadec Ridge. The northern seismic lines reveal a thickness of around 8 km increasing to 12–13 km in the south. Its stratigraphy consists of a fairly uniformly bedded basal section and an upper, more variable unit separated by a wedge of chaotically bedded material. In the absence of direct evidence from wells and samples, analogies are drawn with onshore geology, where older marine Cretaceous and Paleogene units are separated from a Neogene succession by an allochthonous series of thrust slices emplaced around the time of initiation of the modern plate boundary. The Raukumara Sub-basin is not easily classified. Its location is apparently that of a fore-arc basin along an ocean-to-ocean collision zone, although its sedimentary fill must have been derived chiefly from erosion of the New Zealand land mass. Its relative lack of deformation introduces questions about basin formation and petroleum potential. Although no commercial discoveries have been made in the East Coast Basin, known source rocks are of marine origin and are commonly oil prone, so there is good potential for oil as well as gas in the basin. New seismic data confirm the extent of the sub-basin and its considerable sedimentary thickness. The presence of potential trapping structures and direct hydrocarbon indicators suggest that the Raukumara Sub-basin may contain large volumes of oil and gas.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Chelsea M. Richards

<p>The task of preparing high-risk prisoners for the multitude of challenges they will face once released is vital to their chances of successful re-entry. Recent research in New Zealand has found that developing good quality plans for life after prison is associated with reduced rates of reoffending after release – but how? One suggestion is that release plans help to ameliorate risks in offenders’ release environments. However, research examining how these risk factors are affected by the quality of release plans is scarce. This thesis investigates whether release planning has an indirect relationship with recidivism through its influence on dynamic risk and protective factors in re-entry, as measured by a risk management tool used by Community Probation Services in New Zealand: the Dynamic Risk Assessment for Offender Re-entry (DRAOR; Serin, 2007). A coding protocol to assess the quality of release plans was developed and retrospectively applied to a sample of 303 high-risk male parolees. Outcomes of interest were “short-term recidivism” (within 100 days of release) and “longer-term recidivism” (within one year of release) across four different indices. Results indicated that parolees who did not reoffend within the first 100 days of release had significantly better quality release plans than those who did reoffend. Better quality release plans also predicted greater stability in acute risk factors, and greater improvements in overall DRAOR scores, within the first 100 days of release. Logistic mediation analyses confirmed that release planning had an indirect relationship with both short-term and longer-term recidivism through its influence on DRAOR total scores. Together, these findings suggest that release planning may facilitate successful re-entry by reducing the impact of acute triggers or destabilisers in the release environment, thus protecting against a potential relapse. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed, along with limitations of the study and suggested directions for future research.</p>


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