Search Marsden awards 2008–2017
Search awarded Marsden Fund grants 2008–2017
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2010
Title: Does every spider orchid in NZ have its fungus gnat? Evaluating the role of plant-insect pollinator interaction in the diversification of sympatric cytotypes of Nematoceras trilobum
Recipient(s): Dr CA Lehnebach | PI | Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Assoc Prof AW Robertson | AI | Massey University
Public Summary: The evolutionary success of orchids has generally been attributed to their highly specialised pollination mechanisms. In New Zealand there are over 100 species of orchids and most of them are endemic. Recently, it has been discovered that several populations of the spider orchid Nematoceras trilobum are composed of individuals with different chromosome numbers and flower colour. Theoretical models predict that these “races” can only coexist if they are reproductively isolated. It has been suggested that spider orchids mimic fungal fruiting bodies to attract only female fungus gnats which lay their eggs in the flowers and, by doing so, act as pollinators. If current theoretical understanding is correct, to lower competition these “races” should be using different pollinators or pollination mechanism(s) to reproduce. We will test this hypothesis by gathering evidence from field observations, pollination experiments and DNA sequences and fingerprinting techniques. Findings could provide evidence to support sympatric speciation and refute the long held view that plant-insect interactions are unspecialised in New Zealand and unable to assist speciation. Ultimately, these results will help to clarify the taxonomic status of entities currently of conservation concern, and provide information on vital ecological interactions if translocation of these orchids is required.
Total Awarded: $260,870
Duration: 3
Host: Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Contact Person: Dr CA Lehnebach
Panel: EEB
Project ID: 10-MNZ-002
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2013
Title: Does investment into seed dispersal alter with plant height and island size?
Recipient(s): Dr FJ Thomson | PI | Landcare Research
Associate Professor AT Moles | AI | University of New South Wales
Dr SJ Wagstaff | AI | Landcare Research
Public Summary: A key goal for ecologists is to understand the huge variation in seed dispersal distances that are observed in plant species. New evidence shows that plant height is a crucial trait for estimating dispersal distances, with tall species dispersing further distances than short species. What remains unknown is why tall species disperse further than short species. Height alone may improve plant dispersal, or alternatively tall species may increase the size of the dispersal structures on their seeds aiding dispersal. The dispersal advantage of height creates a paradox in island floras which are taller than their continental relatives. In island floras strong selection pressure is thought to reduce dispersal to prevent seeds dispersing into the ocean, previously demonstrated by reduced dispersal structures. Our work will answer three key questions 1) Globally, do tall species invest more in dispersal structures than short species? 2) Do taller island species disperse smaller distances than shorter continental species? And lastly 3) Does island size influence selection in dispersal traits for island floras? Our work will clarify the critical role that plant height plays in shaping how far plants move and the drivers that cause plants to vary their dispersal distances.
Total Awarded: $300,000
Duration: 3
Host: Landcare Research
Contact Person: Dr FJ Thomson
Panel: EEB
Project ID: 13-LCR-017
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2013
Title: Does language syntax mirror the structure of sensorimotor cognition?
Recipient(s): Associate Professor AJ Knott | PI | University of Otago
Dr L Benuskova | AI | University of Otago
Public Summary: We can use language to talk about the world we live in. This involves converting rich sensory/motor representations of the world into high-level symbolic representations. How this happens is largely an open question in cognitive science, because language and sensorimotor processing are currently studied in separate disciplines: linguistics and sensorimotor neuroscience.
Our novel claim is that these disciplines are deeply connected. We propose a linking hypothesis, positing detailed connections between influential theories of language syntax (Chomsky, 1995) and sensorimotor cognition (Ballard et al., 1997). In our hypothesis, the syntax of a sentence reporting a concrete episode in the world directly describes the sensorimotor routine through which the episode was perceived.
Our hypothesis makes detailed predictions about the episode-perception routine associated with any concrete sentence. The project will test these predictions, for four selected sentence types. In each case, we will build a computational model of the actual sensorimotor routine through which the episode type in question is perceived, motivated directly from experimental evidence. We will then compare this routine to that predicted from syntax. If the predicted routines match those motivated experimentally, this will furnish evidence that syntactic analyses directly deliver information about neural processing: an exciting finding for neuroscience.
Total Awarded: $652,174
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Associate Professor AJ Knott
Panel: EHB
Project ID: 13-UOO-048
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2017
Title: Does mother know best? Mothers, fathers and sexual conflict in sex allocation
Recipient(s): Dr EZ Cameron | PI | University of Canterbury
Professor KJ Stafford | PI | Massey University
Professor NC Bennett | AI | University of Pretoria
Public Summary: In mammals, it is the chromosome received from the father (X or Y) that determines the sex of offspring. Until recently, it was thought that this contribution is genetically fixed by the process of meiosis, but provides mothers with an opportunity to influence offspring sex. Evolutionary theory predicts that parents should be advantaged by having control over which sex is produced in relation to the current local conditions and the potential reproductive success of their offspring. However, the ratio of X- to Y-chromosomes can vary substantially between ejaculates, suggesting that fathers have more control over offspring sex than previously thought, requiring a reinvestigation of mammalian sex allocation which has focussed only on mothers. The composition of seminal fluid also varies substantially, influencing the survival of X and Y chromosomes, and oviductal fluid responds dynamically and sex–specifically to the ejaculate. Our project will simultaneously test the roles of both parents in sex allocation, and the unexplored cryptic interaction between parents prior to implantation, and tests their role in sex allocation. We address gaps in our understanding of sex allocation by integrating proximate physiological causation and evolutionary theory, and use these to develop models that integrate the contributions of both parents.
Total Awarded: $855,000
Duration: 3
Host: University of Canterbury
Contact Person: Dr EZ Cameron
Panel: EEB
Project ID: 17-UOC-026
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2016
Title: Does rapid evolutionary adaptation to temperature heat up the role of consumer body size in ecosystems?
Recipient(s): Dr KS Simon | PI | The University of Auckland
Professor MT Kinnison | AI | University of Maine
Dr EP Palkovacs | AI | University of California Santa Cruz
Public Summary: Human-driven shifts in temperature will have strong influence on ecological systems. Recent data challenge the general paradigm of temperature scaling of metabolic and ecological processes as a consequence of contemporary evolution. We propose that evolutionary thermal adaptation will enhance the role that consumer body size plays in ecosystems. To address this we will use a unique set of geothermally influenced systems in New Zealand and the US that have been invaded in contemporary time by mosquitofish. Our research will quantify the scope of contemporary evolution in the face of temperature change and the suite of ecological pathways that it influences.
Total Awarded: $675,000
Duration: 3
Host: The University of Auckland
Contact Person: Dr KS Simon
Panel: EEB
Project ID: 16-UOA-023
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2009
Title: Does stimulation of the vestibular inner ear enhance memory?
Recipient(s): Professor PF Smith | PI | University of Otago
Associate Professor CL Darlington | AI | University of Otago
Dr Y Zheng | AI | University of Otago
Public Summary: Damage to the balance organs in the inner ear (the 'vestibular system') causes memory deficits. This is because the brain uses vestibular information about head movement and position to develop memories for places in the environment. If the vestibular system is necessary for the development of such memories, it is possible that artificial stimulation of the vestibular system may enhance memory. This project will investigate this hypothesis using galvanic vestibular stimulation in rats. If the hypothesis is correct, it will change our understanding of the development of memory and offer potential new therapies for memory disorders.
Total Awarded: $800,000
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Professor PF Smith
Panel: BMS
Project ID: 09-UOO-138
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2013
Title: Does the southern edge of the Hikurangi Plateau control Otago tectonics?
Recipient(s): Dr ME Reyners | PI | GNS Science
Dr D Eberhart-Phillips | AI | GNS Science
Professor D Gubbins | AI | University of Leeds
Dr P Upton | AI | GNS Science
Public Summary: The zone of active deformation associated with oblique plate collision widens by about 100% between Canterbury and Otago. Here we test the hypothesis that this enigmatic change in tectonics reflects the southern edge of the underlying Hikurangi Plateau. This plateau has been subducted beneath New Zealand twice – firstly during north-south convergence with Gondwana 100 million years ago, and currently during east-west convergence between the Pacific and Australian plates. The nature of the destructive Canterbury earthquake sequence is a direct consequence of the Hikurangi Plateau underlying this region at about 10 km depth. So from a seismic hazard standpoint, it is also important to determine how far south the plateau extends. We will deploy dense seismograph networks throughout Otago to record earthquakes and mining explosions. We will then use seismic tomography (the earthquake-wave equivalent of a CAT scan) to determine the fine-scale 3-D seismic velocity and seismic attenuation structure of the region. This tomography will be complemented by a study of very fast seismic waves which have propagated through the base of the plateau. This crustal structure will then be fed into geodynamic models, to quantify the effect of the southern edge of the plateau on tectonics and earthquake hazard.
Total Awarded: $717,391
Duration: 3
Host: GNS Science
Contact Person: Dr ME Reyners
Panel: ESA
Project ID: 13-GNS-009
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2017
Title: Does the Tracking of Others’ Mental States Depend on Motor Processes? Why Constraining Your Body Limits Your Understanding of Others’ Minds.
Recipient(s): Associate Professor JK Low | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Associate Professor SA Butterfill | AI | University of Warwick
Public Summary: How do we understand others’ minds and track others’ mental states? Researchers have always assumed that tracking others’ mental states is an abstract cognitive process, one completely separate from bodily movement. We recently discovered, however, that the ability to track others’ mental states is impaired by having your hands tied. Why? How could freedom to move your hands matter for tracking others’ mental states? Tying your hands limits motor processes in you, and these motor processes lead a double life: although clearly involved in performing actions, they also occur when you are observing actions. We suggest taking the idea of a double life one step further, yielding a bold conjecture: motor processes can also enable us to track others’ mental states, within limits. We propose to test predictions of this conjecture, and to investigate its theoretical consequences. We will observe adults watching various scenarios unfold while their hands or feet are tied or free, correlating their eye gaze, postural sway, movements through space, response times and explicit judgements. This will enable us to discover how adults’ mental state tracking abilities variously link to, and depend on, motor processes---thereby substantially extending knowledge of how humans understand others’ minds.
Total Awarded: $840,000
Duration: 3
Host: Victoria University of Wellington
Contact Person: Associate Professor JK Low
Panel: EHB
Project ID: 17-VUW-074
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2009
Title: Dopamine and learning - it's all in the timing
Recipient(s): Dr JNJ Reynolds | PI | University of Otago
Professor WC Abraham | AI | University of Otago
Professor P Redgrave | AI | The University of Sheffield
Public Summary: When an unexpected event occurs in our environment, how does our brain determine if we caused it? In the proposed project, we will test the hypothesis that the timing of release of the neurochemical dopamine is critical for forming associations betweens our actions and their outcomes. We will use a behavioural task in which a rat learns an action required to cause an event. The strength of synapses between nerve cells will be measured to determine how activating dopamine cells at specific times affects synaptic strengthening and learning. This work will provide valuable insights into the processes underlying skill learning.
Total Awarded: $853,333
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Dr JNJ Reynolds
Panel: BMS & CMP
Project ID: 09-UOO-096
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2009
Title: Double diffusion generated by vertical ice walls
Recipient(s): Dr CL Stevens | PI | NIWA - The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd
Dr TG Haskell | AI | Industrial Research Ltd
Dr R Robertson | AI | University of New South Wales
Dr MJM Williams | AI | NIWA - The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd
Public Summary: The proposed work seeks to explore the influence of submerged vertical glacial ice walls on local water mixing and transport. These ice boundaries are often 100's of meters thick and modify the density stratification through a process known as double diffusion - termed ocean spiciness. This results in turbulence and layering 'appearing as if by magic'. The goal will be to understand this process in Antarctic waters near to submerged ice walls like glacier tongues and ice shelf fronts. Techniques will include our specialty, oceanographic microstructure profiling, and the observations will be contextualized using parameterization and modelling.
Total Awarded: $541,333
Duration: 3
Host: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research
Contact Person: Dr CL Stevens
Panel: ESA
Project ID: 09-NIW-005