Search Marsden awards 2008–2017
Search awarded Marsden Fund grants 2008–2017
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2016
Title: Testing for Fishing-Induced Evolution using DNA from Ancient and Modern Snapper
Recipient(s): Dr PA Ritchie | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Dr B Star | PI | University of Oslo
Professor M Bunce | AI | Curtin University
Dr NJ Rawlence | AI | University of Otago
Professor HG Spencer | AI | University of Otago
Dr M Wellenreuther | AI | Plant and Food Research
Public Summary: Industrial-scale fishing has become such a powerful anthropogenic evolutionary force that it could be causing fish to mature earlier and at a smaller size. Analysis of New Zealand snapper (Chrysophrys auratus) bones from archaeological sites indicate that the overall size of fish has reduced since the onset of heavy size-selective fishing pressure - a surprising and concerning finding. The combination of well-preserved prehistoric fish bones and extensive genomic resources makes snapper an ideal species in which to test for the genetic effects of industrial fishing. We propose to test for selection on the NZ snapper genome using a comparison of ancient-DNA retrieved from preindustrial fish bones, excavated from prehistoric middens, and samples from heavily-fished modern stocks. This approach will enable us to determine whether there is a heritable component to shrinking fisheries stocks as a result of fishing-induced evolutionary shifts in a wild population. We will also test for depletion of genetic diversity and changes to population structure, and compare our findings to temporal genomic studies of Atlantic cod. Our research will address a fundamental question about humans as an emerging evolutionary force, and could help preserve the long-term future of fish stocks.
Total Awarded: $830,000
Duration: 3
Host: Victoria University of Wellington
Contact Person: Dr PA Ritchie
Panel: EEB
Project ID: 16-VUW-040
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2010
Title: Testing the dynamic enemy release hypothesis for invasive species
Recipient(s): Prof RP Duncan | PI | Lincoln University
Prof PE Hulme | AI | Lincoln University
Prof WH van der Putten | AI | Netherlands Institute of Ecology
Public Summary: Invasive species can benefit from leaving behind their natural enemies when introduced to new regions, but this advantage may decline as enemies accumulate over time in the new range. It has been suggested that this could account for the boom and bust dynamics of some invasive species, and could explain much of the observed variation in the degree to which alien species experience enemy release, but these ideas have not been fully tested. We will use Trifolium species introduced to New Zealand and their soil-borne enemies as a model system to test this dynamic enemy release hypothesis. We will measure the impact of soil enemies on plant performance in both the introduced New Zealand and native ranges of 17 Trifolium species, use this to quantify the strength of enemy release, and test whether time since arrival, extent of distribution in New Zealand, or the presence of close relatives can explain the variation in enemy release as predicted by the dynamic enemy release hypothesis. We will also test the hypothesis that alien species escaping their natural enemies can further benefit by allocating resources away from costly defence traits to functions that enhance competitive ability in the new range.
Total Awarded: $682,609
Duration: 3
Host: Lincoln University
Contact Person: Prof RP Duncan
Panel: EEB
Project ID: 10-LIU-019
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2012
Title: Testing the validity and robustness of national wellbeing and sustainability measures
Recipient(s): Dr A Grimes | PI | Motu Economic and Public Policy Research
Prof LT Oxley | PI | University of Waikato
Dr JM Ataria | AI | Lincoln University
Prof RJ MacCulloch | AI | The University of Auckland
Public Summary: We address a fundamental question: 'Are a country's policies and actions sustainably increasing its wellbeing?'. Social scientists and ecologists have developed many indicators of national wellbeing and sustainability. What is lacking, however, is an overarching study that tests the adequacy and robustness of these aggregate measures for answering our fundamental question. We will undertake multiple tests of the validity and properties of a range of aggregate indicators across a large sample of countries over time, and within New Zealand. We will pay particular attention to distinctions between Pakeha and Maori concepts of wellbeing and sustainability. Our research will employ both community consultation methods and estimated empirical approaches to determine whether aspects that contribute to wellbeing differ between Maori and Pakeha within New Zealand, and what such differences might imply for policy development.
Total Awarded: $773,913
Duration: 3
Host: Motu Economic & Public Policy Research Trust
Contact Person: Dr A Grimes
Panel: SOC
Project ID: 12-MEP-001
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2012
Title: The adaptability of corals to climate change: switching partners and the role of nutritional interactions in the coral-algal symbiosis
Recipient(s): Assoc Prof SK Davy | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Prof AR Grossman | AI | Stanford University
Prof VM Weis | AI | Oregon State University
Public Summary: Coral reefs are in serious decline, in part because warming causes corals to lose their symbiotic algae (bleaching). However, there is immense debate about whether corals can adapt to climate change, with some suggesting that bleached corals might acquire new algae that are better suited to the prevailing environment. We propose that the potential for partner 'switching' is linked to host-symbiont integration and the consequent nutritional flux between the two partners, with optimal nutritional exchange determining success. We will test this hypothesis by applying modern proteomic and metabolomic approaches. We will characterize the nutrient transporters on the membrane that separates the alga from its host cell and establish how the expression of these transporters is influenced by algal type. We will then identify and quantify the metabolites that pass across this interface in the presence of different algal types and at different temperatures, and how this transport influences the metabolic profile of the host animal and hence its nutritional potential and likelihood of survival. Our hugely experienced NZ-US team is ideally placed to tackle this project, at a time when the importance of cell biology to our understanding of coral reef ecology and health is gaining widespread acknowledgement.
Total Awarded: $800,000
Duration: 3
Host: Victoria University of Wellington
Contact Person: Assoc Prof SK Davy
Panel: EEB
Project ID: 12-VUW-010
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2011
Title: The agricultural foundations of Predynastic Egypt: climate change and opportunism in the Fayum
Recipient(s): Prof SJ Holdaway | PI | The University of Auckland
Public Summary: Pharaonic Egypt holds an iconic status in New Zealand as in much of the world. Yet despite the interest, little is known about its origins. Nile agriculture relied on domesticated plants from southwest Asia that were introduced late into Egypt at the end of the Neolithic colonisation of the Mediterranean. This research proposes and tests an explanation for the lag in agricultural entry into Egypt, the basis for Pharaonic civilisation. Rather than seek cultural mechanisms for the time lag, an environmental explanation is proposed that suggests an opportunistic use of global climate change. Palaeo-climate reconstructions show brief, sustained winter rains during the mid-Holocene correlating with a short but intense Neolithic habitation in the Fayum Basin, the earliest example of cereal agriculture in Egypt. The research tests whether these winter rains permitted the use of a southwest Asian Neolithic package of domesticated plants and animals. If so, this places a new perspective on Nile irrigation agriculture, suggesting it developed from a climate induced failure, well after agriculture arrived in Egypt. Given climate change and sustainability is increasingly of concern, the research shows how the effect of climate change must be understood by considering the history of human environmental interrelationships.
Total Awarded: $582,609
Duration: 3
Host: The University of Auckland
Contact Person: Prof SJ Holdaway
Panel: EHB
Project ID: 11-UOA-035
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2010
Title: The archaeology of territoriality: Trade, conflict, and agriculture in New Zealand before European contact
Recipient(s): Dr MD McCoy | PI | University of Otago
Assoc Prof TN Ladefoged | AI | The University of Auckland
Public Summary: Accounts of Maori life before European contact paint a picture of intense conflict and territoriality. Ecological models explain this territorial behaviour as reflecting concern for limited prime agricultural land to provide for basic needs and surplus to support elites’ political aspirations. The strict geographic limit of land for growing sweet potato set the necessary conditions to promote competition while control was achieved through territorial warfare that limited long-distance interaction. Alternatively, cultural models consider territoriality as one facet of communicating group identity linked to historical contingency rather than ecological imperatives. Warfare was part of the cycle of interaction between communities rather than a barrier to it and territoriality is therefore best understood as the result of culturally specific notions of prestige, revenge/reciprocity (utu), and compensation for trespass or injury (muru). We propose new archaeological field and laboratory research to model interaction via obsidian access/trade routes; the timing, location, and scale of fortification construction; and agricultural productivity, along an environmental transect across the Bay of Islands. We expect there was a cycling between motivations and that neither ecological nor cultural motivations dominated. The overall aim of this research is to better understand why people fight over status, resources, and land.
Total Awarded: $260,870
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Dr MD McCoy
Panel: EHB
Project ID: 10-UOO-003
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2011
Title: The biogeographic importance of historical contingency: extinction and recolonisation in coastal New Zealand
Recipient(s): Assoc Prof J Waters | PI | University of Otago
Prof EA Matisoo-Smith | AI | University of Otago
Dr RP Scofield | AI | Canterbury Museum
Public Summary: Recent research suggests that native species can respond rapidly and dynamically to human impacts. Yellow-eyed penguins, for instance, apparently arrived in New Zealand only recently, replacing a prehistoric penguin species that was wiped out shortly after humans arrived here. Intriguing new data also hint at similar extinction-recolonisation scenarios for New Zealand’s sea-lions and little blue penguins. These rapid 'replacement' events, where offshore populations apparently benefitted from the extinction of their mainland relatives, seem unprecedented in the history of ancient-DNA research. This project will use carbon-dating, and state-of-the-art DNA analysis of prehistoric bones, to shed light on New Zealand’s dramatic biological history. By conducting a biological 'audit' of prehistoric New Zealand, we will test the new idea that human arrival led to the extinction of a previously unrecognised 'treasure trove' of unique coastal animal species around our coast. The study will also determine how many of our iconic coastal species are actually new arrivals from overseas.
Total Awarded: $763,478
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Assoc Prof J Waters
Panel: EEB
Project ID: 11-UOO-185
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2010
Title: The birth, life, and death of a quantum vortex dipole
Recipient(s): Dr AS Bradley | PI | University of Otago
Assoc Prof BP Anderson | AI | University of Arizona
Public Summary: Sparked by the experimental achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC), a new field of ultra-cold atoms has emerged. A BEC typically consists of millions of neutral atoms at a few billionths of a degree above absolute zero, contained in a vacuum chamber, and levitated in space by magnetic or optical fields. At these ultra-low temperatures, the atoms undergo a phase transition, coalescing into a mesoscopic quantum droplet exhibiting the remarkable property of frictionless flow, known as superfluidity. When a superfluid rotates, it does so by creating a quantized vortex resembling a tiny fluid whirlpool or tornado. Mutually attracted vortices and anti-vortices can pair up into vortex dipoles that carry linear momentum and are central to understanding turbulent flows. The scattering of vortex dipoles, the potential for focused sound pulses to convert into vortex dipoles, and the nature of forces acting on individual vortices are central questions at the forefront of superfluid physics. Using a newly developed theory of ultra-cold atomic superfluids we will investigate these systems to further our knowledge of vortex dipoles physics and give fundamental insights into the nature of quantum turbulence and the interface between vortex dynamics and superfluidity.
Total Awarded: $260,870
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Dr AS Bradley
Panel: PCB
Project ID: 10-UOO-162
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Fast-Start
Year Awarded: 2014
Title: The business of care: constructing a childcare market in Aotearoa/New Zealand
Recipient(s): Dr A Gallagher | PI | Massey University
Professor D Brennan | AI | University of New South Wales
Public Summary: The expansion of the private, for-profit sector in childcare has become a source of concern for many. Regarded as evidence of the state giving way to the market, critics have highlighted the negative implications of this shift in governance for the delivery of care. And yet, the ideal of the market remains at the centre of policy solutions to burgeoning childcare needs. At a time when more young children than ever are in childcare, an appreciation of how childcare markets function is urgently required. This project proposes to open the ‘black box’ of neoliberal childcare markets to critical analysis. In doing so it will take account of a more diverse set of actors than has traditionally been included in studies of childcare markets. Drawing on a ‘social studies of markets’ approach, this research will offer new insights into how these markets are constructed as relational assemblages of actors, both human and non-human (such as reporting practices or technological developments). Through analysis of three key moments in the New Zealand childcare sector since 2000, this research will make a significant contribution to understanding how childcare, as a key social arrangement and an educational resource, is being reconstituted as an economic good.
Total Awarded: $250,000
Duration: 3
Host: Massey University
Contact Person: Dr A Gallagher
Panel: SOC
Project ID: 14-MAU-001
Fund Type: Marsden Fund
Category: Standard
Year Awarded: 2013
Title: The causal role of religious belief in managing death anxiety and intergroup discrimination
Recipient(s): Professor JB Halberstadt | PI | University of Otago
Dr MN Bluemke | PI | University of Heidelberg
Dr J Jong | PI | University of Oxford
Public Summary: Although religious belief is a universal feature of human societies, cognitive scientists have only recently attempted to explain why. We propose a series of rigorous experiments to test the effects, and potential functions, of religious belief. First, we will study the emotional consequences of belief: Perhaps the most influential, but untested account of why we believe is that we fear our own death, and are therefore drawn to entities that exhibit, and sometimes have the power to grant, immortality. Our research will develop a means of temporarily shifting religious belief to observe its causal effects on attitudinal, behavioural, psychophysiological, and hormonal responses to death. Second, and relatedly, we will study the effects of religious belief on national, ethnic and religious intergroup discrimination, which many researchers believe represent strategies for achieving “symbolic immortality” to ward off fear of death.
Understanding the dynamics of belief, emotion, and behaviour is urgent. Equipped with expertise, theory, and methodological innovations for manipulating and measuring belief, we expect to make significant advances in understanding just how belief helps – or hurts – individuals and societies.
Total Awarded: $652,174
Duration: 3
Host: University of Otago
Contact Person: Professor JB Halberstadt
Panel: EHB
Project ID: 13-UOO-224