title: Linguistics of social media: An introduction to the special issue

authors: Calude, Andreea S.

abstract: It is hard to remember a world without social media (SM). The Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and bulletin boards of the 1980s and the popular early platforms of the 1990s, MySpace, AOL Messenger, and Facebook, gave rise to nothing short of an SM empire in just 50 years. Although we have been considering how language is used on the Internet for some time now, studying the language used on SM is comparatively a newer field of inquiry.

text: Linguistics of social media: An introduction to the special issue It is hard to remember a world without social media (SM). The Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and bulletin boards of the 1980s and the popular early platforms of the 1990s, MySpace, AOL Messenger, and Facebook, gave rise to nothing short of an SM empire in just 50 years. Although we have been considering how language is used on the Internet for some time now, studying the language used on SM is comparatively a newer field of inquiry.

year: 2025

title: Experiences of care at the nexus of intellectual disability and leisure travel

authors: Gillovic, Brielle

abstract: This thesis explores lived experiences of care at the nexus of intellectual disability and leisure travel, notably among a sample of carers and people with intellectual disabilities, whose voices are otherwise absent in much previous tourism scholarship. The originality of this research therefore lies in its approach, which favours the cognisance of situated, contextual and value-laden care experiences between self and other, privileging subjective and inter-subjective ways of knowing, and humanising the intricacies of the participants’ individual, relational and emotional lives.

In this way, this thesis seeks to honour the participants’ authentic voices, positionalities and subjectivities as they narrate their lived experiences. It offers, thus, a person-centred, strengths- and abilities-based approach to inclusive tourism research. As such, this research adopts a Heideggerian interpretive phenomenological approach, exploratory in its nature and qualitative in its design. The data has been collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviewing with fifteen carers and nine people with intellectual disabilities. The data was then thematically analysed, inductively eliciting a depth and richness of meaning embedded in the participants’ experiential knowledge, iteratively and recursively negotiated with the theoretical knowledge.

Findings of this thesis define the leisure travel phenomenon both as a meaningful experience in and of itself, and as the situated context in which carers and people with intellectual disabilities make sense of, and ascribe meaning to, their lived experiences of care. The analysis reveals three key emergent themes: giving, attunement, and (in)visibility. Experiences of care at the nexus of intellectual disability and leisure travel, indeed, are a labour of love. They reflect a complex and dynamic (re)negotiation of the paradoxical tensions involved in being in between two worlds, and span practical, emotional and socio-political caring spheres. This thesis concludes with implications for (re)imagining the transformative potential of tourism through an ethic of care as an ethos to guide our social relations, wherein we meet one another morally.

text: Experiences of care at the nexus of intellectual disability and leisure travel This thesis explores lived experiences of care at the nexus of intellectual disability and leisure travel, notably among a sample of carers and people with intellectual disabilities, whose voices are otherwise absent in much previous tourism scholarship. The originality of this research therefore lies in its approach, which favours the cognisance of situated, contextual and value-laden care experiences between self and other, privileging subjective and inter-subjective ways of knowing, and humanising the intricacies of the participants’ individual, relational and emotional lives.

In this way, this thesis seeks to honour the participants’ authentic voices, positionalities and subjectivities as they narrate their lived experiences. It offers, thus, a person-centred, strengths- and abilities-based approach to inclusive tourism research. As such, this research adopts a Heideggerian interpretive phenomenological approach, exploratory in its nature and qualitative in its design. The data has been collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviewing with fifteen carers and nine people with intellectual disabilities. The data was then thematically analysed, inductively eliciting a depth and richness of meaning embedded in the participants’ experiential knowledge, iteratively and recursively negotiated with the theoretical knowledge.

Findings of this thesis define the leisure travel phenomenon both as a meaningful experience in and of itself, and as the situated context in which carers and people with intellectual disabilities make sense of, and ascribe meaning to, their lived experiences of care. The analysis reveals three key emergent themes: giving, attunement, and (in)visibility. Experiences of care at the nexus of intellectual disability and leisure travel, indeed, are a labour of love. They reflect a complex and dynamic (re)negotiation of the paradoxical tensions involved in being in between two worlds, and span practical, emotional and socio-political caring spheres. This thesis concludes with implications for (re)imagining the transformative potential of tourism through an ethic of care as an ethos to guide our social relations, wherein we meet one another morally.

year: 2019

title: The role of mānuka (Leptospermum scoparium) riparian plantings in the mitigation of diffuse agricultural nitrogen

authors: Adamson, Olivia María

subjects: Manuka

abstract: The disruption of nutrient cycles in agricultural settings, particularly pastoral farming, is responsible for up to 70% of the nitrogen (N) loads entering streams in New Zealand (NZ) — resulting in the widespread degradation of freshwater ecosystems. Riparian plantings are one strategy to mitigate the losses of N from land to water, removing N by denitrification and plant uptake. Some types of vegetation are more effective than others at intercepting N, due to their ecology, impact on soil quality and root exudates. Mānuka (Leptospermum scoparium) is a plant native to NZ, and the species could be a good candidate to mitigate N losses due its ability to tolerate high N loads and co-benefits such as farm diversification through apiculture or essential oil production. Previous work also suggests that L. scoparium could be a biological nitrification inhibitor (BNI), limiting nitrate (NO₃⁻) production in soil.

The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of mānuka to intercept and remove N in an experimental riparian buffer in Lake Waikare. Currently, the lake is eutrophic due to high nutrient and sediment inputs. Significant restoration efforts have been made in recent years, led by many hapuu around the lake. All are very passionate and determined to recover the mauri of this ecosystem and reconnect the people to the lake, as well as provide economic opportunities. The riparian band had been established for four years and was set up as a series of experimental plots with different vegetation types, including plots solely in mānuka, and grassed controls. The plots are on a Perch- Gley Ultic Soil underlain by a slowly permeable clay layer— the Hamilton Ash. Further, the study sought to explore the relationship between soil physical properties and N cycling, and to identify influences expected by the local hydrology— as there was evidence of perching and lateral flow in the site. A series of suction-cup lysimeters were installed and pore water was sampled seven times between May and July 2021. Samples were analysed for total N (TN), total Kjeldahl N (TKN), NO₃⁻ and ammonium (NH₄⁺).

The results show that the riparian buffer is effectively removing N from subsurface flows, with TN declining from an average of 9.32 mg/l at 1 m into the buffer to 2.03 mg/l at 7 m. Although N concentrations were higher under mānuka, the total amount of N extracted from those plots was 21% less due to high rainfall interception by the canopy (63.9%), limiting the transport of the solute. Indicators of soil physical quality, bulk density (ρb) and macroporosity (MP), were investigated as potential causes for differences in the movement of N. There was a 17% improvement in ρb, and 38% improvement in MP relative to 2017 measurements, before the riparian band was established. No appreciable differences in soil physical properties were found between vegetation types at this early stage in the inception of the riparian buffer, although changes are likely to occur as the mānuka trees mature and the impact of roots is more developed. Shallow wells were deployed to monitor the dynamics of the water table, as there was evidence of winter perching. Dip wells demonstrated the existence of a short- lived perched water table, resulting in lateral flow, and likely impacting the degree of soil gleying in different parts of the riparian band. Water and contaminants are likely to move laterally over the Hamilton Ash towards the drain, supported by the accumulation of NO₃⁻ at the boundary with the clay layer.
Future work should be devoted to better quantifying NO₃⁻ leaching from the riparian plot by incorporating a drainage model, as well as further investigating the relative importance of N removal pathways at this site (i.e. denitrification and plant uptake)— including the potential for the lower part of the riparian band, closest to the drain, to become a hotspot for nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions. It would also be of value to revisit this study in 4-10 years to explore how the buffer impacts soil quality and N dynamics in the subsurface as it matures.

text: The role of mānuka (Leptospermum scoparium) riparian plantings in the mitigation of diffuse agricultural nitrogen The disruption of nutrient cycles in agricultural settings, particularly pastoral farming, is responsible for up to 70% of the nitrogen (N) loads entering streams in New Zealand (NZ) — resulting in the widespread degradation of freshwater ecosystems. Riparian plantings are one strategy to mitigate the losses of N from land to water, removing N by denitrification and plant uptake. Some types of vegetation are more effective than others at intercepting N, due to their ecology, impact on soil quality and root exudates. Mānuka (Leptospermum scoparium) is a plant native to NZ, and the species could be a good candidate to mitigate N losses due its ability to tolerate high N loads and co-benefits such as farm diversification through apiculture or essential oil production. Previous work also suggests that L. scoparium could be a biological nitrification inhibitor (BNI), limiting nitrate (NO₃⁻) production in soil.

The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of mānuka to intercept and remove N in an experimental riparian buffer in Lake Waikare. Currently, the lake is eutrophic due to high nutrient and sediment inputs. Significant restoration efforts have been made in recent years, led by many hapuu around the lake. All are very passionate and determined to recover the mauri of this ecosystem and reconnect the people to the lake, as well as provide economic opportunities. The riparian band had been established for four years and was set up as a series of experimental plots with different vegetation types, including plots solely in mānuka, and grassed controls. The plots are on a Perch- Gley Ultic Soil underlain by a slowly permeable clay layer— the Hamilton Ash. Further, the study sought to explore the relationship between soil physical properties and N cycling, and to identify influences expected by the local hydrology— as there was evidence of perching and lateral flow in the site. A series of suction-cup lysimeters were installed and pore water was sampled seven times between May and July 2021. Samples were analysed for total N (TN), total Kjeldahl N (TKN), NO₃⁻ and ammonium (NH₄⁺).

The results show that the riparian buffer is effectively removing N from subsurface flows, with TN declining from an average of 9.32 mg/l at 1 m into the buffer to 2.03 mg/l at 7 m. Although N concentrations were higher under mānuka, the total amount of N extracted from those plots was 21% less due to high rainfall interception by the canopy (63.9%), limiting the transport of the solute. Indicators of soil physical quality, bulk density (ρb) and macroporosity (MP), were investigated as potential causes for differences in the movement of N. There was a 17% improvement in ρb, and 38% improvement in MP relative to 2017 measurements, before the riparian band was established. No appreciable differences in soil physical properties were found between vegetation types at this early stage in the inception of the riparian buffer, although changes are likely to occur as the mānuka trees mature and the impact of roots is more developed. Shallow wells were deployed to monitor the dynamics of the water table, as there was evidence of winter perching. Dip wells demonstrated the existence of a short- lived perched water table, resulting in lateral flow, and likely impacting the degree of soil gleying in different parts of the riparian band. Water and contaminants are likely to move laterally over the Hamilton Ash towards the drain, supported by the accumulation of NO₃⁻ at the boundary with the clay layer.
Future work should be devoted to better quantifying NO₃⁻ leaching from the riparian plot by incorporating a drainage model, as well as further investigating the relative importance of N removal pathways at this site (i.e. denitrification and plant uptake)— including the potential for the lower part of the riparian band, closest to the drain, to become a hotspot for nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions. It would also be of value to revisit this study in 4-10 years to explore how the buffer impacts soil quality and N dynamics in the subsurface as it matures.

year: 2021