title: Literacy research methodology that is up to the challenge

authors: Smyth, John

subjects: multi-facetedmethodology

abstract: This paper outlines the methodological dimensions of the secondary literacy research evaluation that is the focus of this special issue-the New Zealand-based Secondary Schools' Literacy Initiative (SSLI). We argue that these methodological dimensions are an example of the type of contextualised and critical research that might be usefully applied in exploring literacy across the curriculum in other national contexts. A particular concern addressed in the paper is the need to develop a contextualised, rich description of literacy practices in schools, while also addressing a wider policy climate, which is often preoccupied with issues of literacy achievement and, particularly, often-entrenched differential achievement for students across class and ethnicity lines. To achieve this, the researchers adopted a quasi-ethnographic, multi-locale, mixed-methods approach intended to enhance the robustness of the research design and the validity of the results.

text: Literacy research methodology that is up to the challenge This paper outlines the methodological dimensions of the secondary literacy research evaluation that is the focus of this special issue-the New Zealand-based Secondary Schools' Literacy Initiative (SSLI). We argue that these methodological dimensions are an example of the type of contextualised and critical research that might be usefully applied in exploring literacy across the curriculum in other national contexts. A particular concern addressed in the paper is the need to develop a contextualised, rich description of literacy practices in schools, while also addressing a wider policy climate, which is often preoccupied with issues of literacy achievement and, particularly, often-entrenched differential achievement for students across class and ethnicity lines. To achieve this, the researchers adopted a quasi-ethnographic, multi-locale, mixed-methods approach intended to enhance the robustness of the research design and the validity of the results.

year: 2007

title: An integrated sequence stratigraphic, palaeoenvironmental, and chronostratigraphic analysis of the Tangahoe Formation, southern Taranaki coast, with implications for mid-Pliocene (c. 3.4–3.0 Ma) glacio-eustatic sea-level changes

authors: Naish, Timothy R.

subjects: Tangahoe Formation

abstract: Sediments of the mid-Pliocene (c. 3.4–3.0 Ma) Tangahoe Formation exposed in cliffs along the South Taranaki coastline of New Zealand comprise a 270 m thick, cyclothemic shallow-marine succession that has been gently warped into a north to south trending, low angle anticline. This study examines the sedimentologic, faunal, and petrographic characteristics of 10 Milankovitch-scale (6th order), shallow-marine depositional sequences exposed on the western limb of the anticline. The sequences are recognised on the basis of the cyclic vertical stacking of their constituent lithofacies, which are bound by sharp wave cut surfaces produced during transgressive shoreface erosion. Each sequence comprises three parts: (1) a 0.2–2 m thick, deepening upwards, basal suite of reworked bioclastic lag deposits (onlap shellbed) and/or an overlying matrix supported, molluscan shellbed of offshore shelf affinity (backlap shellbed); (2) a 5–20 m thick, gradually shoaling, aggradational siltstone succession; and (3) a 5–10 m thick, strongly progradational, well sorted “forced regressive” shoreline sandstone. The three-fold subdivision corresponds to transgressive, highstand, and regressive systems tracts (TSTs, HSTs, and RSTs) respectively, and represents deposition during a glacio-eustatic sea-level cycle. Lowstand systems tract sediments are not recorded because the outcrop is situated c. 100 km east of the contemporary shelf edge and was subaerially exposed at that time. Well developed, sharp- and gradational-based forced regressive sandstones contain a variety of storm-emplaced sedimentary structures, and represent the rapid and abrupt basinward translation of the shoreline on to a storm dominated, shallow shelf during eustatic sea-level fall. Increased supply of sediment from north-west South Island during “forced regression” is indicated from petrographic analyses of the heavy mineralogy of the sandstones. A chronology based on biostratigraphy and the correlation of a new magnetostratigraphy to the magnetic polarity timescale allows: (1) identification of the Mammoth (C2An.2r) and Kaena (C2An.1r) subchrons; (2) correlation of the coastal section to the Waipipian Stage; and (3) estimation of the age of the coastal section as 3.36–3.06 Ma. Qualitative assessment of foraminiferal census data and molluscan palaeoecology reveals cyclic changes in water depth from shelf to shoreline environments during the deposition of each sequence. Seven major cycles in water depth of between 20 and 50m have been correlated to individual 40 ka glacio-eustatic sea-level cycles on the marine oxygen isotope timescale. The coastal Tangahoe Formation provides a shallow-marine record of global glacio-eustasy prior to the development of significant ice sheets on Northern Hemisphere continents, and supports evidence from marine δ18O archives that changes in Antarctic ice volume were occurring during the Pliocene.

text: An integrated sequence stratigraphic, palaeoenvironmental, and chronostratigraphic analysis of the Tangahoe Formation, southern Taranaki coast, with implications for mid-Pliocene (c. 3.4–3.0 Ma) glacio-eustatic sea-level changes Sediments of the mid-Pliocene (c. 3.4–3.0 Ma) Tangahoe Formation exposed in cliffs along the South Taranaki coastline of New Zealand comprise a 270 m thick, cyclothemic shallow-marine succession that has been gently warped into a north to south trending, low angle anticline. This study examines the sedimentologic, faunal, and petrographic characteristics of 10 Milankovitch-scale (6th order), shallow-marine depositional sequences exposed on the western limb of the anticline. The sequences are recognised on the basis of the cyclic vertical stacking of their constituent lithofacies, which are bound by sharp wave cut surfaces produced during transgressive shoreface erosion. Each sequence comprises three parts: (1) a 0.2–2 m thick, deepening upwards, basal suite of reworked bioclastic lag deposits (onlap shellbed) and/or an overlying matrix supported, molluscan shellbed of offshore shelf affinity (backlap shellbed); (2) a 5–20 m thick, gradually shoaling, aggradational siltstone succession; and (3) a 5–10 m thick, strongly progradational, well sorted “forced regressive” shoreline sandstone. The three-fold subdivision corresponds to transgressive, highstand, and regressive systems tracts (TSTs, HSTs, and RSTs) respectively, and represents deposition during a glacio-eustatic sea-level cycle. Lowstand systems tract sediments are not recorded because the outcrop is situated c. 100 km east of the contemporary shelf edge and was subaerially exposed at that time. Well developed, sharp- and gradational-based forced regressive sandstones contain a variety of storm-emplaced sedimentary structures, and represent the rapid and abrupt basinward translation of the shoreline on to a storm dominated, shallow shelf during eustatic sea-level fall. Increased supply of sediment from north-west South Island during “forced regression” is indicated from petrographic analyses of the heavy mineralogy of the sandstones. A chronology based on biostratigraphy and the correlation of a new magnetostratigraphy to the magnetic polarity timescale allows: (1) identification of the Mammoth (C2An.2r) and Kaena (C2An.1r) subchrons; (2) correlation of the coastal section to the Waipipian Stage; and (3) estimation of the age of the coastal section as 3.36–3.06 Ma. Qualitative assessment of foraminiferal census data and molluscan palaeoecology reveals cyclic changes in water depth from shelf to shoreline environments during the deposition of each sequence. Seven major cycles in water depth of between 20 and 50m have been correlated to individual 40 ka glacio-eustatic sea-level cycles on the marine oxygen isotope timescale. The coastal Tangahoe Formation provides a shallow-marine record of global glacio-eustasy prior to the development of significant ice sheets on Northern Hemisphere continents, and supports evidence from marine δ18O archives that changes in Antarctic ice volume were occurring during the Pliocene.

year: 2005

title: Spatial and temporal characteristics of the underwater soundscape around the Motiti Protection Area: Ōtaiti/Astrolabe Reef and Motiti Island

authors: Riegel, Maria Sophie

subjects: Underwater Soundscapes

abstract: Marine ecosystems around the world have been impacted by degradation and loss of biodiversity as a result of human impacts and climate change. The monitoring and management of ecologically significant areas is vital in understanding the effects of habitat degradation on marine ecosystems. Traditional monitoring methods are often expensive, time consuming, labour intensive and invasive. Soundscapes offer a unique opportunity for monitoring habitats in a way that is cost effective, minimally invasive and efficient. The aim of this study was to use passive acoustic monitoring to create a baseline data set using ambient sound data to investigate the spatial and temporal changes in ambient sound pressure levels, and to identify biotic, abiotic and anthropogenic sound sources which make up the marine soundscapes at the Motiti Island and Ōtaiti/Astrolabe Reef. Five diverse and ecologically significant sites in the Motiti Protection Area – at Ōtaiti/Astrolabe Reef and Motiti Island, in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand were selected and monitored over the course of a year. This provided a wide variety of data to show the diel, lunar and seasonal patterns and trends in acoustic biological activity in order to represent the ecosystems accurately. The results showed that all sites showed strong diel patterns, with a sound pressure level increase of ~6-10dB during daylight hours compared to dark hours, and evident peaks during dawn and dusk hours as a result of biological choruses composed largely of sea urchins. There were also strong seasonal trends among the five sites, with Summer having the overall highest sound pressure level compared to Spring, Autumn and Winter, this also had an effect on the peaks in dusk choruses, which were also found to be highest during Summer. Lunar phases were also found to have an impact on the sound pressure levels of all five sites, with increased sound pressure levels during the new moon, compared to sound pressure levels during the full moon. This study created a baseline data set for a culturally, ecologically, and economically valuable area. Passive acoustic monitoring was found to be an incredibly useful tool in understand the ecosystems health and biological condition, and offers an alternative to traditional monitoring which is an effective, minimally invasive, and less labour intensive way of monitoring marine ecosystems.

text: Spatial and temporal characteristics of the underwater soundscape around the Motiti Protection Area: Ōtaiti/Astrolabe Reef and Motiti Island Marine ecosystems around the world have been impacted by degradation and loss of biodiversity as a result of human impacts and climate change. The monitoring and management of ecologically significant areas is vital in understanding the effects of habitat degradation on marine ecosystems. Traditional monitoring methods are often expensive, time consuming, labour intensive and invasive. Soundscapes offer a unique opportunity for monitoring habitats in a way that is cost effective, minimally invasive and efficient. The aim of this study was to use passive acoustic monitoring to create a baseline data set using ambient sound data to investigate the spatial and temporal changes in ambient sound pressure levels, and to identify biotic, abiotic and anthropogenic sound sources which make up the marine soundscapes at the Motiti Island and Ōtaiti/Astrolabe Reef. Five diverse and ecologically significant sites in the Motiti Protection Area – at Ōtaiti/Astrolabe Reef and Motiti Island, in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand were selected and monitored over the course of a year. This provided a wide variety of data to show the diel, lunar and seasonal patterns and trends in acoustic biological activity in order to represent the ecosystems accurately. The results showed that all sites showed strong diel patterns, with a sound pressure level increase of ~6-10dB during daylight hours compared to dark hours, and evident peaks during dawn and dusk hours as a result of biological choruses composed largely of sea urchins. There were also strong seasonal trends among the five sites, with Summer having the overall highest sound pressure level compared to Spring, Autumn and Winter, this also had an effect on the peaks in dusk choruses, which were also found to be highest during Summer. Lunar phases were also found to have an impact on the sound pressure levels of all five sites, with increased sound pressure levels during the new moon, compared to sound pressure levels during the full moon. This study created a baseline data set for a culturally, ecologically, and economically valuable area. Passive acoustic monitoring was found to be an incredibly useful tool in understand the ecosystems health and biological condition, and offers an alternative to traditional monitoring which is an effective, minimally invasive, and less labour intensive way of monitoring marine ecosystems.

year: 2022