title: Health information research privacy standards should include Māori perspectives on privacy

authors: Ragupathy, Rajan

subjects: computer science

abstract: Secondary research using health records and other personal health data (henceforth referred to as health information research) is a valuable tool for tackling New Zealand’s health and social challenges. It requires however suitable privacy standards to maintain public confi dence and social license. The privacy protocols used by New Zealand district health boards have been described in this journal, as have additional safeguards that could be adopted to prevent privacy breaches.¹,²

text: Health information research privacy standards should include Māori perspectives on privacy Secondary research using health records and other personal health data (henceforth referred to as health information research) is a valuable tool for tackling New Zealand’s health and social challenges. It requires however suitable privacy standards to maintain public confi dence and social license. The privacy protocols used by New Zealand district health boards have been described in this journal, as have additional safeguards that could be adopted to prevent privacy breaches.¹,²

year: 2019

title: Local Cryo-history: Redefining the creation, transformation and circulation of Aotearoa’s nineteenth century glacier knowledge

authors: Annandale, Claudi - Ann

abstract: The creation, transformation and dissemination of knowledge constantly shapes the narrative of glacier history. However, the intersecting layers that human encounters with the frozen environment, Indigenous knowledge, and popular thought add to glacier histories is often overlooked. By analysing the trends and intellectual traditions that emerged in nineteenth century New Zealand, a period defined as glaciology's 'classical' era of study, this thesis aims to broaden the Southern Alps’ local science-focused glacier discourse.   

Māori, for example, possessed unique mātauranga (knowledge) that was documented through Europeans employing local guides to accompany them across the Southern Alps. This mātauranga shaped some encounters nineteenth-century scientists, surveyors, and travellers had with Kā Tiritiri o te Moana’s glacier environment. New Zealand scholars like Julius von Haast and James Hector, on the other hand, further refined their understanding of New Zealand glaciers through the transnational exchange of knowledge and intellectual debates. A combination of Enlightenment rationalism and Romantic aesthetic also influenced popular glacier narratives that emerged during the nineteenth century. For example, the imagination of journalists, mountaineers and travellers reflected the broader cultural trends that circulated from Europe to New Zealand before their knowledge was disseminated to the public.  

By interrogating mātauranga Māori, formal scientific study, and popular settler imagination about glaciers, this thesis redefines New Zealand’s nineteenth-century glacier history as inherently multilayered through the circulation, creation, transformation and dissemination of glacier knowledge. In doing so, it highlights glaciers not only as physical entities defined by scientific study but as ideas shaped by diverse knowledge systems, cultural perceptions, and historical contingencies.

text: Local Cryo-history: Redefining the creation, transformation and circulation of Aotearoa’s nineteenth century glacier knowledge The creation, transformation and dissemination of knowledge constantly shapes the narrative of glacier history. However, the intersecting layers that human encounters with the frozen environment, Indigenous knowledge, and popular thought add to glacier histories is often overlooked. By analysing the trends and intellectual traditions that emerged in nineteenth century New Zealand, a period defined as glaciology's 'classical' era of study, this thesis aims to broaden the Southern Alps’ local science-focused glacier discourse.   

Māori, for example, possessed unique mātauranga (knowledge) that was documented through Europeans employing local guides to accompany them across the Southern Alps. This mātauranga shaped some encounters nineteenth-century scientists, surveyors, and travellers had with Kā Tiritiri o te Moana’s glacier environment. New Zealand scholars like Julius von Haast and James Hector, on the other hand, further refined their understanding of New Zealand glaciers through the transnational exchange of knowledge and intellectual debates. A combination of Enlightenment rationalism and Romantic aesthetic also influenced popular glacier narratives that emerged during the nineteenth century. For example, the imagination of journalists, mountaineers and travellers reflected the broader cultural trends that circulated from Europe to New Zealand before their knowledge was disseminated to the public.  

By interrogating mātauranga Māori, formal scientific study, and popular settler imagination about glaciers, this thesis redefines New Zealand’s nineteenth-century glacier history as inherently multilayered through the circulation, creation, transformation and dissemination of glacier knowledge. In doing so, it highlights glaciers not only as physical entities defined by scientific study but as ideas shaped by diverse knowledge systems, cultural perceptions, and historical contingencies.

year: 2025

title: Peat soil properties and seasonal surface elevation changes of drained Waikato peatlands

authors: Layton, Helena Georgette

subjects: Peat soils

abstract: Peat surface oscillation (PSO) is the elastic seasonal change in peatland surface elevation that occurs as a response to changes in the water balance, and is an important self-regulating behaviour for sustaining hydrological functioning of intact peatlands. Drainage of peatlands leads to subsidence caused by peat consolidation, shrinkage and oxidation, which results in a non-reversible lowering of the peat surface. In the Waikato, 80% of peatlands have been drained and are now under agricultural and horticultural land uses, with subsidence rates around 20 mm y-1. Ongoing monitoring of subsidence is challenged by a lack of knowledge of PSO behaviour. This study is the first of its kind to investigate PSO in drained peatlands at a regional scale. 

This study investigated peat properties and hydrological and PSO regimes of the eleven study sites that comprise a Waikato regional drained peatland monitoring. These sites were under three different land uses, being dairy and dry stock farms, and blueberry orchards. Peat soil physical and chemical properties were used to determine the effect land use has on both peat soil properties and PSO. PSO was measured using the paired pressure transducer method and soil cores were taken from each site to measure bulk density, volumetric moisture content (VMC), porosity, shrinkage characteristics, carbon to nitrogen ratios (C/N), organic matter fractions (OMf), with additional grab samples taken for pH analysis. 

There were general trends of decreasing pH and bulk density, and increasing porosity, C/N and OMf with increasing depth. The agricultural sites (dairy and dry stock) had greater degradation than the blueberry sites in the near surface peat but there was less of a difference in peat properties between land uses deeper in the profile. All of the study sites had higher bulk densities, and lower porosities and OMf than commonly reported in intact peatlands. These results show that land management can have a major effect on near surface peat properties and can degrade peat further than just drainage alone. 

Reversible surface elevation changes were observed at all study sites, which followed a similar seasonal pattern but with different magnitudes of shrink and swell. There did not appear to be a relationship between land use or drainage history and magnitude of PSO. Although the seasonal surface elevation changes broadly followed changes in water table depth, there did not appear to be an association between magnitude of surface elevation change and depth to the water table, in contrast to PSO studies in wetlands. The magnitude of PSO was reduced at the majority of the sites compared to previous measurements in intact peatlands, but some sites were relatively large compared to international studies of drained peatlands. There was some evidence that subsidence was occurring at all of the study sites. The results of this study have provided more detail than previously given in the literature for short-term, seasonal and annual PSO regimes. 

Overall, this study found that PSO in drained peatlands is highly variable and the drivers of PSO are likely very complex. These results can be used to help further improve long-term monitoring of peat subsidence demonstrate the importance of high-resolution measurements for accurate monitoring of annual PSO cycles.

text: Peat soil properties and seasonal surface elevation changes of drained Waikato peatlands Peat surface oscillation (PSO) is the elastic seasonal change in peatland surface elevation that occurs as a response to changes in the water balance, and is an important self-regulating behaviour for sustaining hydrological functioning of intact peatlands. Drainage of peatlands leads to subsidence caused by peat consolidation, shrinkage and oxidation, which results in a non-reversible lowering of the peat surface. In the Waikato, 80% of peatlands have been drained and are now under agricultural and horticultural land uses, with subsidence rates around 20 mm y-1. Ongoing monitoring of subsidence is challenged by a lack of knowledge of PSO behaviour. This study is the first of its kind to investigate PSO in drained peatlands at a regional scale. 

This study investigated peat properties and hydrological and PSO regimes of the eleven study sites that comprise a Waikato regional drained peatland monitoring. These sites were under three different land uses, being dairy and dry stock farms, and blueberry orchards. Peat soil physical and chemical properties were used to determine the effect land use has on both peat soil properties and PSO. PSO was measured using the paired pressure transducer method and soil cores were taken from each site to measure bulk density, volumetric moisture content (VMC), porosity, shrinkage characteristics, carbon to nitrogen ratios (C/N), organic matter fractions (OMf), with additional grab samples taken for pH analysis. 

There were general trends of decreasing pH and bulk density, and increasing porosity, C/N and OMf with increasing depth. The agricultural sites (dairy and dry stock) had greater degradation than the blueberry sites in the near surface peat but there was less of a difference in peat properties between land uses deeper in the profile. All of the study sites had higher bulk densities, and lower porosities and OMf than commonly reported in intact peatlands. These results show that land management can have a major effect on near surface peat properties and can degrade peat further than just drainage alone. 

Reversible surface elevation changes were observed at all study sites, which followed a similar seasonal pattern but with different magnitudes of shrink and swell. There did not appear to be a relationship between land use or drainage history and magnitude of PSO. Although the seasonal surface elevation changes broadly followed changes in water table depth, there did not appear to be an association between magnitude of surface elevation change and depth to the water table, in contrast to PSO studies in wetlands. The magnitude of PSO was reduced at the majority of the sites compared to previous measurements in intact peatlands, but some sites were relatively large compared to international studies of drained peatlands. There was some evidence that subsidence was occurring at all of the study sites. The results of this study have provided more detail than previously given in the literature for short-term, seasonal and annual PSO regimes. 

Overall, this study found that PSO in drained peatlands is highly variable and the drivers of PSO are likely very complex. These results can be used to help further improve long-term monitoring of peat subsidence demonstrate the importance of high-resolution measurements for accurate monitoring of annual PSO cycles.

year: 2022