title: High exposure of global tree diversity to human pressure.

authors: Guo, Wen-Yong

subjects: biodiversity

abstract: Safeguarding Earth's tree diversity is a conservation priority due to the importance of trees for biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services such as carbon sequestration. Here, we improve the foundation for effective conservation of global tree diversity by analyzing a recently developed database of tree species covering 46,752 species. We quantify range protection and anthropogenic pressures for each species and develop conservation priorities across taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity dimensions. We also assess the effectiveness of several influential proposed conservation prioritization frameworks to protect the top 17% and top 50% of tree priority areas. We find that an average of 50.2% of a tree species' range occurs in 110-km grid cells without any protected areas (PAs), with 6,377 small-range tree species fully unprotected, and that 83% of tree species experience nonnegligible human pressure across their range on average. Protecting high-priority areas for the top 17% and 50% priority thresholds would increase the average protected proportion of each tree species' range to 65.5% and 82.6%, respectively, leaving many fewer species (2,151 and 2,010) completely unprotected. The priority areas identified for trees match well to the Global 200 Ecoregions framework, revealing that priority areas for trees would in large part also optimize protection for terrestrial biodiversity overall. Based on range estimates for >46,000 tree species, our findings show that a large proportion of tree species receive limited protection by current PAs and are under substantial human pressure. Improved protection of biodiversity overall would also strongly benefit global tree diversity.

text: High exposure of global tree diversity to human pressure. Safeguarding Earth's tree diversity is a conservation priority due to the importance of trees for biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services such as carbon sequestration. Here, we improve the foundation for effective conservation of global tree diversity by analyzing a recently developed database of tree species covering 46,752 species. We quantify range protection and anthropogenic pressures for each species and develop conservation priorities across taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity dimensions. We also assess the effectiveness of several influential proposed conservation prioritization frameworks to protect the top 17% and top 50% of tree priority areas. We find that an average of 50.2% of a tree species' range occurs in 110-km grid cells without any protected areas (PAs), with 6,377 small-range tree species fully unprotected, and that 83% of tree species experience nonnegligible human pressure across their range on average. Protecting high-priority areas for the top 17% and 50% priority thresholds would increase the average protected proportion of each tree species' range to 65.5% and 82.6%, respectively, leaving many fewer species (2,151 and 2,010) completely unprotected. The priority areas identified for trees match well to the Global 200 Ecoregions framework, revealing that priority areas for trees would in large part also optimize protection for terrestrial biodiversity overall. Based on range estimates for >46,000 tree species, our findings show that a large proportion of tree species receive limited protection by current PAs and are under substantial human pressure. Improved protection of biodiversity overall would also strongly benefit global tree diversity.

year: 2022-06-21

title: Student Culture and Binge Drinking

authors: McEwan, Brett James

subjects: alcohol

abstract: New Zealand student culture has had a strong tradition of alcohol use.  Research, both in New Zealand and internationally, has identified halls of residence student drinkers as at more risk of alcohol-related harm than their same age non-resident and non-student peers.  This research project investigates the relationship between student culture and binge drinking behaviour within the University of Waikato's halls of residence student population.  It combines qualitative and quantitative methods encompassing focus groups, individual face-to-face interviews, and a survey questionnaire completed by sixty percent of the resident student population.  The resulting data are set within the context of existing literature on student drinking behaviour and student culture, and the analysis is undertaken using a combination of grounded theory and statistical analysis. 

The study reveals that binge drinking behaviour was viewed by the majority of residents as a normal component of student culture, with one-half of male residents who drink and one-third of female drinking residents becoming intoxicated on a weekly basis.  Contrary to the popular perception that student drinking behaviour is an uncontrolled activity however, the majority of residents' practised 'controlled intoxication' while drinking.  Overall, most residents enjoyed their drinking experiences and showed a high level of tolerance towards many alcohol-related harms.  There is clear evidence that resident drinking behaviour impacts adversely upon residents, with one-half of residents having experienced academic and/or physical harms, and twenty percent reporting sexual encounters they later regretted.  One-third of residents had also felt unsafe due to the drinking behaviour of others.  

Adopting the precepts of a social-ecological approach, this thesis argues that a range of multi-level harm-minimisation strategies targeting resident drinking behaviour are required, in conjunction with renewed efforts to effect change in the New Zealand drinking culture.  Fifteen alcohol-intervention initiatives are recommended which variously target the individual drinker, the halls of residence environment, the institutional environment, and the local community drinking environment.  The national drinking environment is also pursued through recommendations advocating legislative change to make it an offence to be intoxicated in a public place, and through social marketing strategies which encourage peer feedback, the shaming of intoxicated behaviour, and the continued emphasis on the association between drinking and its adverse effects.

text: Student Culture and Binge Drinking New Zealand student culture has had a strong tradition of alcohol use.  Research, both in New Zealand and internationally, has identified halls of residence student drinkers as at more risk of alcohol-related harm than their same age non-resident and non-student peers.  This research project investigates the relationship between student culture and binge drinking behaviour within the University of Waikato's halls of residence student population.  It combines qualitative and quantitative methods encompassing focus groups, individual face-to-face interviews, and a survey questionnaire completed by sixty percent of the resident student population.  The resulting data are set within the context of existing literature on student drinking behaviour and student culture, and the analysis is undertaken using a combination of grounded theory and statistical analysis. 

The study reveals that binge drinking behaviour was viewed by the majority of residents as a normal component of student culture, with one-half of male residents who drink and one-third of female drinking residents becoming intoxicated on a weekly basis.  Contrary to the popular perception that student drinking behaviour is an uncontrolled activity however, the majority of residents' practised 'controlled intoxication' while drinking.  Overall, most residents enjoyed their drinking experiences and showed a high level of tolerance towards many alcohol-related harms.  There is clear evidence that resident drinking behaviour impacts adversely upon residents, with one-half of residents having experienced academic and/or physical harms, and twenty percent reporting sexual encounters they later regretted.  One-third of residents had also felt unsafe due to the drinking behaviour of others.  

Adopting the precepts of a social-ecological approach, this thesis argues that a range of multi-level harm-minimisation strategies targeting resident drinking behaviour are required, in conjunction with renewed efforts to effect change in the New Zealand drinking culture.  Fifteen alcohol-intervention initiatives are recommended which variously target the individual drinker, the halls of residence environment, the institutional environment, and the local community drinking environment.  The national drinking environment is also pursued through recommendations advocating legislative change to make it an offence to be intoxicated in a public place, and through social marketing strategies which encourage peer feedback, the shaming of intoxicated behaviour, and the continued emphasis on the association between drinking and its adverse effects.

year: 2009

title: Kūkupa, koro, and kai: The use of Māori vocabulary items in New Zealand English children's picture books

authors: Daly, Nicola

subjects: New Zealand

abstract: When a linguistic form from one language is used in another language, such words are known as borrowings or loan words (Crystal 2003: 56). The English language is renowned for its large capacity for borrowing and it has been suggested that the growth in internationalism in recent times has led to people seeking new words to indicate their local identity (Crystal 1995; Crystal 2003). Certainly this is the case of New Zealand English, the most distinctive aspect of which is borrowings from te reo Maori (Deverson 1991). In 1984 Deverson estimated that most New Zealanders have a passive knowledge of at least 40-50 borrowed Maori loan words (Deverson 1984). This figure has been recently revised by Macalister to 70-80 such words (20,-,63.). A study of the frequency of Maori loan words in New Zealand English in New Zealand School Journals of the 1960s and 1990s showed an incidence of around 6 words per 1,000 (Macalister 1999). Kennedy and Yamazaki (1999) also found borrowed Maori words at a rate of 6 per thousand words. Macalister (2006b) has examined the use of Maori loan words in New Zealand English across a 150 year period from 1850-2000. He examined a corpus of a little under five and a half million words from three sources: Newspapers, parliamentary debates and School Journals. Across the three sources there was an increase from 3.29 words per 1,000 in 1850 to 8.8 per thousand in 2000. Macalister lists the reasons for this change as including urbanisation of the Maori population between 1945 and 1975, which created more contact; the changing status of the Maori language with the kOhanga reo movement; the establishment of the Maori Language Commission (Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Maori) and legislation of Maori as an official language of New Zealand in 1987.

text: Kūkupa, koro, and kai: The use of Māori vocabulary items in New Zealand English children's picture books When a linguistic form from one language is used in another language, such words are known as borrowings or loan words (Crystal 2003: 56). The English language is renowned for its large capacity for borrowing and it has been suggested that the growth in internationalism in recent times has led to people seeking new words to indicate their local identity (Crystal 1995; Crystal 2003). Certainly this is the case of New Zealand English, the most distinctive aspect of which is borrowings from te reo Maori (Deverson 1991). In 1984 Deverson estimated that most New Zealanders have a passive knowledge of at least 40-50 borrowed Maori loan words (Deverson 1984). This figure has been recently revised by Macalister to 70-80 such words (20,-,63.). A study of the frequency of Maori loan words in New Zealand English in New Zealand School Journals of the 1960s and 1990s showed an incidence of around 6 words per 1,000 (Macalister 1999). Kennedy and Yamazaki (1999) also found borrowed Maori words at a rate of 6 per thousand words. Macalister (2006b) has examined the use of Maori loan words in New Zealand English across a 150 year period from 1850-2000. He examined a corpus of a little under five and a half million words from three sources: Newspapers, parliamentary debates and School Journals. Across the three sources there was an increase from 3.29 words per 1,000 in 1850 to 8.8 per thousand in 2000. Macalister lists the reasons for this change as including urbanisation of the Maori population between 1945 and 1975, which created more contact; the changing status of the Maori language with the kOhanga reo movement; the establishment of the Maori Language Commission (Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Maori) and legislation of Maori as an official language of New Zealand in 1987.

year: 2007