3,323 research outputs found
Dairy productivity in the Waikato region, 1994-2007
The dairy industry is a major contributor to both the New Zealand economy as a whole and to the Waikato regional economy in particular. The industry is experiencing a period of considerable change, with increases in dairy conversion, increased intensification, and increasing use of nitrogen fertilisers, each of which has an associated environmental cost. In this paper the productivity performance of the mature dairy industry in the Waikato region is investigated, using panel data at the sub-regional level from 1994 to 2007. Overall we show that, under a range of specifications, productivity growth independent of increasing land use and herd numbers has been significantly below the four percent industry target. This suggests that, if the four percent goal were to be met in the absence of significant technological progress, further increases in fertiliser use, land use, and/or farming intensity would be required.Productivity, dairy industry, Waikato., Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use, Productivity Analysis,
A stellar census of the nearby, young 32 Orionis group
The 32 Orionis group was discovered almost a decade ago and despite the fact
that it represents the first northern, young (age ~ 25 Myr) stellar aggregate
within 100 pc of the Sun ( pc), a comprehensive survey for members
and detailed characterisation of the group has yet to be performed. We present
the first large-scale spectroscopic survey for new (predominantly M-type)
members of the group after combining kinematic and photometric data to select
candidates with Galactic space motion and positions in colour-magnitude space
consistent with membership. We identify 30 new members, increasing the number
of known 32 Ori group members by a factor of three and bringing the total
number of identified members to 46, spanning spectral types B5 to L1. We also
identify the lithium depletion boundary (LDB) of the group, i.e. the luminosity
at which lithium remains unburnt in a coeval population. We estimate the age of
the 32 Ori group independently using both isochronal fitting and LDB analyses
and find it is essentially coeval with the {\beta} Pictoris moving group, with
an age of Myr. Finally, we have also searched for circumstellar disc
hosts utilising the AllWISE catalogue. Although we find no evidence for warm,
dusty discs, we identify several stars with excess emission in the WISE W4-band
at 22 {\mu}m. Based on the limited number of W4 detections we estimate a debris
disc fraction of per cent for the 32 Ori group.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS; 24 pages, 17 figures and 10 table
Pre-main-sequence isochrones -- II. Revising star and planet formation timescales
We have derived ages for 13 young (<30 Myr) star-forming regions and find
they are up to a factor two older than the ages typically adopted in the
literature. This result has wide-ranging implications, including that
circumstellar discs survive longer (~10-12 Myr) and that the average Class I
lifetime is greater (~1 Myr) than currently believed.
For each star-forming region we derived two ages from colour-magnitude
diagrams. First we fitted models of the evolution between the zero-age
main-sequence and terminal-age main-sequence to derive a homogeneous set of
main-sequence ages, distances and reddenings with statistically meaningful
uncertainties. Our second age for each star-forming region was derived by
fitting pre-main-sequence stars to new semi-empirical model isochrones. For the
first time (for a set of clusters younger than 50 Myr) we find broad agreement
between these two ages, and since these are derived from two distinct mass
regimes that rely on different aspects of stellar physics, it gives us
confidence in the new age scale. This agreement is largely due to our adoption
of empirical colour-Teff relations and bolometric corrections for
pre-main-sequence stars cooler than 4000 K.
The revised ages for the star-forming regions in our sample are: ~2 Myr for
NGC 6611 (Eagle Nebula; M 16), IC 5146 (Cocoon Nebula), NGC 6530 (Lagoon
Nebula; M 8), and NGC 2244 (Rosette Nebula); ~6 Myr for {\sigma} Ori, Cep OB3b,
and IC 348; ~10 Myr for {\lambda} Ori (Collinder 69); ~11 Myr for NGC 2169; ~12
Myr for NGC 2362; ~13 Myr for NGC 7160; ~14 Myr for {\chi} Per (NGC 884); and
~20 Myr for NGC 1960 (M 36).Comment: 28 pages, 18 figures, 34 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS.
All photometric catalogues presented in this paper are available online at
the Cluster Collaboration homepage
http://www.astro.ex.ac.uk/people/timn/Catalogues
A lithium depletion boundary age of 22 Myr for NGC 1960
We present a deep Cousins RI photometric survey of the open cluster NGC 1960,
complete to R_C \simeq 22, I_C \simeq 21, that is used to select a sample of
very low-mass cluster candidates. Gemini spectroscopy of a subset of these is
used to confirm membership and locate the age-dependent "lithium depletion
boundary" (LDB) --the luminosity at which lithium remains unburned in its
low-mass stars. The LDB implies a cluster age of 22 +/-4 Myr and is quite
insensitive to choice of evolutionary model. NGC 1960 is the youngest cluster
for which a LDB age has been estimated and possesses a well populated upper
main sequence and a rich low-mass pre-main sequence. The LDB age determined
here agrees well with precise age estimates made for the same cluster based on
isochrone fits to its high- and low-mass populations. The concordance between
these three age estimation techniques, that rely on different facets of stellar
astrophysics at very different masses, is an important step towards calibrating
the absolute ages of young open clusters and lends confidence to ages
determined using any one of them.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA
No evidence for intense, cold accretion onto YSOs from measurements of Li in T-Tauri stars
We have used medium resolution spectra to search for evidence that
proto-stellar objects accrete at high rates during their early 'assembly
phase'. Models predict that depleted lithium and reduced luminosity in T-Tauri
stars are key signatures of 'cold' high-rate accretion occurring early in a
star's evolution.
We found no evidence in 168 stars in NGC 2264 and the Orion Nebula Cluster
for strong lithium depletion through analysis of veiling corrected 6708
angstrom lithium spectral line strengths. This suggests that 'cold' accretion
at high rates (M_dot > 5 x 10-4 M_sol yr-1) occurs in the assembly phase of
fewer than 0.5 per cent of 0.3 < M < 1.9 M_sol stars.
We also find that the dispersion in the strength of the 6708 angstrom lithium
line might imply an age spread that is similar in magnitude to the apparent age
spread implied by the luminosity dispersion seen in colour magnitude diagrams.
Evidence for weak lithium depletion (< 10 per cent in equivalent width) that is
correlated with luminosity is also apparent, but we are unable to determine
whether age spreads or accretion at rates less than 5 x 10-4 M_sol yr-1 are
responsible.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures; Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of
the Royal Astronomical Society, 2013 June 0
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