Multiple scales of biological variability in New Zealand streams : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Ecology at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand

Stream fish communities in Taranaki, New Zealand, were studied for the patterns and drivers of their spatial ecology. The study was focused on three main themes: a) complementarity between geography and landuse in driving regional distribution patterns of stream fish, b) the impact of agriculture on community composition, structure and variability of fish and invertebrates, and c) concordance among environmental distance and community dissimilarities of stream fish and invertebrates. Stream sampling and data collection for fish was conducted at regional scale using 96 sites distributed in the protected forest (44 sites) of Egmont National Park in Taranaki, and in surrounding farmlands (52 sites). Local scale sampling for fish and invertebrates was carried out at 15 stream sites in pasture (8 sites) and in adjacent forest (7 sites). Environmental data of geography, landuse and local habitat description were also gathered concurrently to biological sampling. The regional scale survey reported fifteen fish species, dominated by longfin eels (Anguilla dieffenbachia), redfin bullies (Gobiomorphus huttoni) and koaro (Galaxias brevipinnis), while 12 fish species and 69 different invertebrate taxa were recorded from the 15 sites at local scale. Regional scale spatial patterns of fish were mainly driven by landuse pattern. Catchment landuse (characterised by percentage cover of farming/native forest) effectively partitioned the stream fish community structure in Taranaki. Within each level of catchment landuse (farming), abundance and richness of fish species were negatively correlated with the altitude. Moreover, the upstream slope in high elevations and intensive farming downstream limited the distribution of stream fish across the region. Fish community composition differed significantly but weakly between forest and pasture in the immediate proximity. The dissimilarity of fish communities between forest and pasture increased from regional to local scale, and a similar result was found with stream invertebrate dissimilarity at the local scale. Stream communities (fish and invertebrates) were equally variable among streams between the two land use classes both at regional and local scales. Although the land use difference did not affect within-stream variability of fish, invertebrate communities were less variable within a pasture stream. Trends in in-stream variability of invertebrates were influenced mainly by altitude, stream morphology, pH, and riparian native cover. In concordance analysis, Mantel and Procrustes tests were used to compare community matrices of fish and invertebrates and the environmental distance between stream sites. The spatial patterns of fish and invertebrates were significantly concordant with each other among the 15 streams at the local scale. Nevertheless, community concordance decreased with lower spatial scales, and the two communities were not concordant at local sites within a given stream. Agriculture had a negative impact on the concordance between fish and invertebrates among streams, and none of the communities correlated with the overall environmental distance between agricultural streams. Community concordance between fish and invertebrates was consistently higher than the community-environment links, and lower trophic level (invertebrates) linked to their environment more closely than the upper trophic level (fish). The overall results suggest a bottom-up control of the communities through the stream food web. Finally, to inform the regional management and conservation decision, stream sites were partitioned according to the most important bioenvironmental constraints. The ecological similarity was measured by geography, land use pattern and the abundances of influential native fish species within the region, and the streams were clustered into seven distinct zones, using the method of affinity propagation. Interestingly, the dichotomy in proximal land use was not generally represented between zones, and the species diversity gradients were not significantly different across the zonal stream clusters. The average elevation of a given zone did not influence the community variability, while upstream pasture significantly homogenised fish communities between streams within a zone. Nonetheless the zones were based on river-system connectivity and geographical proximity. This study showed separate effects of confounding geography (altitude) and landuse on stream fish community structure, which has not explicitly been explored by previous studies. Studies with a simultaneous focus on multiple biological (e.g. fish and invertebrates) and environmental (e.g. geography, landuse, stream morphology) scales in varying spatial scales are not common in freshwater ecology. Therefore, this study has a great contribution to the understanding of the spatial ecology of stream communities linked with the control of geography, landuse, environment and likely biological interactions between fish and invertebrates

Good stock market governance in the context of anti-money laundering regimes

Article by Dr Dayanath Jayasuriya published in Amicus Curiae - Journal of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies. The Journal is produced by the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London

Improvements in the World Bank's ease of doing business rankings : do they translate into greater foreign direct investment inflows ?

The World Bank's Ease of Doing Business reports have been ranking countries since 2006. However, do improvements in rankings generate greater foreign direct investment inflows? This study is the first to test such a proposition empirically with Arellano-Bond dynamic panel estimators using the official rankings from 2006 to 2009. The paper shows this relationship is significant for the average country. However, when the sample is restricted to developing countries, the results suggest an improved ranking has, on average, an insignificant (albeit positive) influence on foreign direct investment inflows. Although robust, this result should be taken with caution given that it refers to the average developing country using data across a four-year time period. Finally, the paper demonstrates that, on average, countries that undertake large-scale reforms relative to other countries do not necessarily attract greater foreign direct investment inflows. This analysis may have important ramifications for developing country governments wanting to improve their Doing Business Rankings in the hope of attracting foreign direct investment inflows.Debt Markets,Competitiveness and Competition Policy,Business in Development,Business Environment,Emerging Markets

Development Strategy, Poverty and Deforestation in the Philippines

Most thinking on poverty and deforestation in developing countries does so in terms of the influence of one on the other, in either direction. However, the two have common determinants in the underlying economic and institutional conditions that set factor and product prices and the incentives for migration and natural resource-depleting activities. These determinants include property rights failures (open access to forest lands) but also 'government failures' in the form of economic policies that indirectly promote deforestation and retard poverty alleviation. A general equilibrium approach permits the analytical identification of the influences that such distortions exert on poverty and deforestation pressures. Using a numerical general equilibrium model, we consider the likely effects of the reform of industrial and agricultural protection policy, a key component of modern Philippine economic development strategy, on the determinants of poverty and deforestation.

Trade, Liberalization, Resource Degradation and Industrial Pollution in Developing Countries: An Integrated Analysis

"Environmental damage" is in reality many different types of phenomena, each with a unique set of causes and characteristics. We present an analytical model identifying intersectoral and interregional links of economy and environment, and explore consequences of trade policy and world price changes. The model contains explicit spatial and institutional features relevant to developing economies. We show that similar trade or policy shocks can have different effects, depending on initial economic structure, trade orientation and policies. Further, when there is more than one sectoral source of environmental damage, a policy or price shock may have unexpected environmental and welfare results.

Trade Reforms, Deforestation and Industrial Pollution in Developing Countries: One Size Does Not Fit All

Many developing countries possess comparative advantage both in natural resources and in labor-intensive industries, and experience both industrial pollution and natural resource degradation. We present a model that incorporates these stylized facts together with key spatial features and property rights failures typical of developing economies. We explore consequences of anticipated domestic and global trade policy and world price changes. Similar exogenous or policy shocks are seen to have contrasting effects, depending on initial economic structure, trade orientation and policy regime. Further, when there is more than one sectoral source of environmental damage, a policy or price change may have unexpected environmental and welfare results. Nevertheless, in many empirically important cases, reducing protection for capital intensive manufactures is likely to improve both income and environmental quality, a point that we illustrate by reference to some Asian case studies. These results stand in contrast to those obtained in much of the current analytical literature.

TRADE LIBERALIZATION, RESOURCE DEGRADATION AND INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: AN INTEGRATED ANALYSIS

“Environmental damage” is in reality many different types of phenomena, each with a unique set of causes and characteristics. We present an analytical model identifying intersectoral and interregional links of economy and environment and explore consequences of trade policy and world price changes. The model contains explicit spatial and institutional features relevant to developing economies. We show that similar trade or policy shocks can have different effects, depending on initial economic structure, trade orientation and policies. Further, when there is more than one sectoral source of environmental damage, a policy or price shock may have unexpected environmental and welfare results.Trade policy, pollution, deforestation, developing countries

Measuring and Explaining Country Efficiency in Improving Health and Education Indicators

Governments aiming to improve the education and health status of their populations can increase the level of public spending allocated to these sectors, or improve the efficiency of public spending. Since increasing spending is often difficult due to the limited tax base of most developing countries, improving the efficiency of public spending becomes crucial. In order to improve this efficiency, governments have at least two options. The first consists of changing the allocation mix of public expenditures. The second option is more ambitious; it consists of implementing wide-ranging institutional reforms in order to improve variables such as the overall level of bureaucratic quality and corruption in a country, with the hope that this will improve the efficiency of public spending for the social sectors, among other things. In this paper, we use stochastic production frontier estimation methods to compare the impact of the level of public spending on education and health outcomes on the one hand, and the efficiency in spending on the other hand, using life expectancy and net enrolment in primary school as outcome indicators. After estimating efficiency measures at the country level, we analyze in a second step how the quality of the bureaucracy, corruption, and urbanization affect efficiency. We find that urbanization, and to some extent the quality of the bureaucracy are strong determinants of the efficiency of countries in improving education and health outcomes, while the impact of corruption is not statistically significant. Together, these three variables alone explain up to half of the variation in efficiency measures between countries.Millennium Development Goals; education; health; production functions; stochastic frontier

Reinventing the public mission of the research university in the Asian century: a gateway approach

The recently released White Paper on Australia in the Asian Century reflected a consensus that higher education is at the cutting edge of our Asian engagement. To this end the White Paper prescribes an important role for public universities in the unfolding Asian Century. It suggests that universities – like other public and private institutions – should deepen our engagement with Asia.But what does this deep internationalisation mean for our public research universities? The argument in this Policy Brief is that varied forms of internationalisation will have different forms of balance between private and public purposes and benefits pursued by our research universities. Internationalisation or the ‘deep internationalisation’ proposed by the White Paper challenges us to consider the public purposes and benefits beyond the box of ‘national state’, and yet achieve this without letting the market model dominate the ‘public’ enterprise of the research university. As Simon Marginson (2012) – an astute observer of higher education – has maintained: how do we redefine the ‘public’ as universities operate on global and regional scales