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Massey Research Online is an open access digital archive of the research and scholarship of Massey University and is jointly managed by the University Library and Information Technology Services.
Massey Research Online contains research theses and research outputs including published work by Massey University students and academic staff as well as peer-reviewed material not published elsewhere. In the case of previously published research outputs all requirements of copyright owners are observed.
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An examination of Alfred North Whitehead’s “Philosophy of Organism” to determine compatibility with contemporary arguments for the primacy of process in science of biology : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Philosophy at Massey University, Distance, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2024) Wilson, Michael Paul
Alfred North Whitehead’s ‘Philosophy of Organism’ is a philosophy that does not deny the existence of things in the world such as tables and chairs, but asserts that everything is ultimately made of processes. The purpose of this thesis is to understand better whether Whitehead’s philosophy is relevant to contemporary process philosophers of biology. John Dupré and Daniel Nicholson are examples of contemporary philosophers of biology who claim that living beings should be viewed as ‘processes’, as Whitehead envisaged, and not as “things” or “substances”. Specifically, we are interested in those topics associated with process ontology and epistemology in the context of the science of biology. The thesis is composed of four parts. The first chapter provides an overview of the historical background of process philosophy and the issues that arose in its development. The second chapter examines Alfred North Whitehead’s philosophy of organism. Next, I present an analysis of contemporary philosophers of biology and their process theories, including the work of Daniel Nicholson and John Dupré, Johanna Seibt, Stephan Guttinger and Thomas Pradeu. Lastly, I provide arguments regarding the relevance of Whitehead’s philosophy to contemporary philosophers of biology and their process philosophies. Part of this analysis will involve comparisons of these views with generally accepted process qualities distilled from contemporary process philosophers such as Nicholas Rescher, Didier Debaise and George Lucas. The thesis makes the positive claim that Whitehead’s philosophical contributions are still relevant to contemporary process philosophers of biology, beyond what is currently recognised. If Whitehead’s arguments were to be taken more seriously, this would strengthen the arguments of contemporary process philosophy in the domain of philosophy of biology.
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One with the waters : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Creative Writing (MCW) at Massey University, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2024) Campbell, Patricia Fern
Alice Oswald’s book-length poem Dart is a work of ecopoetry that layers the voices of the Dart River’s humans with the voice of the river itself. By using notions of duality and place from a Western perspective, Oswald’s poetry weaves a connection with the river and the surrounding Devon landscape that could be used as a spur to ecological responsibility. This metaphorical “river speaking as a human” analogy connects the reader with the river, while simultaneously drawing attention to the ecological concerns present within the human-river connection. Oswald’s perspective uses the voices of people and stories that have been told along the river to show the strong connection of people to the river, while keeping the stream as an object separate to the people. From a Te Ao Māori perspective, the connection to a river is implicit, due to its differing relational ontology, where the river is the person and vice-versa. The conflict between stream-as-object and stream-as-being is visible in the treatment of Wharemauku Stream, the waterway that stretches through Paraparaumu, a town in the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. This stream has been modified throughout the length of Pākehā occupation of Paraparaumu - carved and straightened to run down property boundaries and routed under roads, rather than allowed to spread where its waters naturally would, in the interests of keeping the land and roads nearby financially viable. This has impacted on the wairua and mana of both the stream and the mana whenua of this rohe. A Kaupapa Māori approach that incorporates poetry for educating and connecting local people with the stream could help to spur ecological responsibility while also increasing the wairua and mana of the stream and its people. A hybrid method, using Oswald’s method of speaking for the river using a human voice, but giving the river personhood and agency using a Te Ao Māori approach of whakapapa and kaitiakitanga, is the work of this thesis.
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Effect of grazing rotation interval and defoliation residual height on the botanical composition, yield and quality of hyper-diverse pastures : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Agricultural Science at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2024) Wood, Rebekah Lynaire
Pastoral farming systems in New Zealand currently heavily rely on Lolium perenne L. (perennial ryegrass)-Trifolium repens L. (white clover) (relatively simple) pasture mixtures. However, there are problems with seasonal growth fluctuations, creating periods of feed deficit and surplus. Further, these species result in low nitrogen (N) use efficiency, leading to high N concentrations in urine, N leaching and nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions. Pressure on these farming systems has grown to improve productivity, efficiency and mitigate environmental impacts. It has been suggested that diverse pastures (those including mixtures of grass, legume and herb species) may provide improved yield, seasonal distribution of pasture supply and quality through the inclusion of species with different characteristics (i.e. heat and drought tolerance, deeper rooting). However, the success of a given pasture mixture is largely dependent on management. Whilst there is a plethora of literature looking into defoliation management of diverse pastures, there is a dearth of studies looking at hyper-diverse pastures (those including >9 species from at least 3 different functional groups). The objectives of this research were to examine how differing defoliation management (i.e. residual height and defoliation interval) impacted the botanical composition, yield and quality of hyper-diverse pasture mixtures. This study indicated that, whilst a large number of species were sown (18 species in the dairy mixture and 19 species in the sheep mixture), less than half were observed to remain present throughout the study period of 7 months (November 2022 to May 2023). Of those present, there were only several that dominated (i.e. perennial ryegrass, white clover, Plantago lanceolata L. (plantain) and Trifolium pratense L. (red clover), and they were not sensitive to any residual height or interval treatments, over the period of this study. The reversion of the hyper-diverse mixtures to a smaller number of dominant species within a short timeframe poses the question of whether it would have been easier to create a simpler pasture mixture at the outset. However, the survival and dominance of species was undoubtedly driven by edaphic conditions, along with the prevailing climate at time of sowing and throughout the experimental period, and interactions between these and the defoliation management. Overall, there was a general trend where a longer defoliation interval (9 weeks) reduced total yield, whilst shorter intervals (3 and 6 weeks) increased yieldsin association with higher residual heights. There were no significant differences in nutritive value parameters, but there were trends in the data which showed that higher residual heights and longer rotations resulted in increased lignin and neutral detergent fibre and decreased metabolisable energy for these pastures during May. However, regardless of treatment, the nutritive value parameters showed that these hyper-diverse pasture mixtures are capable of maintaining high animal performance. More research needs to be undertaken before clear recommendations are able to be made regarding likely suitable situation-specific mixtures, and these will vary with region and management system (e.g. dairy, sheep, and beef). Further research should focus on how to achieve successful establishment of a large number of species in mixture, and then to define the optimal defoliation management that will maintain diversity over a longer time period. Overall, the results of this study indicated that hyper-diverse pasture mixtures can be defoliated under a range of residual heights and intervals whilst maintaining yield and quality, although with less diversity, suggesting that these mixtures have the potential to be valuable in New Zealand pastoral systems.
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Predicting nutritional content of native forage feed using ATR-FTIR and NIR chemometrics : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Nanoscience at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2024) Coleman, Gregory Maurice
Near infrared (NIR) reflectance spectroscopy has historically dominated the agriculture industry in the prediction of the nutritional content of pasture and forage in New Zealand. This study investigates using an alternative infrared reflectance technique in the mid infrared (MIR) region, Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, and compares it to NIR, for the prediction of the chemical composition of native forage feed for sheep. Six native forage species and one non-native control species comprised 181 samples, which were recorded with both NIR and ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. Spectral pre-treatment was applied to all spectra in the form of a first-order Savitzky-Golay (SG) smoothening filter. Prediction of nutritional content for six analytes was achieved for both IR methods, using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and a Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression model. The predictive ability of ATR-FTIR and NIR models was evaluated using the coefficient of determination (R²), Root Mean Square Error of Cross Validation (RMSECV), and Relative Performance Deviation (RPD). NIR had superior R2 and RPD, and similar RMSECV to ATR-FTIR for all analyte predictions. The best models were crude protein (CP) for NIR (R² : 0.95, RPD: 5.58) and metabolisable energy (ME) for FTIR (R² :0.79, RPD: 3.52). Post prediction statistics were also investigated for FTIR and NIR, finding that a ‘one size fits all’ blanket model for all species and tissue types was sufficient for quality prediction of CP, ME, and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) for native shrub species. These models suggested that ME and NDF predictions were similar between NIR and FTIR but NIR was superior to FTIR for CP. Overall, this study demonstrates the considerable potential of ATR-FTIR for quality nutritional content predictions, that are comparable to NIR.
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Effect of dietary processing on the gut microbiome of dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Animal Science at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
(Massey University, 2024) Tannahill, Lucy May
The gastrointestinal microbiome of the dog plays important roles in the overall health of the dog. Generally, a greater microbiome diversity is indicative of better gastrointestinal health. The microflora in the gastrointestinal tract can be altered by the diet that the dog is consuming. Therefore, it is important to understand how the diet interacts with the dog’s microbiome, to further expand our knowledge of the overall health of dogs. This study investigated the effects of processing of a series of high meat diets on the gastrointestinal microbiome of dogs. A literature review was carried out to establish the current base of knowledge of the microbiome of the dog, and how the diet may affect it. The nutritional requirements of dogs, as well as how diets are assessed for suitability were also reviewed. To assess the impact of diet changes on the microbiome, a series of standard digestibility trials were run. To do this, a raw version, and a processed version of two diets were fed to a group of dogs over two-week blocks, as well as two high meat kibble diets in subsequent blocks. The faeces were collected over a period of five days, with a final faecal sample taken on the final day. This enabled a digestibility analysis to be completed, and the microbiome to be analysed using 16S sequencing which allowed comparisons to be made between the microbiota present in the gut while the dogs were consuming a raw and processed version of two of the diets and two other high meat diets. A high number of reads were present in all samples after the 16S sequencing was completed, and Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Fusobacteria and Proteobacteria were the phyla present in the largest proportions on average across all the samples. Phascolarctobacterium, Prevotella, Bacteroides and Fusobacterium were the most prominent genera. The diet with the highest microbial diversity was Blackhawk (BH) and the diets with the least were steamed and dried raw (SDR) and Orijen (OR). The two unprocessed diets had lower diversity present in the gut microbiome than their processed counterparts. This suggests that the processing those diets went through did result in positive changes in the microbiota compared to the raw versions. Microbiomes that are more diverse are generally thought of to be healthier than ones with less diversity present.