Showing papers by "Karin Müller published in 2022"

Modelling Climate Change Impacts on Location Suitability and Spatial Footprint of Apple and Kiwifruit

Abstract: The threats and opportunities faced by primary production industries from future climate changes can be adequately prepared for only with the guidance of model projections that can assist the development of robust policy and climate adaptation plans by governments and industries. We used continuous suitability models capable of reflecting incremental changes to project the suitability of locations across New Zealand for cultivating apple and kiwifruit in the mid- and late-century. These projections used future weather data from climate model simulations for two contrasting greenhouse gas (GHG) pathways: stringent GHG mitigation and unabated GHG emissions. To improve the suitability of the modelled temperature data, specifically for use with biologically driven, crop suitability models, we developed new bias-variance adjustments that preserved climate change signals within the data. Preliminary projections of land use across a range of alternative primary industries were obtained from a multinomial logit model incorporating continuous suitability scores as predictors. We refined the preliminary land-use projections by providing them as inputs into a simulation model of land use incorporating other drivers and constraints. This methodology provides a means for projecting future land use and the spatial footprints of primary industries, based on biological and econometric considerations, under different modelled climate change scenarios.

Modelling Continuous Location Suitability Scores and Spatial Footprint of Apple and Kiwifruit in New Zealand

Abstract: Under climate change, land use suitability for horticultural production will change; this has prospects of both adverse socio-economic impacts for the industry in some regions, and beneficial impacts in others. Policy development and industry guidance are needed to develop adaptations to mitigate climate change risks and exploit new opportunities. For climate-change issues, models provide a powerful means for assessing future suitability at a patch, region or national scale in order to guide policy decisions. Here, we describe the development of a new continuous (sliding-scale) suitability modelling approach to assess the suitability of different locations for growing apple and kiwifruit in New Zealand, based on phenological and physiological considerations; these models used geographical information system (GIS) soil, land and weather data to develop maps showing the suitability of locations across New Zealand for cultivating apple and kiwifruit. The models were “ground-truthed” in an iterative process of expert parameterisation and recalibration to ensure maps aligned with current growing locations for the two crops. We estimated an econometric logit model that incorporated the continuous suitability scores as predictors of land use for apple and kiwifruit. Comparison of modelled suitability scores with industry-supplied maps of apple and kiwifruit orchards showed good consistency between predicted suitability and current land use. Compared with a range of alternative land uses, suitability for apple was highest for locations currently used to grow apple and suitability for kiwifruit was highest for locations currently used to grow kiwifruit. Our framework provides the capability to project incremental changes in the suitability of locations for apple and kiwifruit under different climate change pathways and to project consequential changes in their spatial footprints; this framework can be extended to other crops.

Exposure to soiled bedding reduces abnormal repetitive behaviors in mice

Abstract: Hygiene management protocols in laboratory mouse husbandries worldwide most commonly employ soiled bedding-exposed sentinel mice to monitor the occurrence of infections in mouse colonies. Using this approach, sentinel mice repeatedly receive a mixture of used bedding, supplied by a variety of cages of a defined hygienic unit for a period of several months. Hereby, microorganisms shed in the used bedding can infect the sentinel animals and can be detected in subsequent health monitoring procedures. However, murine excrements carry more than only microorganisms. Mouse feces and urine also contain a multitude of olfactory molecules, which the animals use to code information about social status and context. However, if and how the persistent and repeated experience with these odor cues affects the behavior of sentinel mice, has not yet been explored. To address this question, we conducted a longitudinal study for neurochemical output parameters related to an organism’s responsiveness to challenging conditions, and for the exploratory assessment of a panel of home cage behaviors in soiled bedding and control female C57BL/6J mice. We found that the number of mice showing abnormal repetitive behaviors, including barbering and bar mouthing, was lower in the soiled bedding group. While neutrophil/lymphocyte ratios and fecal corticosterone metabolites did not differ between groups, the within-group variance of the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio was reduced in the soiled bedding group. These results show that the occurrence of abnormal repetitive behaviors is lower in sentinel than in control mice and suggest a beneficial effect of soiled bedding on the welfare of laboratory mice and on outcome variability.

DDR-Kinder aus Namibia

Abstract: Im Rahmen des Unabhängigkeitskampfes der namibischen Befreiungsbewegung SWAPO gegen die Besetzung durch Südafrika entstand 1979 ein einzigartiges Solidaritätsprojekt: Bis 1990 wurden fast 430 namibische Kinder in die DDR gebracht, um sie vor dem Krieg zu schützen und ihnen eine gute Ausbildung zu ermöglichen. Karin Müller rekonstruiert mithilfe einer Metaphernanalyse in Interviews mit 17 ehemaligen »DDR-Kindern aus Namibia«, wie sie ihr Aufwachsen in der DDR erlebt haben. Neben thematischen Einblicken in das Geschehen und die Wirkmacht politischen Handelns liefert sie auch methodologische Erkenntnisse über das Potenzial von Metaphern zur Beantwortung sozialwissenschaftlicher Fragen.