Quantifying historic changes in glacier size and mass balance is important for understanding how the cryosphere responds to climate variability and change. Airborne photogrammetry enables glacier extent and equilibrium line altitudes (ELAs) to be monitored for more glaciers at lower cost than traditional mass-balance programs and other remote-sensing techniques. Since 1977, end-of-summer-snowlines, which are a proxy for annual ELAs, have been recorded for 50 glaciers in the Southern Alps of New Zealand using oblique aerial photographs. In this study, we use structure from motion photogrammetry to estimate the camera parameters, including position, for historic photographs, which we then use to measure glacier change. We apply this method to a small maritime New Zealand glacier (Brewster Glacier, 1670–2400 m a.s.l.) to derive annual ELA and length records between 1981 and 2017, and quantify the uncertainties associated with the method. Our length reconstruction shows largely continuous terminus retreat of 365 ± 12 m for Brewster Glacier since 1981. The ELA record, which compares well with glaciological mass-balance data measured between 2005 and 2015, shows pronounced interannual variability. Mean ELAs range from 1707 ± 6 to 2303 ± 5 m a.s.l., with the highest ELAs occurring in the last decade.

Short-term glacier velocity variations typically occur when a water input is accommodated by an increase in the subglacial water pressure. Although these velocity variations have been well documented on many glaciers, few studies have considered them on glaciers where heavy rain and glacier melt occur year-round. This study investigates the relationship between water inputs and glacier velocity on Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand. We installed six GNSS stations across the lower glacier during austral summer 2010/11 and one station during summer 2012/13. Glacier velocity remained elevated at all stations for ∼7 days following large rain events. During diurnal melt events, we find velocity variations in the early afternoon (12:00–16:00) at 600 m a.s.l. and in the late evening (20:00–01:00) at 400 m a.s.l. We hypothesize that the late-evening velocity variations occurred as an upstream region of high subglacial water pressures and accelerated ice motion propagated downstream. This mechanism may also explain the increased longitudinal compression and transverse extension across the lower glacier during speed-up events. Our results indicate that the subglacial drainage system likely decreases in efficiency upstream and that the water input variability can still cause short-term velocity variations despite the large year-round water inputs.

This study provides a detailed description of the development of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of farmed red deer (Cervus elaphus) calves over the first 12 months of age. GIT development was measured using a combination of computerised tomography (CT) scanning and traditional slaughter plus dissection techniques. Red deer calves of a known birth date were randomly assigned to two treatment groups. A group of five animals were repeatedly CT scanned at 31, 63, 92, 135, 207, 275 and 351 days of age to identify GIT organs and determine their volume. From a group of 20 animals, subsets of four individuals were also scanned at corresponding ages (except 135 days of age). They were immediately euthanised and dissected after CT scanning to compare CT-scanned results with actual anatomical measurements. Individual organ weights were compared with their respective organ volumes determined by CT scanning and were found to have a strong, positive relationship. The combined rumen and reticulum (RR) CT-scanned volume was compared with its volume determined by the water-displacement technique and this also showed good correlation between the two techniques (R = 0.92). The allometric growth rates of organs, relative to animal live weight gains, in descending order, were the rumen, omasum, reticulum, abomasum, caecum blind sac, kidneys, spleen and liver. The red deer GIT was continuing to grow and develop when the last measurement was taken at 351 days of age. The greatest growth of the RR, when expressed in terms of empty weight, was between 31 and 92 days of age. Compared with sheep and cattle, it appears that the red deer have a similar or greater rate of RR development up until approximately 60 to 90 days of age; however, the final increments of GIT maturity in deer may take longer to complete, with the empty weight of the RR gaining 7.5 g/day between 275 and 351 days of age. CT scanning was validated in this study as a viable technique to follow GIT development in the same animals over time, and it provided novel information on allometric organ growth. The success of CT scanning highlights the potential future use of diagnostic imaging for GIT development studies.

Of all the controversial issues surrounding IQ tests, few have generated more heat and less light than the question whether different groups in our society differ in average IQ. Those who study, and find evidence of, such differences believe that they are addressing a legitimate scientific issue and one whose implications, however unpalatable they may be, society ignores at its peril. Their critics insist that the question has no intrinsic scientific interest whatsoever, and conclude that those who study it are either naive, deceiving themselves or only too happy to find justification for their own comfortable position within an unjust and unequal society. In the case of sex differences in IQ scores, at least, one could argue that both sides have got it largely wrong. With one exception, there is relatively little social or political implication in such differences as there are. More importantly, however, arguments will be presented against the critics' view that such research is of no intrinsic scientific interest. On the contrary, it has already helped to answer some important scientific questions about the nature of IQ, and has the potential to answer more. Unfortunately, those who engage in such research have usually failed to see this.