Browsing by Author "Xu X"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Fungi regulate the response of the N2O production process to warming and grazing in a Tibetan grassland
    (Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union, 2018-07-20) Zhong L; Wang S; Xu X; Wang Y; Rui Y; Zhou X; Shen Q; Wang J; Jiang L; Luo C; Gu T; Ma W; Chen G; Kuzyakov Y
    Lack of understanding of the effects of warming and winter grazing on soil fungal contribution to the nitrous oxide (N2O) production process has limited our ability to predict N2O fluxes under changes in climate and land use management, because soil fungi play an important role in driving terrestrial N cycling. A controlled warming and winter grazing experiment that included control (C), winter grazing (G), warming (W) and warming with winter grazing (WG) was conducted to investigate the effects of warming and winter grazing on soil N2O production potential in an alpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau. Our results showed that soil bacteria and fungi contributed 46 ± 2% and 54 ± 2% to nitrification, and 37 ± 3% and 63 ± 3% to denitrification in the control treatment, respectively. We conclude that soil fungi could be the main source of N2O production potential for the Tibetan alpine grasslands. In our results, neither warming nor winter grazing affected the activity of enzymes responsible for overall nitrification and denitrification. However, warming significantly increased the enzyme activity of bacterial nitrification and potential of N2O production from denitrification to 53 ± 2% and 55 ± 3%, respectively, but decreased them to 47 ± 2% and 45 ± 3%, respectively. Winter grazing had no such effects. Warming and winter grazing may not affect the soil N2O production potential, but climate warming can alter biotic pathways responsible for N2O production process. These findings confirm the importance of soil fungi in the soil N2O production process and how they respond to environmental and land use changes in alpine meadow ecosystems. Therefore, our results provide some new insights into ecological controls on the N2O production process and contribute to the development of an ecosystem nitrogen cycle model.
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    Retirement Income and Financial Market Participation in New Zealand
    (MDPI AG, 30/01/2023) Xu X; Young M; Zou L; Fang J
    Using New Zealand Household Economic Survey (HES) 2018 data, we examine the impact of direct financial market participation post-retirement on retirement income in New Zealand. Our results demonstrate the importance of post-retirement financial market participation in the enhancement of retirees’ financial well-being. We conclude that retirees who participate in the financial market enjoy a 78% increase in overall annuitised net wealth; further analysis also reveals a substantial 154% increase if government pensions are excluded from calculations of annuitised net wealth. Moreover, these retiree participants also show higher probabilities of financial-situation satisfaction. These results highlight the significant contribution to retirement income of direct financial market participation. Our paper sheds extra light on issues related to retirement financial well-being and has important implications for policy makers in New Zealand.
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    Retirement Income Sufficiency: A Comparison Study in Australia and New Zealand
    (MDPI AG, 15/02/2023) Xu X; Young M; Zou L; Fang J
    We use the 2018 survey data from the Household, Income, and Labour Dynamic (HILDA) in Australia and the Household Economic Survey (HES) in New Zealand to investigate the retirement income sufficiency in Australia and New Zealand. Our baseline results indicate that the annuitized net wealth is greater for Australian retirees than for New Zealand retirees. However, New Zealand retirees enjoy a higher level of life satisfaction than Australian retirees. Further analysis reveals a significant greater pre- and postretirement income for the top 10% of wealthy Australian retirees, mainly due to the higher level of homeownership in Australia within this group. Our study fills the gap in the existing literature, which studies the macro- and microlevel influences on Australia and New Zealand retirees, and it also offers important policy implications.
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    The Impact of Post-retirement Financial Market Participation on Retirement Income Sufficiency in Australia
    (Wiley, 2023-08-13) Xu X; Fang J; Young M; Zou L
    Using HILDA survey data, we document a strong positive relationship between post-retirement financial market participation and retiree income sufficiency in Australia. We find a 17% improvement in the income replacement ratio and a 3.26 times higher annuitised net wealth for financial market participants compared to non-participants. We further investigate how age, residence area, relationship status, education, health, and employment affect the main finding in all and female retirees. The results highlight the value of financial market participation in facilitating household retirement security and provide further support for the active promotion of household financial market participation, both in Australia and globally.