Zooplankton In An Australian Tropical Estuary

The composition of the zooplankton community in a macrotidal (8 m tidal range), tropical estuarine system (Darwin Harbour, Australia; 12^o28′ S, 130^o50′ E) was studied over a 2 year period with the goal of describing biodiversity and determining the environmental factors that have the greatest impact on community structure. Most (82–84%) of the >73 μm plankton was composed of copepod nauplii and copepodites, and plankton samples taken with larger, coarser meshed (150 and 350 μm) nets did not contain significant numbers of larger (non-copepod) organisms. In all, 32 copepod species were recorded, with small euryhaline marine copepod species such as Parvocalanus crassirostris, Bestiolina similis and Oithona aruensis dominating the zooplankton. Plankton abundances ranged between 30,000 and 110,000 m⁻³, and there were significant year (2003 > 2004), season (wet > dry) and site differences (inner harbour sites > outer harbour sites), but negligible diurnal differences. Multivariate analyses identified three sample groups: (1) middle and outer harbour sites, (2) inner harbour and river sites and (3) the river site during the wet seasons. Middle and outer harbour stations were characterised by a diverse mixture of coastal copepods, whereas inner harbour and river sites were dominated by P. crassirostris and O. aruensis. During the wet season, there was a distinct copepod community within the Blackmore River, dominated by Acartia sinjiensis, Oithona nishidai and Pseudodiaptomus spp. Environmental variables (nutrients and chlorophyll a) were correlated with salinity, which had the strongest influence on community structure. There was a significant drop in species richness from harbour to river sites. Small copepods of the families Paracalanidae and Oithonidae dominate tide-dominated Australian tropical estuaries, whereas copepods belonging to the family Centropagidae (such as Gladioferens spp.) appear to be characteristic of wave-dominated estuaries in southern Australia.     

Towards developing sediment quality assessment guidelines for aquatic systems: An Australian perspective

Sediment at the sediment‐water interface of natural and man‐made waterways forms an integral part of the ecosystem because it is affected by a continuous flux of physical, chemical and biological components between the sediment, interstitial water and the overlying water column. Aquatic sediments contain records of past and present urban and rural runoff, chemical discharges and spills. In recent years sediment quality has received increasing attention following identification of the role of sediment as both a sink for pollutants and as a contaminant source with potential impacts on the quality of receiving waters. Research has indicated that the processes leading to remobilization of contaminated sediments in upstream reaches of a waterway may, through time, exert a significant influence on water quality in the downstream reaches. This, together with the cumulative effects due to contaminant input from point and non‐point source discharges, have dramatic effects on water quality and thus on ecosystem structure and functioning.

The problems associated with elevated concentrations of many hazardous organic and inorganic compounds have resulted in the establishment of aquatic sediment quality criteria and management guidelines in many overseas countries, with the objectives being the reduction and elimination of adverse environmental effects and human health risks associated with contaminated sediments. Whereas more than 70% of the Australian population is clustered around the coastal waterways, little is known about the role of sediments as a repository of environmental pollutants and/or as a source of adverse impacts on water quality and the health of our rivers. The paucity of knowledge on the quality of aquatic sediment highlights the need for the development of coherent guidelines for sediment quality assessment and management of contaminated sites, which are consistent with Australian environmental conditions and land use features.

A comparative evaluation of sediment quality information from eight coastal rivers along the east coast of Australia, presented in this paper, indicates the possibility for establishing a framework for regional sediment quality assessment. This may be achievable by using textural and compositional attributes of bottom sediments in depositional areas to develop databases on the loading and concentration trends of nutrients and contaminants. Regional variability in sediment quality determinants are shown to reflect the influence of catchment hydrology, lithology and land use on nutrient and contaminant concentration trends. Locally, the loading and partitioning behaviour of sediment‐bound contaminants is largely controlled by the nature and the extent of interactions occurring at the sediment‐water interface within individual depositional units.

The concept of ‘Sediment Effect Zone’ is introduced to provide a compartmental approach to the characterization of aquatic sediments and depositional environments in different hydrologic zones. This approach offers a rational basis for follow‐up chemical and biological assessments to establish sediment quality standards and management guidelines. Because of the complex influences of environmental, methodological and statistical factors on defining the sediment variability, the need for implementing proper quality control measures from early stages of design of a sediment quality assessment program is highlighted.     

An experimental and numerical study of a landslide triggered by an extreme rainfall event in northern Australia

In February/March 2007, an extreme rainfall event occurred in the Jabiru region of the Northern Territory of Australia. Rainfall of 784 mm fell in a 72-h period. This rainfall event resulted in 49 separate landslides occurring in the adjacent, but remote and inaccessible region of Arnhem Land. The landslides were extensively mapped and characterised. A common feature of the landslides was their relatively surficial nature. This paper reports on laboratory and field tests to characterise the material properties of the slide material and the underlying, more competent material. One particular, large and relatively accessible landslide was chosen for detailed investigation. The experimental data are used to carry out seepage and slope stability analyses, taking account of changes in the degree of saturation (and thus the negative pore water pressure or suction) in the slope material during the rainfall event in question. Using a parametric study in which various material parameters were varied around the measured mean values, it is shown that the failure of this particular slope could have been predicted using relatively straightforward seepage and limit equilibrium slope stability analyses, coupled with the relevant rainfall data, as long as the contribution of matric suction to the engineering characteristics of the slope material was accounted for. The work also highlights the importance of in situ conditions at the time a particular rainfall event (particularly an extreme event such as that considered in this paper) occurs. If the slope has a relatively high degree of saturation, manifested as a low initial in situ suction, it is more susceptible to rainfall triggering a slope failure. Although this observation is not novel, the investigation described in this paper confirms the importance of ambient in situ conditions and provides an indication of how the likelihood of landslide occurrence at this particular site may in the future be quantified, i.e. by focussing on antecedent rainfall history.     

Australian crustal structure

There have been eight large-scale refraction experiments in Australia during the last fifteen years. P₁ velocities derived from these experiments are significantly higher in the Precambrian shield region than in eastern Australia. P_n-velocities are also higher beneath the shield, and appear to increase systematically from east to west across the continent. There is good evidence for an intermediate layer in all parts of Australia, with an average depth of about 20 km to the Conrad discontinuity. The crustal thickness has an average value of about 40 km, and the observed variations in thickness are apparently unrelated to topography in most cases.     

东亚季风气候对Heinrich2事件的响应:来自石笋的高分辨率记录

据湖北省神农架天鹅洞一支石笋11个230Th年龄和254个δ18O数据,建立了28.5～22.0kaB.P.同位素分辨率平均约30a的东亚季风气候变化序列。该石笋δ18O曲线与南京葫芦洞石笋记录在重叠时段基本一致,说明本区石笋δ18O反映了区域性东亚季风经向环流特征。在24.3kaB.P.左右,石笋δ18O明显正偏,持续时间近1ka,指示一次显著的弱夏季风事件,与北大西洋倒数第二次冰漂碎屑事件(Heinrich2)同步发生,可视为东亚季风气候对H2事件的响应。高分辨率的δ18O序列揭示了H2事件的内部结构特征:(1)事件发生的突变性,石笋δ18O记录指示事件发生时在100a内δ18O从-8.59‰迅速正偏为-6.75‰,振幅达1.84‰;(2)事件结束的渐变性,δ18O正偏到-6.75‰后便以阶梯状缓慢负偏到-8.86‰至事件结束,持续时间近900a。这一过程与末次盛冰期东亚季风气候H1事件表现的季风强弱转换方式基本一致,说明末次盛冰期东亚季风气候H型事件具有共同的内部结构特征。研究表明,末次盛冰期东亚季风气候H事件的突变可能受北大西洋驱动并经青藏高原冰川变化放大。     

Sustainability begins at home? An ecological exploration of sub/urban Australian community-focused housing initiatives

This paper responds to challenges made by Castree [Castree, N., 2004. Environmental issues: signals in the noise? Progress in Human Geography 28 (1), 79-90] and Sneddon [Sneddon, C., 2000. ‘Sustainability’ in ecological economics, ecology and livelihoods: a review. Progress in Human Geography 24 (4), 521-549] for human geography to clarify its contribution to environmental debates and engage with recent formulations of sustainability as informed by the ‘new ecology’. This approach focuses on resilience, functional diversity, flexibility and complexity, here used to examine housing sustainability within an industrialised sub/urban context in terms of design philosophy, ownership, management bases, community engagement and funding mechanisms. This framework highlights areas of concern for enhancing the functional diversity of housing systems, echoing recent assertions that challenges for sustainability arise more from trust and power sharing issues, than from physical design and maintenance issues. It is argued that it is precisely human geography’s place-by-place consideration of power, embeddedness, scale and politics that can lend new ecology the social relevance it requires.     

Late. Oligocene Pacific-wide tectonic event

Stratigraphic and structural changes, radiometrically and biostratigraphically dated, from basins and basement across New Zealand, indicate that the modern Australia-Pacific plate boundary, including the Alpine fault sector, formed between 28 and 24 Ma. This age range coincides with changes at about 25 Ma in the trends of the Hawaiian and Louisville hotspot chains, and a 27–25 Ma reorganization of spreading on the Antarctic-Pacific spreading ridge. It also follows closely the 28.5 Ma initiation of subduction of the East Pacific Rise south of Mendocino fracture zone that lead to formation of the San Andreas continental transform. The late Oligocene Pacific-wide tectonic reorganization may have been triggered by this ridge-trench collision.     

Chelyabinsk event as an astronomical phenomenon

The fall of a meteorite near the town of Chelyabinsk is considered from the viewpoint of astronomy, and the major witness facts and entry characteristics (including the measured entry velocity and the height of the explosion) are analyzed. The aerodynamic phenomena that accompanied the entry of the meteorite in the atmosphere at an ultrasonic velocity and the origin of a shock wave that induced damage on the Earth’s surface are analyzed. The paper also reports the estimated frequency of the falls of celestial bodies depending on their size, and consequences of collisions of these bodies with the Earth. It is emphasized that studies of small bodies in the Solar System can provide insight into the origin of the protoplanetary disk and the processes that produced the planets. The studies of small bodies, such as the Chelyabinsk meteorite, are directly related to the problem of asteroid and comet impact hazard (ACIH). The paper reports the sizes of potentially hazardous celestial bodies whose monitoring requires the deployment of a network of specialized telescopes on the Earth to mitigate ACH and a system of space-based systems for the identification and monitoring of such bodies in near space.     

Index of Australian meteorites

A new compilation of Australian meteorite discoveries suggests that many meteorites remain to be discovered by field geologists and others, in outback areas of Australia.     

Geography in Australian education

Geography in Australia has a heritage that is strongly British, but more recently has been influenced from other parts of the world, such as North America and New Zealand. Its popularity has fluctuated and it is now under threat as a separate subject in the compulsory years of schooling. In higher education, geography has retrieved lost ground to be a popular area of study, but not a research area in the current national priorities. Geography plays a focal role in the general education of Australians. It is a medium for education involving the education of people, about, in, and for the society and environment in which they live. Through education, geography will enable people to explore their life-roles as learners, social beings, recreators, producers, consumers and citizens. It will develop in people distinctive knowledge, thinking processes, attitudes and values, and encourage participation in social and environmental actions. Teachers in secondary and higher education have differing and distinctive roles. Being a geographer in Australia does have benefits including: working in an identifiable area of knowledge maintaining a bridge across the physical and social sciences; the promotion of inquiry approaches and as a focus for the various adjectival educations that have emerged. These are tempered by challenges such as: threats from emerging disciplines, current national research priorities and the movement to social science education. Therefore, promotion of geography in Australia needs to be much more forceful than it has until now. The work of groups such as the Institute of Australian Geographers and the Australian Geography Teachers' Association needs to be co-ordinated more closely to develop a strong lobby for geography in Australian education.     

Simulation of a Himalayan cloudburst event

Intense rainfall often leads to floods and landslides in the Himalayan region even with rainfall amounts that are considered comparatively moderate over the plains; for example, ‘cloudbursts’, which are devastating convective phenomena producing sudden high-intensity rainfall (∼10 cm per hour) over a small area. Early prediction and warning of such severe local weather systems is crucial to mitigate societal impact arising from the accompanying flash floods. We examine a cloudburst event in the Himalayan region at Shillagarh village in the early hours of 16 July 2003. The storm lasted for less than half an hour, followed by flash floods that affected hundreds of people. We examine the fidelity of MM5 configured with multiple-nested domains (81, 27, 9 and 3 km grid-resolution) for predicting a cloudburst event with attention to horizontal resolution and the cloud microphysics parameterization. The MM5 model predicts the rainfall amount 24 hours in advance. However, the location of the cloudburst is displaced by tens of kilometers     

An evaluation of Rock-Eval pyrolysis for the study of Australian coals including their kerogen and humic acid fractions

Rock-Eval pyrolysis was performed on lithotype and depth profiles of Tertiary brown coals and a coalification profile of Permian bituminous coals. The humic acid and kerogen fractions from the coals are also investigated by this technique along with the effect of base extraction on the kerogen fraction. Structural variations between brown coal lithotypes are primarily reflected by changes in Oxygen Index Value. This result was supported by the results from the depth profile (same lithotype). A wide range of Hydrogen Indices (independent of depth) but similar Oxygen Indices were observed. The results from the Qualification profile show that the Oxygen Indices varied with rank, whereas Hydrogen Indices show a greater dependence on coal type. A plot of $\text{H}\text{C}$versus Hydrogen Index produced good correlations with the brown (0.77) and bituminous (0.90) samples lying on two separate lines intersecting at high H/C. This result (and higher correlation for bituminous samples) reflects the expected dependence of hydrogen index on oxygen content (present primarily as hydroxyl groups). A high correlation (0.95) between quantitative IR data (K 2920 cm mg^?1) and Hydrogen Indices supports previous conclusions regarding the dependence of Hydrogen Indices on the aliphatic structure of the samples.     

赣东北白垩纪事件沉积作用

赣东北白垩纪地层单位涵义一直较为混乱,本文从事件沉积入手,确定了4种不同类型的界面。笔者根据其事件沉积界面,划分出3个组一级和两个段一级的岩石地层单位,较好地控制了陆相地层的纵向和横向的突变,而且对深入盆地研究,解决年代地层都具重要作用。     

孔兹岩系事件与太古宙地壳构造演化

孔兹岩系是太古宙高级变质岩区中较为常见的变质沉积岩石地层单位 ,它以富铝(含墨 )的矽线榴云片麻岩为特征 ,伴有石英岩、钙硅酸盐岩及富镁大理岩等组合而成的一套岩石地层。内蒙古大青山地区近年来研究工作的重要进展之一 ,是对发育在该区的孔兹岩系进行了系统构造地层学研究 ,提出了由下至上三个岩层单位组成的地层序列 :即榴云片麻岩岩组、含黑榴云片麻岩岩组及大理岩岩组或透辉片麻岩岩组 ,下与兴和岩群的麻粒岩系 ,上与浅变质的古元古代美岱召岩群呈不整合接触。根据侵入孔兹岩系中的单斜辉石斜长角闪岩的Sm Nd同位素年龄 2 80 0Ma(杨振升等 ,另文发表 ) ,确定孔兹岩系时代应属中太古代 ,按区域太古宙地层构造格架 ,在大青山—乌拉山及色尔腾山地区孔兹岩系应位于新太古代色尔腾山群之下。大青山地区所建立的孔兹岩地层层序及其在太古宙地层系统中的位置 ,无疑对相邻地区高级变质区的岩石地层研究有重要借鉴意义。联系到全球太古宙高级变质区中相当于孔兹岩系的组成分布的广泛性与其惊人的相似性 ,作者建议使用孔兹岩系事件一词来表达 350 0～ 2 80 0Ma时期地壳上曾经存在超洲际规模的克拉通大陆 ,这规模巨大的克拉通的富铝 (含黑 )碎屑岩—石英岩—碳酸盐岩 (钙硅酸盐 )的沉积事件 ,即孔兹岩系事     

基于多道信噪能量统计的微地震有效信号识别方法

在微地震监测中有效微地震信号的识别是关键步骤。常规的微地震有效信号识别方法基于单道长短时窗能量比,受噪音影响较大,对于信噪比较低的事件无法准确识别。利用多道记录数据之间的信号相关性好而信号与噪音相关性差的特点,通过记录道自相关求取总能量和相邻记录互相关求取信号能量,以有效信号能量所占比即含信能量比作为门槛值进行有效信号识别,信号识别过程中利用多道互相关对噪音进行了有效压制,提高了微地震信号识别的压噪能力,通过模型数据和实际资料处理验证了方法的有效性。     

地质事件与高分辨率事件地层学

简要介绍了传统地层学的发展及其局限性,认为传统的生物地层学的相对低分辨率已不适应目前的生产、科研要求;阐述了高分辨率事件地层学的研究对象与研究内容,认为地质事件的广泛性、瞬时性与相对等时性是高分辨率事件地层学的存在基础。通过全方位地开发出地层记录中的各种事件信息,建立综合事件地层剖面和高分辨率事件地层信息数据库,有可能使地层划分对比的精度提高10-50倍。