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2006

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Wales

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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Sampling Patchily Distributed Taxa: A Case Study Using Cost-Benefit Analyses For Sponges And Ascidians In Coastal Lakes Of New South Wales, Australia, P. B. Barnes, A. R. Davis, D. E. Roberts Jan 2006

Sampling Patchily Distributed Taxa: A Case Study Using Cost-Benefit Analyses For Sponges And Ascidians In Coastal Lakes Of New South Wales, Australia, P. B. Barnes, A. R. Davis, D. E. Roberts

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Estuaries worldwide are under increasing threat from human impacts. Because much of their fauna remains unstudied and in many cases undescribed, these systems present real challenges for effective management. In eastern Australia the study of estuarine fauna is often further complicated by its patchy distributions. This is particularly the case for assemblages of sessile invertebrates in coastal saline lakes. This study quantified distributions of sponges and ascidians at a hierarchy of spatial scales in the seagrass meadows of 2 coastal saline lakes in New South Wales, Australia. Nine species of sponge, many of which were undescribed, and 3 species of …


The Geomorphological Evolution Of A Wave-Dominated Barrier Estuary: Burrill Lake, New South Wales, Australia, Brian G. Jones, Craig R. Sloss, David M. Price, C.E. Mcclennen, John De Carli Jan 2006

The Geomorphological Evolution Of A Wave-Dominated Barrier Estuary: Burrill Lake, New South Wales, Australia, Brian G. Jones, Craig R. Sloss, David M. Price, C.E. Mcclennen, John De Carli

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

The geomorphological evolution of the Holocene wave-dominated barrier estuary at Burrill Lake on the New South Wales coast, Australia, has been delineated using a combination of seismic stratigraphy and the lithostratigraphic analysis of vibracores collected from the back-barrier estuarine environment. A combination of radiocarbon and aspartic acid racemisation-derived ages obtained on Holocene fossil molluscs, and the thermoluminescent signal in remnant Last Interglacial barrier sediments provides the chronological framework for this investigation. Results from this paper show that the barrier estuary occupies a relatively narrow (<1.5 km wide) and shallow (<40 m deep) incised bedrock valley formed during sea-level lowstands. Late Pleistocene sedimentary successions and remnants of the Last Interglacial barrier have been preserved within the incised valley axis and the mouth of the incised valley. These sediments, deposited during the Last Interglacial sea-level highstand, have subsequently been partially removed during the last glacial maximum. Overlying the antecedent late Pleistocene landsurface is a near basin-wide basal marine sand deposited in response to rising sea level associated with the most recent post-glacial marine transgression, which inundated the shallow incised valley ca.7800 years ago. More open marine conditions, with a diverse assemblage of estuarine and marine mollusc species, persisted until ca. 4500 years ago when the stabilizing Holocene barrier resulted in the development of a lowenergy back-barrier lagoonal environment. A late Holocene 1-2 m regression of sea level ca. 3000 years ago further restricted oceanic circulation, increased the rate of fluvial bay-head delta progradation and the extension of the backbarrier central basin mud facies. This evolutionary model of barrier estuary evolution developed for Burrill Lake is consistent with recent research conducted in Lake Illawarra and St Georges Basin and can be applied to other estuaries that have formed in relatively shallow and narrow incised bedrock valleys on tectonically stable, wave-dominated coastlines.


Dust Deposition Rates In The Wollongong-Port Kembla Area, New South Wales, Australia, R J. Morrison, Bandar A. Fadhel, K Goss Jan 2006

Dust Deposition Rates In The Wollongong-Port Kembla Area, New South Wales, Australia, R J. Morrison, Bandar A. Fadhel, K Goss

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Dust deposition in the Wollongong-Port Kembla region, New South Wales, Australia, arising from local industrial and mining activities, has been of major concern since the early 1960s. Reports dealing with dust deposition rates in the region have been published by different organisations where the data have been averaged for the region. This provides a general trend for the deposition rates for the whole region without considering the trends occurring in specific locations. This study was the first to examine the trends observed at 35 individual gauges to identify more localised trends in dust deposition rates in the Wollongong-Port Kembla region, …