School of Earth Sciences - Research Publications

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    Commuter lives: a review symposium on David Bissell's Transit Life
    Latham, A ; Edensor, T ; Hopkins, D ; Fitt, H ; Lobo, M ; Mansvelt, J ; McNeill, D ; Bissell, D (WILEY, 2020-02)
    Abstract This article presents a series of commentaries on Transit Life: How Commuting is Transforming Our Cities, published by MIT Press in 2018. Centring on an in—depth case study of Sydney, the book argues the need to attend carefully to the fine—grained detail of the commuting experience. In all sorts of ways, Transit Life presents a way of thinking about urban transportation radically different from that used by mainstream transport planners and geographers. Geographical Research asked six researchers—Tim Edensor, Michele Lobo, Debbie Hopkins, Helen Fitt, Juliana Mansvelt, and Donald McNeill—to reflect on what kind of research vistas might be opened up bring the tools of cultural geography and mobility research to the world of commuting. Here are their responses, rounded out by a reply by David Bissell, Transit Life's author.
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    When food regimes become hegemonic: Agrarian India through a Gramscian lens
    Brown, T (WILEY, 2020-01)
    Abstract The concept of food regimes, as developed by Friedmann and McMichael, has proven useful in analysing how systems of food production, distribution, and consumption are linked to cycles of global capital accumulation and identifying the contradictions and conflicts that underlie them. A question that food regime analysis is relatively less able to address, however, is how food regimes become established and endure with the apparent acquiescence of those who are the victims of their contradictions and inequities. In this paper, I argue that a deeper engagement with Gramsci's theory of hegemony may help to address this lacuna in food regime analysis. To illustrate my case, I draw on studies of rural India from the colonial period to the present day, highlighting the ways in which the hegemonic mechanisms of consent and coercion have been crucial to the consolidation of each of the three food regimes identified by Friedmann and McMichael.
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    Post Gondwana breakup evolution of the SE Australia rifted margin revisited
    McMillan, M ; Gleadow, A ; Kohn, B ; Seiler, C (WILEY, 2020-04)
    Abstract Low‐temperature thermochronology (LTT) is commonly used to investigate onshore records of continental rifting and geomorphic evolution of passive continental margins. The SE Australian passive margin, like many others, has an elevated plateau separated from the coastal plain by an erosional escarpment, presumed to originate through Cretaceous rifting prior to Tasman Sea seafloor spreading. Previous LTT studies have focused on reconciling thermal histories with development of the present‐day topography. New apatite LTT data along an escarpment‐to‐coast transect define a classic “boomerang” (mean track length vs. fission‐track age), indicating variable overprinting of late‐Palaeozoic cooling ages by a younger, mid‐Cretaceous cooling event. Regionally, however, the boomerang trend diverges NNW away from the coast and crosses the escarpment, implying the underlying thermal history pre‐dates escarpment formation and is largely independent from post‐breakup landscape evolution. We suggest that Cretaceous cooling might relate to erosion of Permo‐Triassic sedimentary cover from a formerly more extensive Sydney Basin.
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    Mining modification of river systems: A case study from the Australian gold rush
    Davies, P ; Lawrence, S ; Turnbull, J ; Rutherfurd, I ; Grove, J ; Silvester, E ; Macklin, M (WILEY, 2020-04-09)
    Abstract Mobilisation of large volumes of bedrock, regolith and soil has long been a characteristic feature of metal mining. Before the 20th century this was most efficiently achieved through harnessing the motive power of water. Large‐scale water use in mining produced waste sands, gravels and silts that were flushed downstream, triggering changes in stream and floodplain morphology and function. During the 19th century the shift from artisanal to industrialised mining resulted in a rapid increase in the scale and extent of environmental change. This paper presents results from a multidisciplinary research programme investigating the environmental effects of 19th‐century gold mining on waterways in south‐eastern Australia. Archaeological and geospatial landscape survey are combined with historical data modelling and geomorphological analysis to examine the extractive processes that produced sediment in headwater regions and how this influenced fluvial processes operating on downstream waterways and floodplains. Our case study of the Three Mile‐Hodgson Creek system on the Ovens (Beechworth) goldfield in north‐east Victoria indicates that miners mobilised up to 7.3 million m3 of sediment in this small catchment alone. Results of the research suggest that tailings dams and sludge channels in this catchment are important archaeological evidence for early attempts to manage industrial waste.
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    Observed and projected intra-seasonal variability of Australian monsoon rainfall
    Moise, A ; Smith, I ; Brown, JR ; Colman, R ; Narsey, S (Wiley, 2020-03-30)
    Indices derived from daily rainfall time series are used to measure “burst” features of the northern Australia monsoon, corresponding to one or more days of heavy rainfall. These indices include number of burst days, numbers and durations of burst events, and average intensity. The results using observational data show how these features can vary from one year to the next, and how they can vary from the station scale (Darwin) to the regional scale (northern Australia). The results from Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) climate model simulations under both historical and future greenhouse gas conditions have also been analysed and indicate how well models can capture these features and how they might change by the end of the 21st century under a high emissions scenario. While most models provide a reasonable simulation of present‐day burst features, there is little consensus for a significant change to seasonal rainfall totals when looking at the full CMIP5 ensemble. A subset of models with detectable skills with respect to the Madden‐Julian Oscillation shows evidence for an increase in the seasonal total rainfall amount and most other monsoon metrics, except a slight decrease in the number of burst events. This is consistent with a basic thermodynamic response to warming and consistent with findings elsewhere. However, the Australian monsoon is strongly influenced by the large‐scale circulation and there remains some doubt about whether we can confidently diagnose all the changes to monsoon bursts that could occur given the limited ability of many of the current generation of models to simulate tropical cyclones, the Madden‐Julian Oscillation and other relevant features.
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    A fine balance: Accommodation dominated control of contemporaneous cool-carbonate shelf-edge clinoforms and tropical reef-margin trajectories, North Carnarvon Basin, Northwestern Australia
    Anell, I ; Wallace, MW ; Eberli, G (WILEY, 2020-01)
    Abstract The concurrent development of a cool‐carbonate Miocene clinoform system and the tropical reef which developed on its shelf in the North Carnarvon Basin is studied. The study, based on seismic interpretation and geometrical analysis, seeks to investigate how the architecture of the clinoforms develops in relation to the advance of the reef‐margin, providing a proxy for discussing contemporaneous shoreline versus shelf‐edge development. The progradation of the reef and shelf‐edge often display a closely mirrored development, although the reef twice advances an order of two to three times the concurrent advance of the shelf‐edge. The forced regression of the second advance, as compared to the normal regression during the first, is observed in proportionally higher input of sediment towards advance of the shelf‐edge and toe, along with a gentler slope. The inability of the shelf‐edge to keep pace with the reef‐margin (and by proxy the shoreline) during lower accommodation/sedimentation is a result of the increased volume of sediment required to match reef‐margin advance beyond the shelf‐edge. Increased accommodation/sedimentation ratios promote higher trajectories where the volumes on shelf and slope are more balanced and the development more closely matched. The observed matched development of reef and shelf‐edge during both limited and increased slope sedimentation, suggest that accommodation is the dominant control on the location and trajectory of both ‘shoreline’ and shelf‐edge, and that excess sediment is deposited along the slope.
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    Contingent communality and community-based adaptation to climate change: Insights from a Pacific rural atoll
    Jarillo, S ; Barnett, J (Elsevier BV, 2021-10)
    Research shows that community-based adaptation (CBA) can empower grassroots agents to determine their preferred responses to climate change. After two decades of practice, recent analysis is highlighting that CBA has its limits, which we argue is in part because it is predicated on an idea of ‘the communal’ as being local, static, and spatially distinct. We investigate the relationship between the nature of community and the successful implementation of CBA through an ethnographic longitudinal study in Namdrik in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. We show that the Namdrik community is best understood as a spatially dynamic network of actors whose sense of shared purpose and capacity to act varies over time in response to demographic, economic and political circumstances. These processes at times weaken the shared commitment necessary for collective action on adaptation, especially as the material support and leadership that initiated CBA in Namdrik has waned. In such circumstances, the success of CBA is spatiotemporally contingent, and depends heavily on the persistence of factors that sustain shared commitment to the task, which most often means ongoing financial and technical support for activities and for community leaders.
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    To glove or not to glove? Investigations into the potential contamination from handling of paper-based cultural heritage through forensic fingerprinting approaches.
    van der Pal, KJ ; Popelka-Filcoff, RS ; Smith, GD ; van Bronswijk, W ; Lewis, SW (Elsevier BV, 2021)
    The handling of cultural heritage objects has become a highly debated topic in the last decade. The work and outcomes described in this paper are aimed to provide objective data to assist in making appropriate decisions as to whether or not wearing gloves is appropriate in a given situation. The forensic fingermark development techniques of 1,2-indandione and single metal deposition II were used to investigate the efficacy of handwashing and glove use to improve the information available when deciding whether to use gloves when handling paper objects. It was found that fingermarks did not permeate through polymer glove types but could through cotton gloves. It was also shown that the amounts of observable fingermark residues were greater 5 min after handwashing than if handwashing had not occurred, undermining previous arguments for not wearing gloves if hands could be washed before object handling.
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    Corporate land acquisitions at the intersection of lineage and patronage networks in Cameroon.
    Ndi, F ; Batterbury, S ; Wanki, JE (Cambridge University Press, 2021)
    Despite the proliferation of literature on large-scale land acquisitions (LSLA) in Africa, few empirical studies exist on how patronage networks combine with socio-cultural stratification to determine the livelihood outcomes for African agrarian-based communities. This article draws from ethnographic research on Cameroon to contribute to bridging this gap. We argue that lineage and patronage considerations intersect to determine beneficiaries and losers during LSLA. Second, we show that LSLA tend to re-entrench existing inequalities in power relations that exist within communities in favour of people with traceable ancestral lineage. Concomitantly, non-indigenous groups especially migrants, bear the brunt of exclusion and are unfortunately exposed to severe livelihood stresses due to their inability to leverage patronage networks and political power to defend their interests. We submit that empirical examination of the impacts of land acquisitions should consider the centrality of power and patronage networks between indigenes and non-indigenes, and how this socio-cultural dichotomy restricts and/or mediates land acquisition outcomes in Cameroon.
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    Evaluating the association between urban green spaces and subjective well-being in Mexico city during the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Mayen Huerta, C ; Utomo, A (Elsevier, 2021-06-15)
    This paper examines the association between the frequency of use of urban green spaces (UGS) and the subjective well-being (SWB) of Mexico City's residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted an online survey (N = 1954) regarding individuals' perceptions and use of UGS and their SWB, evaluated through the short version of the Warwick-Edinburgh mental well-being scale. Multilevel mixed-effects regression analyses were performed to investigate the association between the frequency of UGS use and SWB, including individual and municipal level characteristics as covariates. Our results suggest that respondents who used UGS once or more per week during the pandemic reported higher SWB scores (8.7%) than those with zero visits. These findings have public policy implications that could enhance the role of UGS in urban environments during times of crisis.