Creating a more fair and equitable society starts with us

Ariadne Gorring, Atlantic Fellow for Social Equity with Melbourne University, will share her experience of the Atlantic Fellowship program and explore what it means to be a social change leader in these times of uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Together we’ll discover what we bring to the table that enables or hinders change and reflect on what it means to empower voice, treaty and truth in a way that unites us with ourselves and others as a pathway towards a healed nation

Indigenous Voices: Paris 2015

Each year, countries from around the world meet to discuss the issue of climate change, and what governments should do to minimise the impacts. In November and December 2015, the 21st United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Conference of Parties, or COP21) took place in Paris; the biggest meeting since the Kyoto Protocol was agreed in 1997. Governments negotiated an international legal document committing countries to reduce their greenhouse gas pollution in an effort to reduce the impacts of climate change. With support from the Australian Government, Oxfam and the Australian Conservation Foundation, delegates from the Kimberley Land Council attended this important event, highlighting the particular vulnerabilities facing Indigenous people from climate change, but also showcasing the powerful role played by Indigenous land management in offering innovative and effective tools to tackle the problem

Bubble rise in a packed bed saturated with liquids

Experimental data were determined for drag coefficients on fluid bubbles rising in a saturated packed bed and in clear liquids. Air and benzene were used to form bubbles in glycerine solution, water, and normal heptane. One-inch diameter glass spheres in hexagonal, random, and cubic packings constituted the bed. The range in Reynolds number was from 0.1 to 1,000. It was found that the drag coefficients in the hexagonal and random arrays were from two to three times those in clear liquids, while the drag on bubbles rising in cubic packings was the same as that for clear liquids. The method of correlation involved the use of the minor diameter in the drag coefficient and the major diameter in the Reynolds number. This innovation improved the correlation for bubble rise in clear liquids.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/37322/1/690080128_ftp.pd

Biological and economic management strategy evaluations of the eastern king prawn fishery

Stock assessment of the eastern king prawn (EKP) fishery, and the subsequent advice to management and industry, could be improved by addressing a number of issues. The recruitment dynamics of EKP in the northern (i.e., North Reef to the Swain Reefs) parts of the fishery need to be clarified. Fishers report that the size of the prawns from these areas when they recruit to the fishing grounds is resulting in suboptimal sizes/ages at first capture, and therefore localised growth overfishing. There is a need to assess alternative harvest strategies of the EKP fishery, via computer simulations, particularly seasonal and monthly or lunar-based closures to identify scenarios that improve the value of the catch, decrease costs and reduce the risk of overfishing, prior to implementing new management measures

Evidence for early Pliocene and late Miocene transgressions in southern Patagonia (Argentina): 87Sr/86Sr ages of the pectinid “Chlamys” actinodes (Sowerby)

AbstractNumerical ages based on 87Sr/86Sr dating of calcitic shells belonging to the pectinid “Chlamys” actinodes (Sowerby) document the only late Miocene (Tortonian) sea flooding event in the Austral Basin at Cabo Buentiempo (8.95 ± 0.82 Ma, 2 s.e.), and provide evidence of the first documented early Pliocene (Zanclean) transgression in Argentina recorded at Cañadón Darwin (5.15 ± 0.18 Ma, 2 s.e., Austral Basin) and at Terraces of Cerro Laciar (5.10 ± 0.21 Ma, 2 s.e.), southern San Jorge Basin). The sedimentary rocks deposited during the Tortonian are correlated with the youngest beds deposited by the “Entrerriense Sea” that covered northern Patagonia. The Zanclean marine episode is correlated with the long-term cycle represented in the Southern Hemisphere by the flooding events recorded in Cockburn and James Ross Islands (Antarctica) and in North-Central Chile

Spatial and temporal uplift history of South America from calibrated drainage analysis

A multidisciplinary approach is used to analyze the Cenozoic uplift history of South America. Residual depth anomalies of oceanic crust abutting this continent help to determine the pattern of present-day dynamic topography. Admittance analysis and crustal thickness measurements indicate that the elastic thickness of the Borborema and Altiplano regions is ≤₁₀ km with evidence for sub-plate support at longer wavelengths. A drainage inventory of 1827 river profiles is assembled and used to investigate landscape development. Linear inverse modeling enables river profiles to be fitted as a function of the spatial and temporal history of regional uplift. Erosional parameters are calibrated using observations from the Borborema Plateau and tested against continent-wide stratigraphic and thermochronologic constraints. Our results predict that two phases of regional uplift of the Altiplano plateau occurred in Neogene times. Regional uplift of the southern Patagonian Andes also appears to have occurred in Early Miocene times. The consistency between observed and predicted histories for the Borborema, Altiplano, and Patagonian plateaux implies that drainage networks record coherent signals that are amenable to simple modeling strategies. Finally, the predicted pattern of incision across the Amazon catchment constrains solid sedimentary flux at the Foz do Amazonas. Observed and calculated flux estimates match, suggesting that erosion and deposition were triggered by regional Andean uplift during Miocene times