Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Communities Australia'
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1
Gunawardene, Nihara. "Arid zone ant communities of Western Australia." Thesis, Curtin University, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/1178.
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This thesis is prepared in three parts; the first part is a study of the ant species of the southern Carnarvon Basin, which was undertaken in order to determine the patterns of ant species distribution in this arid zone area. The distribution patterns were looked at in terms of biogeographical regions and they demonstrated the transitional nature of this particular area. Recommendations to alter the border between the South-west Province and the Eremaean Province were supported. The next chapter of this thesis analysed ant species from long unburnt and burnt areas of three main vegetation types (two Triodia species grasslands and Acacia aneura woodlands) in the Gibson Desert Nature Reserve. This study was carried out to observe the recovery of ant populations after fire. The results provided further evidence that invertebrates are measurably impacted by fire in the arid zone. The final chapter is a comparison of these two arid zone studies with six other ant community studies from throughout Western Australia. It demonstrated the uniqueness of some arid zone sites as well as related each study to each other according to their ant communities.
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Gunawardene, Nihara. "Arid zone ant communities of Western Australia." Curtin University of Technology, Department of Environmental Biology, 2003. http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=16212.
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This thesis is prepared in three parts; the first part is a study of the ant species of the southern Carnarvon Basin, which was undertaken in order to determine the patterns of ant species distribution in this arid zone area. The distribution patterns were looked at in terms of biogeographical regions and they demonstrated the transitional nature of this particular area. Recommendations to alter the border between the South-west Province and the Eremaean Province were supported. The next chapter of this thesis analysed ant species from long unburnt and burnt areas of three main vegetation types (two Triodia species grasslands and Acacia aneura woodlands) in the Gibson Desert Nature Reserve. This study was carried out to observe the recovery of ant populations after fire. The results provided further evidence that invertebrates are measurably impacted by fire in the arid zone. The final chapter is a comparison of these two arid zone studies with six other ant community studies from throughout Western Australia. It demonstrated the uniqueness of some arid zone sites as well as related each study to each other according to their ant communities.
3
Gwakuba, Umile. "Police engagement with African communities in Western Australia." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2022. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2565.
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Utilising a qualitative, grounded theory methodology, this research investigated police engagement with the African communities, especially youth in Western Australia. Voices of African youth, police officers and African leaders’ perspectives and experiences were captured through in-depth interviews and focus groups in relation to the nature of their relationship. Factors contributing to the relationship and considerations for effective engagement between the multiple parties were explored.
Overall, the study found that the relationship between African youth and police in Western Australia was tense and filled with mistrust. There was a gap between standard policing and the community policing models when addressing non-law-abiding African youth, particularly around the Perth commercial business district (CBD). Community policing was found to effectively engage African community leaders and their associations but unable to address ongoing tension between patrol officers and African youth in entertainment precincts around Perth CBD. African leaders were concerned with the harsh treatment of African youth by police and disappointed with non-law-abiding youths’ refusal to attend support events they organise for them. Youth accused police of being racist towards them. Many participants evidenced excessive monitoring and movement restrictions (through move-on notices), arrests and hefty charges in Perth CBD as being racially motivated. Police participants accused African youth of disorderly behaviour, including challenging police authority and involvement in violent crimes. Police, youth and African elders noted a lack of cultural sensitivity and training of patrol officers, as well as a lack of understanding of legal and policing matters by African youth. Considering community engagement models from both community development and community policing engagement perspectives, a community policing engagement model for culturally and linguistically (CaLD) communities has been proposed based on data obtained.
Participation of African communities, especially youth, on policing matters, recruitment of African people into WA Police, cultural training of police officers and providing education to African communities on policing and legal matters are key to resolving tensions and building trust between the two parties. The continued tension and reported racism towards African youth in Perth CBD has brought into question WA police’s legitimacy, commitment to procedural justice and protection of basic human rights in terms of freedom of movement and inclusion of all citizens. While youth were interviewed from various Perth suburbs, there was a suggestion that the major concerns they had related more to the Perth CBD. By not prioritising non-law-abiding African youth and relying on African leaders to report community policing issues, police are not effectively addressing ongoing crime issues. Therefore, community policing needs to prioritise members of community who engage most with police, driven by core business needs and achieved by aligning standard policing and community policing priorities to work together in addressing African youth challenges.
4
Lansingh, Van Charles. "Primary health care approach to trachoma control in Aboriginal communities in Central Australia." Connect to thesis, 2005. http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/984.
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This study concerned a primary health care approach to trachoma control in two Central Australian Aboriginal communities. The World Health Organization (WHO) has advocated that the best method to control trachoma is the SAFE strategy (Surgery, Antibiotics, Facial hygiene, and Environmental improvements), and this approach was adopted.The communities, Pipalyatjara and Mimili, with populations slightly less than 300 each, are located in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara (AP) lands of Central Australia, in the northwest corner of the South Australia territory. At Pipalyatjara, a full SAFE-type intervention was undertaken, with the ‘E’ component designed and implemented by the NHC (Nganampa Health Council Inc.). At Mimili, only a SAF-type of intervention was implemented.
Baseline data was gathered for 18 months from March 1999 through September 2000 (five visits to Pipalyatjara and four at Mimili), and included determining trachoma prevalence levels using the WHO system, facial cleanliness, and nasal discharge parameters. A trachoma health program was implemented at the end of this period and a one-time dose of azithromycin was given in September of 2000. The chief focus of the study was children under 15 years of age.
Improvements in road sealing, landscaping, and the creation of mounds were started to improve dust control. Concurrently, efforts were made in the houses of the residents to improve the nine healthy living practices, which were scored in two surveys, in March 1999 and August 2001. Trachoma prevalence, and levels of facial cleanliness and nasal discharge were determined at 3, 6, and 12 months following antibiotic administration.
In children less than 15 years of age, the pre-intervention prevalence level of TF (Trachoma Follicular) was 42% at Pipalyatjara, and 44% at Mimili. For the 1-9 year age group, the TF prevalence was 47% and 54% respectively. For TI (Trachoma Intense), the pre-intervention prevalence was 8% for Pipalyatjara, and 9% for Mimili. The TF prevalence, adjusted for clustering, and using only individuals present at baseline and follow-up (3, 6, and 12 months post-intervention), was 41.5%, 21.2%, 20.0%, and 20.0% at Pipalyatjara respectively. For Mimili, the corresponding prevalence figures were 43.5%, 18.2%, 18.2%, and 30%.
In the 1-9 year age group, a lower TF prevalence existed between the pre-intervention and 12-month post-intervention points at Pipalyatjara compared to Mimili. The TF prevalence after the intervention was also lower for males compared to females, when the cohorts were grouped by gender, rather than community. It is posited that reinfection was much higher at Mimili within this age group, however, in both communities, there appeared to be a core of females whose trachoma status did not change. This is speculated as mainly being caused by prolonged inflammation, though persistent infection C. Trachomatis cannot be ruled out.
Facial cleanliness and nasal discharge continued to improve throughout the intervention at both communities, but at the 3-month post-intervention point no longer became a good predictor of trachoma.
It is not known whether the improvements in the environment at Pipalyatjara were responsible for the reduction in trachoma prevalence 12 months after the intervention, relative to Mimili.
5
Slivkoff, Paulina Matvei. "The formation and contestation of Molokan identities and communities : the Australian experience." University of Western Australia. School of Social and Cultural Studies, 2007. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2007.0084.
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[Truncated abstract] Molokans are a Russian sectarian community that has been a transnational diasporic community since their exile from southern Russia in 1839. During the 1839 exodus they were relocated to Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. These countries make up a region referred to by Molokans as Transcaucasia located in and around the Caucasus Mountains. A further migration to Turkmenistan followed in 1889. Since that time, Molokans have settled in Iran, the United States of America, Mexico, Australia and Brazil. The colonies in Brazil and Mexico have disbanded with members re-joining Molokan communities in the United States of America and Australia. The communities remain in contact with one another and with various Molokan communities still existing in the Russian Soviet Socialist Federal Republic. Molokans are characterised by a religious structure of lay ministers and elders in a traditional, patriarchal social community. They are a collectivity of churches (there is no hierarchy between the churches) and sub-groups who practise varying degrees of adherence to Molokan dogma. They are a millenarian, charismatic religious community similar to Pentecostals and Anabaptists with the exception that they have ceased to evangelise and have become ‘closed’ communities practising endogamy. Given their closed structure, relatively little is known about this group in mainstream society . . . Spirituality, in the form of prophecy, healing, and the shared expression of religious ecstasy (rejoicing in the Holy Spirit) provides a sense of communitas that helps to bind the communities. Persecution in Russia and in the United States of America promoted mistrust of outsiders and contributed to the closure of social boundaries. Interventionist and reform activities in both Russia and the United States of America reinforced the belief that social closure was the only way to maintain cultural continuity. Their shared history of migration and persecution contributes to the building of a core community identity.
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Huddleston, Veronica. "Restructuring and adjustment in resource-dependent coastal communities : a case study of the Western rock lobster fleet hosting communities." University of Western Australia. Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, 2009. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2010.0001.
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In an attempt to address the seeming imbalance within studies of rural communities in Australia linked to primary industries, this study examines the broader aspects of policy changes and bio-economic imperatives in the Western Rock Lobster Fishery and the effects of the restructuring of the fishery on communities that host the rock lobster fleet. It is an innovative study in that it is one of the first comprehensive studies of industry restructuring in the fisheries sector; a study of the linkages and implications of restructuring on the social, economic and cultural facets of coastal communities in Western Australia. Globalisation in the fishery sector, aided by technological advances, has resulted in a greater exploitation of high-value fisheries for export. Intensified globalisation has also brought about environmental and social standards that ensure the survival of by-catch species and promote responsible codes of fishing practice. In Australia, the active support of the government for globalisation, led to the adoption of export-oriented policies emphasising competitiveness and efficiency. Consideration of market principles thus govern fisheries regulators when deciding on the management arrangements to adopt for a particular fishery. In considering a number of policy instruments and management measures, government regulators also consider the conservation of marine resources alongside the production of significant economic and social benefits. The Western Rock Lobster Fishery is the most valuable single species fishery in Western Australia with a sizeable financial and employment contribution to coastal communities along the Western Australian coast. Any management scheme adopted for this fishery, as such, not only has to take into account biological and environmental imperatives but also economic and social objectives. The analysis of the fishery undertaken in this thesis underlines the need for a holistic view of fishery management that takes into consideration not only biological sustainability, but also promotes an understanding of fishers' behaviours and fishing patterns and the consequent effects on specific communities. The demographic and social changes that affect rural communities further complicate the economic restructuring at the fishery level, with fishers' responses differing based on their circumstances and preferences. This thesis presents a snapshot of a fishery deliberating changes in management arrangements and its effects on coastal communities whose socio-demographic and economic development historically has depended, and to a great extent is still dependent, upon rock lobster fishing. It provides empirical evidence that lends support to the view that the pro-market policies promoting competition and entrepreneurialism have resulted in a spatially uneven development in regional Australia. Specific localities can deal with the changes brought about by globalisation and policy change. However, the manner in which these communities deal and cope with these changes depends on a number of factors, among others, the level of diversification of the local economy, demographic and social structures, and other factors such as the level of resilience and the social capital base within the community.
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com, emmayuen@hotmail, and Emma Yuen. "Water Consumption Patterns in Australian Aboriginal Communities." Murdoch University, 2005. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20051119.134422.
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Aboriginal Australians have a significantly lower health status than their non-Aboriginal counterparts. To facilitate healthy living practices necessary for good health, a high level investment is currently made in water services, on the assumption that there is a relationship between the volume and quality of water supplied with health outcomes, despite the high economic and environmental cost. This thesis investigates whether the current design supply criteria of 1000-1200 litres per person per day of water, meeting the Australian Drinking Water Quality Guidelines, is both sufficient and necessary to improve the health of Aboriginal Australians. The scope of the thesis is limited to the sufficiency of design guidelines although it necessarily also touches on the broader issues of Aboriginal health.
Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to explore current water consumption patterns of consumers at multiple hierarchical levels (community, household and individual) and hence the requirements of physical infrastructure on which consumers depend. Multiple linear regression was used to consider factors correlated with supply volume, while metering was used at both the domestic and appliance level to determine where and how water was used. Meters were installed on fixtures in two houses in a community near Alice Springs. This was then complemented by qualitative information obtained through focus group discussions, key informant interviews and observation in the field. The appropriateness of the supply of high quality water for all uses was addressed by considering the volume of drinking water intake and its impact on the derivation of water quality guidelines. This was achieved by a face-to-face survey involving 57 volunteers. Fieldwork was conducted predominantly in three communities near Alice Springs although some additional data was collected in other communities in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
The results showed that the factors influencing water consumption were highly complex and variable between communities and individuals. However, there were some culturally specific needs identified in Aboriginal communities, such as the need for temperature and dust control, as well as the reduction of losses. The unique characteristics of each community made it difficult to provide a more precise estimate for design supply. As a result, overly conservative guidelines such as those already used are necessary in the short term despite there being no guarantee of improved health. In the long term, issues of community governance and capacity building will start to be addressed, and the realisation that social systems are both complex and dynamic will need to be reflected in policy. These issues were represented in a systemic conceptual model at the end of the thesis, which also highlighted inadequacies of reductionist approaches such as design supply guidelines. The thesis concluded that complex problem situations such as that of health, require a systems approach.
8
Behrouzinia, Tahmoores. "The socio-demographic characteristics of Muslim communities in Australia, 1981-96." Title page, contents and abstract only, 2001. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phb421.pdf.
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Bibliography: leaves 483-532. This study contributes to the limited body of knowledge regarding Muslim settlement in Australia by elucidating the processes of contemporary settlement and adjustment of Muslim groups in Australia and assessing the role and significance of religion (Islam) in those processes. It focuses on the cultural, economic, social and demographic adjustments of these groups to Australian society and explores the role of Islam in the adjustment.
9
au, r. mccarron@ecu edu, and Robyn McCarron. "Performing arts in regional communities: The case of Bunbury, Western Australia." Murdoch University, 2004. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20050501.153348.
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Abstract
In Australia during the 1990s increased attention was paid to regional, rural and remote communities and, in terms of arts and culture, the establishment of regional arts umbrella organisations, at both national and state levels, stimulated interest in, and development of, the arts in those communities. Discourses around the notion of the civil society and the ways in which social and cultural capital can be acquired and transferred, have led to renewed interest in the economic and social functions of the voluntary, not-for-profit sector of Australian society.
This thesis aims to advance the critical study of regional cultural development. It examines the role and function of the performing arts within regional communities through a case study of the city of Bunbury, Western Australia. Regional performing arts are often trivialised or marginalised by metropolitan practitioners, critics and academics, particularly as they are almost entirely, in Australia, a volunteer/amateur pursuit. However volunteer performing arts groups provide physical and social spaces that encourage networks of civil engagement that have implications for the functioning of the broader community; and, in the case of Bunbury, a degree of independence from the bureaucratic requirements of arts funding bodies. The thesis proposes that volunteer, not-for-profit (amateur) theatre has a stronger claim on the title community theatre than the state-funded community theatre movement of the 1970s and 1980s.
The thesis also examines the strong community affiliations that have been generated by the community-owned, professionally-managed Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre. It situates this discussion in the context of the rapidly changing urban landscape in which the Entertainment Centre is placed and its affiliations with local, regional, state and national funding, networking and touring structures. It argues that considerable social and cultural capital is generated through the active involvement of citizens at many levels of the performing arts in a regional community such as Bunbury. Although for most, the involvement is voluntary and recreational, it also has direct economic outcomes in terms of the developing creative industries of the region.
A major contribution of the thesis is the provision of a model for the function and impact of regional community performing arts as it theorises the tensions between governmental (funding) models and self-generated regional arts practices through case study and detailed analysis. In doing so the thesis contributes to key debates in two significant ways, firstly by providing an important historical/cultural document and secondly, by highlighting new ways of thinking and speaking about the role of the performing arts in regional communities.
10
Collings, Greg. "Spatiotemporal variation of macroalgal communities of southern Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia /." Title page, table of contents and summary only, 1996. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phc711.pdf.
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McCarron, Robyn Janelle. "Performing arts and regional communities : the case of Bunbury, Western Australia /." Access via Murdoch University Digital Theses Project, 2004. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20050501.153348.
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McCarron, Robyn. "Performing arts in regional communities: the case of Bunbury, Western Australia." Thesis, McCarron, Robyn (2004) Performing arts in regional communities: the case of Bunbury, Western Australia. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 2004. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/191/.
Full textAbstract:
In Australia during the 1990s increased attention was paid to regional, rural and remote communities and, in terms of arts and culture, the establishment of regional arts umbrella organisations, at both national and state levels, stimulated interest in, and development of, the arts in those communities. Discourses around the notion of the civil society and the ways in which social and cultural capital can be acquired and transferred, have led to renewed interest in the economic and social functions of the voluntary, not-for-profit sector of Australian society.
This thesis aims to advance the critical study of regional cultural development. It examines the role and function of the performing arts within regional communities through a case study of the city of Bunbury, Western Australia. Regional performing arts are often trivialised or marginalised by metropolitan practitioners, critics and academics, particularly as they are almost entirely, in Australia, a volunteer/amateur pursuit. However volunteer performing arts groups provide physical and social spaces that encourage networks of civil engagement that have implications for the functioning of the broader community; and, in the case of Bunbury, a degree of independence from the bureaucratic requirements of arts funding bodies. The thesis proposes that volunteer, not-for-profit (amateur) theatre has a stronger claim on the title 'community theatre' than the state-funded community theatre movement of the 1970s and 1980s.
The thesis also examines the strong community affiliations that have been generated by the community-owned, professionally-managed Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre. It situates this discussion in the context of the rapidly changing urban landscape in which the Entertainment Centre is placed and its affiliations with local, regional, state and national funding, networking and touring structures. It argues that considerable social and cultural capital is generated through the active involvement of citizens at many levels of the performing arts in a regional community such as Bunbury. Although for most, the involvement is voluntary and recreational, it also has direct economic outcomes in terms of the developing creative industries of the region.
A major contribution of the thesis is the provision of a model for the function and impact of regional community performing arts as it theorises the tensions between governmental (funding) models and self-generated regional arts practices through case study and detailed analysis. In doing so the thesis contributes to key debates in two significant ways, firstly by providing an important historical/cultural document and secondly, by highlighting new ways of thinking and speaking about the role of the performing arts in regional communities.
13
McCarron, Robyn. "Performing arts in regional communities: the case of Bunbury, Western Australia." McCarron, Robyn (2004) Performing arts in regional communities: the case of Bunbury, Western Australia. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 2004. http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/191/.
Full textAbstract:
In Australia during the 1990s increased attention was paid to regional, rural and remote communities and, in terms of arts and culture, the establishment of regional arts umbrella organisations, at both national and state levels, stimulated interest in, and development of, the arts in those communities. Discourses around the notion of the civil society and the ways in which social and cultural capital can be acquired and transferred, have led to renewed interest in the economic and social functions of the voluntary, not-for-profit sector of Australian society.
This thesis aims to advance the critical study of regional cultural development. It examines the role and function of the performing arts within regional communities through a case study of the city of Bunbury, Western Australia. Regional performing arts are often trivialised or marginalised by metropolitan practitioners, critics and academics, particularly as they are almost entirely, in Australia, a volunteer/amateur pursuit. However volunteer performing arts groups provide physical and social spaces that encourage networks of civil engagement that have implications for the functioning of the broader community; and, in the case of Bunbury, a degree of independence from the bureaucratic requirements of arts funding bodies. The thesis proposes that volunteer, not-for-profit (amateur) theatre has a stronger claim on the title 'community theatre' than the state-funded community theatre movement of the 1970s and 1980s.
The thesis also examines the strong community affiliations that have been generated by the community-owned, professionally-managed Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre. It situates this discussion in the context of the rapidly changing urban landscape in which the Entertainment Centre is placed and its affiliations with local, regional, state and national funding, networking and touring structures. It argues that considerable social and cultural capital is generated through the active involvement of citizens at many levels of the performing arts in a regional community such as Bunbury. Although for most, the involvement is voluntary and recreational, it also has direct economic outcomes in terms of the developing creative industries of the region.
A major contribution of the thesis is the provision of a model for the function and impact of regional community performing arts as it theorises the tensions between governmental (funding) models and self-generated regional arts practices through case study and detailed analysis. In doing so the thesis contributes to key debates in two significant ways, firstly by providing an important historical/cultural document and secondly, by highlighting new ways of thinking and speaking about the role of the performing arts in regional communities.
14
Pooley, Julie A. "Indicators of community resilience : a study of communities facing impending natural disasters." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2004. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/795.
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Disasters are defined as a 'crisis event in which the demands being placed on a human system, by the event, exceed the systems capacity to respond' (Bolin, 1989, p. 62). In the literature the negative consequences of disasters are focused at the individual level and fail to take into account the context In which Individuals live and where the disaster occurred. Few studies utilize residents within a disaster community to define the factors that are relevant to their disaster experience especially in Australian settings. This present studies view of disasters places the individual within an ecological system to understand their disaster experience and the disaster experience of the community. In viewing the disaster xperience the present study seeks to Identify the stress and growth outcomes as a more holistic account of the disaster experience. The present study utilizes residents from a Western Australian disaster community to identify the salient factors related to the disaster experience. The research questions addressed by the current study are (1) What factors are Important in understanding the experience of community members living with the threat of natural seasonal disasters in Western Australia? (2) What is the relationship between the community, individual and disaster experience variables in different communities in Western Australia? (3) What is the best predictor of posttraumatic stress? (4) What is the best predictor of posttraumatic growth? (5) What variables differentiate high and low stress groups? (6) What variables differentiate high and low growth groups? (7) What are the community and individual factors that mediate the disaster experience in communities in Western Australia? Specifically a) which individual variables impact the posttraumatic stress and posttraumatic growth associated with disasters.
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Wood, Lisa Jane. "Social capital, neighbourhood environments and health : development of measurement tools and exploration of links through qualitative and quantitative research." University of Western Australia. School of Population Health, 2006. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2006.0111.
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[Truncated abstract] BACKGROUND This thesis explored the relationship between social capital, sense of community and mental health and wellbeing; and factors that may influence these within the environments in which people live. Area variations in health are well documented and are mirrored in emerging evidence of geographic and neighbourhood variations in social capital. Little is known, however, about the specific facets of the impact of local physical environment on social capital; or about the mechanisms by which these are linked with each other, and with health determinants and outcomes. Despite the recent proliferation of social capital literature and growing research interest within the public health realm, its relationship to mental health and protective factors for mental health have also been relatively unexplored. AIMS The overall aim of this thesis was to explore the potential associations between social capital, health and mental health, and neighbourhood environments. In particular, the thesis considered whether the physical attributes and street network design of neighbourhoods are associated with social capital or particular dimensions of the social capital construct. It also examined the relationship between social capital and demographic and residency factors and pet ownership ... CONCLUSION The combined use of qualitative and quantitative research is a distinguishing feature of this study, and the triangulation of these data has a unique contribution to make to the social capital literature. Studies concerned with the measurement of social capital to date have tended to focus on dimensions pertaining to people’s involvement, perceptions and relationship with others and their community. While these constructs provide insight into what comprises social capital, it is clear that each is in turn influenced by a range of other factors. Elucidating what fosters trust and neighbourly interactions in one community and not in another, and by what mechanisms, is one of many research questions unanswered in the published literature to date. The consideration of measures of social capital that relate to the physical environment is therefore of relevance to the growing research and public policy interest in identifying what might build or restore social capital in communities.
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Foxwell-Norton, Kerrie-Ann, and na. "Communicating the Australian Coast: Communities, Cultures and Coastcare." Griffith University. School of Arts, 2007. http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20070814.094758.
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In Australia, Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICM) is the policy framework adopted by government to manage the coastal zone. Amongst other principles, ICM contains an explicit mandate to include local communities in the management of the coastal zone. In Australia, the Coastcare program emerged in response to international acceptance of the need to involve local communities in the management of the coastal zone. This dissertation is a critical cultural investigation of the Coastcare program to discover how the program and the coastal zone generally, is understood and negotiated by three volunteer groups in SE Queensland. There is a paucity of data surrounding the actual experiences of Coastcare volunteers. This dissertation begins to fill this gap in our knowledge of local community involvement in coastal management. My dissertation considers the culture of Coastcare and broadly, community participation initiatives. Coastcare participants, government policymakers, environmental scientists, etc bring to their encounter a specific way of seeing the coast a cultural framework which guides their actions, ideas and priorities for the coastal zone. These cultural frameworks are established and maintained in the context of unequal relations of power and knowledge. The discourses of environmental science and economics as evidenced in the chief ICM policy objective, Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) are powerful knowledges in the realm of community participation policy. This arrangement has serious consequences for what governments and experts can expect to achieve via community participation programs. In short, the quest for power-sharing with communities and meaningful participation is impeded by dominant scientific and economic cultures which act to marginalise and discredit the cultures of communities (and volunteers). Ironically enough, the lack of consideration of these deeper relations of power and knowledge means that the very groups (such as policymakers, environmental scientists, etc) who actively seek the participation of local communities, contribute disproportionately to the relative failure of community participation programs. At the very least, as those in a position of power, policymakers and associated experts do little to enhance communication with local communities. To this situation add confusion wrought by changes in the delivery of the Coastcare program and a lack of human and financial resources. From this perspective, the warm and fuzzy sentiment of Coastcare can be understood as the Coastcare of neglect. However, the emergence of community participation as legitimate in environmental policymaking indicates a fissure in the traditional power relations between communities and experts. Indeed the entry of community participation policy is relatively new territory for the environmental sciences. It is this fissure which I seek to explore and encourage via the application of a cultural studies framework which offers another way of seeing community participation in coastal and marine management and thereby, offers avenues to improve relations between communities and experts. My fieldwork reveals a fundamental mismatch between the cultural frameworks which communities bring to the coast and those frameworks embodied and implemented by the Coastcare program. Upon closer examination, it is apparent that the Coastcare program (and community participation programs generally) are designed to introduce local lay communities to environmental science knowledge. Local coastal cultures are relegated to the personal and private realm. An excellent example of this is the scientifically oriented eligible areas for funding of the Coastcare program. The volunteers consulted for this project emphasized their motivation in terms of maintaining the natural beauty of the coast and protecting a little bit of coast from the rampant development of the coastal zone. Their motivations were largely the antithesis of ESD. They understood their actions as thwarting the negative impacts of coastal development this occurred within a policy framework which accepted development as fait daccompli. Australias nation of coastal dwellers may not know a lot about coastal ecologies but they do know the coast in other ways. Community knowledge of the coast can be largely accounted for in the phrase, Australian beach culture. Serious consideration of Australian beach culture in environmental policy is absent. The lack of attention to this central tenet of the Australian way of life is because, as a concept and in practice, beach culture lacks the seriousness and objectivity of environmental science knowledge it is about play, hedonism, holidays, spirituality, emotion and fun. The stories (including Indigenous cultural heritage) which emerge when Australians are asked about their beach cultural knowledge historical and contemporary experiences of the Australian coast await meaningful consideration by those interested in communicating with Australian communities living on the coast. This cultural geography is an avenue for policymakers to better communicate and engage with Australian communities in their quest to increase participation in, or motivate interest in community coastal management programs.
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Groves, Ronald George. "Fourth world consumer culture: Emerging consumer cultures in remote Aboriginal communities of North-Western Australia." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 1999. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1201.
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Over the two centuries since the arrival of European settlers in Australia, the material culture and lifestyle of the indigenous Aboriginal people of Australia has undergone dramatic change. Based on qualitative fieldwork in three remote Aboriginal communities in north-western Australia, this study examines the emergence of unique consumer cultures that appear to differ significantly from mainstream Australia and indeed from other societies. The study finds that the impact of non-indigenous goods and external cultural values upon these communities has been significant. However, although anthropologists feared some fifty years ago that Aboriginal cultural values and traditions had been destroyed, this study concludes that they are still powerful moderating forces in each of the communities studied. The most powerful are non-possessiveness, immediacy in consumption, and a strong sharing ethos. Unlike findings in the so-called Second and Third Worlds, these Fourth World consumer cultures have not developed an unquenchable desire for manufactured consumer goods. Instead, non-traditional consumption practices have been modified by tradition oriented practices. The consumer cultures that have emerged through a synthesis of global and local values and practices have involved Aboriginal adoption, adaption and resistance practices. This process has resulted in both positive and negative impacts on the Aboriginal people of these communities. Ways of dealing with the negative effects have been suggested, while the positive effects have been highlighted as examples of what can possibly be learned from Aboriginal culture. The study also finds differences between the emerging consumer cultures of each community, concluding that this can be attributed to historical and cultural differences. The main conclusion is that the development of a global consumer culture is by no means inevitable.
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Buranaburivast, Vorapoj. "Applying social capital to electronic networks of practice : blog communities." UWA Business School, 2009. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2009.0209.
Full textAbstract:
Blogging is a recent phenomenon with research currently focusing on how it facilitates both personal and organisational knowledge exchange (Aimeur, Brassard & Paquet 2005; Hsu & Lin 2008). Social capital is shown to be a crucial factor facilitating knowledge transfer (Nahapiet and Ghoshal 1998). Blogging is a new social communication technology enabling individuals to collaborate and share knowledge. This research investigates how three dimensions of social capital affect individual knowledge sharing in weblog communities. In particular, it explores how individuals exploit weblogs as a tool for conversational knowledge management in educational institutions. Following Wasko & Faraj's (2005) study, the conceptual model is developed by setting eight independent variables from social capital dimensions and a dependent variable is set from individual behaviour in online knowledge sharing. Eight hypotheses are developed to test the relationship between these variables. A quantitative approach was applied for data collection and analysis. For data collection, an online survey was published in several Australian university weblog communities. An additional paper-based survey was distributed to the respondents in order to gain adequate sample size. For data analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was applied to eliminate measurement items that shared a significant residual value with other measurement items. Further, the models obtained from confirmatory factor analysis were used to test the hypotheses by multiple regression analysis. Results from multiple regression analysis on online knowledge sharing suggest that trust, personal reputation and enjoy helping are positively associated with individual online knowledge sharing. The stepwise estimation procedure was further adapted in the regression model. The results show that four independent variables became significant to the study. These four significant variables were individual expertise, trust, personal reputation and enjoy helping. Lastly, several limitations in this study such as the sample of university online setting and respondents' activities on weblogs are discussed. These limitations lead to the direction of future research provided in conclusion of this study.
19
Belicic, Michael Joseph. "Alcohol and violence in Aboriginal communities : issues, programs and healing initiatives." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 1999.
Find full textAbstract:
Alcohol misuse is considered the most significant cause of violence in
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. All members of the Aboriginal
community feel the impact of heavy alcohol consumption and related violence.
Initiatives that attempt to reduce alcohol consumption as a strategy to decrease crisis
levels of violence have had limited success. This thesis examines the extent and
patterns of Aboriginal alcohol consumption and explores the relationship between
alcohol misuse and violence, using secondary statistical and exploratory literature. It
will be contended that: the link between alcohol misuse and violence is not a simple
cause and effect relationship; and Aboriginal family and community violence are
symptoms of underlying social and psychological trauma.
This thesis presents qualitative researched case studies of Aboriginal alcohol treatment organisations, and Aboriginal initiatives that address the issues underlying violence. It is argued that interventions focusing on alcohol alone will not reduce family violence and community dysfunction. A "grassroots," Aboriginal community based response is presented as an alternative to reactive and short-term interventions.
20
Loo, Maylene G. K. "Effects of wastewater effluent on macrobenthic infaunal communities at Christies Beach, South Australia /." Title page, table of contents and abstract only, 2001. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phl8625.pdf.
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Ceh, Janja. "Coral-associated microbial communities in reef-building corals of Ningaloo Reef Western Australia." Thesis, Ceh, Janja (2011) Coral-associated microbial communities in reef-building corals of Ningaloo Reef Western Australia. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 2011. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/8480/.
Full textAbstract:
Coral reefs are at risk and human-induced environmental stressors in synergism with microorganisms have been shown to be the key players for their deterioration. Little is known about the dynamics of coral-microbial associations through different life stages of the coral holobiont and virtually nothing is known about coral-microbial partners in Western Australian coral reef systems. This project intended to investigate the presence, diversity, community structure and role of coral-associated microbes in Ningaloo Reef spawning and brooding corals. Different coral life stages were assessed.
To determine ‘normal ranges’ of coral-associated microbes, three coral species (Acropora tenuis, Pocillopora damicornis and Favites abdita) were tagged and examined over a period of one year, with sampling deployed every three months. One coral species was additionally sampled on Rottnest Island, 1200km south of Ningaloo Reef, to provide comparisons between coral-associated microbes in different geographical areas. The community structure of the coral-associated microorganisms was analysed by phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene clone libraries. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that samples grouped according to time and not species, indicating that coral-microbial associations may be a result of environmental drivers such as oceanographic characteristics, benthic community structure and temperature. Tissue samples from Rottnest Island corals revealed similarities in bacteria to the samples at Ningaloo Reef. This study highlights that coral-associated microbial communities are highly diverse; however, the complex interactions that determine the stability of these associations are not necessarily dependant on coral host specificity.
Reproduction plays a crucial role in the survival of species, therefore, data was acquired from three adult coral colonies, Acropora tenuis (broadcast spawner), Pocillopora damicornis (brooder) and Tubastrea faulkneri (ahermatypic), before and after coral mass spawning to determine if and through which drivers coral microbial communities changed through this event. A contemporary 454 sequencing approach was implemented and results revealed distinct bacterial shifts through coral mass spawning for all corals, independently of reproductive activity. Clear changes in bacterial assemblages were also detected for brooders after planulation. This infers that coral-associated microbial communities change through a coral mass spawning event and are likely driven by environmental factors and the respective bacterial community in the seawater, as well as by actual coral reproduction. Differences in coral-microbial communities reflected different life styles between brooding and spawning corals. Most α-Proteobacteria increased in abundance after spawning as well as after planulation, suggesting that specific bacteria are involved in coral reproduction irrespective of reproductive strategies; particularly bacteria affiliated with the Roseobacter clade followed this pattern.
The assessment of seawater collected from the broadcast spawning coral A. tenuis and P. damicornis after spawning and planulation, respectively revealed that adult corals, irrespective of their reproductive strategy release bacteria with their offspring which likely increases the fitness in the following processes involved in settlement and survival. Species affiliated with the genera Roseobacter and Alteromonas appear to play important roles in coral reproduction and early life history in corals.
Isolates from P. damicornis planulae were mainly affiliated with the genera Vibrio and Alteromonas and were found to be similar to bacteria released by the mother colony during planulation.
Finally the establishment of coral-microbial partnerships in coral larval stages and the potential role of these symbiotic relationships were studied. The early onset of bacterial associations in brooding and broadcast spawning corals was visualized, exploring bacterial presence and their location in the coral organism, determining when and how bacteria enter coral tissues and their cycling of nutrients towards the coral-symbiotic algal partners. Nano-scale Second Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) was applied to detect, image and map the uptake and translocation of 15N from bacteria into coral larvae on a sub-cellular level. The study also combined Fluorescent In Situ Hybridisation (FISH) to co-localize the labelled substrate with bacteria and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) to allow for ultra-structural resolution images to provide high resolution images. This study for the first time demonstrated the beneficial role of specific bacteria in translocating nitrogen into the coral holobiont, which is particularly important in the nutrient-poor environments corals live in.
22
Osman, Elizabeth Helen. "Rural land sharing communities in South Australia : planning and legal constraints to their development." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1991. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09ENV/09envo83.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
Bibliography: leaves 103-106. This research is concerned with rural land sharing communities in South Australia. The state's planning system is examined to see what mechanisms it possesses for dealing with communal or any other unconventional development, and what the main planning constraints are. A case study of an actual development application for a rural land sharing community is examined.
23
Simmons, Donna. "The impact of Phytophthora cinnamomi on reptile communities in banksia woodlands of Western Australia." Thesis, Simmons, Donna (2011) The impact of Phytophthora cinnamomi on reptile communities in banksia woodlands of Western Australia. Honours thesis, Murdoch University, 2011. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/32587/.
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Beesley, Leah. "Environmental stability : its role in structuring fish communities and life history strategies in the Fortescue River, Western Australia /." Connect to this title, 2006. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2006.0129.
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Small, Katie E. "Understanding the social impacts of festivals on communities." View thesis, 2007. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/37653.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, 2007.A thesis submitted to the University of Western Sydney, College of Business, School of Marketing, in partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliographical references.
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Dwyer, Anna I. "Understanding police-Indigenous relations in remote and rural Australia: Police perspectives." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2018. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/121455/2/Anna_Dwyer_Thesis.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examined police and Indigenous relations in rural and remote contexts in Australia which historically and in contemporary times have often been contentious. Using a grounded theory approach, the police participants of this qualitative research provided insight as to how social factors such as ecological, organizational and occupational culture influenced their responses in discrete Indigenous communities. The findings revealed that ecological factors such as community dynamics and Indigenous culture heavily influenced police in how they responded to situations, more so than the influence of organizational and occupational culture. It found that ecological factors played a large role in shaping policing responses in discrete Indigenous communities.
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Wilks, Kathryn. "Canine zoonoses in Aboriginal communities : the effects of a canine breeding program in the Kimberley Region, Western Australia." Murdoch University, 1999. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20060829.145909.
Full textAbstract:
The hypothesis central to this study is that the implementation of a canine breeding and parasite
control program in Aboriginal communities results in a reduction in the reservoir of zoonotic
parasites within communities. The effect of the parasite and breeding control program on the
health status of dogs as well as the population characteristics of dogs in communities was also
investigated.
The study was conducted in 17 Aboriginal communities of the Kimberley region of Western
Australia, divided into three regions according to cultural and geographical attributes. All dogs
from each community were permanently identified using a microchip system. Owners of dogs
were asked the usual location of their animals, the origins of their dogs and the whereabouts of
any missing animals at subsequent visits. Every three months dogs were treated with 200ygikg
iverrnectin (a potent endo- and ecto-parasiticide) subcutaneously and adult female dogs were
treated with an injectable contraceptive (10-30mgkg proligestone) at the request of their
owners. At the time of treatment, dogs were assessed for ecto-parasites and photographs taken
for later comparison and diagnosis of alopecic skin conditions. Faecal and blood samples were
collected every three to six months and skin scrapings were collected from dogs that were
refractory to treatment. The samples were used to determine internal parasite prevalence (using
formal ethyl acetate sedimentation), blood parameters (for anaemia status) and evidence of
scabies or Demodex infestation.
A pilot study at one group of communities, involving weekly assessment of dogs after one
iverrnectin treatment, showed that the treatment was effective in reducing the prevalence of
scabies (as determined by clinical evaluation), hookworm and ticks. The treatment resulted in
improvement in animal health as evidenced by a reduction in the number of dogs with anaemia.
The long-term use of the ivermectin treatments at the other communities showed that over a
period of three years, the prevalence of scabies and hookworm had reduced at most areas. The
initial scabies prevalence varied from 17 to 52% and reduced to below 10% for all communities.
The hookworm infection rates were affected by seasonal factors, as was evidenced by a seasonal
variance in prevalence. Animals that were treated with ivermectin, though, had lower
prevalences of hookworm than those that were not.
There was a reasonable compliance rate for contraceptive treatments for female dogs (greater
than 60% at each visit) and fewer puppies were born within communities when compared with
rates before and after the establishment of the treatment program. High rates of acquisition of
puppies from other communities continued to maintain the dog population numbers despite the
reduction in breeding within communities.
The dog population was young, biased towards male dogs, and very unstable (almost 50% of
dogs died or went missing in a one year period). The rate of dog ownership across the
Kimberley varied according to the region investigated and always remained higher or equal to
ownership rates at the town centres of the Kimberley Region (as determined by a survey
conducted during the study).
Overall the canine parasite and breeding control program resulted in a reduction in scabies and
hookworm prevalence in dogs (and hence a reduction in the potential zoonotic transmission), a
reduction in dog breeding within communities, an improvement in dog health, and an
understanding in the dynamics and health status of dogs within communities.
28
Vick, Malcolm John. "Schools, school communities and the state in mid-nineteenth century New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1991. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phv636.pdf.
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Buchtmann, Lydia, and n/a. "Digital songlines : the adaption of modern communication technology at Yuendemu, a remote Aboriginal Community in Central Australia." University of Canberra. Professional Communication, 2000. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20060619.162428.
Full textAbstract:
During the early 1980s the Warlpiri at Yuendemu, a remote Aboriginal community in
Central Australia, began their own experiments in local television and radio production.
This was prior to the launch of the AUSSAT satellite in 1985 which brought broadcast
television and radio to remote Australia for the first time. There was concern amongst
remote Aboriginal communities, as well as policy makers, that the imposition of mass
media without consultation could result in permanent damage to Aboriginal culture and
language. As a result, a policy review 'Out of the Silent Land' was published in 1985 and
from that developed the Broadcasting in Remote Aboriginal Communities Scheme
(BRACS) which allowed communities to receive radio and television from the satellite.
BRACS also provided the option to turn off mainstream media and insert locally
produced material.
This study of the Warlpiri at Yuendemu has found that, since the original experiments,
they have enthusiastically used modern communication technology including radio, video
making, locally produced television, and, more recently, on-line services. The Warlpiri
have adapted rather than adopted the new technology. That is they have used modern
communications technology within existing cultural patterns to strengthen their language
and culture rather than to replace traditional practices and social structures. The Warlpiri
Media Association has inspired other remote broadcasters and is now one of eight remote
media networks that link to form a national network via the National Indigenous Media
Association of Australia.
The Warlpiri have actively adapted modern communication technology because it is to
their advantage. The new technology has been used to preserve culture and language, to
restore, and possibly improve, traditional communications and to provide employment
and other opportunities for earning income. It appeals to all age groups, especially the
elders who have retained control over broadcasts and it also provides entertainment.
30
Copertino, Margareth. "Production ecology and ecophysiology of turf algal communities on a temperate reef (West Island, South Australia)." Title page, contents and abstract only, 2002. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phc782.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 235-258). Estimates the primary production and investigates the photosynthetic performance of temperate turfs at West Island, off the coast of South Australia. These communities play a fundamental role in reef ecology, being the main source of food for grazers, both fishes and invertebrates. Turfs also have an important function in benthic algal community dynamics, being the first colonizers on disturbed and bare substratum.
31
Allen, Michelle Ann Biotechnology & Biomolecular Sciences Faculty of Science UNSW. "An astrobiology-focused analysis of Microbial Mat communities from Hamelin Pool, Shark Bay, Western Australia." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, 2006. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/26194.
Full textAbstract:
A unique opportunity to study both benthic microbial mats and modern stromatolites from a common niche is presented by the hypersaline environment of Hamelin Pool, Shark Bay, Australia. However, prior to this study, the microbial mat communities have not been well characterised. To investigate the taxonomic and functional diversity of Hamelin Pool pustular and smooth mats, and their similarity to Hamelin Pool stromatolites, culturing, culture-independent, and lipid analysis methods were employed. The cultured isolates obtained included heterotrophic bacteria similar to those obtained from other hypersaline environments, and 19 strains of cyanobacteria including potentially novel species. For the first time archaeal isolates were obtained from the pustular and smooth mats, and further characterisation of two strains indicated they might represent novel species of the genus Haloferax. Total DNA was extracted from the mats and 16S rRNA gene clone libraries were generated targeting the bacteria, cyanobacteria, archaea and eukarya. Both the pustular and smooth mat bacterial clone libraries were highly diverse, with 11 bacterial divisions represented, and Chao1 estimates of total species richness indicating ~3000 ??? 6000 species. Cyanobacterial and archaeal clone libraries revealed unique phylotypes associated with sediments of differing morphology. Statistically significant differences between the mat populations and Hamelin Pool stromatolite communities were identified using !-LIBSHUFF, a program designed to compare two 16S rRNA gene libraries. Signature lipid biomarkers were assessed for the pustular and smooth mats and an intertidal stromatolite from Hamelin Pool. Fatty acids (as methyl esters), wax esters, hydrocarbons, ether-bound lipids, hopanoids and sterols indicated the presence of oxygenic phototrophs, anoxygenic phototrophs, sulfate-reducing bacteria, sulfur-oxidising bacteria, heterotrophic bacteria and archaea in each of the sediment types. Limited contributions from diatoms, bivalves and their dinoflagellate symbionts, and from higher plant aerosols were also detected. Significantly, 2-methyl hopanoids and eight pseudohomologous series of branched alkanes with quaternary carbon centers were identified in the mats and stromatolites. Although differing in lithification status and precise microbial composition, the pustular and smooth mats are excellent analogues for the extant stromatolites of Hamelin Pool, and by corollary, provide a fascinating link to Precambrian microbial communities.
32
Bunny, F. "The biology, ecology and taxonomy of Phytophthora citricola in native plant communities in Western Australia /." Access via Murdoch University Digital Theses Project, 1996. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20061122.122739.
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Geedicke, Ina [Verfasser], and Kai [Akademischer Betreuer] Jensen. "Anthropogenic impacts on mangrove and saltmarsh communities in eastern Australia / Ina Geedicke ; Betreuer: Kai Jensen." Hamburg : Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg, 2019. http://d-nb.info/1192913108/34.
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34
Bunny, Felicity J. "The biology, ecology and taxonomy of Phytophthora citricola in native plant communities in Western Australia." Thesis, Bunny, Felicity J. (1996) The biology, ecology and taxonomy of Phytophthora citricola in native plant communities in Western Australia. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 1996. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/492/.
Full textAbstract:
The objectives of the project were to develop an understanding of the disease dynamics caused by Phytophthora citricola in native plant communities in the south of Western Australia. Prior to 1983, the pathogen had only been reported twice from Australian forests. Since then, P. citricola has been extensively recorded from plant communities north and south of Perth, and is currently the second most frequently recovered Phytophthora species from the northern jarrah forest and the northern sandplains.
The objectives were addressed by examining the biology, ecology and taxonomy of isolates of P. citricola local to the southwest. Examination of the intraspecific variation of P. citricola by isozyme analysis resolved three major electrophoretic subgroups (SG), and these were aligned with morphological and cultural variation within the species. One electrophoretic SG was confined to forested areas. This SG differed from other SGs in sporangial dimensions, growth rate on two media and in vitro sensitivity to phosphonate. A redescription of the species may be warranted.
P. citricola was positively associated with two roads in the northern jarrah forest. Road surfaces were sampled, then soil overburden was removed and the surface of the concreted lateritic layer beneath was sampled. Isolation of P. citricola declined away from the road into the adjacent forest and was more frequently recovered from the caprock (up to 1 metre below soil surface) than from the soil surface. The most probable source of introduction was from infested soil on vehicles using the roads.
Oospores were shown to be produced in two soils, a lateritic gravelly loam and sand, and in plants. In soil, the electrophoretic SG confined to the forest (loamy soil) produced only limited numbers of oospores in the sandy soil of the northern sandplain. The restriction of this SG to the forested areas is probably physiological, rather than limited dispersal, with the SG currently occupying the full extent of its range. Estimation of the relative persistence of oospores, zoospores and plant material colonised by P. citricola established that only oospores (either free in soil or in colonised plant material) were important in long tern survival in soil. Oospores were still viable after six months at two field sites, and after 18 months in soil in the laboratory.
Phosphonate is currently the most promising method of control of Phytophthora induced disease in native plant cornmunites of the southwest. The efficacy of phosphonate against P. citricola was examined in vivo and in vitro against two SGs. Phosphonate successfully inhibited lesion growth of both SGs in vivo, but of only one electrophoretic subgroup in vitro. The ecological implications of infestation of native plant communities in the southwest of Australia are discussed.
35
Bunny, Felicity J. "The biology, ecology and taxonomy of Phytophthora citricola in native plant communities in Western Australia." Murdoch University, 1996. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20061122.122739.
Full textAbstract:
The objectives of the project were to develop an understanding of the disease dynamics caused
by Phytophthora citricola in native plant communities in the south of Western Australia. Prior
to 1983, the pathogen had only been reported twice from Australian forests. Since then,
P. citricola has been extensively recorded from plant communities north and south of Perth, and
is currently the second most frequently recovered Phytophthora species from the northern jarrah
forest and the northern sandplains.
The objectives were addressed by examining the biology, ecology and taxonomy of
isolates of P. citricola local to the southwest. Examination of the intraspecific variation of
P. citricola by isozyme analysis resolved three major electrophoretic subgroups (SG), and these
were aligned with morphological and cultural variation within the species. One electrophoretic
SG was confined to forested areas. This SG differed from other SGs in sporangial dimensions,
growth rate on two media and in vitro sensitivity to phosphonate. A redescription of the species
may be warranted.
P. citricola was positively associated with two roads in the northern jarrah forest. Road
surfaces were sampled, then soil overburden was removed and the surface of the concreted
lateritic layer beneath was sampled. Isolation of P. citricola declined away from the road into the
adjacent forest and was more frequently recovered from the caprock (up to 1 metre below soil
surface) than from the soil surface. The most probable source of introduction was from infested
soil on vehicles using the roads.
Oospores were shown to be produced in two soils, a lateritic gravelly loam and sand,
and in plants. In soil, the electrophoretic SG confined to the forest (loamy soil) produced only
limited numbers of oospores in the sandy soil of the northern sandplain. The restriction of this
SG to the forested areas is probably physiological, rather than limited dispersal, with the SG
currently occupying the full extent of its range. Estimation of the relative persistence of
oospores, zoospores and plant material colonised by P. citricola established that only oospores
(either free in soil or in colonised plant material) were important in long tern survival in soil.
Oospores were still viable after six months at two field sites, and after 18 months in soil in the
laboratory.
Phosphonate is currently the most promising method of control of Phytophthora induced
disease in native plant cornmunites of the southwest. The efficacy of phosphonate against
P. citricola was examined in vivo and in vitro against two SGs. Phosphonate successfully
inhibited lesion growth of both SGs in vivo, but of only one electrophoretic subgroup in vitro.
The ecological implications of infestation of native plant communities in the southwest
of Australia are discussed.
36
Barrett, Sarah. "Phytotoxic effects of phosphite in native plant communities on the south coast of Western Australia." Thesis, Barrett, Sarah (2001) Phytotoxic effects of phosphite in native plant communities on the south coast of Western Australia. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 2001. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/32427/.
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Hettiarachchi, Dhanushka Sugeeshwara. "Isolation, identification and characterisation of antibacterial compounds from Carissa lancelota R.Br.Root." Thesis, Curtin University, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/866.
Full textAbstract:
Carissa lanceolata (conkerberry) is a perennial woody shrub used in traditional medicine by indigenous communities in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland for various medical conditions such as toothache, respiratory infections and the cleaning of sores, which all strongly indicate an antibacterial activity. A literature review revealed that the wood of this plant possesses significant antibacterial activity, which was found to be related to the presence of eudesmane type sesquiterpenes. C. edulis and C. carandus are frequently used in other traditional systems of medicine in different parts of the world, and thus have also been investigated for bioactive compounds and pharmacological properties. Some of these were found to be in line with the main findings of this work. Carissa lanceolata root was shown to exhibit significant antibacterial activity against both Gram negative and Gram positive organisms. A micro-broth dilution assay was performed on 96-well plates using resazurin as an indicator for microbial growth of Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus. Bioassays carried out in this work showed that crude extracts of root bark and wood, particularly their polar constituents were more active against the four strains of bacteria tested.Chemical investigation of the root bark revealed that it contains a volatile oil, which was isolated by steam distillation as well as solid phase micro extraction. It was found to consist of a single compound, which was identified as 2'-hydroxy acetophenone. The identity of this compound was confirmed by GC/MS and 1H NMR spectroscopy. Furthermore, the eudesmane-type sesquiterpene, carissone, was isolated from the root bark DCM and root wood hexane extracts. Its chemical identity was confirmed by IR, 1 [superscript] H and 13 [superscript] C NMR spectroscopy. The lignan, carinol, on the other hand, was isolated from the moderately polar fractions of the root wood MeOH extract. The obtained IR and 1 [superscript] H NMR data as well as Rf values all correspond to the literature. Two other yet unidentified compounds were isolated, but further studies into their chemistry and antibacterial activity were not possible in this current study. The antibacterial activity of the isolated compounds was considerable, with 2'-hydroxy acetophenone exhibiting the strongest effect, followed by carinol and then carissone.
38
Mitchell, Patrick John. "From conduits to communities : plant water use strategies and evapotranspiration in a semi-arid ecosystem in south-western Australia." University of Western Australia. School of Plant Biology, 2009. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2010.0034.
Full textAbstract:
[Truncated abstract] Understanding the ecohydrological dynamics of native vegetation can provide a benchmark for future efforts to restore landscape hydrology and allow predictions of potential landscape responses to climate uncertainty and associated changes in vegetation cover. The key drivers of evapotranspiration (Et) involved in maintaining a hydrological balance that minimises deep drainage in semi-arid ecosystems operate at a range of scales, and in this thesis I assessed the water relations of functionally and taxonomically diverse plant communities in south-western Australia from the leaf-level to ecosystem scale. For three key communities; heath shrubland, mallee (small multistemmed eucalypt) -heath, and open eucalypt woodland, populating a typical catenary sequence of soil types along a slope, I addressed the following questions: 1) What are the predominant water use strategies of wheatbelt native plant communities and what underlying trade-offs determine the distribution of plant water use strategies along the topographical gradient? 2) What are the roles of soil water and hydraulic limitation in controlling the spatial and temporal dynamics of transpiration in different functional types? 3) What is the magnitude and partitioning of total Et in the woodland community and what processes determine Et fluxes on a seasonal and annual basis? 4) What are the seasonal differences in Et among contrasting community-types and how do these patterns relate to canopy attributes and transpiration capacity along the topographical gradient? A key philosophical step in working with species-rich communities was to develop the concept of 'hydraulic functional types' (HFTs) to identify groupings of species using associations of physiological and morphological traits that define their hydrological functioning. .... However, as shallow soils dried during spring and summer, Et fluxes were significantly lower at the heath site (0.35 versus 0.66 mm day-1 for the woodland in February), demonstrating that the seasonality of Et fluxes differentiates communityscale contributions to regional water balance. Land-surface exchange of water over native vegetation is by no means uniform, but varies according to the spatial and temporal availability of water along topographical gradients. In general, shallow soils present fewer opportunities for water use partitioning and favour drought hardiness and a transpiration response that tracks recent rainfall patterns, whereas deeper soils promote greater differentiation in water use strategy and support canopies responsive to atmospheric demand. This thesis provides a unique description of ecosystem water balance in a global biodiversity hotspot by viewing complex vegetation mosaics in terms of their relevant hydrological units. This information is fundamental to sustainable agroforestry and revegetation efforts and our ability to gauge possible changes in vegetation structure and function under a changing climate.
39
Handley, Michelle Anne. "The distribution pattern of algal flora in saline lakes in Kambalda and Esperance, Western Australia." Thesis, Curtin University, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/413.
Full textAbstract:
The study has attempted to characterise the physicochemical limnology and distribution of algal flora of two salt lake systems in Western Australia, one from the coastal Esperance region and the other from the inland Kambalda region. Climatic conditions, water regimes and physicochemistry were found to differ markedly between the two lake systems and a total of 171 algal taxa, representing five divisions, were recorded. Of these, 82 were members of Bacillariophyta, 48 of Cyanophyta, 33 of Chlorophyta, two of Euglenophyta and six of Dinophyta. The physical limnology of salt lakes in the Esperance region was seasonally variable, defined by climatic conditions. As such, the lakes investigated in the region exhibited a stable cycle of filling during winter and spring, and drying out in summer. Four of the lakes in the region could be classified as near-permanent, and one as seasonal on the basis of predictability and duration of filling. Seasonal fluctuations in water depth resulted in fluctuations in salinity levels. Salinity levels ranged from subsaline to hypersaline, and all the lakes in the region were alkaline. In addition, the lakes were well mixed in terms of oxygen and temperature, and were impacted by eutrophication from their catchments. They were either mesotrophic or eutrophic with respect to both nitrogen and phosphorus. In geological terms, lakes in the Esperance region were separated only recently from the ocean, and two lakes retain a connection with marine waters, one through a creek during years of high rainfall and one through hydrological interactions with groundwater of marine origin. In general, the algal communities of lakes in the Esperance region were similar to those of other Australian coastal salt lakes.Diatoms and cyanobacteria were dominant in all lakes except the most eutrophic, Lake Warden, in which benthic green algae were most abundant. All algal species recorded were known for their wide geographic distribution and their distribution in Australian coastal waters. Characteristically coastal diatom species included Achnanthes brevipes, Achnanthes coarctata, Achnanthes lanceolata var. dubia, Achnanthidium cruciculum, Campylodiscus clypeus, Cyclotella atomus, Cyclotella meneghiniana, Cyclotella striata, Mastogloia elliptica, Mastoglia pumila, Nitzschia punctata and Thalassiosira weissflogii. The inland salt lakes of the Kambalda region form part of an extensive palaeodrainage system, and were much less predictable in terms water regime than lakes in Esperance. Water depth was determined by seasonal variability in rainfall and evaporation, and by summer cyclonic rainfall events that were unreliable from year to year. In addition, rainfall varied spatially within the region. As such, most lakes were classified as intermittent. Two lakes in the region were not classified on the basis of water regime as they were too highly impacted by mining activities including water diversion and impoundment, water extraction and discharge of groundwater. Salinity varied in accordance with drying and filling cycles in the lakes except the most hypersaline as the volume of water received during rainfall events was insufficient to dilute the extensive surface salt crusts they each supported when dry. Salinities recorded in the region ranged from subsaline to hypersaline, and ionic compositions exhibited the same spectrum as seawater.Calcium levels were significantly higher than in lakes from the Esperance region due to weathering of calcium rich sediments, and pH ranged from weakly acidic in the most hypersaline lakes to alkaline in the least saline lakes. All were well mixed in terms of oxygen and temperature. Kambalda salt lakes support distinctive algal communities dominated by diatoms and cyanobacteria that are adapted to intermittent water regimes, extended periods of desiccation and variable salinity. Not surprisingly then, none of the algal taxa recorded from the region were regionally restricted, all noted previously in the literature to have wide geographic distributions, and to be tolerant of a range of physicochemical conditions. Canonical correspondence analysis showed that, of the physicochemical parameters that were investigated in this study, both salinity and pH interacted in determining algal community structure. Both of these attributes were correlated with water depth, which varied according to climatic conditions in a seasonal drying and filling cycle. The general relationship between species richness and pH and salinity, and species diversity and pH and salinity was simple and linear; with increasing pH and salinity, species diversity and species richness decreased. What was less simple, and non-linear, was the nature of the relationship between species richness and diversity and salinity within more narrowly defined ranges of salinity. As salinity increased from <1ppt to 30ppt there was a dramatic reduction in species richness and diversity, then, as salinity increased from 30ppt to 100ppt the rate of decrease slowed. Between 100ppt and 250ppt there was almost no relationship between salinity and species richness and species diversity, but after 250ppt both species diversity and species richness declined markedly.
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McGrath, Debra. "The effectiveness of evapotranspiration systems in disposal of wastewater in remote Aboriginal communities in Northwest Australia." Thesis, McGrath, Debra (1989) The effectiveness of evapotranspiration systems in disposal of wastewater in remote Aboriginal communities in Northwest Australia. Honours thesis, Murdoch University, 1989. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/38440/.
Full textAbstract:
The outstation movement has resulted in the development of many new Aboriginal communities, ranging in size from small family groups to collectives of 100 or more people in remote areas of Australia. Health problems arising from ineffective waste disposal systems and lack of maintenance of existing systems are prevalent in many of the communities.
In some areas of the Pilbara, the soil is extremely impermeable with high clay and silt contents causing water applied to the soil to pond on the surface. In such situations conventional septic tank/soil absorption systems frequently fail: effluent moving into the disposal field is not absorbed by the soil sufficiently rapidly to prevent rise to the surface and hence system failure occurs. The only alternative currently used in such situations is a reticulated sewerage collection system which is very costly and frequently fails due to lack of maintenance.
Evapotranspiration (ET) systems could be used instead, being considerably less in cost and potentially requiring less maintenance than reticulated systems. In this study the effectiveness of ET systems in disposing of wastewater and the application of these systems to remote Aboriginal outstations was investigated.
Experiments were carried out between August 1988 and March 1989 at Murdoch University. Monitoring of daily changes in water levels in watertight tanks (constructed of either concrete drainage pipes with set in bases or polyethylene drums) containing soil, grass, gravel or trees (Eucalyptus camaldulensis). The gravel tanks were filled to the brim with 40mm gauge crushed granite. The tanks with soil, grass and trees were filled with graded gravel above which was placed a 40cm depth of Bassendean sand. As much as possible, the water table in each tank was kept within the sand layer to allow capillarity of water to the surface to occur. The bulk density and average particle density of the sand was measured to determine the porosity, from which the actual ET from the tanks was calculated. Calibration experiments were conducted to measure the time taken for the water level to stabilise when water was added or removed from a tank.
The bulk density of sand used in the study was 1.44g/cc and the particle density was 2.11 glee. From this the porosity was calculated as 0.32. Calibration experiments showed that the water level took up to six days to stabilise (to a water content of 0.91 L/cm sand in tank) when water was added down the standpipe to the tanks containing sand and even longer when added to the surface simulating rainfall. This placed the accuracy of ET determined for each lysimeter in some doubt over short periods as water was frequently added at intervals smaller than six days. Over a larger period however, water balances with an approximately constant water level in the tank gave a good estimate of ET rates.
ET from bare soil and grass followed similar trends to pan evaporation rates for the same period, ranging from 30-60% of pan evaporation for soil and from 60-80% of pan evaporation for grass. ET rates increased in the tree lysimeters as the plants grew and exceeded pan evaporation rates in December and February. Evaporation from gravel filled lysimeters was low, being as little as 10% of pan evaporation at a depth to water table of 28cm. The results showed that the presence of vegetation increased water loss, indicating that soil capillarity may not be important in the functioning of an ET system that has plants growing. Gravel was not a suitable medium for sustained high ET rates.
The water balance equation was used to determine the ET system sizing requirements for a given locality, where system depth was dependent upon the total storage of wastewater needed in a year and on the storage capacity of the fill material used in the disposal field. Application of the equation in designing an ET system for Punmu showed that the information that was available was pan evaporation rates, rainfall and average wastewater production figures. Information that was not available and would require collection on-site was seepage rates of the soil, and likely numbers of people present throughout the year at the outstation. Similarly, the ET rates for trees could not be determined from pan evaporation data and required further investigation. The acceptance by residents at an outstation of ET systems should also be examined - fear of snakes hiding in vegetation may perhaps cause people to pull out shrubs planted on a disposal field.
In conclusion, ET systems would appear to be a suitable alternative to reticulated systems in remote communities. The arid conditions of the Pilbara favour the successful implementation of such a disposal system, provided sufficient wastewater is generated all year round to maintain vegetative growth. There should be no public health risk involved in the functioning of a system if it is designed to maintain a depth to water level in the bed of at least 20cm.
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Ryan, Kylie A. "Small, no-take marine protected areas and wave exposure affect temperate, subtidal reef communities at Marmion Marine Park, Western Australia." University of Western Australia. School of Plant Biology, 2008. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0130.
Full textAbstract:
[Truncated abstract] The ecological effects of marine protected areas (MPAs) in temperate ecosystems are poorly understood relative to their tropical counterparts. The limited number of rigorous empirical studies supporting existing theoretical models, increasing public awareness of the importance of marine conservation strategies and legislative requirements to review management effectiveness provide further impetus to study temperate MPAs. Investigations should consider confounding effects of natural variability if MPA effects are to be clearly demonstrated. This research helps to address these needs by investigating the short term effects of sanctuary zones (no-take MPAs where fishing is prohibited) and wave exposure at Marmion Marine Park, Western Australia. The three sanctuary zones at Marmion Marine Park are extremely small (0.061 0.279 km2) compared to most reported in the literature. The sanctuary zones are nested within a larger, fished zone (94.95 km2). The sanctuary zones have been protected from fishing since the year 2000. A post-hoc, asymmetrical sampling design was used in this study and involved surveys of fishes, mobile invertebrates and macroalgae at one sanctuary zone and two fished sites (controls) at each of three successive, subtidal reef lines. The three reef lines are exposed to a gradient in wave energy. The size structure and abundance of the heavily exploited Panulirus cygnus (Western Rock Lobster) were positively affected by protection from fishing in sanctuary zones, despite the highly mobile nature of this migratory species. The mean abundance of legal size lobsters was higher in sanctuary zones compared to fished sites during an interannual study (2003, 2005 and 2006). The total abundance of lobsters and the mean abundance of legal size lobsters were higher at inshore and offshore sanctuary zones compared to fished control sites during a 2005/2006 fishing season study. These zoning effects did not vary with the time of survey. ... Furthermore, the abundance of large lobsters in sanctuary zones decreased with the duration of the 2005/2006 fishing season. Similarly, it is likely that sanctuary zones are too small relative to the movement of fishes to adequately protect stocks of some targeted species. The small sanctuary zones at Marmion are unlikely to offer protection to highly mobile species over the long term. And finally, ecological assemblages within each level of wave exposure are distinct. Consequently for each assemblage type, the current reserve design does not include replication of sanctuary zones and does not offer any 'insurance' in the event of isolated impacts affecting a particular zone. This study has identified the benefits and deficiencies of the design and function of small no-take temperate MPAs in Western Australia. An increase in the size and number of sanctuary zones within each wave exposure level will help to address the v shortfalls of the zoning scheme and enhance the conservation benefits of management at Marmion Marine Park. More generally, this study demonstrates that the mobility of the species to be protected from fishing should be considered when designing MPAs. Lessons learned from this work will be beneficial for the future management and conservation of resources in the region and elsewhere.
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Reinke, Leanne 1964. "Community, communication and contradiction : the political implications of changing modes of communication in indigenous communities of Australia and Mexico." Monash University, School of Political and Social Inquiry, 2001. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/8812.
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au, chalwell@yahoo com, and Shane Thomas Samuel Chalwell. "Plant Communities of Greenstone Hills of the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia as Analogues for the Rehabilitation of Rocky Waste Dumps." Murdoch University, 2003. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20041014.113057.
Full textAbstract:
The vegetation of greenstone hills in the Kalgoorlie area of the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia was studied to identify the key environmental influences on community and species distribution. This information was needed to determine if plant communities of the hills could provide analogues for the rehabilitation of waste rock dumps that are produced as a consequence of open cut mining.
The ridges, slopes and flats adjacent to the main slope were examined and the floristic data sorted into communities. Two structurally and floristically distinct alliances were identified, one dominated by eucalypt species and the other by Acacia quadrimarginea. The eucalypt woodland displayed a taller upper stratum and few groundlayer species and was the dominant vegetation of the flats at the base of the hills. The acacia community was a low woodland and is the dominant vegetation of the hill slopes. Both communities were dominant at an equal number of sites on the ridges of the hills.
An investigation of the environmental variables found that edaphic, rather than topographic, factors were responsible for the community distribution on the hills. The eucalypt woodland showed a strong affinity to soils derived from calcrete, which had higher levels of electrical conductivity and lower exchangeable sodium percentages than the soils of the acacia low woodland. Under such conditions, the clay fraction of the soil remains in a more flocculated state allowing higher rates of water infiltration and hydraulic conductivity compared to the acacia soils. Soil nutrients were found to have a secondary influence on community distribution and had a greater effect on species distribution within alliances.
A study of the seasonal variation in water content of the soils showed that more moisture is retained in the upper soil horizons in the acacia community than in the eucalypt community during the wetter part of the year, indicating the acacia soils had poorer infiltration properties than the eucalypt soils. The distribution of drought tolerant species such as A. quadrimarginea and Prostanthera incurvata was found to be correlated to soil moisture content of the dry season whilst no correlation was found for the eucalypts at any time of the year.
Seasonal comparisons of leaf moisture content and xylem pressure potential showed that the eucalypts maintained their total leaf moisture content throughout the year whereas species such as A. quadrimarginea and Allocasuarina campestris recorded high levels of desiccation of their leaf tissue over the summer. The eucalypts also maintained a more consistent pre-dawn xylem pressure potential throughout the year than either A. quadrimarginea or the shrub species Dodonaea microzyga, indicating a greater degree of stomatal control and access to a more consistent soil water supply. The eucalypts require access to a greater soil volume than the acacias or shrubs in order to ensure sufficient water supplies for the maintenance of tissue moisture levels throughout the year. In this way, the eucalypts are able to effectively avoid the summer drought, whereas the acacias and shrubs are able to tolerate desiccation of their leaf tissues over this period.
Investigations of the germination requirements and early seedling survival of prominent species from the greenstone hills indicated that fire may be a factor in the regeneration of most hills species. All studied species were either tolerant of or responded positively to the application of dry heat. In relation to seedling establishment on waste dumps, increasing the soil moisture content of waste dump soils increased the germination rate of most species but did not result in greater seedling survival at the end of the first summer. The provision of microsites which encouraged root development and provided protection for the young seedlings was found to be more important in reducing mortality rates in the first year than increasing the total germination.
The study emphasized the importance of physical soil factors and the soil moisture regime in the distribution of eucalypt and acacia communities on the greenstone hills. A species response to drought stress strongly influences its ability to compete for soil water on different soil types. The eucalypts studied in this project dominated on soils where there is better recharge of subsoil water reserves which can be accessed over the summer period to maintain tissue water levels. Acacias are tolerant of tissue desiccation and will compete successfully on shallower soils and where hydraulic conductivity is poor.
Although the project was valuable in identifying water relations as the main control on community distribution on the hills, waste dumps are not strictly analogues of intact greenstone hills due to the differences in rock type and profile formation. Electrical conductivity levels are also higher due to extraction processes. However, the environmental relationships of the different species show that the more drought tolerant species such as Allocasuarina campestris, Acacia quadrimarginea and understorey species associated with them, may be suitable species to form the basis of vegetation reinstatement on waste dumps in the Kalgoorlie region.
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Eyres, John A. "A comparison of seagrass communities at varying proximity to a low-density mussel-line aquaculture in King George Sound, Western Australia." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2005. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/675.
Full textAbstract:
Increasingly mussel-line aquaculture is recognised as a potential threat to seagrass. Sites suitable for mussel-line aquaculture are often in sheltered waters containing seagrass. Despite this; few studies have examined the risk of mussel-line aquaculture to seagrass ecosystems. The objective of this study is to determine how low-density, mussel-line aquaculture might influence the underlying seagrass ecosystem.
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Taukulis, Fiona E. "Diatom communities in lakes and streams of varying salinity from south-west Western Australia : distribution and predictability." Thesis, Curtin University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/2164.
Full textAbstract:
The distribution pattern of diatoms from lakes and streams of varying salinity in the south-west of Western Australia was investigated. A total of 95 water bodies were sampled and separated into freshwater (<3 ppt), hyposaline (3-20 ppt), mesosaline (20-50 ppt) and hypersaline (>50 ppt). The south-west and specifically the inland wheatbelt region has been severely influenced by secondary salinisation, due to clearing of native vegetation for agriculture. There has been little research on diatom communities from salt-affected systems, with this data providing the basis for the development of an inference model based on species optima and tolerance limits to salinity.Physico-chemical variables measured from the study sites were collated and assessed. Salinity ranged from freshwater (0.04) to hypersaline (156.80 ppt), and pH ranged from acidic (2.90) to alkaline (10.51). Dissolved oxygen levels were recorded from 1.11 to 18.67 mgL[superscript]-1, water temperature from 6.30 to 28.10 ºC and peripheral vegetation scores from 1 (little or no cover) to 5 (dense cover). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that salinities were significantly higher in standing waters located further inland, compared to flowing waters in high rainfall areas. Hypersaline wetlands displayed significantly lower dissolved oxygen levels, higher water temperatures and reduced peripheral vegetation, compared to freshwaters. The pH of hypersaline sites was also significantly lower, associated with surrounding land use or underlying geology. The data collected provides important baseline information, with implications for aquatic biota.The community structure of diatoms in relation to varying salinity concentration was explored. An artificial substrate collector (JJ periphytometer) was used to standardise sampling and ensure diatom assemblages were representative of ambient water quality. A total of 217 taxa were identified with the highest diversity observed in freshwater sites (up to 33 species), and limited to less than 15 in hypersaline waters. According to BIOENV, salinity was the key factor influencing diatom community structure. SIMPER analysis found a number of discriminating taxa between salinity ranges, specifically between assemblages from freshwater and hypersaline sites. Taxa such as Achnanthidium minutissimum and Gomphonema parvulum were indicative of freshwaters. In comparison, Amphora coffeaeformis and Nitzschia ovalis were associated with hypersaline water bodies.Diatom community structure was also examined from 20 hypersaline wetlands in the wheatbelt region with varying pH. Characteristic taxa including Amphora coffeaeformis, Hantzschia sp. aff. baltica and Nitzschia ovalis showed a wide tolerance to salinity and pH, or hypersaline acidic conditions. BIOENV analysis found there were no observable differences between diatom assemblages in relation to salinities above 50 ppt and that pH was highly correlated to species composition. The increasing occurrence of acid saline lakes is of concern and is most likely attributable to deep drainage practices and continued use of fertilisers in agricultural areas.A diatom-based transfer function was developed from the south-west dataset, to document species optima and tolerance limits to salinity. CCA analysis showed that salinity accounted for a significant and independent amount of variation in the diatom data enabling an inference model to be derived. The most successful model was generated using tolerance-downweighted weighted averaging, with a high coefficient of determination and low prediction errors that remained high after jackknifing. The optima of freshwater diatoms were similar to those reported from other regions of the world, although the optima of hypersaline species tended to be higher. Comparatively, the model performed very well, with the potential to be applied in future paleolimnological studies.In conclusion, this study has shown diatoms to be effective biomonitoring tools, providing the basis for future sampling strategies that assess the biodiversity of salt-affected water bodies in Western Australia. Potential indicator species from different salinity ranges were identified and the sensitivity of diatoms allowed for the development of a statistically robust inference model for the south-west. The reported optima and tolerance limits of important taxa may be further explored to evaluate the success of remediation measures implemented for secondary salinised systems in this region.
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Taukulis, Fiona E. "Diatom communities in lakes and streams of varying salinity from south-west Western Australia : distribution and predictability." Curtin University of Technology, Dept. of Environmental Biology, 2007. http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=17715.
Full textAbstract:
The distribution pattern of diatoms from lakes and streams of varying salinity in the south-west of Western Australia was investigated. A total of 95 water bodies were sampled and separated into freshwater (<3 ppt), hyposaline (3-20 ppt), mesosaline (20-50 ppt) and hypersaline (>50 ppt). The south-west and specifically the inland wheatbelt region has been severely influenced by secondary salinisation, due to clearing of native vegetation for agriculture. There has been little research on diatom communities from salt-affected systems, with this data providing the basis for the development of an inference model based on species optima and tolerance limits to salinity. Physico-chemical variables measured from the study sites were collated and assessed. Salinity ranged from freshwater (0.04) to hypersaline (156.80 ppt), and pH ranged from acidic (2.90) to alkaline (10.51). Dissolved oxygen levels were recorded from 1.11 to 18.67 mgL-1, water temperature from 6.30 to 28.10 °C and peripheral vegetation scores from 1 (little or no cover) to 5 (dense cover). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that salinities were significantly higher in standing waters located further inland, compared to flowing waters in high rainfall areas. Hypersaline wetlands displayed significantly lower dissolved oxygen levels, higher water temperatures and reduced peripheral vegetation, compared to freshwaters. The pH of hypersaline sites was also significantly lower, associated with surrounding land use or underlying geology. The data collected provides important baseline information, with implications for aquatic biota.The community structure of diatoms in relation to varying salinity concentration was explored. An artificial substrate collector (JJ periphytometer) was used to standardise sampling and ensure diatom assemblages were representative of ambient water quality. A total of 217 taxa were identified with the highest diversity observed in freshwater sites (up to 33 species), and limited to less than 15 in hypersaline waters. According to BIOENV, salinity was the key factor influencing diatom community structure. SIMPER analysis found a number of discriminating taxa between salinity ranges, specifically between assemblages from freshwater and hypersaline sites. Taxa such as Achnanthidium minutissimum and Gomphonema parvulum were indicative of freshwaters. In comparison, Amphora coffeaeformis and Nitzschia ovalis were associated with hypersaline water bodies. Diatom community structure was also examined from 20 hypersaline wetlands in the wheatbelt region with varying pH. Characteristic taxa including Amphora coffeaeformis, Hantzschia sp. aff. baltica and Nitzschia ovalis showed a wide tolerance to salinity and pH, or hypersaline acidic conditions. BIOENV analysis found there were no observable differences between diatom assemblages in relation to salinities above 50 ppt and that pH was highly correlated to species composition. The increasing occurrence of acid saline lakes is of concern and is most likely attributable to deep drainage practices and continued use of fertilisers in agricultural areas.
A diatom-based transfer function was developed from the south-west dataset, to document species optima and tolerance limits to salinity. CCA analysis showed that salinity accounted for a significant and independent amount of variation in the diatom data enabling an inference model to be derived. The most successful model was generated using tolerance-downweighted weighted averaging, with a high coefficient of determination and low prediction errors that remained high after jackknifing. The optima of freshwater diatoms were similar to those reported from other regions of the world, although the optima of hypersaline species tended to be higher. Comparatively, the model performed very well, with the potential to be applied in future paleolimnological studies. In conclusion, this study has shown diatoms to be effective biomonitoring tools, providing the basis for future sampling strategies that assess the biodiversity of salt-affected water bodies in Western Australia. Potential indicator species from different salinity ranges were identified and the sensitivity of diatoms allowed for the development of a statistically robust inference model for the south-west. The reported optima and tolerance limits of important taxa may be further explored to evaluate the success of remediation measures implemented for secondary salinised systems in this region.
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Zhang, Jie (Olivia). "The exploration of consumer power in online brand communities : a comparison case study in Australia and China." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2008. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/26373/1/Jie_Zhang_Thesis.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
Aided by the development of information technology, the balance of power in the market place is rapidly shifting from marketers towards consumers and nowhere is this more obvious than in the online environment (Denegri-Knott, Zwick, & Schroeder, 2006; Moynagh & Worsley, 2002; Newcomer, 2000; Samli, 2001). From the inception and continuous development of the Internet, consumers are becoming more empowered. They can choose what they want to click on the Internet, they can shop and transact payments, watch and download video, chat with others, be it friends or even total strangers. Especially in online communities, like-minded consumers share and exchange information, ideas and opinions. One form of online community is the online brand community, which gathers specific brand lovers. As with any social unit, people form different roles in the community and exert different effects on each other. Their interaction online can greatly influence the brand and marketers. A comprehensive understanding of the operation of this special group form is essential to advancing marketing thought and practice (Kozinets, 1999). While online communities have strongly shifted the balance of power from marketers to consumers, the current marketing literature is sparse on power theory (Merlo, Whitwell, & Lukas, 2004). Some studies have been conducted from an economic point of view (Smith, 1987), however their application to marketing has been limited. Denegri-Knott (2006) explored power based on the struggle between consumers and marketers online and identified consumer power formats such as control over the relationship, information, aggregation and participation. Her study has built a foundation for future power studies in the online environment. This research project bridges the limited marketing literature on power theory with the growing recognition of online communities among marketing academics and practitioners. Specifically, this study extends and redefines consumer power by exploring the concept of power in online brand communities, in order to better understand power structure and distribution in this context. This research investigates the applicability of the factors of consumer power identified by Denegri-Knott (2006) to the online brand community. In addition, by acknowledging the model proposed by McAlexander, Schouten, & Koenig (2002), which emphasized that community study should focus on the role of consumers and identifying multiple relationships among the community, this research further explores how member role changes will affect power relationships as well as consumer likings of the brand. As a further extension to the literature, this study also considers cultural differences and their effect on community member roles and power structure. Based on the study of Hofstede (1980), Australia and China were chosen as two distinct samples to represent differences in two cultural dimensions, namely individualism verses collectivism and high power distance verses low power distance. This contribution to the research also helps answer the research gap identified by Muñiz Jr & O'Guinn (2001), who pointed out the lack of cross cultural studies within the online brand community context. This research adopts a case study methodology to investigate the issues identified above. Case study is an appropriate research strategy to answer “how” and “why” questions of a contemporary phenomenon in real-life context (Yin, 2003). The online brand communities of “Haloforum.net” in Australia and “NGA.cn” in China were selected as two cases. In-depth interviews were used as the primary data collection method. As a result of the geographical dispersion and the preference of a certain number of participants, online synchronic interviews via MSN messenger were utilized along with the face-to-face interviews. As a supplementary approach, online observation was carried over two months, covering a two week period prior to the interviews and a six week period following the interviews. Triangulation techniques were used to strengthen the credibility and validity of the research findings (Yin, 2003). The findings of this research study suggest a new definition of power in an online brand community. This research also redefines the consumer power types and broadens the brand community model developed by McAlexander et al. (2002) in an online context by extending the various relationships between brand and members. This presents a more complete picture of how the perceived power relationships are structured in the online brand community. A new member role is discovered in the Australian online brand community in addition to the four member roles identified by Kozinets (1999), in contrast however, all four roles do not exist in the Chinese online brand community. The research proposes a model which links the defined power types and identified member roles. Furthermore, given the results of the cross-cultural comparison between Australia and China showed certain discrepancies, the research suggests that power studies in the online brand community should be country-specific. This research contributes to the body of knowledge on online consumer power, by applying it to the context of an online brand community, as well as considering factors such as cross cultural difference. Importantly, it provides insights for marketing practitioners on how to best leverage consumer power to serve brand objective in online brand communities. This, in turn, should lead to more cost effective and successful communication strategies. Finally, the study proposes future research directions. The research should be extended to communities of different sizes, to different extents of marketer control over the community, to the connection between online and offline activities within the brand community, and (given the cross-cultural findings) to different countries. In addition, a greater amount of research in this area is recommended to determine the generalizability of this study.
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Zhang, Jie (Olivia). "The exploration of consumer power in online brand communities : a comparison case study in Australia and China." Queensland University of Technology, 2008. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/26373/.
Full textAbstract:
Aided by the development of information technology, the balance of power in the market place is rapidly shifting from marketers towards consumers and nowhere is this more obvious than in the online environment (Denegri-Knott, Zwick, & Schroeder, 2006; Moynagh & Worsley, 2002; Newcomer, 2000; Samli, 2001). From the inception and continuous development of the Internet, consumers are becoming more empowered. They can choose what they want to click on the Internet, they can shop and transact payments, watch and download video, chat with others, be it friends or even total strangers. Especially in online communities, like-minded consumers share and exchange information, ideas and opinions. One form of online community is the online brand community, which gathers specific brand lovers. As with any social unit, people form different roles in the community and exert different effects on each other. Their interaction online can greatly influence the brand and marketers. A comprehensive understanding of the operation of this special group form is essential to advancing marketing thought and practice (Kozinets, 1999). While online communities have strongly shifted the balance of power from marketers to consumers, the current marketing literature is sparse on power theory (Merlo, Whitwell, & Lukas, 2004). Some studies have been conducted from an economic point of view (Smith, 1987), however their application to marketing has been limited. Denegri-Knott (2006) explored power based on the struggle between consumers and marketers online and identified consumer power formats such as control over the relationship, information, aggregation and participation. Her study has built a foundation for future power studies in the online environment. This research project bridges the limited marketing literature on power theory with the growing recognition of online communities among marketing academics and practitioners. Specifically, this study extends and redefines consumer power by exploring the concept of power in online brand communities, in order to better understand power structure and distribution in this context. This research investigates the applicability of the factors of consumer power identified by Denegri-Knott (2006) to the online brand community. In addition, by acknowledging the model proposed by McAlexander, Schouten, & Koenig (2002), which emphasized that community study should focus on the role of consumers and identifying multiple relationships among the community, this research further explores how member role changes will affect power relationships as well as consumer likings of the brand. As a further extension to the literature, this study also considers cultural differences and their effect on community member roles and power structure. Based on the study of Hofstede (1980), Australia and China were chosen as two distinct samples to represent differences in two cultural dimensions, namely individualism verses collectivism and high power distance verses low power distance. This contribution to the research also helps answer the research gap identified by Muñiz Jr & O'Guinn (2001), who pointed out the lack of cross cultural studies within the online brand community context. This research adopts a case study methodology to investigate the issues identified above. Case study is an appropriate research strategy to answer “how” and “why” questions of a contemporary phenomenon in real-life context (Yin, 2003). The online brand communities of “Haloforum.net” in Australia and “NGA.cn” in China were selected as two cases. In-depth interviews were used as the primary data collection method. As a result of the geographical dispersion and the preference of a certain number of participants, online synchronic interviews via MSN messenger were utilized along with the face-to-face interviews. As a supplementary approach, online observation was carried over two months, covering a two week period prior to the interviews and a six week period following the interviews. Triangulation techniques were used to strengthen the credibility and validity of the research findings (Yin, 2003). The findings of this research study suggest a new definition of power in an online brand community. This research also redefines the consumer power types and broadens the brand community model developed by McAlexander et al. (2002) in an online context by extending the various relationships between brand and members. This presents a more complete picture of how the perceived power relationships are structured in the online brand community. A new member role is discovered in the Australian online brand community in addition to the four member roles identified by Kozinets (1999), in contrast however, all four roles do not exist in the Chinese online brand community. The research proposes a model which links the defined power types and identified member roles. Furthermore, given the results of the cross-cultural comparison between Australia and China showed certain discrepancies, the research suggests that power studies in the online brand community should be country-specific. This research contributes to the body of knowledge on online consumer power, by applying it to the context of an online brand community, as well as considering factors such as cross cultural difference. Importantly, it provides insights for marketing practitioners on how to best leverage consumer power to serve brand objective in online brand communities. This, in turn, should lead to more cost effective and successful communication strategies. Finally, the study proposes future research directions. The research should be extended to communities of different sizes, to different extents of marketer control over the community, to the connection between online and offline activities within the brand community, and (given the cross-cultural findings) to different countries. In addition, a greater amount of research in this area is recommended to determine the generalizability of this study.
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Kennard, Mark. "A quantitative basis for the use of fish as indicators of river health in eastern Australia." Connect to this title online, 2005. http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20051004.155737/.
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Chalwell, Shane Thomas Samuel. "Plant communities of greenstone hills of the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia as analogues for the rehabilitation of rocky waste dumps." Thesis, Chalwell, Shane Thomas Samuel (2003) Plant communities of greenstone hills of the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia as analogues for the rehabilitation of rocky waste dumps. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 2003. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/510/.
Full textAbstract:
The vegetation of greenstone hills in the Kalgoorlie area of the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia was studied to identify the key environmental influences on community and species distribution. This information was needed to determine if plant communities of the hills could provide analogues for the rehabilitation of waste rock dumps that are produced as a consequence of open cut mining.
The ridges, slopes and flats adjacent to the main slope were examined and the floristic data sorted into communities. Two structurally and floristically distinct alliances were identified, one dominated by eucalypt species and the other by Acacia quadrimarginea. The eucalypt woodland displayed a taller upper stratum and few groundlayer species and was the dominant vegetation of the flats at the base of the hills. The acacia community was a low woodland and is the dominant vegetation of the hill slopes. Both communities were dominant at an equal number of sites on the ridges of the hills.
An investigation of the environmental variables found that edaphic, rather than topographic, factors were responsible for the community distribution on the hills. The eucalypt woodland showed a strong affinity to soils derived from calcrete, which had higher levels of electrical conductivity and lower exchangeable sodium percentages than the soils of the acacia low woodland. Under such conditions, the clay fraction of the soil remains in a more flocculated state allowing higher rates of water infiltration and hydraulic conductivity compared to the acacia soils. Soil nutrients were found to have a secondary influence on community distribution and had a greater effect on species distribution within alliances.
A study of the seasonal variation in water content of the soils showed that more moisture is retained in the upper soil horizons in the acacia community than in the eucalypt community during the wetter part of the year, indicating the acacia soils had poorer infiltration properties than the eucalypt soils. The distribution of drought tolerant species such as A. quadrimarginea and Prostanthera incurvata was found to be correlated to soil moisture content of the dry season whilst no correlation was found for the eucalypts at any time of the year.
Seasonal comparisons of leaf moisture content and xylem pressure potential showed that the eucalypts maintained their total leaf moisture content throughout the year whereas species such as A. quadrimarginea and Allocasuarina campestris recorded high levels of desiccation of their leaf tissue over the summer. The eucalypts also maintained a more consistent pre-dawn xylem pressure potential throughout the year than either A. quadrimarginea or the shrub species Dodonaea microzyga, indicating a greater degree of stomatal control and access to a more consistent soil water supply. The eucalypts require access to a greater soil volume than the acacias or shrubs in order to ensure sufficient water supplies for the maintenance of tissue moisture levels throughout the year. In this way, the eucalypts are able to effectively avoid the summer drought, whereas the acacias and shrubs are able to tolerate desiccation of their leaf tissues over this period.
Investigations of the germination requirements and early seedling survival of prominent species from the greenstone hills indicated that fire may be a factor in the regeneration of most hills species. All studied species were either tolerant of or responded positively to the application of dry heat. In relation to seedling establishment on waste dumps, increasing the soil moisture content of waste dump soils increased the germination rate of most species but did not result in greater seedling survival at the end of the first summer. The provision of microsites which encouraged root development and provided protection for the young seedlings was found to be more important in reducing mortality rates in the first year than increasing the total germination.
The study emphasized the importance of physical soil factors and the soil moisture regime in the distribution of eucalypt and acacia communities on the greenstone hills. A species' response to drought stress strongly influences its ability to compete for soil water on different soil types. The eucalypts studied in this project dominated on soils where there is better recharge of subsoil water reserves which can be accessed over the summer period to maintain tissue water levels. Acacias are tolerant of tissue desiccation and will compete successfully on shallower soils and where hydraulic conductivity is poor.
Although the project was valuable in identifying water relations as the main control on community distribution on the hills, waste dumps are not strictly analogues of intact greenstone hills due to the differences in rock type and profile formation. Electrical conductivity levels are also higher due to extraction processes. However, the environmental relationships of the different species show that the more drought tolerant species such as Allocasuarina campestris, Acacia quadrimarginea and understorey species associated with them, may be suitable species to form the basis of vegetation reinstatement on waste dumps in the Kalgoorlie region.