8 research outputs found
Sediment Carbon Accumulation in Southern Latitude Saltmarsh Communities of Tasmania, Australia
No full textCarbon sequestration values of wetlands are greatest in their sediments. Northern hemisphere research dominates the earlier saltmarsh carbon sequestration literature, recently augmented by analyses across mainland Australia where species assemblages, catchment histories and environmental settings differ. No previous assessment has been made for Tasmania. Carbon stores and accumulation rates in saltmarsh sediments of the Rubicon estuary, Tasmania, were investigated. Carbon was determined from sediment cores by Elemental Analyser, combined with analysis of organic content and bulk density. Carbon accumulation was determined using short-term and long-term sediment accretion indicators. Results showed carbon densities to be lower than global averages, with variation found between carbon stores of native and introduced species zones. Cores from introduced Spartina anglica indicated a trend of higher sediment carbon percentages relative to cores from native saltmarsh Juncus kraussii and Sarcocornia quinqueflora, and in finer grain sizes. Sediment carbon stock of 30 cm depths was 49.5 Mg C ha−1 for native saltmarsh and 55.5 Mg C ha−1 for Spartina. Carbon percentages were low owing to high catchment inorganic sediment yields, however carbon accumulation rates were similar to global averages, particularly under Spartina. Covering 85% of saltmarsh area in the estuary, Spartina contributes the majority to carbon stores, potentially indicating a previously unrecognized value for this invasive species in Australia
Negotiating personal and collective futures across diverse social contexts
No full textThe way that people perceive of the future influences their actions in the present. Literature suggests that often people have hopes for their own personal futures, for example their family and career aspirations, yet remain pessimistic about a collective future both at the local and global scale (Hicks and Holden, 1995). This paper considers the intersections between the personal and collective futures of people from different social contexts. We conclude that connections between personal and collective futures are conceptualised differently according to social context. This paper presents preliminary findings from an in-depth qualitative study located in a regional town of Tasmania, Australia. The study utilised Bourdieu’s theoretical framework and drew heavily on habitus as a guiding method as well as an interpretative tool. Five focus groups were held across varying social contexts during 2015 and were subject to dialogical analysis. This paper will present themes that were found to be significant for people in negotiating personal and collective futures, including the role of money, social place and power. Further to this, it will problematize the ways in which futures are primarily conceived of as personal and explore some of the ways that people negotiate positive aspirations for themselves with a negative outlook for the world more generally. The implications that disconnection in conceptualisations of personal futures with collective futures has on sustainable development will be discussed
What counts as sustainability?: a sociospatial analysis
No full textSustainability is a ubiquitous term today and one that is central to key environmental and social policy discussions relating to the most pressing questions faced in contemporary societies. In this paper we argue that sustainability needs to be understood in relation to social space. We do so by engaging with Pierre Bourdieu's thinking tools as well as Edward Soja's spatial analysis to deconstruct how differently positioned actors understand and relate to space, including how to sustain it. Drawing on focus group and interview data from a small Australian city, we use Soja's typology to critique spatial tropes and dualistic frames common in sustainability discourses such as ecological/social, global/local, and reveal nuanced interpretations of spatial relations
Becoming researchers: making academic kin in the Chthulucene
No full textGraduate students are often plagued by stress and anxiety in their journeys of becoming researchers. Concerned by the prevalence of poor graduate student wellbeing in Australia, we share our experiences of kin-making and collaboration within #aaeeer (Australasian Association for Environmental Education Emerging Researchers), a collective of graduate students and early career researchers formed in response to the Australian Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) conference in Hobart, Tasmania, in 2014. In this article, we begin to address the shortage of research into graduate student wellbeing, led by graduate students. Inspired by Donna Haraway's work on making kin in the Chthulucene, we present an exploration that draws together stories from the authors about the positive experiences our kin-making collective enables, and how it has supported our wellbeing and allowed us to work collaboratively. Specifically, we find that #aaeeer offers us a form of refuge from academic stressors, creating spaces for ‘composting together’ through processes of ‘decomposing’ and ‘recomposing’. Our rejection of neoliberal norms has gifted us experiences of joyful collective pleasures. We share our experiences here in the hope of supporting and inspiring other emerging and established researchers to ‘make kin’ and challenge the potentially isolating processes of becoming researchers
Global dataset of soil organic carbon in tidal marshes
No full textTidal marshes store large amounts of organic carbon in their soils. Field data quantifying soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks provide an important resource for researchers, natural resource managers, and policy-makers working towards the protection, restoration, and valuation of these ecosystems. We collated a global dataset of tidal marsh soil organic carbon (MarSOC) from 99 studies that includes location, soil depth, site name, dry bulk density, SOC, and/or soil organic matter (SOM). The MarSOC dataset includes 17,454 data points from 2,329 unique locations, and 29 countries. We generated a general transfer function for the conversion of SOM to SOC. Using this data we estimated a median (± median absolute deviation) value of 79.2 ± 38.1 Mg SOC ha−1 in the top 30 cm and 231 ± 134 Mg SOC ha−1 in the top 1 m of tidal marsh soils globally. This data can serve as a basis for future work, and may contribute to incorporation of tidal marsh ecosystems into climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies and policies
Global dataset of soil organic carbon in tidal marshes
No full textFunding: W.E.N.A. and C.S. would like to acknowledge funding support from the Scottish Government and UK Natural Environment Research Council C-SIDE project (grant NE/R010846/1).Tidal marshes store large amounts of organic carbon in their soils. Field data quantifying soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks provide an important resource for researchers, natural resource managers, and policy-makers working towards the protection, restoration, and valuation of these ecosystems. We collated a global dataset of tidal marsh soil organic carbon (MarSOC) from 99 studies that includes location, soil depth, site name, dry bulk density, SOC, and/or soil organic matter (SOM). The MarSOC dataset includes 17,454 data points from 2,329 unique locations, and 29 countries. We generated a general transfer function for the conversion of SOM to SOC. Using this data we estimated a median (± median absolute deviation) value of 79.2±38.1 Mg SOC ha−1 in the top 30cm and 231±134 Mg SOC ha−1 in the top 1m of tidal marsh soils globally. This data can serve as a basis for future work, and may contribute to incorporation of tidal marsh ecosystems into climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies and policies.Peer reviewe
Database: Tidal Marsh Soil Organic Carbon (MarSOC) Dataset [Dataset]
No full textThe repository is formatted in the following structure:
- README.md: markdown file with repository description
- MarSOC-Dataset.Rproj: R project file - useful when using RStudio
- Maxwell_MarSOC_dataset.csv: .csv file containing the final dataset. The data structure is described in the metadata file. It contains 17,454 records distributed amongst 29 countries.
- Maxwell_MarSOC_dataset_metadata.csv: .csv file containing the main data file metadata (equivalent to Table 1).
- data_paper/: folder containing the list of studies included in the dataset, as well as figures for this data paper (generated from the following R script: ‘reports/04_data_process/scripts/04_data-paper_data_clean.R’).
- reports/01_litsearchr/: folder containing .bib files with references from the original naive search, a .Rmd document describing the litsearchr analysis using nodes to go from the naive search to the final search string, and the .bib files from this final search, which were then imported into sysrev for abstract screening.
- reports/02_sysrev/: folder with .csv files exported from sysrev after abstract screening. These files contain the included studies with their various labels.
- reports/03_data_format/: folder containing all original data, associated scripts, and exported data.
- reports/04_data_process/: folder containing data processing scripts to bind and clean the exported data, as well as a script testing the different models for predicting soil organic carbon from organic matter and finalising the equation using all available data. A script testing and removing outliers is also included
