The diet of a Southern Boobook Ninox novaeseelandiae in Box-ironbark country, central Victoria

The diet of a Southern Boobook Ninox novaeseelandiae in a Box-Ironbark woodland remnant in central Victoria was studied. An analysis of 42.5 pellets found invertebrates to represent 82% of the total prey items, but vertebrates, in the form of the House Mouse Mus domesticus, to represent 88% of the biomass. The proportion of spiders as prey items in the diet in this instance (43%) was significantly higher than in other studies on mainland Australia.

Permian soft-sediment deformation structures related to earthquake in the Southern Sydney Basin, Eastern Australia

Sydney Basin is located in the eastern part of Australia, Lachlan Fold Belt, and between the New England Fold Belt. From the Sydney basin at the end of the Late Carboniferous to Middle Triassic experienced back-arc spreading to the foreland basin at different stages: back-arc spreading stage (Carboniferous ), A passive thermal subsidence stage (early in the Permian Berry) and load deflection extruding stage (in Broughton Permian - Triassic). This time at the Sydney basin on the eastern side of the New England Fold Belt for the island Background of the arc. As a result, back-arc in the Permian Basin of the South Sydney basin by the back-arc spreading the eastern side of the arc and trench subduction before the impact of strong seismic activity, the development of a series of earthquake-related seismites to form various types and Seismic activity related to the deformation of soft sediment structure. Permian Basin, South Sydney's soft sediment deformation including cracks in shock-fold, liquefied vein, volcanic sand, load structure, flame Construction, pillow-like structure, spherical structure, pillow Layer structure slump, and so breccia. To which the cracks in shock-fold fibrillation is a direct result of earthquake faults and folds; pillow is a layer of sand caused by the earthquake fibrillation dehydration, the formation of the sinking; liquefied vein, Volcanic sand for the liquefaction of sand penetration of the formation of earthquake fissures formed; load structure, flame Construction, pillow-like structure, spherical structure is affected by the earthquake fibrillation in the sand, mudstone interface because of the sinking sand, mud layer formed through ; Slump structures and breccia of the earthquake was caused by the gravitational collapse or the formation of the debris flow. Fissures, earthquake-fold, liquefied vein, volcanic sand, load structure, flame Construction, pillow-like structure, spherical structure, pillow-like layer Equivalent to the original earthquake rocks the plot, and the slump structures and breccia of the plot belong to different earthquake rocks.

Soft-sediment deformation structures interpreted as seismite from the Middle Permian of the southern Sydney Basin, southeastern Australia

The Middle Permian Wandrawandian Siltstone of the southern Sydney Basin is well exposed along the coastline from Lagoon Head in the south to North Head in the north near Ulladulla in southern New South Wales. The unit is dominated by fossiliferous siltstone and mudstone, with abundant dropstones and minor pebbly sandstone interbeds, and contains an interval of well-preserved and extensive soft-sediment deformation structures. These deformation structures occur mainly in the middle part of the cliff sections and are bounded above and below by undeformed sedimentary units of similar lithology. A wide range of soft-sediment deformation structures have been observed, including cracks, sandstone and sandy mudstone dykes, a possible sand volcano, networks of relatively small and closely connected fissure-like structures, metre-scale complex-type slump folds, flexural stratification, concave-up depressional structures, small-scale normal faults (with displacements usually <1 m), shear planes, and breccias (pseudonodules). The slumps and associated deformations are here collectively interpreted as representing a seismite deposit attributable to penecontemporaneous deformation of soft, hydroplastic sediment layers following a liquefaction triggered by seismic shocks. The timing of the inferred earthquake events appears to correspond to the onset of a major basin-wide tectonism during the Middle Permian.

Southern drift : the learning styles of first and third-year students of the built environment

This paper investigates learning processes across a built environment design curriculum through the recognition of the four learning styles defined in the experiential learning theory of Kolb, i.e., 'accommodating', 'diverging', 'assimilating' and 'converging.' The paper focuses on the results of a cross-curriculum learning style survey. The results of the survey appear to explain why many prior studies of the personality characteristics, learning and cognitive styles of practitioners and of design students at different stages of their education appear conflicting. The hypothesis tested to resolve these inconsistencies asked whether design-learning styles are fixed or change as students' progress through their studies. The survey provides evidence of a statistically significant relationship between learning styles and year of study. The evidence suggests a southern drift (the term refers to the spatial interrelationship of styles in the two-dimensional Kolb Learning Style Index [LSI] cycle) towards the abstract conceptualisation mode of the learning process as students near the completion of their studies. This fluidity in learning style remains a hypothesis until further research is able to study one cohort for the entirety of a degree program. The paper argues that the possibility of learning style fluidity needs determining if learning style theory is to provide a workable model for informing the teaching of architecture.

Competitive sorption of intermixed heavy metals in water repellent soil in Southern Australia

In water repellent soil, Cr, Pb and Cu showed higher adsorption intensities than Zn, Cd and Ni did. Soil water repellency is much more widespread than formerly thought. In order to promote fertility and productivity, the irrigation of recycled water onto water repellent soil may be an applied technology to be used in some areas of Southern Australia. Therefore, heavy metals in recycled water potentially enter into the soil. The competitive sorption and retention capacity of heavy metals in soil are important to be determined, especially considering the special geochemical origin of water repellent soil that was caused by waxes on or between the soil particles. Batch equilibrium sorption experiments on Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn in their typical proportion in recycled water were conducted in water repellent soil. The sorption intensity, sorption isotherm in the experiments together showed that Cr, Pb and Cu have higher sorption intensity than those of Zn, Ni and Cd in the competitive system. The risk assessment for the application of recycled water onto water repellent soil is definitely necessary, especially for the metal cations with relatively weak sorption.

A Wuchiapingian (Late Permian) brachiopod fauna from an exotic block in the Indus–Tsangpo suture zone, southern Tibet, and its palaeobiogeographical and tectonic implications

A brachiopod fauna including 19 species of 17 genera from an exotic block in the Indus–Tsangpo suture zone in southern Tibet is described and illustrated. The brachiopod fauna is dominated by Martinia elegans and two new taxa: Jinomarginifera lhazeensis gen. et sp. nov. and Zhejiangospirifer giganteus sp. nov. The fauna is closely comparable with those from the middle and upper parts of the Wargal Formation and the Chhidru Formation in the Salt Range of Pakistan, the Chitichun Limestone in southern Tibet, and the Basleo area of West Timor, and these correlations suggest a Wuchiapingian age. The fauna exhibits substantial links with both peri–Gondwanan and Cathaysian faunas, which may imply that it is a seamount biota originally located in the southern margin of the Neotethys during the Late Permian, and was later (in the early Cenozoic) displaced and became sandwiched into younger marine deposits in the collision process between India and Eurasia.

Lopingian (Late Permian) stratigraphy, sedimentation and palaeobiogeography in southern Tibet

Investigations of the Permian-Triassic sections and limestone blocks scattered in the Indus-Tsangbo Suture Zone in southern Tibet show widespread distribution of the Lopingian strata. The Lopingian deposits mostly contain rich brachiopod fossils and characteristic conodonts of the Mesogondolella shenz Zone of latest Changhsingian age in the topmost part. Brachiopod assemblages are largely comparable with those known from the upper Wargal and Chhidru Formations of the Salt Range, Pakistan, the Zewan Formation of Kashmir, the upper part of the Kuling Group in Spiti of India and the Hardman Formation of Western Australia. A revised Lopingian (Late Permian) age is proposed for the Selong Group and its equivalents in southern Tibet. The Lopingian deposits in southern Tibet can be grouped into three different sedimentary types, each of which reflects different sedimentary environments from coastal to continental shelfal settings on the northern peri-Gondwanan margin. The Qubu-type sequence represents marine coastal and proximal barrier-lagoon sediments during a gradual sea-level rise. Micaceous sandstone and shale of regressive origin, with abundant palynomorphs and acritarches, developed during the Late Lopingian sea-level lowstand, which is followed by a major rapid transgression at the very end of Permian. The Selong-type sequence in the Selong area consists of bioclastic limestone and calcareous shale in the lower part, and crinoid grainstone in the upper part. The latter part is believed to have been formed in a high-energy inner shelf shoal setting. The Chitichun-type sequence, sporadically distributed along the Indus-Tsangbo suture zone as small limestone blocks, consists of pure bioclastic sparite with the ammonoid Cyclolobus fauna. It is interpreted as the break-up products of sea-mounts and/or small isolated carbonate build-ups developed on the outer shelfal settings.

Biomass and energy transfer to baleen whales in the South Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean

Baleen whales are an important group of predators on Antarctic krill in the Southern Ocean. During the CCAMLR 2000 Survey to estimate the biomass and distribution of Antarctic krill, International Whaling Commission observers carried out a visual line transect survey to estimate the number of baleen whales occurring in the survey area. This paper reviews techniques used to estimate krill consumption by baleen whales and in combination with estimates of whale abundance estimates of krill consumption are generated for the South Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. This survey estimates that the present populations of whales feeding in this region are likely to consume approximately 1.6 million tonnes, but possibly up to as much as 2.7 million tonnes of krill within the summer season. Although this only represents 4–6% of the estimated krill biomass in the region (and probably less than this percentage of the total annual krill production), the depleted numbers of baleen whales resulting from past or current whaling activities should be taken into account when setting quotas for the commercial exploitation of krill if there is to be a recovery to pre-exploitation biomass levels of baleen whales.

Exechonella (Exechonellidae: Bryozoa, Cheilostomata) from the recent and miocene of Southern Australia

The cheilostome family Exechonellidae Harmer, 1957 is widely distributed in time and space. The genus Exechonella Duvergier, 1924 has a pan-tropical to subtropical distribution from the Eocene to the Recent and is represented by several Australian species from the Tertiary of Victoria and the Recent ofthe southern and eastern coasts. Some species exhibit a wide range of variation in morphological characters, and one, Exechonella papillata, "appears to be new, and is described here. Nearly all specimens are encrusting, but one Tertiary Victorian species has erect, cylindrical, branching colonies. Recent samples, from a depth range of 40-190 metres, include large colonies of several thousand zooids. Frontal wall structures include marginal septular pores connecting between the visceral and hypostegal coeloms, and frontal foramina. Avicularia and homologous structures derived from frontal septular pores are illustrated. The structure of the frontal foramina in different populations of Tertiary E. marginata, demonstrates a major development of hypostegal coelom not found in other species, but resembling that found in another exechonellid genus, Stephanopora Kirkpatrick, 1888.