Science & Mathematics

The reduction of saltmarsh habitat at a global scale has seen a concomitant loss of associated ecosystem services. As such, there is a need and a push for habitat rehabilitation. This study examined an innovative saltmarsh restoration project in Australia which sought to address the threats of mangrove encroachment and sea level rise. The project was implemented in 2017, using automated hydraulic control gates, termed“SmartGates,”to lower the tidal regime over one site, effectively reversing sea level rise at a local level. Measured indicators of saltmarsh cover, number of species, seedling counts, and saltmarsh assemblages all showed significant positive development over time, with trends varying based on saltmarsh zone. The saltmarsh, predominantly Sarcocornia quinque flora, developed from remnant supralittoral (previously high) marsh which remained at 45% cover to achieve over 15% coverage across the cleared habitat after 3 years. Slower development in the low marsh (

This paper reports on how a group of students think when trying to solve a set of thermodynamic revision exercises in the context of collaborative small group conversation at the undergraduate level. The revision exercises involved exploring the relationship between enthalpy and temperature, entropy and temperature, and entropy of a gas under compression. Four students enrolled in a science or science teaching degree comprised the group. Two workshops, conducted about one month apart, were convened and student and instructor diaries were used to explore the thinking profiles illuminated in the diaries. The thinking profiles fitted into the categories: routine-level, object-level, process-level and meta-level. A surprisingly large amount of meta-level thinking was exhibited by the students. It was found advantageous to add adjectival qualifiers to object-level and process-level profiles to more fully interpret what the students had to say. The qualifiers were: incoherent, intuitive, algorithmic, and integrative. The workshops proved beneficial not only to the students but also to the instructor. The use of equations like mixes the result of a definite integral symbolic format (left-hand side) with the indefinite integral symbolic format (right-hand side), and leads to students finding it difficult to distinguish between H, dH, and ΔH for enthalpy and S, dS, and ΔS for entropy. Students communicated their feelings freely and there was a general consensus within the group that the workshops were really beneficial.

There are inherent difficulties in a subject like chemistry particularly the notion of a chemical reaction. In this paper the difficulties are discussed from a teaching and learning perspective and from a history of chemistry perspective. Three teaching/learning studies of the incompleteness of the iron(III) thiocyanate reaction in chemical equilibrium are reviewed and it is shown that a recent historical study of the iron(III) thiocyanate reaction has the potential to challenge the interpretation of the incompleteness of the reaction. This establishes a controversial context where students can be introduced to epistemic thinking, that is, how to interrogate chemistry data and form a conclusion which resonates with what we know about the nature of science. A curriculum suggestion for pre-service chemistry teachers is provided.

This chapter discusses arguments surrounding how modern geology began using Christian Scholars perspectives from 1500 to 1860.

Worldwide, spoil from maintenance dredging of navigation channels is increasingly used to opportunistically nourish beaches. This is often justified on the presumption that nourishment will improve public beach amenity and restore sandy beach habitat. However, this is not necessarily the case, especially for beaches that do not have an immediate threat of significant erosion. We addressed the ecological impacts and benefits of a backshore sand nourishment project conducted along an off-road vehicle (ORV) damaged section of Blacksmiths Beach, New South Wales, Australia. Sediment, sourced from dredging the inlet of nearby Lake Macquarie, was placed on the foredune, ORVs were excluded and low-density vegetation was planted. Sampling before and after the management interventions, at the Impact (nourished) site, two Control sites (with ORVs), and two Reference sites (without ORVs), assessed ecological impacts of nourishment and the efficacy of the interventions in rehabilitating vegetation and invertebrate communities degraded by ORVs. Nourishment initially had large negative impacts on vegetation cover, as well as on invertebrate abundance and richness. Recovery to a pre-nourished state was, however, observed for vegetation cover after 9 months and invertebrate communities after 21 months. Nevertheless, by the end of our study that extended 21 months post-nourishment and ORV exclusion, there was no evidence of change in the nourished site towards the state of Reference sites. Overall, our study suggests that small-scale backshore sand nourishments of ocean beaches may have only short-term negative impacts on foredune ecosystems when accompanied with some replanting. Nevertheless, where the frequency of sand disposals is greater than the required recovery time, or cumulative effects amass, longer-term or sustained impacts may occur. Our study does not support the efficacy of sand nourishment as a tool for ecological restoration, at least in the short term, without sustained replanting and weeding efforts aimed at reinstating the vegetation community.

This work is a photographic identification guide to Intertidal Rocky Shore Life