Academic literature on the topic 'Sea level South Australia St'

Booderee National Park at Jervis Bay, 200km south of Sydney, attracts over 450,000 visitors each year. The park has many special features, including dramatic wave cut platforms and sea caves, some of the whitest beach sands in Australia, and very high densities of native predators such as the Powerful Owl and the Diamond Python. This book outlines the biology and ecology of Booderee National Park.
 Booderee packs an extraordinary level of biodiversity into a small area (roughly 6500 hectares), with more than 260 species of terrestrial vertebrates and over 625 species of plants. It is home

The El Niño Modoki/La Niña Modoki (ENSO Modoki) is a newly acknowledged face of ocean-atmosphere coupled variability in the tropical Pacific Ocean. The oceanic and atmospheric conditions associated with the El Niño Modoki are different from that of canonical El Niño, which is extensively studied for its dynamics and worldwide impacts. A typical El Niño event is marked by a warm anomaly of sea surface temperature (SST) in the equatorial eastern Pacific. Because of the associated changes in the surface winds and the weakening of coastal upwelling, the coasts of South America suffer from widespre

In recent years we have seen a veritable ‘explosion’ in the use of the sea for a growing variety of marine leisure activities. This is now a truly global phenomenon that can be seen from Iceland to South Africa, Australia to Florida. Activities in the sea have always been part of coastal tourism, from paddling and swimming to sailing and diving to angling and boat trips. However, in the past decade or two we have seen the invention of new activities and the developments of variations on traditional marine activities. We now have coasteering, wild swimming, paddle-boarding, RIB and banana boats and sea kayaking, all giving tourists further opportunities to get pleasure from the marine environment. Many of these activities also reflect a change in marine leisure with an increase in active rather than passive activities and an increase in adventure activities. This has, inevitably, increased the risk level of sea-based leisure activities in some ways. Several of the more adventurous new activities also involve travelling further from land or to less developed areas of coast, increasing the risk further. Interestingly, it appears that many tourists become ‘hooked’ on some sea-based leisure activities once they have experienced them on vacation. From that point onwards their desire to continue to participate in an activity will often influence their choice of vacation destination. The innovative developments we have seen in terms of sea-based leisure activities have led to a huge increase in participation in marine leisure activities. This has been stimulated by, and reflected in, the investment made in equipment and infrastructure for such activities by governments, commercial operators, and hotels and resorts.

Several physical features combine to make Southeast Asia one of the most distinct and unique coastal regions in the world. The mainland or continental part of Southeast Asia consists of a number of peninsulas extending south and southeast from the Asian continent and separated by gulfs and bays. The world’s two largest archipelagos form the islands of Southeast Asia. During much of the Pleistocene, a large part of the South China Sea was dry land, and the islands of Sumatra, Java, and Borneo were linked to the mainland by the exposed shallow Sunda Shelf. Southeast Asia comes under the influence of the monsoons, or seasonal winds, which have an important impact on its coasts. The region is also a high biodiversity zone, characterized by its rich coral reefs and mangroves. This chapter examines the coastal environments of Southeast Asia in three stages. First, the major elements that make the coastal environments of Southeast Asia distinctive are discussed. The focus is on the coastal processes, as the geological framework and Quaternary have been covered in earlier chapters. Secondly, the various coastal environments in the region (excluding estuaries and deltas discussed in Chapter 13) are described next in terms of their extent, characteristics, and significance, with sufficient examples given to show their variability. Finally, the chapter ends with an assessment of the major environmental problems facing the region’s coastal environments—coastal erosion and rising sea level associated with climate change. Overall, this chapter provides the physical basis for a better appreciation of coastal development in Southeast Asia. The coastal environments of Southeast Asia bear the impact of significant geological and climatic factors. Geologically, the core of the region is an extension of the Eurasian Plate meeting the Indo-Australian and the Pacific Plates and two lesser ones (Philippines and Molucca Sea) with mountain chains trending in a general north–south direction. The island of New Guinea is part of the Indo-Australia Plate. Island arcs have developed along the convergent margins, and many are volcanically active and also associated with shallow to deep earthquakes.

The term “tropics” refers to the continuously warm and frost-free zone of the world that lies approximately between the Tropic of Cancer (or latitude 23.5° north of the equator) and the Tropic of Capricorn (or latitude 23.5° south of the equator). The tropical region comprises approximately 36% of the world’s land surface. Geographically, the tropics encompasses the entire region of Southeast Asia, Central America, the islands in the South Pacific and the Caribbean Basin, a major part of Africa, South America, a large portion of the Indian subcontinent, and a small part of northern Australia. Within a tropical region, natural vegetation and agriculture vary with elevation and rainfall regime. Within the tropical belt, mean annual temperature at sea level is about 26 °C, and it decreases approximately 0.6 °C with every 100 m increase in elevation. On the basis of elevation, the tropics may be further divided into • lowland tropics (areas below 600 m), • midaltitude tropics (areas between 600 and 900 m), and • high-altitude tropics or tropical highlands (areas above 900 m). Tropical highlands account for 23% of the tropics whereas the low- and midaltitude regions together comprise about 87% of the total area. Tropical highlands usually have cool air temperatures with a mean annual temperature of 20 °C or lower. Rainfall on tropical highlands can be extremely variable within a short distance. Because of the year-round comfortable temperature, areas of tropical highlands with favorable rainfall and fertile soils are usually densely populated and hence intensively cultivated. Climates in the lowland and midaltitude tropics generally share three common features, namely, a year-round warm temperature, rainfall of high intensity and short duration, and a high rate of evaporation. Climates are characterized principally by mean monthly air temperature, and the amount and distribution of rainfall.

Compared to herpetological population adjustment patterns in North America (sec Holman, 1995c), the patterns in Britain and central and northern Europe seem to be rather straightforward. Basically, (1) very few herpetological species were present in ice-free areas during full glacial times, and (2) formerly glaciated areas were reinvaded by species from the south during warming cycles. Moreover, during climatic optimal warm times, several southern species existed well north of their present ranges. The invasion of southern Europe by northern populations in cold times is taken for granted (e.g., Rocek, 1995), although, as addressed in this chapter, it is difficult to document this in the fossil record. As indicated by geological and fossil evidence, the British Islands were connected to continental Europe during much of the Pleistocene. Although sea level changes in the British late Pleistocene arc a subject of some controversy (Stuart, 1982), it is generally agreed that Britain first separated from Ireland and then from the continent early in the Holocene. The classic idea is that the very depauperate British heretofauna of the cold part of the Devensian (last glacial stage) became somewhat, but not fully enriched by herpetological species during a warming trend that began about 10,000 ybp and lasted until about 8,500 ybp. The fact that Ireland has a much poorer modern herpetofauna (Triturus vulgaris, the rare Bufo calamita, Rana temporaria, and Lacerta vivipara) than Britain, which has six native species of amphibians and six native species of reptiles (Fra/,er, 1983; Smith, 1964), is attributed to Ireland's early separation from Britain. The Irish herpetofauna suggests that this separation occurred rather soon after the final withdrawal of the Devensian (last glacial) ice sheet. One of the most common questions asked about snakes, especially near St. Patrick's Day, is, "Have there ever been any snakes in Ireland?" No fossil snakes have ever been found in Ireland. But since Ireland lacks a terrestrial fossil record during most of the time that snakes have existed, it would seem that snakes could have lived in Ireland during some part of geological time. As far as I am aware, the few Pleistocene deposits containing herpetological remains in Ireland represent very late Devensian (last glacial) times.

The basic climatic characteristics of the major mountain ranges in the United States—the Appalachians, the Coast Range, the Alaska Range, the Cascade Range, the Sierra Nevada, and the Rocky Mountains—can be described in terms of the four factors discussed in chapter 1. The mountains of North America extend latitudinally all the way from the Arctic Circle (66.5°N) to the tropic of Cancer (23.5°N) (figure 2.1). There are significant differences in day length and angle of solar radiation over this latitude belt that result in large seasonal and diurnal differences in the weather from north to south. Elevations in the contiguous United States extend from below sea level at Death Valley to over 14,000 ft (4270 m) in the Cascade Range, the Sierra Nevada, and the Rocky Mountains. Several prominent peaks along the Coast Range in Alaska and Canada (e.g., Mount St. Elias and Mount Logan) reach elevations above 18,000 ft (5486 m). Denali (20,320 ft or 6194 m) in the Alaska Range is the highest peak in North America. The highest peak in the Canadian Rockies is Mt. Robson, with an elevation of 12,972 ft (3954 m). The climates of the Coast Range, the Cascade Range, and the Sierra Nevada, all near the Pacific Ocean, are primarily maritime. The Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States are subject to a maritime influence from the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, but they are also affected by the prevailing westerly winds that bring continental climatic conditions. Only the climate of the Rocky Mountains, far from both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, is primarily continental. Each of the mountain ranges is influenced by regional circulations. For example, the Appalachians are exposed to the warm, moist winds brought northward by the Bermuda-Azores High and to the influence of the Gulf Stream. Similarly, the Coast Range feels the impact of the Pacific High, the Aleutian low, and the Japanese Current. A mountain range, depending on its size, shape, orientation, and location relative to air mass source regions, can itself affect the regional climate by acting as a barrier to regional flows.