Iron springs, environmental changes, accelerated weathering and cave development in quartz sandstone in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia: preliminary studies

A plethora of studies have investigated motivations behind non-compliant behaviours at National Parks. This study focused on the non-compliant behaviour of visitors venturing off-trail at Blue Mountains National Park (BMNP). The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) was employed as the theoretical framework for this study to understand the attitudes, perceived difficulties and social pressure involved in visitors’ non-compliant behaviours, and together with the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP), to understand environmental values. The study adopted a mixed methods design with qualitative and quantitative research techniques. The qualitative stage elicited salient beliefs of visitors through interviews with BMNP experts (n=5) and BMNP visitors (n=22). Based on the elicitation study, a questionnaire was developed for the quantitative study (n=325) to predict visitors’ behavioural intentions to venture off-trail at BMNP. Results of the quantitative study revealed that the TPB predicted 14.8 percent (R2) in the prediction of off-trail behavioural intentions. Social norm was the strongest predictor followed by attitudes. The role of perceived difficulties and environmental values were not significant in the regression analysis when predicting off-trail behavioural intentions. The main factors that motivated off-trail behavioral intentions included having a closer view of nature, and finding a shorter route. The reference groups of other visitors and friends emerged as important reference groups. Although the perceived difficulty factor as a whole was not significant, there were certain items such as lack/ no signage, lack of access to park facilities and challenging terrains that were significant in off-trail behavioural intentions. Lastly, BMNP visitors reported a high NEP score of 76, which reflected strong environmental values held towards general environmental matters. However, these strong general environmental values were not translated into attitudes towards venturing off-trail at BMNP, as reported in the non-significant results in the regression and mediation analysis. This suggested that visitors to BMNP had very strong pro-environmental values in general but did not associate venturing off-trail as contrary to their environmental values. By demonstrating the significance of attitudes and subjective norms, this thesis will contribute to the advancement of social marketing campaigns for Park administrators and policy makers by providing guidance to develop preventive measures to increase park safety and decrease non-compliant activities at BMNP.

The increasing intensity and frequency of extreme weather events resulting from climate change have led to grid outages and other negative consequences. To ensure the resilience of buildings which serve as primary shelters for occupants, resilient strategies are being developed to improve their ability to withstand these extreme events (e.g., building upgrades and renewable energy generators and storage). However, a crucial step towards creating a resilient built environment is accurately estimating building performance during such conditions using historical extreme climate change-induced weather events. To conduct Building Performance Simulation (BPS) in extreme conditions, such as weather events induced by climate change, it is essential to utilize Actual Meteorological Year (AMY) weather files instead of Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) files. AMY files capture the precise climatic conditions during extreme weather events, enabling accurate simulation of such scenarios. These weather files provide valuable data that can be used to assess the vulnerabilities and resilience of buildings to extreme weather events. By analyzing past events and their impacts using BPS tools, we can gain insights into the specific weaknesses and areas that require improvement. This approach applies to both existing buildings needing climate change-resilient retrofits and new building designs that must be compatible with future climatic conditions. Moreover, the intensification and frequency increase of these extreme weather events makes developing adaptation and resilient-building measures imperative. This involves understanding the potential losses that households may experience due to the intensification of extreme events and developing farsighted coping strategies and climate-proof resilient-building initiatives. However, addressing the knowledge gap caused by the absence of an AMY weather file dataset of extreme events is essential. This will allow for accurate BPS during past extreme climate change-induced weather events. To fill this gap, this article introduces a comprehensive .epw format weather file dataset focusing on historical extreme weather events in Canada. This collection encompasses a diverse array of past extreme climate change occurrences in various locations, with potential for future expansion to include additional locations and countries. This dataset enables energy simulations for different types of buildings and considers a diverse range of historical weather conditions, allowing for better estimation of thermal performance.

Climatic changes lead to many extreme weather events throughout the globe. These extreme weather events influence our behavior, exposing us to different environmental conditions, such as poor indoor quality. Poor indoor air quality (IAQ) poses a significant concern in the modern era, as people spend up to 90% of their time indoors. Ventilation influences key IAQ elements such as temperature, relative humidity, and particulate matter (PM). Children, considered a vulnerable group, spend approximately 30% of their time in educational settings, often housed in old structures with poorly maintained ventilation systems. Extreme weather events lead young students to stay indoors, usually behind closed doors and windows, which may lead to exposure to elevated levels of air pollutants. In our research, we aim to demonstrate how real-time monitoring of air pollutants and other environmental parameters under extreme weather is important for regulating the indoor environment. A study was conducted in a school building with limited ventilation located in an arid region near the Red Sea, which frequently suffers from high PM concentrations. In this study, we tracked the indoor environmental conditions and air quality during the entire month of May 2022, including an extreme outdoor weather event of sandstorms. During this month, we continuously monitored four classrooms in an elementary school built in 1967 in Eilat. Our findings indicate that PM2.5 was higher indoors (statistically significant) by more than 16% during the extreme event. Temperature was also elevated indoors (statistically significant) by more than 5%. The parameters’ deviation highlights the need for better indoor weather control and ventilation systems, as well as ongoing monitoring in schools to maintain healthy indoor air quality. This also warrants us as we are approaching an era of climatic instability, including higher occurrence of similar extreme events, which urge us to develop real-time responses in urban areas.

ABSTRACTTechnological analysis of the late Holocene component of the stone artefact assemblage recovered from the Kings Table rockshelter in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, provides the basis for an assessment of the site's role in broader late Holocene settlement‐subsistence systems. Drawing on Kuhn's widely employed “provisioning model”, as well as Kelleher's general pre‐contact occupation model for the Blue Mountains National Park (BMNP), we argue that the Kings Table rockshelter functioned as a short‐term field camp for logistically‐organised hunter‐gatherers whose principal residential bases were located in “off‐mountains” contexts. It is argued that the late Holocene component of the Kings Table assemblage has a technological “signature” entirely consistent with individual provisioning. Aboriginal groups occupying this site over the course of the late Holocene employed a mobile toolkit whose lithic component was dominated by artefacts manufactured out of high‐quality, transported silicified tuff and incorporated both backed artefact‐bearing composite tools and hafted edge‐ground hatchets (axes) as key elements.

Global climate change is expected to affect the frequency, intensity and duration of extreme water-related weather events such as excessive precipitation, floods, and drought. We conducted a systematic review to examine waterborne outbreaks following such events and explored their distribution between the different types of extreme water-related weather events. Four medical and meteorological databases (Medline, Embase, GeoRef, PubMed) and a global electronic reporting system (ProMED) were searched, from 1910 to 2010. Eighty-seven waterborne outbreaks involving extreme water-related weather events were identified and included, alongside 235 ProMED reports. Heavy rainfall and flooding were the most common events preceding outbreaks associated with extreme weather and were reported in 55·2% and 52·9% of accounts, respectively. The most common pathogens reported in these outbreaks were Vibrio spp. (21·6%) and Leptospira spp. (12·7%). Outbreaks following extreme water-related weather events were often the result of contamination of the drinking-water supply (53·7%). Differences in reporting of outbreaks were seen between the scientific literature and ProMED. Extreme water-related weather events represent a risk to public health in both developed and developing countries, but impact will be disproportionate and likely to compound existing health disparities.

Extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and intensity as a result of modern climate change. During winter, species may be especially vulnerable to extreme weather as they are surviving on scarce resources and living at the edge of their thermal limits. We compiled data from eBird, a global citizen science initiative, to examine how 41 eastern North American birds shifted their occurrence and abundance patterns immediately following two recent extreme weather events each affecting > 2 million km 2 , the intrusion of a polar vortex and a winter heat wave. eBird data is continuously collected at high spatiotemporal resolution across large spatial extents, allowing us to compare species' responses immediately before and after these extreme events with trends in other winters across geographic scales. Overall, we found that birds responded differently to each extreme weather event. Bird occurrence rates did not change following the polar vortex, but where species occurred, population density was temporarily reduced, suggesting reductions in number of individuals driven by decreases in behavioral activity or temporary movement out of the area. However, birds demonstrated widespread increases in occurrence and increases in density and number of individuals where they occurred for at least 20 days after the heat wave, hinting at longer‐term range changes. Smaller‐bodied, warm‐adapted passerines tended to be most sensitive to extreme weather and responded most negatively to the polar vortex and most positively to the heat wave, while larger‐bodied, cold‐adapted waterbirds expressed only mild responses to either event. Thus, certain species may be exceptionally sensitive to extreme weather events while others are less sensitive. As climate change progresses and climatic variability increases, researchers and managers must better quantify the broad‐scale sensitivity of different species to multiple types of extreme weather events.

Climate change is altering the severity and intensity of extreme weather events. Occupying microhabitats that buffer extreme weather may help species avoid harsh environmental conditions. We describe the thermal microclimate of Atlantic Puffin ( Fratercula arctica) and Leach’s Storm-petrel ( Hydrobates leucorhous) burrows and quantify whether burrows are thermal refuges during extreme cold weather events. We further test for the effect of weather conditions and burrow characteristics on nest microclimate and buffering capacity during extreme cold weather. We find that both species actively breed in burrow microclimates that are below their lower critical temperatures, which may impose significant thermoregulatory costs. However, burrows do act as thermal refuges because nests are kept 7.4–8.0 °C warmer than ambient temperatures during extreme cold weather events. Overall, external temperature and wind speed were strong drivers of burrow temperature, but burrow and habitat characteristics did not explain the variability in burrow buffering capacity during extreme cold weather. Our results suggest that burrows may provide a direct line of defence for seabird chicks against cold events. Given the complex responses of burrow microclimates to extreme events, quantifying how changes in environmental conditions will impact burrow-nesting seabirds in the future is key.

ABSTRACTProtected areas (PAs) on tropical mountains undergo greater forest destruction in their lower altitudes. We compared the extent of forested, nonforested, and fragmented areas between lowland (<1000 m asl) and montane zones of the Blue Mountains inside the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park established in Jamaica in 1993. We found that in 2008, inside the montane zone, only 4 percent of forest was cleared, and forest fragmentation was minimal. In the lowland zone, however, the percentage of forest cleared was seven times as high, and the density of fragments was 11‐fold higher. We established twenty‐five 0.04 ha lowland plots; ordination of tree species composition in these plots reflected a rainfall gradient, showing that plots on the wetter northern side of the Blue Mountains were floristically different from those on the drier southern side. The conservation value of the remaining lowland forest is high because of its high endemism (18% of species in our plots) and beta diversity. In addition, IUCN Red List data show that about 71 percent of threatened tree species in the Blue Mountains grow in the lowland region, 92 percent of which are endemic. From these findings, we identify a ‘protected area hotspot zone’, which lies between the PA boundary and the core high‐altitude zone, and which should be instituted in IUCN categories I and II PAs.

The Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park protects internationally significant biodiversity components and rich cultural heritage.Inside the park, two recreation areas are managed, and outside, sustainable community tourism is being developed.Tourism contributes to Aichi Targets by: (1) raising public awareness of the values of biodiversity, (2) engaging local communities in biodiversity awarenessraising and skills training, and (3) facilitating ecologically sustainable, income-generating activities for poverty reduction.Tourism and community engagement activities are part of the effort to reduce threats to forests through unsustainable livelihoods such as slash and burn, shifting agriculture.Community tourism activities have been established in a few communities while others are at various stages of planning.Several community members are now employed as National Park Rangers or otherwise assist in park management.Benefits to biodiversity conservation have been realised through local capacity building for sustainable tourism.

Intensified impacts on mortality due to compound winter extremes in the Czech Republic

Recreation in natural areas has been promoted for numerous reasons (e.g., health, nature appreciation, education, financial gain) and leisure time spent in protected areas has increased substantially in popularity in recent decades. However, upkeep of such protected areas represents considerable financial outlay and to recoup these costs, tourism potentially provides a self-financing mechanism for ecological sustainability. In Australia, the adventure sport of canyoning has increased in popularity in the Blue Mountains National Park (Australia), part of a recently declared World Heritage Area, in parallel with an overall increase in wilderness recreation. This study sought canyoners’ perceptions of visit impacts, together with their attitudes to potential management of these unique areas. It also compares findings with American wilderness research outcomes. The results identify that the current level of traffic through the canyons was not considered to be detrimental to canyon visit enjoyment. While the findings were broadly similar, even at much lower visitation levels than American wilderness recreationists tolerate, Australian canyoners avoid heavily trafficked canyons. Although perceptions and attitudes differed with level of experience, overall, the conclusion is that the visitors encountered were tolerant of other canyoners and the discarded debris of past excursions. In this context, it is not surprising that most canyoners did not see an immediate need to implement further management restrictions.

Core and surface sediments from the Tonalli River, a tributary of the artificial lake, Lake Burragorang, in the Blue Mountains National Park, New South Wales, Australia, were studied to evaluate the spatio-temporal distribution of pollutants from the Yerranderie silver–lead–zinc mine site, abandoned in the late 1920s. A sediment core was collected in the mouth of the Tonalli River, at its junction with Lake Burragorang, and surface sediment samples were collected in the Tonalli River and its tributaries. The concentrations of Pb, As, Zn, Cu, Cd, Hg and Ag in the sediments were determined by ICP-MS and ICP-AES techniques. Temporal variability of metal concentrations was established through 210Pb dating of the core sediments and compared with published historical records, rainfall records and bushfire data. Metal concentrations in core sediments showed an overall increase around the year 1950 as well as increases coincident with heavy rainfall. Spatially, metal concentrations were up to 400 times the guideline limit around mine sites but decreased rapidly with distance downstream of the mines.

Summary1. World wide, and in Australia, many frog populations have declined over the last two decades. The present study was undertaken to determine whether urbanization has affected frog diversity and abundance.2. Five urban sites were paired with non‐urban sites. Urban sites were in Katoomba and Blackheath, and were subject to physical environmental disturbance and impacted by storm water pollution due to urban runoff. Non‐urban sites were in the Blue Mountains National Park and were effectively subject to no human impact.3. Water quality at urban sites was typical of sites polluted with sewage, while non‐urban sites exhibited water quality typical of ‘pristine’ natural bushland streams.4. Six species were found at urban sites (Litoria peronii, Litoria dentata, Litoria verreauxii, Limnodynastes dumerilii, Limnodynastes peronii, Crinia signifera), with up to four species present at a site. Only one species (C. signifera) was recorded at non‐urban sites, and frogs were absent from most non‐urban sites.5. The situation in non‐urban sites mirrors the trend of decline observed in other montane regions. Surprisingly, frog abundance and diversity were higher in urban habitats, running counter to this trend.6. We hypothesize that the salts, detergents and other chemicals in urban wastewaters provide frogs with a level of protection against disease, particularly chytridiomycosis.

This study presents a reconstruction of the fire activity of the last ~14,200 cal. years BP (before AD 1950) from Gooches Crater Right, located on the Newnes Plateau, approximately 150 km to the west of Sydney (~33°27′S, 150°16′E) within the Blue Mountains National Park. Charcoal analysis and palynology were undertaken with the aim of untangling any inter-relationship between climate, humans and fire. A chronology of the site was provided by radiocarbon dating. The dominant control on fire in this environment during the Holocene appears to be climate. Periods of climate change, identified in previous studies, are associated with higher levels of fire activity. Fire was less ubiquitous between ~9,000 and 6,000 years BP, a period normally described as having a higher effective moisture in south-eastern Australia. The mid-Holocene fluctuations in charcoal may reflect anthropogenic fire, climate forcing or alternatively human responses to any climate change. Coeval changes in palaeoclimatic sequences elsewhere and palynology at the site support a climatic explanation or that Aboriginal people used fire within a climatic framework.

Natural disasters and extreme weather events have been of great societal importance throughout history and often brought everyday life to a catastrophic halt, in a way sometimes comparable to wars and epidemics, only without the lead time. Extreme weather events with large impacts serve as an anchor point of the collective memory of the population in the affected area. Every northern German of the right age remembers the storm surge of 1962 and where they were at the time and has friends or family effected by the event. The “dust bowl” of the 1930s with extensive droughts and heat waves shaped the life of a generation in the United States, and the Sahel droughts in the 1960s and 1970s led to famine and dislocation of population on a massive scale the region arguably never quite recovered from. Hurricane Hyian in 2013 is said to have directly influenced the outcome of the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) United Nation Framework Convention for Climate Change Negotiations in Warsaw, leading to the inclusion of a mechanism to deal with loss and damage from climate-related disasters. Though earthquakes are still fairly unpredictable on short timescales, this is not the case for weather events. Weather forecasts today are so good that we normally know the time and location of the landfall of a hurricane within a 100-mile radius days in advance. Improvements in the prediction of slow-onset events such as droughts (which depend on the rainfall over a large region and whole season) are less striking but have still improved dramatically in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. One of the major reasons for the large increase in the accuracy of weather forecasts is the exponential increase in computing power, which allows scientists to predict and study extreme weather events using complex computer models, simulating possible weather events under certain conditions to understand the statistics of and physical mechanisms behind extreme events. Extreme events are by definition rare and thus impossible to understand from historical records of weather observation alone. Despite the progress on our understanding of and ability to predict extreme weather events, substantial uncertainties remain. Two aspects are of particular importance. Firstly, we know that the climate is changing, having observed almost a one-degree increase in global mean temperature. However, global mean temperature doesn’t kill anyone, extreme weather events do. Their frequency and intensity is changing and will continue to change, but the extent of these changes depends on a host of both global and local factors. Secondly, whether or not a rare weather event leads to extreme impacts depends largely on the vulnerability and exposure of the affected societies. If these are high, even a perfectly forecasted weather event leads to disaster.