Chemistry, Physics and Earth Sciences, Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia

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News & Events

General News

Paul Sandery, a postgraduate student in oceanography in the School of Chemistry, Physics and Earth Sciences has answered the often asked question “How long does it take for Tasmania’s Bass Strait to thoroughly flush?” and the answer is …. longer than you might think! When companies like Tassie’s Gunns Pulp Mill are looking to discharge effluent into Bass Strait – it is little wonder this answer raised even more questions, particularly in the media.

Mr Sandery’s recently published study in Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, found it can take up to 160 days (approx. 6 months) to flush the water in parts of Bass Strait. The process of flushing is directly linked to renewal of local waters by open ocean waters. The concern is that areas of long flushing times are usually also areas of recirculating weak currents where pollutants and contaminants can accumulate. The study also identified that a large portion of Bass Strait Water eventually exits the Strait at the north-eastern corner adjacent Victoria, in the vicinity of the largest commercial fishery in south-eastern Australia.

Further information on this research is available at http://www.scieng.flinders.edu.au/cpes/postgrad/sandery_p/index.html

Figure 1. Flushing times of Bass Strait waters (adapted from Sandery and Käempf, 2005).

Reference
Sandery, P. A. and J. Käempf (2005). "Winter-Spring Flushing of Bass Strait, South-Eastern Australia, A Numerical Modelling Study." Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 63: 23-31.

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Congratulations go to Craig Simmons who has received a Tall Poppy Award. The Tall Poppy Science Awards, first awarded in 1999, "identify young people as high achievers in an exciting and innovative approach, which recognises the outstanding professional and personal commitment of our South Australian Researchers from ALL fields of Science."

Recently Accepted Publications

L. Thomsen, B. Watts, D. V. Cotton, J.S. Quinton and P.C. Dastoor, Surf. Interface Anal. 37, 5, 472-477 (2005).

Johnston, M. R. and Latter, M. J. Capsules, Cages and Three-Dimensional Hosts: Self-assembly of Complementary Monomers. Journal of Supramolecular Chemistry (in press).

Henry-Edwards, A. and M. Tomczak, 2005. Remote detection of water property changes from a time series of oceanographic data. Ocean Science Discussions 2, 399 - 415.

Henry-Edwards, A. and M. Tomczak, 2005. Detecting changes in Labrador Sea Water through a water mass analysis of BATS data. Ocean Science Discussions 2, 417 - 435.

Research News

Nico Voelcker received funding from the Premier's Science and Research Fund for the project "Enabling Infrastructure for Advanced Microscopy and Nanoscopy in South Australia," a collaborative initiative between the Regional Microanalysis Facility, through Flinders University, the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia, BioInnovation SA, the Australian Water Quality Centre, TGR Biosciences and the Yalumba Wine Company. The funds awarded will be invested in the purchase of

• a Fluorescence Correlation Microscope

• a Scanning Laser Confocal Microscope with Spectral Analysis

• a Dual Beam Laser Microtweezer Microscope

• a Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Energy Dissipation Monitoring

• Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscope with Femtosecond Pulsed LaserExcitation.

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Matt Tomczak received funding from the Premier's Science and Research Fund for the project "Operational Ocean Current Forecasting for South Australian Waters," a collaborative initiative between Flinders University, the South Australian Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences), the Bureau of Meteorology (South Australian Regional Centre) and the South Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing. The funds will be used to establish an oceanographic data buoy with real-time data transmission in the South Australian shelf seas and support the development of an operational ocean current forecasting model.

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