Explore the vast range of titles available.

Lianas (woody vines and climbing monocots) are increasing in abundance in many tropical forests with uncertain consequences for forest functioning and recovery following disturbances. At a global scale, these increases are likely driven by disturbances and climate change. Yet, our understanding of the environmental variables that drive liana prevalence at regional scales is incomplete and geographically biased towards Latin America. To address this gap, we present a comprehensive study evaluating the combined effects of climate, soil, disturbance and topography on liana prevalence in the Australian Wet Tropics. We established 31 20 × 20 m vegetation plots along an elevation gradient in low disturbance (canopy closure ≥ 75%) and high disturbance (canopy closure ≤ 25%) forest stands. In these plots, all tree and liana (defined as all woody dicot vines and climbing monocots, i.e., rattans) stems ≥ 1 cm DBH were measured and environmental data were collected on climate, soil and topography. Generalised linear models were used with multi‐model averaging to quantify the relative effects of the environmental variables on measures of liana prevalence (liana–tree basal area ratio, woody vine basal area and stem density and rattan stem density). Liana prevalence decreased with elevation but increased with disturbance and mean annual precipitation. The increase in the liana–tree ratio with precipitation was more pronounced for highly disturbed sites. Like other tropical regions, disturbance is an important driver of liana prevalence in Australian rainforests and appears to interact with climate to increase liana–tree ratios. The observed increase in liana–tree ratio with precipitation contrasts findings from elsewhere but is confounded by correlated changes in elevation and temperature, which highlights the importance of regional studies. Our findings show that forests with high disturbance and climatic conditions favourable to lianas are where lianas most likely to outcompete trees and impede forest recovery. Lianas (woody vines and climbing monocots) are highly important in tropical forests; however, our understanding of the environmental variables that drive their proliferation at regional scales is incomplete and geographically biased. We address this gap through a study in the Australian Wet Tropics and find that disturbance and climate are important drivers of liana prevalence. This provides further support for the concern that global change may be contributing to increasing lianas relative to trees, with serious consequences for rates of tropical forest recovery and carbon sequestration.

Tropical forests store and sequester large quantities of carbon, mitigating climate change. Lianas (woody vines) are important tropical forest components, most conspicuous in the canopy. Lianas reduce forest carbon uptake and their recent increase may, therefore, limit forest carbon storage with global consequences for climate change. Liana infestation of tree crowns is traditionally assessed from the ground, which is labour intensive and difficult, particularly for upper canopy layers. We used a lightweight unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to assess liana infestation of tree canopies from above. It was a commercially available quadcopter UAV with an integrated, standard three‐waveband camera to collect aerial image data for 150 ha of tropical forest canopy. By visually interpreting the images, we assessed the degree of liana infestation for 14.15 ha of forest for which ground‐based estimates were collected simultaneously. We compared the UAV liana infestation estimates with those from the ground to determine the validity, strengths, and weaknesses of using UAVs as a new method for assessing liana infestation of tree canopies. Estimates of liana infestation from the UAV correlated strongly with ground‐based surveys at individual tree and plot level, and across multiple forest types and spatial resolutions, improving liana infestation assessment for upper canopy layers. Importantly, UAV‐based surveys, including the image collection, processing, and visual interpretation, were considerably faster and more cost‐efficient than ground‐based surveys. Synthesis and applications. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) image data of tree canopies can be easily captured and used to assess liana infestation at least as accurately as traditional ground data. This novel method promotes reproducibility of results and quality control, and enables additional variables to be derived from the image data. It is more cost‐effective, time‐efficient and covers larger geographical extents than traditional ground surveys, enabling more comprehensive monitoring of changes in liana infestation over space and time. This is important for assessing liana impacts on the global carbon balance, and particularly useful for forest management where knowledge of the location and change in liana infestation can be used for tailored, targeted, and effective management of tropical forests for enhanced carbon sequestration (e.g., REDD+ projects), timber concessions, and forest restoration. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) image data of tree canopies can be easily captured and used to assess liana infestation at least as accurately as traditional ground data. This novel method promotes reproducibility of results and quality control, and enables additional variables to be derived from the image data. It is more cost‐effective, time‐efficient and covers larger geographical extents than traditional ground surveys, enabling more comprehensive monitoring of changes in liana infestation over space and time. This is important for assessing liana impacts on the global carbon balance, and particularly useful for forest management where knowledge of the location and change in liana infestation can be used for tailored, targeted, and effective management of tropical forests for enhanced carbon sequestration (e.g., REDD+ projects), timber concessions, and forest restoration.

The new Domestic Workers Dataset is the largest single set of surveys (n = 11,759) of domestic workers to date. Our analysis of this dataset reveals features about the lives and work of this “hard-to-find” population in India—a country estimated to have the largest number of people living in forms of contemporary slavery (11 million). The data allow us to identify child labour, indicators of forced labour, and patterns of exploitation—including labour paid below the minimum wage—using bivariate analysis, factor analysis, and spatial analysis. The dataset also helps to advance our understanding of how to measure labour exploitation and modern slavery by showing the value of “found data” and participatory and citizen science approaches.

Rural deficit discourses maintain that young people are disadvantaged by the rurality of where they live. Consistent with this is an assumption the Internet will alleviate isolation through its ability to collapse physical and temporal constraints. This article challenges such modes of understanding by privileging young Australian rural people's voices and perspectives about online social environments. Focusing on the social networking site Facebook, the question of whether rural young people make use of the site to cross geography is posed. In order to cut through rhetoric positing a redemptive, transcending online space, Hogan's revision of Goffman's 'presentation of self' thesis is utlised to analyse how rural young people talk about using Facebook. Rather than realising the total collapse of geographic boundaries, young rural people talked about using the site to mold careful, but representative images of themselves to interact with their friends at a place and time of their choosing.

In this article we examine the latest chapter in the relationship between the state and the voluntary sector in the UK. We present an analysis of the UK Government's 'National Citizen Service' (NCS) scheme and map the landscape of youth services over the past decade. Drawing on interview data with delivery providers of the programme, and key government and policy actors, we explore the new geographies NCS has created and reflect on the wider implications of this programme in austerity Britain.

A multitude of educational programs attempt to facilitate young people’s engagement with ideas and practices of active citizenship. For young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander or Indigenous people in Australia, such interventions are often subject to complex experiences of senses of belonging and non-belonging. This paper responds to calls from researchers to develop better understandings of young Indigenous people’s own senses and practices of belonging and to better understand the ways in which these perspectives and practices are spatially influenced at the level of local communities, ‘country’ and cultural groupings, and within larger state, national or transnational settings. Their testimonies illustrate the tensions that young Indigenous people must navigate in a settler colony that has never truly recognised Indigenous sovereignty but show that sovereignty remains intact. Focus groups were conducted with 58 young Indigenous people in Melbourne and regional Victoria who were participating in an Indigenous youth leadership program designed to foster formal and informal active citizenship practices, and to nurture a strong, affirming sense of Indigenous identity. The testimonies of these participants provide valuable insights into educational sites as spaces in which young people experience a spectrum of weak to strong senses of belonging. They also provide insights into the possibilities of engaging the challenges faced by many young Indigenous people in educational settings, challenges that include race discordance and exclusion, deficit discourses and gaps and distances in educational practice. They highlight the need to recognise the aspirations of young Indigenous people and the capacities of colonial education systems to meet them, and the imperative to celebrate young Indigenous identities in meaningful, non-tokenistic ways.

Purpose This paper aims to understand if buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services, a digital type of credit that targets young consumers, acts as a protective or a risk factor for food insecurity among young consumers in Australia. Design/methodology/approach The study uses survey data from a representative sample of young consumers aged 18–24 from all internal states and territories in Australia. Propensity score matching is used to test two hypotheses: BNPL drives young consumers to food insecurity, and food insecurity leads young consumers to use BNPL. Findings There is evidence that BNPL use is driving young Australian consumers to experience food insecurity, but there is no evidence of food insecurity driving the use of BNPL services. Practical implications The evidence of BNPL driving young consumers to experience food insecurity calls for the adoption of practices and stronger regulation to ensure that young users from being overindebted. Originality/value Although the link with more traditional forms of credit (such as personal loans) and consumer wellbeing has been explored more broadly, this project is the first attempt to have causal evidence of the link between BNPL and food insecurity in a high-income country, to the best of the authors’ knowledge. This evidence helps to fill the gap about the protective or risky nature of this type of digital financial product, as experienced by young Australians.

Postgraduate students are at the forefront of geographical research, forging their career in a rapidly changing landscape. The ideology of geography as a single discipline is being erased, enabling complex geographical questions spanning both natural and social sciences to be properly addressed. A postgraduate event organised in a thematic manner, rather than by discipline, reveals that postgraduate students still associate with 'human' or 'physical' geography, rather than with interdisciplinary work. However, students who overcome time constraints and have exposure to, or engage with, interdisciplinary research gain valuable transferable skills, enhancing research outputs and employability. Therefore, postgraduate perceptions of interdisciplinary research are important for geography to advance.

Lianas play integral roles in structuring community composition, forest regeneration, the maintenance of species diversity and whole-forest level ecosystem processes in tropical forests. With increasing disturbances to forests worldwide, the relative importance of lianas as players in many areas of forest dynamics is expected to increase, with important ramifications for the global carbon cycle. However, our knowledge of lianas is incomplete and biased: (i) towards the Neotropics; and (ii) against the canopy, yet the canopy is where lianas proliferate most. Research in these areas is hampered by the logistical difficulties of studying lianas; the fact that they are time-consuming to survey, and that it is difficult to quantify what is going on in the canopy. This thesis enhances ecological understanding of lianas in tropical forest tree crowns, focusing on the lesser studied Palaeotropics. The development of a novel method to enable faster, cheaper and more canopy-centred assessment of liana than possible with traditional assessment methods is vital for this. A lightweight unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was used to assess liana infestation of tropical forest tree canopies in Sabah, Malaysia. By visually interpreting the images, the UAV-derived liana infestation estimates were compared with those derived from traditional ground methods of liana infestation assessment to determine the validity, strengths and weaknesses of using UAVs as a new method for assessing liana infestation of tree canopies. These data were then used to map and monitor liana load in tree crowns: (i) spatially, to elucidate liana-environmental relationships; and (ii) temporally, to monitor the canopy response, including changes in liana infestation, to El Niño drought. UAV-derived estimates of liana infestation correlated strongly with ground-derived data at individual tree and plot level, and across multiple forest types and spatial resolutions. Furthermore, the UAV surveys improved liana infestation assessment for upper canopy layers and were considerably faster and more cost-efficient than ground-based surveys. Liana infestation was significantly spatially aggregated, with tree canopy height and presence of canopy gaps being the most important variables influencing this. Taller trees were less often and less heavily infested by lianas while liana infestation occurred more often and to greater extents in close proximity to canopy gaps. Temporally, tree-level liana infestation and crown area showed significant increases in the aftermath of the 2015/16 El Niño whereas crown greenness and tree leaf cover showed a significant decrease. Furthermore, liana cover was significantly higher for trees that experienced mortality in the aftermath of the El Niño than for those that did not. This thesis presents a novel UAV-based method of capturing data that can be used to assess liana infestation of tropical forest tree crowns at least as accurately as traditional ground data. This novel method promotes reproducibility of results and quality control, and enables additional variables to be derived from the image data. It is more cost-effective, time-efficient and covers larger geographical extents than traditional ground surveys, enabling more comprehensive monitoring of changes in liana infestation over space and time. By utilising the new UAV method, this thesis presents: (i) the largest and most comprehensive continuous assessment of Palaeotropical tree crown liana infestation, and analysis of environmental variables that may influence this, to date; and (ii) the first study assessing short-term temporal change in liana canopy cover and associated alterations in the forest canopy using UAV image data. Examining how and why lianas are distributed in the forest canopy and how this changes through time may help us to determine what variables could determine increases in lianas with environmental change in the future, with important implications for tropical forest carbon storage and sequestration, and provide a step towards more comprehensive testing of ecological theory in tropical forests.

The significance of flows of temporary, skilled labour migrants under conditions of globalization is widely acknowledged. Using a case study of elite cricket professionals moving from the UK to Australia for a maximum duration of 6 months, out and return migration flows and processes are examined. In doing so, this thesis exposes migration motives, notably in relation to career progression and personal development, and the processes and regulations that control temporary sojourns. Furthermore, the discussion reveals important social, cultural, economic and familial impacts of undertaking temporary, skilled, international migration. Using this case study of a sport-led migration, a largely under-researched occupational sector in migration studies, a number of theoretical, conceptual and empirical contributions are provided, which advance knowledge of skilled, international migration. First, utilising Bourdieu's (1986) notions of capital as an analytical framework, the comparative importance of migration motives are emphasised. Second, it is shown that migration can be viewed as a normalised aspect of a skilled worker's career trajectory, and that desired outcomes can be achieved during increasingly temporary stays overseas. Third, a three phase model of the migration flow is adopted to enable the development of professionalization and migration within cricket to be examined. It is asserted that cricket, as a professional sport, has changed under conditions of globalization, alongside smaller scale developments initiated by both employers and intermediaries, and the migrant cricketers. It is concluded that these connections will have salience for the other skilled occupations identified in Salt's (1997) typology of highly-skilled migrants.