International conservation policy has increasingly recognized the importance of abiotic environments for sustainable development, geodiversity conservation, and education. UNESCO Global Geoparks are critical areas for preserving geoheritage and promoting geodiversity. However, geoparks often face resource limitations, with managers seeking ways to boost visitation, improve efficiencies, and protect geosites. Digital tools offer promising solutions for this protection and education, and can aid decision-making in the sustainable development of geotourism destinations like geoparks, yet little is known about their global adoption across the network. This study presents one of the first global analyses of digital tool usage in geoparks via a survey of 112 geoparks from 40 countries. Analysis using binary and negative binomial logistic regression models reveals that staff experience and technological awareness significantly influence digital tool adoption. The adoption of specific technologies is associated with the frequency of usage, geopark size, geopark age, and stage of the geopark revalidation lifecycle. Findings show partial but uneven adoption of digital tools in geoparks, with widespread use of web and mobile applications contrasting with low uptake of emerging technologies. The respondents indicated limited usage of digital tools in geosite protection and maintenance, visitor evaluation, and school materials. Policy recommendations include targeted funding for digital tool uptake, capacity building to increase technological awareness, and user-informed design of digital tools. Creating communities of practice to foster global collaboration and ensure equitable access to digital tools would lead to improved outcomes.

Geotrails serve as educational journeys that highlight significant geodiversity and cultural heritage, offering recreational and interpretive experiences in a range of constructed and natural environments. There is a growing need for objective methods to support decision-making in geotrail design. The Least-Cost Path (LCP) method, a resistance-based model, is effective for identifying routes suitable for geotrail development. Stakeholder-led design ensures the geotrail aligns with user needs. To date, there has not been a study in which a combination of LCP methods used in GIS trail design have been used in association with user persona profiles to design putative geotrails. We present a geotrail assessment methodology using LCP combined with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) that could enable geotourism practitioners to tailor trails to specific requirements, such as best practice requirements, or for various user personas. In-field validation via GNSS survey refined our LCP approach and enabled geotrail revision for similar or reduced cost after revised priorities and ranking of field criteria were incorporated. A case study on the West Coast of Tasmania, a mostly mountainous, wild landscape with mining operations of (geo)heritage significance, was conducted. Three putative geotrails were designed and field-validated, targeting users interested in mining heritage, natural values, and wilderness adventure experiences. Results showed that the validated LCP model closely adhered to trail best practices, making it suitable for planners and geotourism practitioners. Field validation decreased the overall cost of geotrails, improved accessibility, compliance with environmental and maintenance standards, safety considerations, and user experience. Additionally, a Python toolbox was created to ensure replicability of the workflow, accessible to geotourism practitioners globally. This approach to geotrail planning supports optimal routes, educational value, and sustainable development in post-mining landscapes and other geotourism areas.

Fish use of saltmarsh varies spatially, temporally, and with environmental conditions. The specific impact of these effects on fish assemblages in southern temperate Tasmania, Australia—the only mangrove-free Australian state—is as yet largely unknown. Seasonal variation in fish abundance, richness, diversity, and size was investigated in succulent saltmarshes in three estuaries (Marion Bay, Barilla Bay, and Ralphs Bay) in south-eastern Tasmania. All parameters varied between sampling locations. Greater numbers of fish were recorded at two sites (Marion Bay, mean density and standard error of 396.9 ± 71.3 individuals per 100 m2; Barilla Bay, mean density and standard error of 94.1 ± 30.1 individuals per 100 m2) than have been previously reported in Australian saltmarshes. Fish abundance was greatest in July–August (mean density and standard error of 200.2 ± 49.7 individuals per 100 m2) reflecting the breeding patterns of the numerically dominant Atherinosoma microstoma. Both abundance and species richness responded positively to water temperature in ordinal logistic regression models, and species richness and diversity increased with water depth in the models. It is likely that the strong differences between sampling locations are partly related to differences in water depth and water temperature between the estuaries. They may be also related to the habitat context of each estuary, especially the presence or absence of seagrass. The greater numbers of fish found in the present study relative to abundances reported in mainland Australia may relate to the absence of mangroves and the consequent differences in seascape habitat context, including greater water depths in marshes. Importantly, these results demonstrate that temperate southern hemisphere saltmarshes are year-round habitat for fish, thus emphasising their importance as a fish habitat.

Geotourism focuses on an areas’ geodiversity and cultural landscape to provide visitor engagement, learning, and enjoyment. Geotourism is pivotal in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as recognised by the United Nations. This study examines the development of the Australian Geotourism Discovery Portal (AGDP) and its role in promoting sustainable geotourism, aligned with Australia’s National Geotourism Strategy strategic goals, and in providing a framework for the development of digital platforms for geotourism. The AGDP’s development was guided by a deductive development approach to examine the link between Geographical Information Technologies (GITs) and SDGs and subsequently applying findings to a stakeholder-led design process aligned with the needs of identified putative user groups. With a focus on two key user groups, the ‘Grey Nomads’ and ‘Students & Educators’, we used our deductive approach to iteratively test and refine the platform’s development based on the key attributes and preferences of these user groups for different accessibility, educational, and experiential needs. The AGDP employed ESRI ArcGIS Hub Web-GIS technology to promote geosites, geotrails, mining sites, indigenous cultural heritage sites, and GeoRegions in Australia. The implementation of the AGDP highlighted the potential to enhance public understanding of Australia’s natural and cultural heritage and the significant opportunity to leverage emerging GITs in maintaining the sustainable development initiatives of the geotourism sector. The framework established provides a replicable model that can be adapted and applied to other regions around the world, offering a tool and process development that can be used in a range of stakeholder- and community-led sustainable development initiatives.

Geodiversity elements contribute significantly to local and global hydrological, biogeochemical and ecosystem services and as such, fire is a potentially disruptive force with long-term implications. from limiting karstic speleothems formation, to compounding impacts of peat-fire-erosion cycles. Geodiversity elements additionally possess important cultural, aesthetic, and environmental values, including the support of ecosystem services. Hence, assessments of potential fire damage should consider implications for land users, society, and culture, alongside the geomorphic impacts on geodiversity elements. With a view to providing a concise set of descriptors of the response of geodiversity elements to fire, we qualify and in places, quantify, how fire may degrade geosystem function. Where possible, we highlight the influence of fire intensity and frequency gradients, and cumulative fire, in the deterioration of geodiversity values. Geoconservation is integral to protected areas with implications from fire effected geodiversity functions and values presenting issues for management, with potential consequences extending through to delisting, degazetting, and resizing of protected areas. Future research in reserve systems should concentrate on understanding the synergistic and compounding effects of fire on the geophysical landscape.

Large wild areas are important for both nature conservation and nature-based recreation. Information on the reciprocal relationships between recreators and the environments in which they recreate can help both conservation and recreation management. We considered motivations, perceptions, environmental concerns, and social concerns among flyfishers who recreate within the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area on the Central Plateau of Tasmania, Australia. Using semi-structured interviews with 27 participants, we established that they were motivated by a love of nature, desire for experience, escapism, connection, and challenge. On the basis of motivations and attitudes, we discriminated four groups of flyfishers: "social" (those who fish with friends), "trophy" (lone fishers who are goal-oriented), "outdoor enthusiast" (those who enjoy the outdoor experience, fishing optional), and "hunter-gatherer" (those prepared to travel long distances for catch). Nonetheless, all groups perceived environmental and social problems related to fishing and visitation behaviours, from littering to climate change. Fishers perceived environmental problems included identifying exotic weeds and pests but did not specifically include trout as a pest, despite their exotic status and adverse effects on native ecosystems. However, flyfishers were aware of most of their impacts and were willing to help mitigate them. Such insight is significant for geographers and those in associated disciplines and professions seeking to manage wild protected areas.

Vegetation changes in saltmarsh habitat can influence fish assemblages and abundance. In Tasmania, Australia, mid‐latitude succulent saltmarsh communities have been invaded by the introduced tall grass, Spartina anglica. Eradication efforts have been ongoing since the 1990s with purported benefits for fish access to intertidal foraging grounds, but a lack of knowledge of the impact of S. anglica on fish limits understanding of the benefits and effectiveness of native habitat restoration. Here, we investigate whether fish assemblages in native saltmarshes and non‐native S. anglica grassland differ in species diversity, fish abundance, and size class distribution. We used buoyant pop nets to sample fishes in Sarcocornia quinqueflora herbland and S. anglica grassland swards at three sampling stations in northwest Tasmania. Very few individuals and low species diversity were recorded in both vegetation types at the sampling station with the most well‐established S. anglica infestation. Elsewhere, richness and diversity were higher in S. quinqueflora herbland. Overall fish abundance was higher in S. quinqueflora than in S. anglica, with a very strong effect at one sampling station. Fewer small individuals of the numerically dominant Atherinosoma microstoma were recorded in S. anglica, potentially indicating impaired nursery function. Our results provide important insights for S. anglica control, as we are the first to demonstrate a relationship between S. anglica presence and fish characteristics in southern Australian saltmarsh. These results indicate that S. anglica control is valuable for fish conservation. An extension of our research to document the effects of S. anglica removal on fishes is desirable.

Wild areas provide a wide array of recreational opportunities in nature, including informal camping. We examined the potential for land degradation associated with informal campsites accessible by vehicle on the margins of the wild country on the Central Plateau of Tasmania, where alpine and sub‐alpine ecosystems with numerous glacial and periglacial wetlands sit within the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. There were no integrated analyses of the biotic and abiotic effects of informal camping on the distinctive ecosystems of Tasmania's high mountains and no work looking specifically at flyfishers campsites from anywhere in the world. We hypothesised that the impacts of informal camping on the vegetation communities, soil properties and native animals would be deleterious. We assessed impacts by comparing trampled areas and fire pits in ten campsites with geomorphologically similar adjacent controls. We found that informal camping resulted in colonisation by different plant species, greater soil compaction, more acid soils and decreased volumetric water content than control areas. Soils in 16 illegal firepits had higher pH, electrical conductivity and lower water content than the adjacent unburned ground. Visual amenity was also reduced by litter. More positively, campsite vegetation had a higher coverage of native herbs and grasses than the controls and attracted native animals, including a threatened iconic carnivore, the Tasmania devil ( Sarcophilus harrisii ). Informal camping may offset soil damage by helping endangered animals and plants at the current visitor rate. However, more informal campers may degrade world heritage values.

Summary The role of recreational fishers forming paths (routes of concentrated passage characterised by short vegetation or ground indentation) as they gain access to wilderness waterbodies has not been well documented in Australia. Recreational use for trout and tournament fly fishing has increased in the Central Plateau of Tasmania; therefore, it is important to determine the human contribution to path formation and its potential consequences for biodiversity conservation in this area of high conservation value. We predicted that paths parallel to waterbodies experienced more human traffic than orthogonal paths. Across 36 sites at different distances from roads, a parallel and orthogonal path to lakeshore were sampled using eight, 1 × 1 m quadrats randomly located along each path within a 10 × 10‐m plot. Recorded for each quadrat were the path widths, height difference between centre of paths and adjacent vegetation (path depth), vegetation types on and adjacent to paths, Bennetts Wallaby ( Notamacropus rufogriseus ) and Wombat ( Vombatus ursinus ) faecal numbers. General linear models indicated that path width was greater on parallel than orthogonal paths and declined with distance from roads. Path depth, however, was not affected by distance from roads but was shallower than orthogonal paths. Separate models used to test the potential effects of edge vegetation type, or the covariates Wallaby and Wombat scats did not have significant effects on‐path variables. Paths encircling or orthogonal to Central Plateau lakes appear different floristically to adjacent vegetation communities, nonetheless. Heath and tussock grassland were largely absent from paths, whereas grassland and herbfield communities were infrequently observed off paths. Herbfield and grassland are rarer communities than heath and tussock grassland, which, in the context of a lack of exposure to erosion, suggests a conservation benefit of paths at present usage levels. The human contribution to parallel path conditions is likely to be high, given the results from the study, so monitoring of change is desirable, especially if predicted increasing human activity eventuates in this area.

Very few multi-species or ecosystem comparisons of post-fire vertebrate herbivore activity and food preference exist to inform fire management and conservation strategies. We inferred post-fire (1–3 years) native and introduced vertebrate herbivore activity and attraction to six diverse temperate vegetation communities (grassland to rainforest) from scat counts. We hypothesised that where fire reduced herbaceous and grassy vegetation (‘fodder’), vertebrate herbivores would decline, and that post-fire preferences of native versus exotic herbivores would differ significantly. Instead, we found evidence for a ‘fire and fodder reversal phenomenon’ whereby native macropod and exotic deer scats were more abundant after fire in consistently ‘fodder-poor’ vegetation types (e.g., heath) but less abundant after fire in previously fodder-rich vegetation communities (e.g., grassland). Fodder cover predicted native macropod, wombat, and introduced deer activity and bare ground cover was strongly associated with introduced herbivore activity only, with the latter indicating post-fire competition for food sources due to their abundance in high-altitude open ecosystems. We, therefore, found environmental and vegetation predictors for each individual species/group and suggest broadscale multi-environment, multispecies observations to be informative for conservation management in potentially overlapping post-fire niches.

Though interpretations of the concept of geodiversity vary widely between the prominent researchers and practitioners of Australia, most agree that the definition is inclusive of abiotic elements (which can be detected spatially and assessed quantitatively), and their associated values (which can be used in reserve system planning, geotourism and to relate culture and nature to elements and functions). Challenges in Australian geodiversity assessment and representation are three-fold - there is lack of recognition of the concept across the nation, spatial datasets are incomplete or inadequate in some regions, and the spatial extent of some elements extends hundreds of kilometres whilst other potentially equally-significant elements occur at scales of tens of meters.In this presentation, I present three case studies of Australian geodiversity. I first explore a regional interpretation of geodiversity, in a spatially-heterogenous protected area in Tasmania - a place that has myriad unique superlative natural values. I demonstrate that the delineation between elements of geodiversity is supported by a geological framework, that facilitates adequate rank comparisons of similar landforms and/or geological types across variable topography and vegetation communities. I then demonstrate the challenges associated with values-based assessment of geodiversity at this scale - that nearly all elements become regionally significant, there are many singular examples that cannot be adequately compared, and that the additional values associated with superlative landform elements may skew the spatial expression of more scientifically significant forms.I then present two examples of state (similarity 'provincial') 'geodiversity site' (sensu Brilha 2016) inventories. One is extensively populated, is backed by expertise and universally-accepted criteria that dates back to the founding notions of geodiversity, but nominations are ad hoc and therefore a spatially-systematic ranked system has not been used. Conversely, in the other state example, inventory are systematically allocated on the basis of pre-established criteria - but this state is inherently far less spatially geodiverse than the former example, leading to a situation where the inventory entries of the latter would not be considered significant enough to warrant listing in the former.Finally, I present some upcoming future challenges with national-level geodiversity assessment. I show the spatial extent and granularity of our four key national datasets (soils, geology, landform, topography). I present new data that shows the values associated with geodiversity elements that are recognised in IUCNIa-III reserve management plans across Australia. I demonstrate how the comparative dearth of spatial element complexity on the Australian mainland is at odds with the immensely heterogeneous state of Tasmania, and how this may in part have influenced prior thinking regarding the concept and its inherent value to conservation and society.The 'Australian Geodiversity Assessment Challenge' raises questions about scale, territory, value, precision and representativeness - all of which are likely to be consistent with attempts to create a unified global geodiversity index or assessment approach. It is hoped that this presentation stimulates discussion among members, and informs the debate on the ways in which geodiversity elements and values can be evaluated at a range of spatial scales.

There is a growing body of research highlighting the importance of saltmarshes as habitats for fish for feeding, refuge from predation and reproduction. However, more work is needed on fish on vegetated marsh flats (or surfaces). We reviewed 60 studies that used 21 methods to sample fish assemblages on saltmarsh flats. Drop samplers, fyke nets and pop nets were most frequently employed, with considerably more studies being conducted in graminoid than succulent marsh. Reporting of sampling temporal and tidal details, environmental variables and fish attributes was inconsistent. Most of the papers focussed on one or more of conservation management, comparisons among habitat types, and the use of saltmarsh (including fish activity type or residency status). Important potential areas of research include the relationships between the fish assemblages of saltmarsh flats and coastal fisheries, the effects of invasive plant species and marsh restoration efforts in areas outside the United States, and the potential effects of sea-level rise on vegetated flats as fish habitat. Sampling methods that provide density measures are likely to be most useful for most of this research. Thus, drop samplers and pop nets are an appropriate choice, the former in graminoid saltmarshes and the latter in succulent saltmarshes.

Geoconservation is, at its foundation, a grass-roots movement with geoheritage represented by geosites containing the most scientifically significant and valuable geodiversity elements. Problems arise in the assessment and communication of inventory due in part to inconsistent and traditionally time-consuming, ‘snapshot’ assessments that are difficult to spatially monitor. The case study of kunanyi/Mount Wellington and the encompassing IUCN Category II Wellington Park Reserve (18,250 ha) (42°53′24″ S 147°13′48″ E, Tasmania, Australia) was chosen to explore the complexities of geosite and geodiversity site assessment, detection and communication. Using digital tools, we revised a 25-year-old snapshot inventory, configuring the ESRI ‘Collector for ArcGIS’ app for in-field data collection. Putative geosite and geodiversity site attributes were assessed for scientific value, potential touristic use, and potential educational use, using the Brilha (2016) method. Additional digital tools supported spatially accurate, engaging and interactive online inventory. Our findings suggested that many of the putative geosites in the park had low or moderate scientific values, but higher additional educational or touristic use values, especially in the urban-facing park zones. Though site degradation risk was low-moderate, sites in closer proximity to City of Hobart might experience additional impacts from visitation. The Wellington Park is a significant protected area that aims to tell an important story about the evolution of the periglaciated terrain and the endemic fauna and flora that depend upon it. In this sense, the possibility that not all putative geosites have high scientific value (and instead, might be better classed as geodiversity sites) is of limited concern, because the myriad geodiversity elements and additional value rankings (including 50% being highly ‘representative’ elements) provide an opportunity for all who visit the park to observe a coherent story about Tasmania in an easily accessible location. The opportunities realised in the creation of the digital inventory and assessment process remedy many issues that currently hamper practical Geoconservation, improving cost, consistency and standardisation of the inventory assessment and the quality of geotouristic and educational products. This digital approach could assist protected area managers and geoconservationists to monitor, protect and communicate inventory over the long-term.

The use of GIS, remote sensing, and other geographic tools in geoconservation and geotourism is increasing. These tools – hereafter referred to as ‘Geographic Information Technology’ (GIT) tools – have the potential to simplify workflow in geoconservation assessment and inventory, be employed as decision support and decision making tools for complex decisions, or be used to enhance communication and user experience in geotourism. In this paper, we review the progress on the use of GIT tools in geoheritage and geotourism to date, highlighting current gaps in practice. By way of an interview of prominent global geoconservation and geotourism professionals conducted in 2018, we show that approximately 25% of the surveyed workforce use some type of GIT tool to aid in decision support, decision making, or for communication(s) of inventory elements and features of interest. Upon review of the literature, it appears that the vast majority of tools are used for communications of inventory, features and site maps. Opportunities for further improvement in the field will most likely be realised when more sophisticated decision-making tools become available for geoconservationists and geotourism professionals, especially in the use of GIS Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (GIS-MCDA) to rank and curate inventory, geosites or geotouristic experiences. We conclude our discussion with a case study demonstrating the use of selected GIT tools in the process of decision support, decision-making, and communications. We show that at each step in the process of geoconservation, there is a GIT tool that can simplify workflow, and be used to cross-collaborate with other users or platforms. With further refinement, GIT tools should be able to support geoconservationists and geotouristic professionals in global decision making – for assessment, inventory, and standardisation of interpretations of landscape values and potential use.

Geoconservation and geotourism potentially represent two ends on the spectrum of appreciation of abiotic elements. Though it would appear to make sense that practitioners and researchers in both ‘fields’ work together providing a linkage between theory and practice, the barriers encountered, and potential opportunities represented by collaboration or cooperation, have not yet been thoroughly explored. This paper documents the experiences of researchers and practitioners working in protected areas governance and management, geoconservation and geotourism, via semi-structured interviews of 30 geoheritage and geoparks researchers and practitioners. Using narrative discourse, we identified a number of challenges and barriers in conserving, practicing and managing geoheritage and geoparks. Divergence in the acceptance of geodiversity as a concept appears most preventative to the discipline in the areas of research/scholarship and assessment criteria, and conversely, a unified interpretation of geodiversity appears to be applied to UNESCO Global Geopark, national geopark and geotouristic assessments. Diverse perspectives of geodiversity were expressed against a backdrop of other constraints, such as lack of funding, inconsistent inventory and criteria and lack of recognition of geoheritage in general. There is pleasing evidence that the nature and reach of geoconservation research, practice and training is increasing, which will be pivotal to reducing reported subjectivity in assessment criteria and promoting geoconservation to national bodies. We suggest that until there is consensus as to which unifying terms and themes the discipline should actually encompass and support, there will continue to be fragmentation and scope creep between actors in geoconservation and geotouristic research and practice. The biggest concern that we identified from our research was that geoconservation professionals appear to be becoming more isolated from the development and ongoing management strategies of popular geotouristic and geodiversity sites, which has the potential to limit quality scientific communication of geoheritage and geoscientific values to the public. Now that there has been such a significant increase in global geoconservation research in the past five years, it is pivotal that geoconservationists and geotouristic professionals work together, recognising a common goal in the appreciation of abiotic landforms and landscapes.

There exists substantial variation in the qualitative and quantitative interpretations of the concept of geodiversity and its embedded elements and values. The resulting divergence and ambiguity in applications of the term constrain its present use as an operationalized concept in nature conservation research and discourse, unlike its seemingly analogous biotic term, 'biodiversity'. This paper presents findings from a critical literature review of 299 academic journal articles and texts that define geodiversity values, or otherwise incorporate geodiversity or its derived elements and values as components of conservation. Contrary to previous suggestions, we have found that most geoscientists have united behind a single definition of geodiversity and applied it frequently in their primary and applied, geotouristic, research. Qualitative elements of geodiversity, including system support values and aesthetic appeals within nature conservation, have been largely confined to geoconservation and geoscientific literature and are nearly absent from biological discourse. Encouragingly, however, we have observed a more recent increase in research pertaining to quantitative interpretations of abiotic geodiversity elements and their relationship with the spatial distribution and abundance of species. Although the inclusion of geodiversity elements (quantitative and qualitative) in conservation assessment and biodiversity research has been and remains far less universal than for biodiversity elements, there is strong potential for further unification of these two concepts, especially though collaborative quantitative research. The more that geodiversity is discussed outside of geographic and geoscientific disciplines, broader recognition and validated use of the concept of geodiversity will be used in the understanding, interpretation, and protection of patterns and processes at the landscape scale.

Gorse (Ulex europeus L.) is a woody legume and invasive woody weed that has been introduced to temperate pastoral landscapes worldwide. Despite the apparent cosmopolitan distribution of gorse across much of the temperate agroecological landscapes of the world, research and practice pertaining to the management of gorse has been largely constrained to single-treatments, regions, or timeframes. Gorse eradication has been widely attempted, with limited success. Using the PRISMA (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis) method and a quasi-metanalytical approach, we reviewed the seminal ~299 papers pertaining to gorse management. We identified (i) the ecological characteristics of the species that predispose gorse to behaving invasively, and (ii) the success of management actions (from a plant ecological life history perspective) in reducing weed vigour and impact. A broad ecological niche, high reproductive output, propagule persistence, and low vulnerability to pests allow for rapid landscape exploitation by gorse throughout much the world. Additionally, there are differences in flowering duration and season in the northern and southern hemisphere that make gorse particularly pernicious in the latter, as gorse flowers twice per year. The implications of these life history stages and resistance to environmental sieves after establishment are that activity and efficacy of control is more likely to be favourable in juvenile stages. Common approaches to gorse control, including herbicides, biological controls, and fire have not been ubiquitously successful, and may in fact target the very site resources—sward cover, soil stability, hydrological balance—that, when degraded, facilitate gorse invasion. Ongoing seedling regeneration presents difficulties if eradication is a goal, but facilitated competition may reduce costs via natural suppression. Mechanical methods of gorse removal, though highly successful, induce chronic soil erosion and land degradation and should hence be used sparingly.

This study investigated the chemical characteristics of shallow (0–30 cm) soil profiles under shrubs in areas of dense encroachment and compared them with shallow soil profiles under nearby large trees. Consistent patterns of high soil acidity were found under shrubs, as well as lower litter alkalinity, lower relative concentrations of calcium (Ca2+), lower effective cation exchange capacity, and higher aluminium (Al3+) and sodium (Na+) in the soil profile compared with under trees. Soil pH (CaCl2) was strongly correlated with the Ca content of surface litter. These findings suggest that shrubs (which at most sites included the shrub form of tree species) cycle alkalinity differently from large and mature trees, resulting in high acidity in the shallow soil profile acidity, and possible loss of alkalinity via surface movement of material from areas of dense encroachment.

We examined associations between two psychological constructs, analytic cognitive style and the personality facet Openness to Experience', and several dimensions of religiosity: religious affiliation, strength of faith and spiritual epistemology. In a relatively large (N=1093), older community sample (M=55.4years), analytic cognitive style was associated with a lower probability of affiliating with a religious denomination and a higher probability of possessing strong religious faith. Overall, openness was also associated with a lack of religious affiliation but was positively related to possessing a spiritual epistemology. A path-analytic model revealed that openness had a positive relationship to both faith and religious denomination that was mediated by spiritual epistemology, but negative direct relationships with religiosity after the meditational effects were taken into account. Taken together, these results extend previous findings on the effect of cognitive style on religiosity and provide a new perspective on the complex relationship between cognitive and personality factors and different dimensions of religiosity. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.