Forest Ecology Research Group Homepage
- Professor of Forest Ecology, School of Plant Science, University of Tasmania
- Visiting Fellow, Fenner School of the Environment and Society, Australian National University
- Adjunct Professor at School for Environmental Research, Charles Darwin University
- Adjunct Professor at School of Forest and Ecosystem Science, University of Melbourne
Biography
Before taking up my chair at UTAS I was the Director of the Australian Research Council Key Centre for Tropical Wildlife Management at Charles Darwin University where I fostered a vibrant and highly productive research group that undertook transdisciplinary research programs designed to sustainably manage biodiversity and ecosystem services in northern Australia. I named this approach 'Wildlife and Landscape Science'.
Research Interests
I am now building a similar group at UTAS. Tasmania is a superb natural laboratory for ecological research and has stimulated the seminal research into the ecology and evolution of landscape fire. My research is focused on the ecology, evolution, biogeography and management of Australian forested landscapes. Specifically, I undertake pure and applied research to understand the effects of global environmental change, natural climate variability and the cessation of Aboriginal landscape burning on bushfire activity and landscape change.
My research programs, involving national and international collaborators, use an assortment of techniques, including remote sensing and geographic information analyses, stable isotopes, ecophysiological analyses, mathematical modeling, biological survey and molecular analyses.
Projects
The forest ecology lab is running 4 major research programs sustained by a diversity of funding and bolstered by collaboration with numerous other labs.
Aerobiology, bushfire smoke and human environmental health
This program involves monitoring pollen and phenological patterns, construction of an online pollen library, measuring the effects of smoke from controlled burning and wildfires on human population health and the likely impacts of ongoing global environmental change on fire weather. (Funded by ARC Linkage, ARC LIEF, Tasmania Environment Fund grants and a Weather Channel consultancy)
The environmental control and dynamics of Australian rainforest boundaries
This project is designed to understand the historical and environmental controls of rainforests across Australia. (Funded by ARC Discovery, AINSE, Holsworthy grants). These data are to be integrated into a global research program funded by Natural Environment research Council, UK (see http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/research/trobit/. As part of this program I have been awarded a NERC distinguished international scholarship to fund a sabbatical at the University of Leeds scheduled for 2010).
Tree growth and global environmental change
This project is primarily using the native conifer genus Callitris to understand the effects of climate change and land management history on tree growth (funded by ARC Discovery, AINSE, and CERF grants). The project uses a range of historical ecology techniques. The project is currently being extended into the midlands of Tasmania to understand the landscape ecology of rural tree decline and assist Greening Australia prioritise their restoration programs.
Forests and wildlife management
This project builds on my expertise in the landscape ecology of kangaroo herbivory and is funded by the Alternative to 1080 program administered by Wildlife Management Branch Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries and Water.
Collaborators
- Yuji Isagi, Kyoto University, Japan
- Mike Evans, University of Maryland, USA
- Simon Haberle, ANU
- Barry Brook, Adelaide University
- Jennifer Balch, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, USA
- Mike Crisp, ANU
- Geoff Morgan, University of Sydney
- Fay Johnston, Menzies School of Health Research
- Pauline Grierson, UWA
- Rod Fensham, Queensland herbarium
- Jon Lloyd, University of Leeds, UK
- Owen Price, University of Wollongong
Memberships & Boards
- Steering Committee Member, National Climate Change Adaptation Network – terrestrial biodiversity, Department of Climate Change, Canberra
- Member, Environmental Sciences Specialist Committee, Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE)
- Member, Commonwealth Environment Research Facilities (CERF) Reference Group, Department of Environment Water and Heritage
- Subject Editor of Journal of Biogeography
- OzReader, Australian Research Council
Research Areas:
Selected Publications:- Bowman, DMJS et al, 2009, 'Fire in the earth system', Science, 324, pgs. 481-484
- Bowman DMJS, Dingle JK, Johnston FH, Parry D, Foley M, 2007, 'Seasonal patterns in biomass smoke pollution and the mid 20th-century transition from Aboriginal to European fire management in northern Australia', Global Ecology and Biogeography, 16, pgs. 246-256
- Bowman DMJS and Prior LD, 2005, 'Turner Review No.10 – Why do evergreen trees dominate the Australian seasonal tropics?', Australian Journal of Botany, 53, pgs. 379-399
- Bowman DMJS, 2005, 'Understanding a flammable planet – climate, fire and global vegetation patterns. New Phytologist', New Phytologist, 165, pgs. 341-345
- Bowman DMJS and Prior LD, 2004, 'Impact of Aboriginal landscape burning on woody vegetation in Eucalyptus tetrodonta savanna in Arnhem Land, northern Australia.', Journal of Biogeography, 31, pgs. 807-817
- Brook BW and Bowman DMJS, 2002, 'Explaining the Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions: models, chronologies and assumptions.', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 99, pgs. 14624-14627
- Johnston FH, Kavanagh A, Bowman DMJS and Scott RK, 2002, 'Exposure to bushfire smoke and asthma: an ecological study.', Medical Journal of Australia, 176, pgs. 535-538
Full Publication List Current and Supervised Project/s:
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