Sharon A. Cowling

Biography

 EDUCATION 2000, Ph.D., Ecological Institute, Lund University (Sweden), Thesis Title: Plant-climate interactions over historical and geological time. Thesis Co-Supervisors: Martin T. Sykes & Richard Bradshaw. 1997, M.Sc., Department of Botany, University of Toronto, Thesis Title: The influence of low atmospheric CO2 on temperature stress in Phaseolus vulgaris: implications for Pleistocene environments. Thesis Supervisor: Rowan F. Sage. 1994, Diploma in Forest Resource Management, Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto. 1989, B.Sc., Double majors in biophysics and anthropology, University of Toronto.

Research Interest

 I am an Earth System scientist studying plant-based processes occurring within the surface boundary layer. The overall goal of my research is to better understand the range of responses of past, present and future vegetation to different climate-forcing variables, including vegetation feedbacks on climate such as moisture, heat and carbon exchange. I address research questions over various temporal and spatial scales and although I predominantly use computer models, I am in the process of building a field component to complement modelling interests. Areas of current interest include: (1) Paleoclimate modelling of the influence of early land plants on carbon and water exchange with the atmosphere. (2) Silicon cycling in terrestrial ecosystems: fluvial transport to oceans and implications for ocean productivity. (3) Large-scale modelling of the Amazonian Basin, implications of Pliocene flooding for the global carbon cycle and atmospheric transport of water. (4) Reconstructing paleobotanical ground cover over different geological periods and implications for boundary layer dynamics, particularly transport of atmospheric moisture. (5) The nature of biological soil crusts, their identification in the fossil record and implications for early Earth paleoclimatology.