Sharon Cowling

Sharon Cowling

First Name: 
Sharon
Last Name: 
Cowling
Title: 
Associate Professor
Office Location : 
ES 4013, Department of Earth Sciences, 22 Ursula Franklin St, Toronto, ON, M5S 3B1
Biography : 

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 and I am in the process of building a field component to complement modelling interests.

Education: 
PhD, Ecological Institute, Lund University (Sweden)
MSc, Department of Botany, University of Toronto
Diploma in Forest Resource Management, Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto
BSc, Biophysics and Anthropology, University of Toronto

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Roles:

Research Area:

Areas of Interest: 

(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.

Other Website: 
Research website: 
https://sacowling.wordpress.com/

Campus:

Meta Description: 
Associate Professor on carbon cycle and vegetation dynamics