Professor David J Lowe

Qualifications: BSc MSc PhD (Waikato) FRSNZ FNZSSS

Research Interests

• Tephrochronology, the correlation of tephra (or volcanic ash) deposits and their application to linking, synchronizing and dating geological, ecological or archaeological deposits or events;
• Pedology, the nature, genesis, distribution and classification of soils, and palaeopedology, the study of soils of landscapes or environments of the past (especially of volcanic terrains);
• Environmental change in the Quaternary, the reconstruction of palaeoenvironments, including the impacts of humans (and hence geoarcheology), using environmental proxies at a range of time-scales and deposits since about 2.6 million years ago.

About David

David has published widely in a range of disciplines (tephrochronology, pedology, Quaternary science) with around 150 refereed publications in scientific journals or books (including 19 chapters) to his name. He has undertaken research in New Zealand, Antarctica, Australia, Canada, Japan and the U.K., and also has field experience in Taiwan, Ireland, France, Germany, Switzerland, western U.S.A. (eight states including Alaska and Hawaii), and Fiji.

Awards/Honours

• Awarded McKay Hammer Award of the Geoscience Society of New Zealand, 2011
• Awarded "Editor's Citation of Excellence for Associate Editors", Soil Science Society of America Journal, 2011
  
• Elected Fellow of Royal Society of New Zealand, 2010
• Awarded Marsden Fund funding for 3-year project “New Views from Old Soils” on ancient DNA and carbon sequestration in buried volcanic-ash soils in the North Island, 2010
• Awarded Fellowship of Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science for lecture tour of Japan in May, 2010

Students Supervised

David has jointly-supervised more than 50 postgraduates to completion. Two of David's PhD students (Fieldes Award) and five of his MSc students (Rigg Award) have been awarded the top prizes of the New Zealand Society of Soil Science for their outstanding research. Another former student (Dr Maria Gehrels) was awarded the Pullar-Vucetich Prize (2008) of the Geological Society of New Zealand for her research on cryptotephras. Recent or current PhD and MSc projects supervised or co-supervised by David are given below.

PhD:

• Yu-Tuan (Doreen) Huang: “Evaluating the nature and preservation of organic carbon and ancient DNA, and associated clay minerals, in buried soils on tephras, New Zealand” (in progress)
  
• Dr Malcom McLeod: “Soil distribution, characterization and vulnerability to human impact in the Wright valley, Antarctica” (2013)
  
• Dr Maria Gehrels (joint project with Plymouth University, UK): “An enhanced ~1800-year record of recent volcanic ash-fall events in northern New Zealand from analysis of cryptotephra” (2009)
• Dr David Palmer: “Development of national extent terrain attributes (Tanz), soil water balance surfaces (SWatBal), and environmental surfaces, and their application for spatial modelling of Pinus radiata productivity across New Zealand” (2008)
• Dr Haydon Jones: “Impacts of forest harvesting on performance of soil-landscape modelling in a radiata pine forest, northern New Zealand” (2004)

MSc:

• Nadia Laubscher: “Impact of ‘flipping’ multisequal Pumice Soils on pasture productivity in Galatea Basin” (in progress)
• Marie Heaphy (joint project with Scion Research, Rotorua): “Assessing drivers of plantation forest productivity on eroded versus non-eroded soils on hilly and steep land in eastern North Island, New Zealand: from catchment to regional scale” (2013)
• Courtney Foster (joint project with GNS Science and Victoria University of Wellington): “Palaeolimnology of Adelaide Tarn, a ~14,000-year-old low-alpine glacial lake, northwestern South Island, New Zealand” (2013)
• Michael Cunningham: “Sensitive rhyolitic pyroclastic deposits in the Tauranga region: mineralogy, geomechanics and microstructure of peak and remoulded states” (2012)
• Kerri Lanigan: “Stratigraphy and composition of tephric loess deposits aged from c. 33 to 9.5 cal ka in the Rotorua area, and some inferences about past climates” (2012)
• Sharn Hainsworth: “Properties and distribution of soils on the Ruataniwha Plains,Hawke’s Bay: a new approach" (2011)
• Justin Wyatt: “Sensitivity and clay mineralogy of weathered tephra-derived soil materials in the Tauranga region” (2009)
• Rachel Pickett “A tephra-dated record of palaeoenvironmental change since c. 5,500 years ago from Lake Rotorua, North Island, New Zealand” (2008)
• Jeremy Cole-Baker: “Sedimentology and tephrochronology of Late-Glacial and Holocene lake sediments and peats, Westland, South Island” (2006)

Teaching Commitments

Expertise

Tephrochronology – identifying and dating prehistoric volcanic ash deposits for use in studying NZ geology, volcanology, archaeology and past environments; pedology – the forms, origins, distribution and classification of soils; NZ volcanic ash soils; predictive modelling in soil survey; geological history and soils of the Waikato; Quaternary studies - using data on past environments to date environmental and climatic change in NZ over 2.5 million years; origin and history of NZ lakes; applying radiocarbon dating to geological, archaeological and ancient ecological problems; Polynesian settlement history of NZ.

Recent Publications

• Lowe, D., Blaauw, M., Hogg, A., Newnham, R. (2013) Ages of 24 widespread tephras erupted since 30,000 years ago in New Zealand, with re-evaluation of the timing and palaeoclimatic implications of the Lateglacial cool episode recorded at Kaipo bog
  Refereed Journal Articles - Quaternary Science Reviews
• Vandergoes, M., Hogg, A., Lowe, D., Newnham, R., Denton, G., Southon, J., Barrell, D., Wilson, C., McGlone, M., Allan, A., Almond, P., Petchey, F., Dabell, K., Dieffenbacher-Krall, A., Blaauw, M. (2012) A revised age for the Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra, a key marker for the Last Glacial Maximum in New Zealand
  Refereed Journal Articles - Quaternary Science Reviews
• Hogg, A., Lowe, D., Palmer, J., Boswijk, G., Ramsey, C. (2012) Revised calendar date for the Taupo eruption derived by ¹⁴C wiggle-matching using a New Zealand kauri ¹⁴C calibration data set
  Refereed Journal Articles - The Holocene
• Moriwaki, H., Suzuki, T., Lowe, D. (2011) (In memoriam and dedication) Shinji Nagaoka (1958-2011)
  Refereed Journal Articles - Quaternary International

View All research publications by David Lowe

Contact Details

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