Professor David J Lowe
Professor; Postgraduate Coordinator
Qualifications: BSc MSc PhD (Waikato) FRSNZ FNZSSS
Contact Details
| Name | Extn. | Username | Room | Department | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lowe, Prof David | 4438 | dlowe | DE.1.02 | Earth and Ocean Sciences |
You can contact staff by:
- Calling +64 7 838 4466 then enter the extension
- Direct dialling +64 7 838 then extension (for extensions starting with 4)
- Direct dialling +64 7 858 then extension (for extensions starting with 5)
- Emailing username@waikato.ac.nz
- Using the campus map to locate their room
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 more than 140 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 "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 on ancient DNA and paleosols 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 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 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”
- Malcom McLeod: “Soil distribution, characterization and vulnerability to human impact in the Wright valley, Antarctica”
- 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:
- Marie Heaphy (joint project with Scion Research, Rotorua): "Impact of terrain attributes and erosion on the productivity of radiata pine in a hill country catchment,Hawke's Bay"
- Kerri Lanigan: “Are there paleoclimatic signals in tephric loess deposits aged c. 30-15 cal ka in central North Island?"
- Sharn Hainsworth: “Digital tools for mapping soil classes, Ruataniwha Plains"
- 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
- Moriwaki, H., Suzuki, T., Murata, M., Ikehara, M., Machida, H., Lowe, D. (2011) Sakurajima-Satsuma (Sz-S) and Noike-Yumugi (N-Ym) tephras: new tephrochronological marker beds for the last deglaciation, southern Kyushu, Japan
Refereed Journal Articles - Quaternary International - Lowe, D. (2011) Tephrochronology and its application: A review
Refereed Journal Articles - Quaternary Geochronology - Hogg, A., Lowe, D., Palmer, J., Boswijk, G., Ramsey, C. (2011) 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
