Dr. Ross Peacock

Biography

Ross Peacock is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Macquarie University, focusing on vegetation dynamics in response to climate change. His expertise includes timber harvesting, thinning, and cattle grazing development, utilizing spatial modeling techniques that integrate advanced methods such as generalized dissimilarity modeling and traditional remote sensing techniques. His ongoing research aims to quantify rainforest canopy tree productivity in changing climates, comparing growth responses of shade-tolerant and intolerant rainforest seedlings under elevated temperature and CO2 conditions. He investigates the comparative field growth response of rainforest trees and saplings, studying phenological traits in light of climatic shifts. Moreover, Peacock is involved in integrating contemporary tree growth measurements with dendrochronology and wood geochemistry to reconstruct the palaeoclimate of Gondwana World Heritage rainforest stands in northern New South Wales. His projects also encompass monitoring threatened fauna responses to fire and feral predators, as well as developing constrained classification methods for vegetation communities, focusing on bryophytes and lichens as fine-scale indicators of climate variability, particularly for rare tree ferns in southeastern Australia.

Research Interests