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Sharon Cowling is an Earth System scientist focused on the interactions between plant-based processes and the surface boundary layer. Her primary research goal is to understand the range of responses of past, present, and future vegetation to climate-forcing variables and to explore vegetation feedbacks on climate moisture, heat, and carbon exchange. She addresses research questions at both temporal and spatial scales, predominantly utilizing computer models while also incorporating fieldwork to complement her modeling interests. Her work includes studying paleoclimate modeling's influence on early land plants and carbon-water exchanges in the atmosphere, as well as examining silicon cycling and its implications for terrestrial ecosystems and ocean productivity. Additionally, Cowling investigates the effects of large-scale modeling in the Amazonian Basin during the Pliocene and its impact on global carbon cycles. Her research also delves into reconstructing paleobotanical ground cover across geological periods and the role of biological soil crusts in understanding early Earth and paleoclimatology.
Department of Sociology