Kath Dickinson | |
---|---|
Born | Katharine Josephine Mary Dickinson |
Alma mater | University of Tasmania |
Awards | Te Tohu Taiao Award |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | University of Otago |
Thesis |
Katharine Josephine Mary Dickinson is a New Zealand academic working in the field of botany. In 2009 the New Zealand Ecological Society awarded Dickinson the Te Tohu Taiao Award, an award for ecological excellence. As of 2018 she is a full professor at the University of Otago. [1]
After a 1985 PhD thesis titled 'Vegetation and fuel dynamics following clearfelling of dry Eucalypt forests on Dolerite in Southeastern Tasmania with special reference to the use of fire in forest regeneration' at the University of Tasmania in Australia, [2] Dickinson moved to the University of Otago in New Zealand, rising to full professor in 2009. [3]
Dickinson has published in diverse areas, but particularly in alpine systems and ecology. [4] [5]
In 2009, Dickinson was awarded the Te Tohu Taiao Award by the New Zealand Ecological Society. [6] She is recognised as an excellent teacher at a national level. [7]
The Tasmanian temperate rain forests are a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion in western Tasmania. The ecoregion is part of the Australasian realm, which includes Tasmania and Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, New Caledonia, and adjacent islands.
Eucalyptus coccifera, commonly known as the Tasmanian snow gum, is a small to medium-sized tree endemic to Tasmania. It has smooth, grey and cream-coloured bark, elliptic to lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of between three and nine, usually white flowers and conical, hemispherical or cup-shaped fruit.
Donatia novae-zelandiae is a species of mat-forming cushion plant, found only in New Zealand and Tasmania. Common names can include New Zealand Cushion or Snow Cushion, however Snow Cushion also refers to Iberis sempervirens. Donatia novae-zelandiae forms dense spirals of thick, leathery leaves, creating a hardy plant that typically exists in alpine and subalpine bioclimatic zones.
The environment of New Zealand is characterised by an endemic flora and fauna which has evolved in near isolation from the rest of the world. The main islands of New Zealand span two biomes, temperate and subtropical, complicated by large mountainous areas above the tree line. There are also numerous smaller islands which extend into the subantarctic. The prevailing weather systems bring significantly more rain to the west of the country. New Zealand's territorial waters cover a much larger area than its landmass and extend over the continental shelf and abyssal plateau in the South Pacific Ocean, Tasman Sea and Southern ocean.
Orites revolutus, also known as narrow-leaf orites, is a Tasmanian endemic plant species in the family Proteaceae. Scottish botanist Robert Brown formally described the species in Transactions of the Linnean Society of London in 1810 from a specimen collected at Lake St Clair. Abundant in alpine and subalpine heath, it is a small to medium shrub 0.5 to 1.5 m tall, with relatively small, blunt leaves with strongly revolute margins. The white flowers grow on terminal spikes during summer. Being proteaceaous, O. revolutus is likely to provide a substantial food source for nectivorous animal species within its range.
Dry sclerophyll forests occur throughout northern and eastern Tasmania. Characterised by the population of hard-leafed (sclerophyll) and often spiky, drought-adapted plants, dry sclerophyll forests are found in regions of where annual rainfall is below 1000mm.
David A. Wardle is a Swedish-New Zealand ecologist. He is a professor of ecology at Umeå University in Sweden. After obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Canterbury he completed a Doctor of Philosophy degree under Dennis Parkinson at the University of Calgary in 1989, and then worked in New Zealand at Landcare Research before moving to the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Umeå. Wardle is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.
Gonocarpus montanus is a perennial, terrestrial herb in the family Haloragacae. It is native to N.S.W, Victoria, Tasmania and New Zealand. Common names include mountain raspwort and mat raspwort. Its synonym is Haloragis montana.
Pherosphaera hookeriana, or Mount Mawson pine, is a dwarf conifer endemic to Tasmania, at altitudes above 600 meters. There are roughly 30 known sites, with population numbers in the tens of thousands. The species occurs in a range of habitats typically in areas near water bodies, mostly on dolerite derived soils. The species is highly fire sensitive and an increase in fire events associated with climate change may lead to local extinction and fragmentation of habitat.
Marilynn Lois Webb was a New Zealand artist, noted for her contributions to Māori art and her work as an educator. She was best known for her work in printmaking and pastels, and her works are held in art collections in New Zealand, the United States, and Norway. She lectured at the Dunedin School of Art, and was made an emeritus principal lecturer in 2004.
Carolyn Mary King is a New Zealand zoologist specialising in mammals, particularly small rodents and mustelids. She is currently a professor of biological sciences at the University of Waikato.
Jacqueline Rae Beggs is a New Zealand entomologist and ecologist specialising in biodiversity and biosecurity.
Notoreas galaxias is a species of moth in the family Geometridae. This species is endemic to New Zealand and has been observed in the southern half of the South Island. The species inhabits alpine herbfields and their larvae feed on species in the genera Kelleria and Drapetes. The adults are on the wing February to March.
Geoffrey Thomas Sandford Baylis was a New Zealand botanist and Emeritus Professor specialising in plant pathology and mycorrhiza. He was employed at the University of Otago for 34 years undertaking research into plant and fungal ecology and symbiotic interactions, taxonomy and anatomy. He collected hundreds of plant specimens in the field and founded the Otago Regional Herbarium (OTA). He discovered the sole Pennantia baylisiana living on Three Kings Island in 1945, and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1961.
Janice Marjorie Lord is a New Zealand academic, a plant evolutionary biologist, and as of 2020 is an associate professor at the University of Otago, where she is the curator of the Otago Regional Herbarium.
Janet Mary Wilmshurst is a New Zealand palaeoecologist who works on reconstructing the ecological past. Wilmshurst has been a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi since 2015. She was president of the New Zealand Ecological Society, and currently works as principal scientist in long-term ecology at Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research focusing on recent fossil records to reconstruct and trace past ecosystem changes in response to natural disturbance.
Bedfordia salicina, commonly known as Tasmanian blanketleaf, is an endemic angiosperm of Tasmania, Australia. It is widespread throughout wet sclerophyll forests, moist gullies and intermediate forests and woodlands between wet and dry sclerophyll communities. Bedfordia salicina is abundant at low elevations, on dolerite, sandstone and mudstone substrate, east of Tylers line. Alternating leaves droop down to blanket the stem, coining the species common name, blanketleaf.
Myosotis oreophila is a species of flowering plant in the family Boraginaceae, endemic to the South Island of New Zealand. Donald Petrie described the species in 1896. Plants of this species of forget-me-not are perennial rosettes with ebracteate inflorescences and white corollas with stamens that are partially exserted.
Helichrysum lanceolatum is a species of plant endemic to New Zealand, commonly known as niniao.
Celmisia gracilenta, commonly known by its Māori name Pekapeka, is an alpine plant of Asteraceae in the genus Celmisia, found at a latitude of 37° southwards in New Zealand.