Dr Simon Connor
Areas of expertise
- Palaeoecology 060206
- Archaeological Science 210102
- Quaternary Environments 040606
- Biogeography And Phylogeography 060302
Research interests
- Human-environment interactions in prehistory
- Biodiversity changes in Mediterranean environments
- Fire-vegetation dynamics in biodiversity hotspots
- Impacts of European colonisation on island ecosystems
- Quantitative reconstruction of past land cover
- Sustainable development and conservation
Biography
Simon graduated with a BA (Hons) in physcial geography and a PhD in palaeoecology and archaeology from the University of Melbourne in 2007. He subsequently undertook post-doctoral research at the University of the Algarve (Portugal, 2008-2012), was a lecturer in physical geography at Monash University (Australia, 2013-2014) and the University of Melbourne (2015-2016), and invited researcher at the Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté (France, 2018-2019). He joined the ANU in 2019.
Simon's research includes studies of air pollution history in Sydney, interactions between prehistoric cultures and vegetation in the Caucasus region, climatic change in the Balkans, forest disappearance along the Portuguese coastline, fire history in Mediterranean mountains, the creation of cultural landscapes in Tasmania's World Heritage Area, human impacts on island ecosystems, interactions between past fire and biodiversity change on the Iberian Peninsula, and early European impacts on the 'intact' savannas of NW Australia.
Publications
- Connor, S, Sagona, C & Jamieson, A 2020, 'Vegetation, Fire and Grazing Dynamics in Mtskheta, Georgia, and their Implications for Human Economic Strategies since 2000 BC', Ancient Near Eastern Studies, vol. 57, pp. 149-188.
- Feurdean, A, Vanni�re, B, Finsinger, W et al. 2020, 'Fire hazard modulation by long-term dynamics in land cover and dominant forest type in eastern and central Europe', Biogeosciences, vol. 17, pp. 1213-1230.
- Colombaroli, D, Mistry, J, Milner, A et al. 2019, '[Policy brief] Diverse knowledge informing fire policy and biodiversity conservation'.
- Connor, S, Vanni�re, B, Colombaroli, D et al. 2019, 'Humans take control of fire-driven diversity changes in Mediterranean Iberia's vegetation during the mid-late Holocene', The Holocene, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 886-901.
