Michael-Shawn Fletcher, BEd, PhD (Melbourne)

ARC Discovery Indigenous Researchers Development Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, School of Culture, History & Language

Email: fletcher.michael@anu.edu.au

Biographical statement

I am interested in the long-term interactions between humans, climate, disturbance and vegetation at local, regional and global scales. My current work involves developing and integrating high-resolution palaeoenvironmental records from across the Southern Hemisphere using multiple proxies, including microfossil, charcoal, geochemical and isotopic analyses to provide comprehensive reconstructions of environmental change.

Research interests

Palaeoecology; Palaeoclimatology; Biogeography; Palynology; Fire history; Southern South America; New Zealand; Australia.

Key publications

• Fletcher, M.-S., Moreno, P.I. 2011. Zonally symmetric changes in the strength and position of the Southern Westerlies drove atmospheric CO2 variations over the past 14 k.y. Geology DOI: 10.1130/G31807.1
• Fletcher, M.-S., Moreno, P.I. in press, Have the Southern Westerlies changed in a zonally symmetric manner over the last 14,000 years?: a hemisphere-wide take on a controversial problem. Quaternary International.
• Fletcher, M.-S., Thomas, I., 2010. The origin and temporal development of an ancient cultural landscape. Journal of Biogeography 37, 2183-2196.
• Fletcher, M.-S., Thomas, I., 2010. A quantitative Late Quaternary temperature reconstruction from western Tasmania, Australia. Quaternary Science Reviews 29, 2351-2361.
• Fletcher, M.-S., Thomas, I., 2010. A Holocene record of sea level, vegetation, people and fire from western Tasmania, Australia. The Holocene 20, 351-361.
• Fletcher, M.-S., Thomas, I., 2007. Holocene vegetation and climate change from near Lake Pedder, south-west Tasmania, Australia. Journal of Biogeography 34, 665-677.
• Fletcher, M.-S., Thomas, I., 2007. Modern pollen-vegetation relationships in western Tasmania, Australia. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 146, 146-168

Career highlights

Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, Universidad de Chile (2009-2011); Indigenous Research Fellow at Archaeology and Natural History, Australian National University (2011 - )