Faculty and Staff List

Damon Matthews (Ph.D. Victoria, 2004)

Assistant Professor

Tel: (514) 848-2424 ext. 2064
Fax: (514) 848-2032

dmatthew@ alcor.concordia.ca 

Post-doctoral position available (please click for more information)

Graduate Student Opportunity (please click for link to information)

Education / Bio

Dr. Damon Matthews is Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography Planning and Environment. He obtained a B.Sc. in Environmental Science from Simon Fraser University in 1999, and a Ph.D. in Earth and Ocean Sciences from the University of Victoria in 2004. Prior to joining Concordia University in January 2007, he held a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Calgary, and worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Carnegie Institution at Stanford. Dr. Matthews currently teaches courses on the climate system, climate change and environmental modelling in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment at Concordia University. His research is aimed at better understanding the many possible interactions between human activities, natural ecosystems and future climate change, and contributing to the scientific knowledge base required to promote the development of sound national and international climate policy. Dr. Matthews holds several current research grants for projects to investigate the uncertainties associated with current terrestrial carbon sinks in the context of expected future climate changes. He has published a number of research papers in the area of global climate modelling, with particular emphasis on human land-use change and the role of the global carbon cycle in the climate system. In addition, Dr. Matthews is a contributing author to the recent Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was recognized with the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Teaching

  • GEOG 398C Climate Change: Science, Impacts and Policy
  • GEOG 378: The Climate System
  • GEOG 498C: Climate Change
  • HENV 655: Environmental Modeling

Present Research Projects

Assessing the role of the global carbon cycle in future climate change: I am using a global model of the climate system to predict how carbon sinks may change over the next century in response to continued emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

Influences of human land-use and land cover change on climate.

Interactions between terrestrial carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycles in the context of current global climate changes.

Refereed Journal Publications

  • Matthews, H. D. and Caldeira, K. (2008) Stabilizing climate requires near-zero emissions. Geophysical Research Letters, L04705.
  • Plattner, G.-K., Joos, F., Müller, S. A., Strassmann, K. M., Stocker, T. F., Knutti, R., von Bloh, W., Brovkin, V., Nawrath, S., Cameron, D., Driesschaert, E., Fichefet, T., Loutre, M. F., Dutkiewicz, S., Sokolow, A., Eby, M., Weaver, A. J., Edwards, N. R., Hargreaves, J. C., Jones, C. D., Matthews, H. D., Mouchet, A. and Price, A. (2008) Long-term climate commitments pro jected with climate-carbon cycle models. Journal of Climate, 21, 2721–2751.
  • Schmittner, A., Oschlies, A., Matthews, H. D. and Galbraith, E. D. (2008) Future changes in climate, ocean circulation, ecosystems and biogeochemical cycling simulated for a business-as-usual CO2 scenario until year 4000 AD. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, GB1013.
  • Turner, S. E., Fedigan, L. M., Nobuhara, H., Nobuhara, T., Matthews, H. D. and Nakamichi, M. (2008) Monkeys with disabilities: Prevalence and severity of congenital limb malformations in Macaca fuscata on Awa ji Island. Primates, 49, 223–226.
  • Matthews, H. D. and Caldeira, K. (2007) Transient climate-carbon simulations of planetary geoengineering. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A., 104, 9949-9954.
  • Matthews, H. D. and Keith, D. W. (2007) Carbon-cycle feedbacks increase the likelihood of a warmer future. Geophysical Research Letters, 34, L09702.
  • Matthews, H. D., Eby, M., Ewen, T., Friedlingstein, P. and Hawkins, B. (2007) What determines the magnitude of carbon cycle-climate feedbacks? Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 21, GB2012.
  • Matthews, H. D. (2007) Effect of CO2 fertilization uncertainty on future climate change in a coupled climate-carbon model. Global Change Biology, 13, 1068-1078.
  • Matthews, H. D. (2006) Emissions targets for CO2 stabilization as modified by carbon cycle feedbacks. Tel lus B Special Issue, 58B, 591-602.
  • Friedlingstein, P., Cox, P., Betts, R., Bopp, L., von Bloh, W., Brovkin, V, Doney, S., Eby, M., Fung, I., Govindasamy, B., John, J., Jones, C., Joos, F., Kato, T., Kawamiya, M., Knorr, W., Lindsay, K., Matthews, H. D., Raddatz, T., Rayner, P., Reick, C., Roeckner, E., Schnitzler, K.-G., Schnur, R., Strassmann, K., Thompson, S., Weaver, A. J., Yoshikawa, C., and Zeng, N. (2006) Climate-carbon cycle feedback analysis, results from the C4MIP model intercomparison. Journal of Climate, 19, 3337-3353.
  • Brovkin, V., Claussen, M., Driesschaert, E., Fichefet, T., Kicklighter, D., Loutre, M.-F., Matthews, H. D., Ramankutty, N., Schaeffer, M. and Sokolov, A. (2006) Biogeophysical effects of historical land cover changes simulated by six Earth system models of intermediate complexity. Climate Dynamics, 26, 587–600.
  • Matthews, D. (2006) The water cycle freshens up. Nature, 439, 793-794.
  • Matthews, H. D. (2005) Decrease of emissions required to stabilize atmospheric CO2 due to positive carbon cycle-climate feedbacks. Geophysical Research Letters, 32, L21707.
  • Matthews, H. D., Eby, M., Weaver, A. J. and Hawkins, B. J. (2005) Primary productivity control of simulated carbon cycle-climate feedbacks. Geophysical Research Letters, 32, L14708.
  • Matthews, H. D., Weaver, A. J. and Meissner, K. J. (2005) Terrestrial carbon cycle dynamics under recent and future climate change. Journal of Climate, 18, 1609-1628.
  • Matthews, H. D., Weaver, A. J., Meissner, K. J., Gillett, N. P. and Eby, M. (2004) Natural and anthropogenic climate change: Incorporating historical land cover change, vegetation dynamics and the global carbon cycle. Climate Dynamics, 22, 461-479.
  • Meissner, K. J., Weaver, A. J., Matthews, H. D. and Cox, P. M. (2003) The role of land-surface dynamics in glacial inception: A study with the UVic Earth System Climate Model. Climate Dynamics, 21, 515-537.
  • Matthews, H. D., Weaver, A. J., Meissner, K. J. and Eby, M. (2003) Radiative forcing of climate by historical land cover change. Geophysical Research Letters, 30, 1055.
  • Weaver, A. J., Eby, M., Wiebe, E. C., Bitz, C. M., Duffy, P. B., Ewen, T. L., Fanning, A. F., Holland, M. M., MacFadyen, A., Matthews, H. D., Meissner, K. J., Saenko, O., Schmittner, A., Wang, H., and Yoshimori, M. (2001) The UVic Earth System Climate Model: Model description, climatology and application to past, present and future climates. Atmosphere-Ocean, 39, 361-428.

Attention Media: Will speak on climate change related issues

Professional Affiliations

  • Canadian Geophysical Union
  • American Geophysical Union