Cassandra is a palaeoecologist and palynologist with experience working across northern Australia, Britain, Papua New Guinea and Southeast Asia. Her research focusses on long-term environmental dynamics and human-environmental relationships within monsoonal regions, understanding vegetation composition, distribution and change with emphasis on tropical-savanna landscapes, dry-rainforest associations and island flora. The application of environmental history to ecosystem management is an additional committment. Cassandra’s interests have been pursued in collaboration with archaeological science and Earth-system modelling, and are complemented by work in research support-tool database developments.

Cassandra joined JCU in 2014 having previously worked at a number of academic institutions, and with a background collaborating with museums, conservation NGOs and Indigenous organisations. Additional experience includes contract research in industry within Australia and overseas. Cassandra is based within the College of Science and Engineering (GeoScience), and forms part of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, and ‘What is natural? Humans, megafauna and climate in northern Australia’ research teams. For further examples of project work refer to the Earth systems science QUEST and BRIDGE programs, the pollen database APSA, Jawoyn Homeland Project Connecting Country, and the Maritime Settlement of Southern New Guinea Project (Archaeology of Caution Bay).

 

Teaching

• EA2404: Earth's Climate: Past, Present and Future (Level 2; CNS)

Interests

Research

• Quaternary tropical environmental variability
• Savanna composition and dynamics
• Fire regimes and biodiversity
• Pollen morphology
• Cultural landscapes
• Climate change verses human impact signals in the palaeoenvironmental record
• Environmental history applications to landscape and habitat management

Experience

• 2015 to 2019 - Research Fellow, James Cook University (Cairns, Australia)
• 2011 to 2013 - Research Fellow, Monash University (Melbourne, Australia)
• 2009 to 2011 - Archaeological/Heritage Management, Private & Academic combined (Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea)
• 2007 to 2009 - Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Bristol (Bristol, England)
• 2006 to 2007 - Postdoctoral Fellow, Australian National University (Canberra, Australia)
• 2001 to 2005 - PhD Candidate, Monash University (Melbourne, Australia)

Research Disciplines

• Physical geography and environmental geoscience (3709)
• Archaeology (4301)
• Ecology (3103)

Socio-Economic Objectives

• Understanding past societies (1307)

These are the most recent publications associated with this author. To see a detailed profile of all publications stored at JCU, visit ResearchOnline@JCU.

Journal Articles

• Rivera-Araya M, Rowe C, Ulm S and Bird M (2023) A 33,000-year paleohydrological record from Sanamere Lagoon, north-eastern tropical savannas of Australia. Quaternary Research, 113. pp. 146-161
• Ash J, Bradley J, Mialanes J, Brady L, Evans S, Barrett D, David B, Wesley D, Dotte-Sarout E, Rowe C, Urwin C and Manne T (2022) Marra philosophies of stone, and the stone artefacts of Walanjiwurru 1 rockshelter, Marra Country, northern Australia. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 68.
• Rehn E, Rowe C, Ulm S, Woodward C, Zawadzki A, Jacobsen G and Bird M (2022) Integrating charcoal morphology and stable carbon isotope analysis to identify non-grass elongate charcoal in tropical savannas. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 31 (1). pp. 37-48
• Rivera Araya M, Rowe C, Levchenko V, Ulm S and Bird M (2022) A radiocarbon chronology for Sanamere Lagoon, Cape York Peninsula, using multiple organic fractions. Quaternary Geochronology, 70.
• Rowe C, Rehn E, Brand M, Hutley L, Comley R, Levchenko V, Zwart C, Wurster C and Bird M (2022) Holocene climate-fire-vegetation feedbacks in tropical savannas: Insights from the Marura sinkhole, East Arnhem Land, northern Australia. Journal of Vegetation Science, 33 (6).
• Rehn E, Rowe C, Ulm S, Gadd P, Zawadzki A, Jacobsen G, Woodward C and Bird M (2021) Multiproxy Holocene fire records from the tropical savannas of northern Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 9. pp. -16
• Rehn E, Rowe C, Ulm S, Woodward C and Bird M (2021) A late-Holocene multiproxy fire record from a tropical savanna, eastern Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia. The Holocene, 31 (5). pp. 870-883
• Rowe C, Wurster C, Zwart C, Brand M, Hutley L, Levchenko V and Bird M (2021) Vegetation over the last glacial maximum at Girraween Lagoon, monsoonal northern Australia. Quaternary Research, 102. pp. 39-52
• Wurster C, Rowe C, Zwart C, Sachse D, Levchenko V and Bird M (2021) Indigenous impacts on north Australian savanna fire regimes over the Holocene. Scientific Reports, 11 (1).

Book Chapters

• David B, Richards T, Mcniven I, Aplin K, Petchey F, Szabó K, Mialanes J, Rowe C, Barker B, Connaughton S, Leavesley M, Mandui H and Jennings C (2022) Tanamu 1: A 5000 year sequence from Caution Bay. In: The Archaeology of Tanamu 1: A Pre-Lapita to Post-Lapita Site from Caution Bay, South Coast of Mainland Papua New Guinea. Caution Bay Studies in Archaeology, 2. Archaeopress, Oxford, United Kingdom, pp. 13-54
• David B, Aplin K, Rowe C, Leavesley M, Szabó K, Richards T, Mcniven I, Petchey F and Mandui H (2022) Emerging out of Lapita at Caution Bay. In: The Archaeology of Tanamu 1: A Pre-Lapita to Post-Lapita Site from Caution Bay, South Coast of Mainland Papua New Guinea. Caution Bay Studies in Archaeology, 2. Archaeopress, Oxford, United Kingdom, pp. 1-12
• Rowe C, Stevenson J, Connor S and Adeleye M (2022) Fire and the transformation of Landscapes. In: The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous Australia and New Guinea. Oxford Handbooks. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, pp. C12.S1-C12.S15

More

ResearchOnline@JCU stores 53+ research outputs authored by Dr Cassandra Rowe from 2001 onwards.

Current and recent Research Funding to JCU is shown by funding source and project.

Advisory Accreditation: I can be on your Advisory Panel as a Primary or Secondary Advisor.

These Higher Degree Research projects are either current or by students who have completed their studies within the past 5 years at JCU. Linked titles show theses available within ResearchOnline@JCU.

Current

• Paleoclimate Reconstruction of Northern Australia: What is Natural? Interactions between Humans, Maga Fauna and Climate (PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• Beauty or Blemish (Masters , Secondary Advisor)
• A reconstruction of the Holocene fire and environmental history from Kinrara Swamp North Queensland (Masters , Secondary Advisor)

Completed

• Multi-proxy evidence of long-term environmental change in northern Australia's tropical savannas (2021, PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• Fire and environmental change in northern Australian savannas during the Holocene (2020, PhD , Secondary Advisor)

The map shows research collaborations by institution from the past 7 years.
Note: Map points are indicative of the countries or states that institutions are associated with.