I am currently a Science and Technology Policy Fellow with the California Senate Committee on Environmental Quality. In 2010 I completed my PhD with David Ackerly at UC Berkeley studying the evolution of plant life history.
The focus of my dissertation was the evolution of plant traits that allow populations to persist in fire prone ecosystems, specifically Mediterranean-type shrublands.
Previous research that I have been involved with includes investigations of leaf hydraulic physiology and ecosystem carbon cycling.
Papers and talks:
- Effect of smoke on plant physiology: Is smoke bad for tobacco too?
Cowan, P. D. and Moritz, M. A.
ESA Annual Meeting (2010) - Post-fire regeneration strategy and the Mutch hypothesis in California chaparral
Cowan, P. D. and Ackerly, D. D.
International Journal of Wildland Fire 19: 984--989 (2010) - Special session: Application of large calorimeters for assessing flammability traits
Cowan, P. D. and Ackerly, D. D.
The International Fire Ecology and Management Congress (2009) - Evolution of a circular trait: Phenology in Banksia (Proteaceae)
Cowan, P. D., Bolmgren, K., Mast, A. R., and Ackerly, D. D.
Botany 2008 (2008) - Time–size tradeoffs: a phylogenetic comparative study of flowering time, plant height and seed mass in a northtemperate flora
Bolmgren, K. and Cowan, P. D.
Oikos 117: 424--429 (2008) - Co-occurrence of multiple life history strategies in fire-prone landscapes
Cowan, P. D. and Ackerly, D. D.
ESA/SER Annual Meeting (2007) - New method for the assessment of fuel loads in chaparral
Cowan, P. D. and Ackerly, D. D.
3rd International Fire Ecology and Management Congress (2006) - The major veins of mesomorphic leaves revisited: Tests for conductive overload in Acer saccharum (Aceraceae) and Quercus rubra (Fagaceae)
Sack, L. and Cowan, P. D. and Holbrook, N. M.
American Journal of Botany 90: 32--39 (2003) - The 'hydrology' of leaves: co-ordination of structure and function in temperate woody species
Sack, L. and Cowan, P. D. and Jaikumar, N. and Holbrook, N. M.
Plant Cell and Environment 26: 1343--1356 (2003)