Damon Matthews (Ph.D. Victoria, 2004)

Associate Professor
Member of the Global Environmental and Climate Change Center

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

dmatthew@ alcor.concordia.ca 

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Education / Bio

Dr. Damon Matthews is Associate Professor and 2009/2010 University Research Fellow 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 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 sinks and sources of greenhouse gases 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 the role of the global carbon cycle in the climate system, estimating allowable emissions for climate stabilization, and understanding our commitment to long-term climate warming. Dr. Matthews was a recent member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences "Committee on Stabilization Targerts for Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas Concentrations," and was a contributing author to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Concordia Climate Lab

Graduate Student Opportunities

I am looking for graduate students interested in learning about global warming and climate modelling, and exploring the role of greenhouse gas cycles in the context of recent and future climate change. Potential students should have good quantitative skills, and some knowledge of computer programming would be an asset. Possible research projects include:

• Modelling the influence of past and future land-use change on climate
• Estimating the climate response to cumulative greenhouse gas emissions
• Predicting allowable emissions for global climate change policy targets
• Modelling the atmospheric sinks for methane and nitrous oxide
• Assessing climate impacts as a function of global mean temperature change

Current Climate Lab Student Projects

• Donny Seto (PhD student): Characterizing the greenhouse gas and climate impacts of cities and urbanization
• Christopher Simmons (PhD student): Influence of early human agriculture on Holocene greenhouse gas cycles
• Marc-Olivier Brault (MSc student): Climate effect of Pleistocene megafauna extinctions
• Travis Moore (MSc student): Extreme weather events due to changes in global mean temperature
• Mitesh Patel (MSc student): Effect of anthropogenic nitrogen deposition on terrestrial carbon sinks
• Trevor Smith (Honours student): Comparing the climate effect of different greenhouse gas emissions

Teaching

• GEOL 440 - Current Research in Environmental Earth Science
• GEOG 378 - The Climate System
• GEOG 498C - Climate Change
• HENV 655 - Environmental Modeling

Publications

Recently submitted papers

• Damyanov, N, Matthews, H. D. and Mysak, L. Observed changes in the outdoor skating season in Canada. Environmental Research Letters, submitted November 15, 2011.
• Pinsonneault, A., Matthews, H. D., Galbraith, E. and Schmittner, A. Calcium Carbonate Production Response to Future Ocean Warming and Acidification. Biogeosciences, submitted November 15, 2011.
• Ross, A., Matthews, H. D., Kothavala, Z. and Schmittner, A. Assessing the effects of ocean diffusivity and climate sensitivity on the rate of climate change. Tellus B, submitted September 30, 2011.
• Solomon, S., Pierrehumbert, R., Matthews, H. D. and Daniel, J. S. Atmospheric composition, irreversible climate change, and mitigation policy. WRCP Community Paper, submitted August 24, 2011.
• Turner, S. E., Fedigan, L., Matthews, H. D. and Nakamichi, M. Disability, compensatory behavior and innovation in free-ranging adult female Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata). American Journal of Primatology, submitted September 11, 2011.

Papers in press

• Matthews, H. D. and Zickfeld, K. Climate response to zeroed emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosols. Nature Climate Change, in press.
• Matthews, H. D., Solomon, S. and Pierrehumbert, R. (2011) Cumulative carbon as a policy framework for achieving climate stabilization. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, in press. PDF
• Nugent, K. and Matthews, H. D. (2011) Drivers of future Northern latitude runoff change. Atmosphere-Ocean, in press.
• Simmons, C., Matthews, H. D. and Mysak, L. Investigating the natural carbon cycle since 8 kyr BP using an intermediate complexity model. Atmosphere-Ocean, in press.
• Olson, R., Sriver, R., Goes, M., Urban, N. M., Matthews, H. D., Haran, M. and Keller, K. A climate sensitivity estimate using global average observations and an Earth System model with a dynamic 3D ocean. Journal of Geophysical Research, in press.

2011

• Matthews, H. D. and Srivastiva, P. (2011) Canada s complacency on climate change is an embarrassment. Montreal Gazette, Op-Ed, July 2, 2011.PDF
• Solomon, S., et al. (2011) Climate Stabilization Targets: Emissions, Concentrations and Impacts over Decades to Millennia, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C. (Matthews, H. D., co-author) Summary / Full Report
• Zickfeld, K., Eby, M., Matthews, H. D., Schmittner, A and Weaver, A. J. (2011) Nonlinearity of carbon cycle feedbacks. Journal of Climate, 24, 4254 4274.
• Pinsonnuealt, A., Matthews, H. D. and Kothavala, Z. (2011) Benchmarking climate-carbon models against forest FACE data. Atmosphere-Ocean, 49, 41 50. PDF
• Li, Y., Yang, X., Xiaodong, Z., Mulvill, P. R. and Matthews, H. D. (2011) Integrating climate change factors into China s development policy: Adaptation strategies and mitigation to environmental change. Ecological Complexity, 8, 294 298.

2010

• Davis, S. J., Caldeira, K. and Matthews, H. D. (2010) Future CO2 emissions and climate change from existing energy infrastructure. Science, 329, 1330 1333.
• Matthews, H. D. (2010) Can carbon cycle geoengineering be a useful complement to ambitious climate mitigation? Carbon Management, 1, 135 144. PDF
• Matthews, H. D. and Weaver, A. (2010) Committed climate warming. Nature Geoscience, 3, 142-142. PDF
• Gillett, N. P. and Matthews, H. D. (2010) Accounting for carbon cycle feedbacks in a comparison of the global warming effects of greenhouse gases. Environmental Research Letters, 5, 034011.
• Turner S. E., Fedigan, L. M., Nakamichi, M., Matthews, H. D., McKenna, K., Nobuhara, H., Nobuhara, T. and Shimizu, K. (2010) Birth in free-ranging Macaca fuscata. International Journal of Primatology, 31, 15 37.

2009

• Matthews, H. D. (2009) Sommet de Copenhague  un climat favorable. Le Devoir, Op-Ed (in French), December 7, 2009.PDF
• Matthews. H. D.. Gillett, N., Stott, P. and Zickfeld, K. (2009) The proportionality of global warming to cumulative carbon emissions. Nature, 459, 829-832. PDF
• Matthews. H. D. and Turner S. E. (2009) Of mongooses and mitigation: Ecological analogues to geoengineering. Environmental Research Letters, 4, 045105. PDF
• Ross. A. and Matthews, H. D. (2009) Climate enigineering and the risk of rapid climate change. Environmental Research Letters, 4, 045103. PDF
• Zickfeld, K., Eby. M.. Matthews, H. D. and Weaver, A. J. (2009) Setting cumulative emissions: targets to reduce the risk of dangerous climate change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A., 106, 16 129-16134.
• Schmittnler, A., Urban. N. M., Keller, K and Matthews, H. D. (2009) Using tracer observations to reduce the uncertaintv of ocean diapycnal mnixing and climate-carbon projections. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 23, G B4009.
• Matthews, H. D., Cao, L. and Caldeira. K. (2009) Sensitivity of ocean acidification to geoenginieered climate stabilization. Geophysical Research Letters, L10706 PDF
• Arora, V. and Matthews. H. D. (2009) Characterizing uncertainty in modelling primary, terrestrial ecosystem processes. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, GB2016.

2008

• Matthews, H. D. and Caldeira, K. (2008) Stabilizing climate requires near-zero emissions. Geophysical Research Letters, L04705. PDF
• 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.

2007

• 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. PDF
• Matthews, H. D. and Keith, D. W. (2007) Carbon-cycle feedbacks increase the likelihood of a warmer future. Geophysical Research Letters, 34, L09702. PDF
• 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. PDF
• 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. PDF
• Meehl, G. A., Stocker, T. F. et al. (2007) Chapter 10: Global Climate Projections. In: Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis, Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K. (Matthews, H. D., contributing author)

2006

• Matthews, H. D. (2006) Emissions targets for CO2 stabilization as modified by carbon cycle feedbacks. Tel lus B Special Issue, 58B, 591-602. PDF
• 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. PDF

2005

• Matthews, H. D. (2005) Decrease of emissions required to stabilize atmospheric CO2 due to positive carbon cycle-climate feedbacks. Geophysical Research Letters, 32, L21707. PDF
• 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. PDF
• 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. PDF

2004

• 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. PDF

2003

• 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.PDF

2001

• 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 Meteorological and Oceanography Society
• American Geophysical Union