About

Dr Dean Meason is a tree ecophysiologist who has worked with a number of different temperate and tropical forest species to provide a mechanistic understanding to forest management. His expertise with eucalypts and coast redwood is well recognised nationally and internationally. His focus at Scion is to take a systems biology approach to understand the spatial and temporal mechanistic drivers of wood formation and wood quality, growth, resource use, and silviculture at different scales under current and future climates for the forest industry and its implications for other land uses.

Qualifications

• PhD (Natural Resources and Environmental Management), University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, USA – 2009
• MSc (Forest Resources), University of Georgia, USA - 2001
• BForSc (Hons), University of Canterbury, New Zealand - 1998

Research capabilities

• Tree ecophysiology
• Soil biogeochemistry, pedology, and physics
• Forest hydrology
• Forest modelling
• Forest productivity
• Silviculture and management of non-radiata pine tree species
• Climate change adaptation and risk
• Carbon sequestration of non-radiata pine tree species

Career highlights

• Research Leader, Systems Biology and Risk, Forest Systems, Scion, 2019-present
• Invited Speaker, Western International Forest Disease Work Conference, Parksville, British Columbia, Canada, 2017
• European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action External Reviewer, 2015 to present
• Invited Speaker, New Zealand Farm Forestry Association 58th Annual Conference and Annual General Meeting. Diverse Landscapes -  Blenheim, 2014
• Invited Lecturer, Tropical Forestry, Mendel University, Brno, Czech Republic, 2013.
• Invited Speaker, New Zealand Institute of Forestry Conference. The place of forests in collaborative land use decisions: the Taranaki Story -  New Plymouth, 2013
• Expert reviewer for Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report, Working Group III 2012-2013.
• Invited Speaker, EU COST Action Expected Climate Change and Options for European Silviculture (ECHOES) Meeting –St Petersburg, Russia, 2011

Selected papers

Meason, D.F., Baillie, B.S., Höck, B., Lad, P., and Tim Payn. 2019. Planted forests and water yield in New Zealand’s hydrological landscape – current and future challenges. New Zealand Journal of Forestry 63: 33-39.

Beets, P.N., Oliver, G.R., Pearce, S.H., Graham, J.D., Kimberley, M.O., Henley, D.G., and D.F. Meason. 2018. Species-specific adjustment functions for the Forest Carbon Predictor. New Journal of Forestry Science 48: 20.

Rodríguez-Gamir, J. Xue, J., Meason, D.F., Clearwater, M., Clinton, P.W., and J-C. Domec. 2018. Aquaporin‐mediated changes in root conductance during drought stress control whole plant hydraulic conductance, stomatal conductance and leaf water potential in Pinus radiata. Plant, Cell, and Environment 42: 717-729.

Salekin, S., Burgess, J.H., Morgenroth, J., and D.F. Meason. 2018. A comparative study of three non-geostatistical methods to optimise digital elevation model interpolation. International Journal of Geo-Information 7: 300.

Gallart, M., Adair, K.L., Love, J., Meason, D.F., Clinton, P.W., Xue, J., and M.H. Turnbull. 2018. Genotypic variation in Pinus radiata responses to nitrogen source are related to changes in the root microbiome. FEMS Microbiology Ecology 94: 6, fiy071.

Gallart, M., Adair, K.L., Love, J., Meason, D.F., Clinton, P.W., Xue, J., and M.H. Turnbull. 2017. Host Genotype and nitrogen form shape the root microbiome of Pinus radiata. Microbial Ecology 75, 419-433.

Dickson, A.R., Nanayakkara, B., Sellier, D., Brownlie, R.K., Meason, D.F., Donaldson, L.A., and R. Brownlie. 2016. Fluorescence imaging of cambial zones to study wood formation in Pinus radiata D. Don. Trees - Structure and Function 3: 479-490.

Meason, D.F., Kennedy, S.G., and H.S. Dungey. 2016. Two New Zealand-based common garden experiments of the range-wide ‘Kuser’ clonal collection of Sequoia sempervirens reveal patterns of provenance variation in growth and wood properties. New Forests 47: 635-651.

Meason, D.F., and W.L. Mason. 2014. Evaluating the deployment of alternative species in planted conifer forests as a means of adaptation to climate change – case studies in New Zealand and Scotland. Annals of Forest Science 71: 239-253.

Cown, D., Marshall, H., Silcock, P., and D. Meason. 2013. Sawn timber grade recovery from a planted Coast Redwood stand growing in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Forest Science 43: 8.

Renwick, J., Mullan, B., Wilcocks, L., Zammit, C.,Sturman, J., Braisden, T., Keller, L., Kirschbaum, M., Meason, D., Harrison, D., Verkerk, G.,Cooke, A.,Marshall, P., and A. Clark. 2013. Four Degrees of Global Warming: Effects on the New Zealand Primary Sector. MPI Technical Information Paper No: 2013/49. Wellington, Ministry for Primary Industries. 180 pages.

Meason, D.F., Kennedy, S., Garrett, L.G., Barry, L., Todoroki, C., Anderson, C., Dungey, H.S., Clinton, P.C., and D.J. Cown. 2012. Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) development plan. Confidential report prepared for Future Forests Research Ltd. Rotorua, New Zealand Forest Research Institute Ltd.

Clark, A.J., Nottage, R.A.C., Wilcocks, L., Lee, J.M., Burke, C., Kalaugher, E., Roche, J., Beukes, P., Lieffering, M., Newton, P.C.D., Li, F.Y., Vibart, R., Teixeira, E.I., Brown, H.E., Fletcher, A.L., Hernandez-Ramirez, G., Soltani, A., Viljanen-Rollinson, S.; Horrocks, A., Johnstone, P., Clothier, B., Hall, A., Green, S., Dunningham, A., Kirschbaum, M.U.F., Meason, D., Payn, T., Collins, D.B.G., Woods, R.A., Rouse, H., Duncan, M., Snelder, T., and B. Cowie. 2012. Impacts of Climate Change on Land-based Sectors and Adaptation Options. Clark, A.J.; Nottage, R.A.C.; Hansford, D. (eds) Stakeholder Report to the Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change Adaptation Technical Working Group, Ministry for Primary Industries, 76 p.

Dunningham, A., Kirschbaum, M., Payn, T., and D. Meason. 2012. Chapter 7. Forestry Long-term adaptation of productive forests in a changing climatic environment. In: Impacts of climate change on land-based sectors and adaptation options. Editors: Clark, A.J., and R.A.C. Nottage. Pages 293-346. MPI Technical Paper No: 2012/33. Wellington, Ministry of Primary Industries. 408 pages.

Meason, D.F., Idol, T.W., Friday, J.B., and P. Scowcroft. 2009. Effects of fertilisation on phosphorus pools in the volcanic soil of a managed tropical forest. Forest Ecology and Management 258: 2199-2206.

Meason, D.F., and T.W. Idol. 2008. Nutrient sorption dynamics of resin membranes and resin bags in a tropical forest. Soil Science Society of America Journal 72: 1806-1814.

Idol, T., Baker, P.J., and D. Meason. 2007. Indicators of forest ecosystem productivity and nutrient status across precipitation and temperature gradients in Hawaii. Journal of Tropical Ecology 23: 693-704.

Scowcroft, P.G., Friday, J.B., Idol, T., Dudley, N., Haraguchi, J., and D. Meason. 2007. Growth response of Acacia koa trees to thinning, grass control, and phosphorus fertilization in a secondary forest in Hawaii. Forest Ecology and Management 239: 69-80.

Will, R.E., Markewitz, D., Hendrick, R.L., Meason, D.F., Crocker, T.R., and B.E. Borders. 2006. Nitrogen and phosphorus dynamics for 13-year-old loblolly pine stands receiving complete competition control and annual N fertilizer. Forest Ecology and Management 227: 155-168.

Meason, D.F., Markewitz, D., and R.E. Will. 2004. Annual fertilization and interspecific competition control: effects on in situ forest floor nitrogen fluxes of different-aged Pinus taeda stands in southeast Georgia, USA. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 34: 1802-1818.