
Dr Peter A Thomas
- Title
- Emeritus Reader in Plant Ecology
- Location
- Huxley Building : 104
- Role
- Deputy Head of School Director of Recruitment/Schools Liaison Officer International Co-ordinator for University of Alberta Study Abroad Tutor for Applied Environmental Science
- Contact me
- Try my office or email me.
- Phone
- +44 (0)1782 733034
- p.a.thomas@keele.ac.uk
Biography
Biography
I have been at Keele since 1986. My first degree, BSc (Hons) in Biology from Exeter University was followed by an MSc in Ecology at Aberdeen University. After working for a year, I moved to the University of New Brunswick, Canada supported by a Commonwealth Scholarship to work for a PhD on the regeneration of trees after forest fires. While at Keele I have spent sabbatical periods as Visiting Professor at the University of Alberta, Canada and as Bullard Fellow at Harvard University, USA.
Research and scholarship
Research and scholarship
My research interests are primarily to do with the ecology of individual trees, in particular tree growth and seed production. One long-term project, following the seed production of beech trees across England, has been running for 30 years and now has the longest continuous dataset. Another project is looking at the seed production and seedling establishment of Scots pine in wetland situations. I am also involved in a project on modelling forest growth for silvicultural management. Further afield, I am part of an international team linking the sulphur content of tree rings to that in soda straws (speleothems) from a cave in Italy, ranging from a consideration of pollution over Europe to mapping sulphur in tree rings at the sub-micron scale using the synchrotron at Grenoble.
I also continue an interest in the effect of fire on vegetation and have two long-term projects running, one looking at the effect of grazing and fire on the world’s northern most cactus population in northern Canada (running since 1993), and the other following cohorts of cacti as they cope with desert grassland fires in Arizona (running since 1987). I am part of the Research Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics (EPSAM).
Public understanding of science is also important to me and I have written a number of articles and books on tree and woodland ecology aimed at the non-specialist.
Teaching
Teaching
Year 1
- LSC-10037 Diversity of Life
- ESC-10039 Fundamentals of Physical Geography
- ESC-10048 Earth Systems
Year 2
- LSC-20054 Life at the extremes
- ESC-20038 Integrated Field Studies
- ESC-20017 Human Impact of the Environment, Scientific Perspectives
Year 3
- LSC-30004 Research Project (Biology) (Supervisor)
- LSC-30007 Dissertation for Biology (Supervisor)
- LSC-30017 Trees in their Environment (Module Manager)
- ESC-30019 Applied Environmental Science Independent Research Project (Supervisor)
- CHE-30013 Forensic Specialisms
MSc
- LSC-40026 Trees, Forests & Global Change (Module Manager)
Publications
Publications
Journal Articles
- Journé, Valentin; Bogdziewicz, Michał; Courbaud, Benoit; Kunstler, Georges; Qiu, Tong; Acuña, Marie‐Claire Aravena; Ascoli, Davide; Bergeron, Yves; Berveiller, Daniel; Boivin, Thomas; Bonal, Raul; Caignard, Thomas; Cailleret, Maxime; Calama, Rafael; Camarero, J Julio; Chang-Yang, Chia-Hao; Chave, Jerome; Chianucci, Francesco; Curt, Thomas; Cutini, Andrea; Das, Adrian; Daskalakou, Evangelia; Davi, Hendrik; Delpierre, Nicolas; Delzon, Sylvain; Dietze, Michael; Calderon, Sergio Donoso; Dormont, Laurent; Espelta, Josep Maria; Farfan‐Rios, William; Fenner, Michael; Franklin, Jerry; Gehring, Catherine; Gilbert, Gregory; Gratzer, Georg; Greenberg, Cathryn H.; Guignabert, Arthur; Guo, Qinfeng; Hacket‐Pain, Andrew; Hampe, Arndt; Han, Qingmin; Hanley, Mick E.; Lambers, Janneke Hille Ris; Holík, Jan; Hoshizaki, Kazuhiko; Ibanez, Ines; Johnstone, Jill F.; Knops, Johannes M H; Kobe, Richard K.; Kurokawa, Hiroko; Lageard, Jonathan; LaMontagne, Jalene; Ledwon, Mateusz; Lefèvre, François; Leininger, Theodor; Limousin, Jean‐Marc; Lutz, James; Macias, Diana; Mårell, Anders; McIntire, Eliot; Moran, Emily V.; Motta, Renzo; Myers, Jonathan; Nagel, Thomas A.; Naoe, Shoji; Noguchi, Mahoko; Norghauer, Julian; Oguro, Michio; Ourcival, Jean‐Marc; Parmenter, Robert; Pearse, Ian; Pérez‐Ramos, Ignacio M.; Piechnik, Łukasz; Podgórski, Tomasz; Poulsen, John; Redmond, Miranda D.; Reid, Chantal D.; Samonil, Pavel; Scher, C Lane; Schlesinger, William H.; Seget, Barbara; Sharma, Shubhi; Shibata, Mitsue; Silman, Miles; Steele, Michael; Stephenson, Nathan; Straub, Jacob; Sutton, Samantha; Swenson, Jennifer J.; Swift, Margaret; Thomas, Peter A.; Uriarte, Maria; Vacchiano, Giorgio; Whipple, Amy; Whitham, Thomas; Wright, S Joseph; Zhu, Kai; Zimmerman, Jess; Żywiec, Magdalena; Clark, James S.; Acuña, Marie-Claire Aravena; Calderon, Sergio Donoso; Espelta, Josep Maria; Farfan-Rios, William; Greenberg, Cathryn H; Hacket-Pain, Andrew; Hanley, Mick E; Lambers, Janneke Hille Ris; Johnstone, Jill F; Kobe, Richard K; Limousin, Jean-Marc; Moran, Emily V; Nagel, Thomas A; Ourcival, Jean-Marc; Pérez-Ramos, Ignacio M; Redmond, Miranda D; Reid, Chantal D; Schlesinger, William H; Swenson, Jennifer J; Thomas, Peter A; Clark, James S. 18-10-2024. 'The Relationship Between Maturation Size and Maximum Tree Size From Tropical to Boreal Climates.'. Ecology letters. DOI > view in repository >
- Szymkowiak, Jakub; Hacket-Pain, Andrew; Kelly, Dave; Foest, Jessie; Kondrat, Katarzyna; Thomas, Peter; Lageard, Jonathan; Gratzer, Georg; Pesendorfer, Mario B; Bogdziewicz, Michał. . 'Masting ontogeny: the largest masting benefits accrue to the largest trees'. Annals of Botany. DOI > view in repository >
- Thomas, Peter A.; Garcia‐Martí, Xavier; Mukassabi, Tarek A.; Tous, Joan. . 'International Biological Flora: Ceratonia siliqua'. Journal of Ecology. DOI > view in repository >
- Iszkuło, Grzegorz; Tyrała‐Wierucka, Żanna; Thomas, Peter A.; Terlecka, Magdalena; Walas, Łukasz; Tomaszewski, Dominik. . 'Should the relationship between leaf margin and temperature be re‐defined for areas with colder climates?'. Journal of Biogeography. DOI > view in repository >
- Roper, William J; Lovell, Christopher C; Vijayan, Aswin P; Irodotou, Dimitrios; Kuusisto, Jussi K; Matharu, Jasleen; Seeyave, Louise T C; Thomas, Peter A; Wilkins, Stephen M. 01-12-2023. 'First light and reionization epoch simulations (FLARES) IX: the physical mechanisms driving compact galaxy formation and evolution'. MNRAS. view in repository >
- Lovell, Christopher C; Roper, Will; Vijayan, Aswin P; Seeyave, Louise; Irodotou, Dimitrios; Wilkins, Stephen M; Conselice, Christopher J; Fortuni, Flaminia; Kuusisto, Jussi K; Merlin, Emiliano; Santini, Paola; Thomas, Peter. 01-11-2023. 'First light and reionisation epoch simulations (FLARES) – VIII. The emergence of passive galaxies at z ≥ 5'. MRNAS. view in repository >
- Beridze, Berika; Sękiewicz, Katarzyna; Walas, Łukasz; Thomas, Peter A; Danelia, Irina; Kvartskhava, Giorgi; Farzaliyev, Vahid; Bruch, Angela A; Dering, Monika. 01-10-2023. 'Evolutionary history of Castanea sativa in the Caucasus driven by Middle and Late Pleistocene paleoenvironmental changes'. AoB PLANTS. DOI > view in repository >
- Seeyave, Louise T C; Wilkins, Stephen M; Kuusisto, Jussi K; Lovell, Christopher C; Irodotou, Dimitrios; Simmonds, Charlotte; Vijayan, Aswin P; Thomas, Peter A; Roper, William J; Byrne, Conor M; Jones, Gareth T; Turner, Jack C; Conselice, Christopher J. 21-08-2023. 'First light and reionization epoch simulations (FLARES) X iii: the lyman-continuum emission of high-redshift galaxies'. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. DOI > view in repository >
- Qiu, Tong; Aravena, Marie-Claire; Ascoli, Davide; Bergeron, Yves; Bogdziewicz, Michal; Boivin, Thomas; Bonal, Raul; Caignard, Thomas; Cailleret, Maxime; Calama, Rafael; Calderon, Sergio Donoso; Camarero, J. Julio; Chang-Yang, Chia-Hao; Chave, Jerome; Chianucci, Francesco; Courbaud, Benoit; Cutini, Andrea; Das, Adrian J.; Delpierre, Nicolas; Delzon, Sylvain; Dietze, Michael; Dormont, Laurent; Espelta, Josep Maria; Fahey, Timothy J.; Farfan-Rios, William; Franklin, Jerry F.; Gehring, Catherine A.; Gilbert, Gregory S.; Gratzer, Georg; Greenberg, Cathryn H.; Guignabert, Arthur; Guo, Qinfeng; Hacket-Pain, Andrew; Hampe, Arndt; Han, Qingmin; Holik, Jan; Hoshizaki, Kazuhiko; Ibanez, Ines; Johnstone, Jill F.; Journé, Valentin; Kitzberger, Thomas; Knops, Johannes M. H.; Kunstler, Georges; Kurokawa, Hiroko; Lageard, Jonathan G. A.; LaMontagne, Jalene M.; Lefevre, Francois; Leininger, Theodor; Limousin, Jean-Marc; Lutz, James A.; Macias, Diana; Marell, Anders; McIntire, Eliot J. B.; Moore, Christopher M.; Moran, Emily; Motta, Renzo; Myers, Jonathan A.; Nagel, Thomas A.; Naoe, Shoji; Noguchi, Mahoko; Oguro, Michio; Parmenter, Robert; Pearse, Ian S.; Perez-Ramos, Ignacio M.; Piechnik, Lukasz; Podgorski, Tomasz; Poulsen, John; Redmond, Miranda D.; Reid, Chantal D.; Rodman, Kyle C.; Rodriguez-Sanchez, Francisco; Samonil, Pavel; Sanguinetti, Javier D.; Scher, C. Lane; Seget, Barbara; Sharma, Shubhi; Shibata, Mitsue; Silman, Miles; Steele, Michael A.; Stephenson, Nathan L.; Straub, Jacob N.; Sutton, Samantha; Swenson, Jennifer J.; Swift, Margaret; Thomas, Peter A.; Uriarte, Maria; Vacchiano, Giorgio; Whipple, Amy V.; Whitham, Thomas G.; Wion, Andreas P.; Wright, S. Joseph; Zhu, Kai; Zimmerman, Jess K.; Zywiec, Magdalena; Clark, James S.. . 'Masting is uncommon in trees that depend on mutualist dispersers in the context of global climate and fertility gradients'. Nature Plants. DOI > view in repository >
- Thomas, Peter A.; Dering, Monika; Giertych, Marian J.; Iszkuło, Grzegorz; Tomaszewski, Dominik; Briggs, Jonathan. 18-11-2022. 'Biological Flora of Britain and Ireland: Viscum album'. Journal of Ecology. DOI > view in repository >
- Sękiewicz, Katarzyna; Danelia, Irina; Farzaliyev, Vahid; Gholizadeh, Hamid; Iszkuło, Grzegorz; Naqinezhad, Alireza; Ramezani, Elias; Thomas, Peter A.; Tomaszewski, Dominik; Walas, Łukasz; Dering, Monika. 01-09-2022. 'Past climatic refugia and landscape resistance explain spatial genetic structure in Oriental beech in the South Caucasus'. Ecology and Evolution. DOI > view in repository >
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Working Papers
- Maltz, Maxwell G.A.; Thomas, Peter; Lovell, Christopher; Roper, William J.; Vijayan, Aswin P.; Irodotou, Dimitrios; Liao, Shihong; Seeyave, Louise T.C.; Wilkins, Stephen M.. . 'First Light and Reionisation Epoch Simulations (FLARES) XVII: Learning the galaxy-halo connection at high redshifts'. . view in repository >
- Punyasheel, Paurush; Vijayan, Aswin P.; Greve, Thomas R.; Roper, William J.; Algera, Hiddo; Gillman, Steven; Gullberg, Bitten; Irodotou, Dimitrios; Lovell, Christopher C.; Seeyave, Louise T.C.; Thomas, Peter A.; Wilkins, Stephen M.. . 'First Light And Reionisation Epoch Simulations (FLARES) XVI: Size Evolution of Massive Dusty Galaxies at Cosmic Dawn from UV to IR'. . view in repository >
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School of Life Sciences,
Huxley Building,
Keele University,
Staffordshire,
ST5 5BG
Tel: +44 (0) 1782 734414
Enquiries:
Tel: +44 (0) 1782 734414
Email: lifesciences.office@keele.ac.uk