Visiting fellow
Forest ecology, greenhouse science, forest productivity and nutrition

Phone: +61 (0)2 6125 4417
E-mail: Heather.Keith@anu.edu.au

Heather has a BSc with First Class Honours in Physical Geography and the University Medal from UNSW and a PhD in forest and fire ecology from RSBS Ecosystems Dynamics Group, ANU.  She has worked at the Waite Agricultural Research Institute in Adelaide, CSIRO Forestry in Canberra and Hobart, and the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology in England.  Her experience in experimental studies in the laboratory and field covers a range of forest ecosystems.

Professional Activities

Recently, I have completed a major multi-disciplinary project on carbon cycling in native forests and the effects of climate variability and disturbance on ecosystem pools and fluxes. These results provide insights into the processes controlling the net biosphere – atmosphere exchange of carbon. 

Currently, I am working on carbon sequestration in native forests with the aim of maximising the value of carbon sinks in vegetation and soils.  This includes conserving the very large carbon stocks in undisturbed ecosystems and identifying land management options to increase carbon sinks.  Quantifying the carbon sequestration potential of natural ecosystems will contribute the scientific understanding required for policy development and market assessment of post-Kyoto greenhouse accounting and emissions offsetting.  I am interested in the biophysical processes that determine the vulnerability of carbon sinks in vegetation and soil, and applying this knowledge to adaptive land management.  This involves conservation planning that accounts for climate change and variability.

My general research interests and experience include soil-microbe-plant-atmospheric processes of carbon, nutrient and water cycling and integration to whole ecosystem functioning; resource availability and forest productivity; integration across a range of scales; fire ecology; and sustainable management of natural resources.

Selected Publications

Keith H. and Wong. S.C. (2006) Measurement of soil CO₂ efflux using soda lime absorption: both quantitative and reliable. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 38(5):1121-1131.

van Gorsel E., Leuning R., Cleugh H.A., Keith H., Suni T. (2007). Nocturnal carbon efflux: reconciliation of eddy covariance and chamber measurements using an alternative to the u*- threshold filtering technique.  Tellus B (in press).

Kirschbaum M.U.F., Keith H., Leuning R., Cleugh H.A., Jacobsen K.L., van Gorsel E., Raison R.J. (2007) Modelling net ecosystem carbon and water exchange of a temperate Eucalyptus delegatensis forest using multiple constraints. Agricultural Forest Meteorology (in press).

Keith H., Leuning K.L., Cleugh H.A., van Gorsel E., Raison R.J., Medlyn B.E., Winters T., Keitel C. (2007). Multiple measurements constrain estimates of net carbon exchange of a Eucalyptus forest. J. Geophysical Research - Biogeosciences (submitted).

Arthur Gessler, Claudia Keitel, Naomi Kodama, Christopher Weston, Tony Winters, Heather Keith, Kliti Grice, Ray Leuning, Graham D Farquhar (2007). d¹³C of organic matter transported from the leaves to the roots in Eucalyptus delegatensis - short-term variations and relation to respired CO_2.  Functional Plant Biology (submitted).