Dr John Magee

PhD (ANU)

Office Location
Room 128, DEMS Building 47

Mailing Address
Department of Earth and Marine Sciences
DEMS Building 047
Australian National University
ACT 0200 Australia

Telephone	+61 2 612 52761
Fax	+61 2 612 55544
Email	John.Magee@anu.edu.au

Research Interests

•	Australian Quaternary environmental history and palaeoclimates, particularly of the arid zone.
•	The nature and rate of response of landscapes to climate change.
•	The origin of salinity in the Australian landscape and its role in the hydrogeology, geomorphology and sedimentology of inland basins, especially the Lake Eyre Basin and the Murray-Darling Basin.
•	Timing and process of Australian megafaunal extinction
•	Lacustrine sedimentology and stratigraphy.
•	Non-marine evaporite and carbonate sedimentology.
•	Arid zone geomorphology of lakes, rivers and dunes.
•	Geo-archaeology (application of earth science techniques to archaeology).
•	Natural resource conservation and management, particularly with relation to World Heritage issues

Research Projects

•	Palaeohydrology and Quaternary history of Lake Eyre, over the past 300,000 years.
•	History of aridity in Australia, over the past 5,000,000 years, particularly the development of the dunefields over the past 500,000 years.
•	Unravel the role of humans in the extinction of the Australian megafauna by improving chronology, environmental and ecosystem change and examining animal palaeodiets by Carbon isotopes. This work has previously concentrated on comparing the extinct giant bird Genyornis with the extant emu by studying fossil eggshell, but is now being extended to marsupials via tooth enamel analyses.
•	Extinction of the Madagascan elephant bird, Aepyornis , about 2000 years ago and the role played by humans. This project will examine the chronology of extinction, ecosystem change and bird palaeodiets via chemical, chronological and isotopic analyses of eggshell. The research aims to unravel the extinction timing and mechanism for Aepyornis and by examining this more recent event to test ideas developed in Australia for the extinction of Genyornis , 50,000 years ago.

Areas of Expertise

1	Scientific research in Quaternary geology, sedimentology, geomorphology, climate change, geo-archaeology and applications of geochronological methods; research project design; field work; laboratory work; synthesis, interpretation and publication of results.
2	Arid zone and inland sedimentary basins; landscape history, salinisation and the impact of past and future global changes.
3	Literature research on related scientific topics.
4	Presentation of scientific research at lectures, conferences, seminars and committee meetings.
5	Application of scientific expertise to natural resource conservation and management; liaison with local and indigenous communities, development of management strategies and resolution of issues.

Recent Publications

Bird, MI, Turney, CSM, Fifield, LK, Smith, MA, Miller, GH, Magee, JW . 2003. Radiocarbon dating of organic- and carbonate-carbon in genyornis and dromaius eggshell using stepped combustion and stepped acidification. Quaternary Science Reviews , 22: 1805-1812.

Bowler, J.M. and Magee, J.W. 1978. Geomorphology of the Mallee region in Semi-arid Northern Victoria and Western New South Wales. Proc. Roy. Soc. Vict.   90 (I) : 5-26.

Chappell, J.M.A., Head, M.J. and Magee, J.W. 1996. Beyond the radiocarbon limit in Australian archaeology and Quaternary research. Antiquity , 70: 543-552.

Chen, X.Y., Bowler, J.M., Magee, J.W. 1993. Late Cenozoic stratigraphy and hydrologic history of Lake Amadeus, a central Australian playa.   Australian Journal of Earth Science . 40: 1-14.

Chen, X.Y., Bowler, J.M., Magee, J.W. 1991. Aeolian landscapes in central Australia: gypsiferous and quartz dune environments from Lake Amadeus. Sedimentology   38: 519-538.

Chen, X.Y., Bowler, J.M., Magee, J.W. 1991. Gypsum ground: a new occurrence of gypsum sediment in playas of central Australia. Sedimentary Geology   72: 79-95.

Croke, J.C., Magee, J.W. & Wallensky, E.P. 1999.   The role of the Australian Monsoon in the western catchment of Lake Eyre, central Australia, during the Last Interglacial. Quaternary International. 57/58: 71-80

Croke, J.C., Magee, J.W. & Price, D.M. 1998. Stratigraphy and sedimentology of the Neales river, west Lake Eyre, central Australia: from Paleocene to Holocene. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 144: 331-350.9

Croke, J.C., Magee, J.W. & Price, D.M. 1996. Major episodes of Quaternary activity in the Neales River, north west Lake Eyre, central Australia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 124: 1-15.

DeVogel, SB, Magee, JW , Manley, WF, Miller, GH. 2004. A GIS-based reconstruction of late Quaternary paleohydrology: Lake Eyre, arid central Australia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 204: 1-13.

Flood, J., David, B., Magee, J.W., and English, B.1987    Birrigai: a Pleistocene site in the south-eastern highlands.   Archaeology in Oceania 22: 9-26.

Gillespie, R., Magee, J.W., Luly, J.G., Dlugokencky, E., Sparks, R.J. and Wallace, G. 1991. AMS radiocarbon dating in the study of arid environments: examples from Lake Eyre, South Australia.   Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 84: 333-338.

Johnson, BJ, Miller, GH, Magee, JW , Gagan, MK, Fogel, ML, Quay, P. 2005 Carbon Isotope evidence for an abrupt reduction in grasses coincident with European settlement of Lake Eyre, South Australia . The Holocene , 15(6): 888-896..

Johnson, B.J, Miller, G.H., Fogel, M.L., Magee, J.W ., Gagan, M., & Chivas, A. (1999). 65,000 Years of Vegetation Change in Central Australia: Implications for the Australian Monsoon. Science , 284: 1150-52.

Hesse, P.P., Magee, J.W ., van der Kaars, S. 2004. Late Quaternary climates of the Australian arid zone: a review. Quaternary International , 118-119: 87-102.

Hesse, P.P., Luly, J.G., Magee, J.W . 2005. The Beating Heart: environmental history of Australia's deserts. In: 23 degrees S: Archaeology and Environmental History of the Southern Deserts. Ed Smith, M.K. and Hesse, P.P.. National Museum of Australia Press, Canberra, 436p.

McConnell, A. and Magee, J.W. 1993.    The contribution of microscopic analysis of archaeological sediments to the reconstruction of the human past in Australia . IN B. Fankhauser and J.R. Bird (Editors) Archaeometry: Current Australian research . Occasional Papers in Prehistory, No. 22. Dept. Prehistory, Research School Pacific Studies, A N U, Canberra. 131-140.

Magee, JW , Miller, G.H. Spooner, N.A. Questiaux, D. 2004. Continuous 150 k.y. monsoon record from Lake Eyre, Australia: Insolation-forcing implications and unexpected Holocene failure. Geology, 32 (10): 885-888.

Magee, J.W. and P. De Deckker, P. (Editors) 2001. Australian Quaternary Studies: A Tribute to Jim Bowler. Quaternary International, 83-85.

Magee, J.W. and Miller, G.H. 1998. Lake Eyre palaeohydrology from 60ka to the present: beach ridges and glacial maximum aridity. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 144: 307-329.

Magee, J.W. , Bowler, J.M., Miller, G.H. and Williams, D.L.G.   1995. Stratigraphy, sedimentology, chronology and palaeohydrology of Quaternary lacustrine deposits at Madigan Gulf, Lake Eyre, South Australia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 113: 3-42.

Magee, J.W. 1991. Late Quaternary lacustrine, groundwater, aeolian and pedogenic gypsum in the Prungle Lakes, southeastern Australia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology .   84: 3-42.

Miller, GH, Mangan, J, Pollard, D, Thompson, S, Felzer, B,, Magee, JW , 2005. Sensitivity of the Australian Monsoon to insolation and vegetation: Implications for human impact on continental moisture balance. Geology, 33(1): 65-68.

Miller, GH, Fogel, ML, Magee, JW , Gagan, MK, Clarke, SJ, Johnson, BJ. 2005. Ecosystem collapse in Pleistocene Australia and a human role in megafaunal extinction. Science 309: 287-290.

Miller, G.H., Magee, J.W ., Johnson, B.J., Fogel, M.L., Spooner, N.A, McCulloch, M.T. & Ayliffe, L.K. (1999) Pleistocene extinction of Genyornis newtoni : human impact on Australian megafauna. Science , 283: 205-208.

Miller, G.H., Magee, J.W. and Jull, A.T.J. 1997. Low-latitude glacial cooling in the Southern Hemisphere from amino-acid racemization in emu eggshells. Nature. 385:241-2

Revel-Rolland M, De Deckker P, Delmonte B, Hesse PP, Magee JW , Basile-Doelsch I, Grousset F, Bosch D, Australia: a likely source of dust in East Antarctica interglacial ice. In Press, Earth & Planetary Science Letters .

Rhodes, E, Chappell, J, Fujioka, T, Fitzsimmons, K, Magee, J , Aubert, M, Hewitt, D. 2005. The history of aridity in Australia: chronological developments. In: Roach, IC, Ed. Regolith 2005 - Ten years of CRC LEME. CRC LEME, 265-268.

Rhodes, Fitzsimmons, K, Magee, J , Miller, G, Spooner, N. 2004. The history of aridity in Australia: preliminary chronological data. In: Roach, IC, Ed. Regolith 2004. CRC LEME, 299-302.

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