Dr Jeffrey Parr BA(UNE) BAppSc(Hons)(SCU) PhD(SCU) Jeff is a ARC Postdoctoral Fellow; he is currently involved in research within the Centre for Geoarchaeology and Palaeoenvironmental Research the Centre for Ecotechnology and Southern Cross Geoscience. Jeff’s unique area of research is plant silica and its relationships to soil carbon sequestration, plant strength and resistance. Plant silica bodies’ known as phytoliths, plantstones or plant opal that are formed in and around the cell wall of many plant species replicating the cell wall shape and encapsulating the inner organic content. These silica bodies are deposited into the soil when a plant dies and are highly resistant to decomposition. This makes them very useful diagnostic tools for forensic investigations, palaeoenvironmental research including palaeo-diets and vegetation histories. Planstones play an important encapsulating carbon and this silica component has been linked to regulatory processes of transpiration rates, drought tolerance and other resist qualities in plants. Jeff’s research encompasses all of these areas. For further information about any of these publications please contact the author.
Journal articles
Carbon bio-sequestration within the phytoliths of economic bamboo species (with Leigh A. Sullivan, Bihua Chen, Gongfu Ye, and Zheng Wiepeng), Global Change Biology (2010)
The rates of carbon bio-sequestration within silica phytoliths of the leaf litter of 10 economically...
Archaeobotany in Australia and New Guinea: practice, potential and prospects (with Tim Denham, Jennifer Atchison, Jeremy Austin, Sheahan Bestel, Doreen Bowdery, Alison Crowther, Nic Dolby, Andrew Fairbairn, Judith Field, Amanda Kennedy, Carol J. Lentfer, Carney Matheson, Sue Nugent, Matiu Prebble, Gail Robertson, Jim Specht, Robin Torrence, Huw Barton, Richard Fullagar, Simon Haberle, Mark Horrocks, Tara Lewis, and Peter Matthews), Australian Archaeology (2009)
Archaeobotany is the study of plant remains from archaeological contexts. Despite Australasian research being at...
Human adaptive responses to catastrophic landscape disruptions during the Holocene, Numundo, PNG (with William E. Boyd, Vicki Harriott, and Robin Torrence), Geographical Research (2009)
Prehistoric land use and social activity in West New Britain, PNG, are well documented, although...
Sugarcane phytoliths: Encapsulation and sequestration of a long-lived carbon fraction (with Leigh A. Sullivan and Robert Quirk), Sugar Tech (2009)
The potential to reduce emissions from agriculture and increase the amount of carbon captured in...
Sugarcane the champion crop at carbon sequestration (with Leigh A. Sullivan), Canegrower (2007)
Dr Jeff Parr and Professor Leigh Sullivan, both researchers from Southern Cross University and Plantstone...
Book chapters
The evolution of a coastal peatland at Byron Bay, Australia: multi-proxy evidence from the microfossil record (with Kathryn H. Taffs, Brendan Logan, and Geraldine E. Jacobsen), Terra Australis: 32: Altered ecologies - fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes (2010)
Peatlands are highly valuable ecosystems for their ecological functions as well as their economic and...
Fires impact on an acidic peatland in northeastern NSW: implications for the interpretation of fire histories, pyrite formation and loss of organic carbon (with Geoffrey Kerr, J Arthur, and Kathryn H. Taffs), Interdisciplinary nuances in phytolith and other microfossil studies (2008)
Geochemical analysis of fragments of burnt and impressed cay (with William E. Boyd), The origins of the civilization of Ankor: Excavation of Noen U-Loke and Non Muang Kao (2007)
Morphological characteristics observed in the leaf phytolith of select gymnosperms of Eastern Australia (with Loraine Watson), Plants, people and places: Recent studies in phytolithic analysis (2007)
Conference publications
Encapsulation of a long-lived carbon fraction in phytoliths (with Leigh A. Sullivan and Robert Quirk), Meeting the Challenges of Sugar Crops and Integrated Industries in Developing Countries: Proceedings of International Sugar (IS 2008) Conference (2008)
Deposition of plant silica, a long-lived soil fraction containing easily quantifiable carbon (with Leigh A. Sullivan), Proceedings International Symposium on Organic Matter Dynamics in Agro-Ecosystems (2007)
Green geosequestration: secure carbon sequestration via plant silica biomineralisation (with Leigh A. Sullivan), Awards Ceremony Speeches and Abstracts of the 17th Annual V. M. Goldschmidt Conference (2007)
Management of silica biomineralisation in crops to enhance soil carbon sequestration in agro-ecosystems (with Leigh A. Sullivan), Proceedings International Symposium on Organic Matter Dynamics in Agro-Ecosystems (2007)
Increasing long term soil carbon sequestration in agriculture and forestry (with Leigh A. Sullivan), Proceedings 18th World Congress of Soil Science (2006)
Terrestrial carbon sequestration is fundamental to the global carbon cycle and is being utilised to...
Reports