I am an interdisciplinary climate scientist who aims to address societally-relevant questions surrounding climate change.

Most of my research is at the intersection of physical climate science, marine science and public policy. My current areas of focus are patterns of ocean warming and sea-level rise; climate change adaptation in the developing world, especially in coastal areas; and climate change and coral reefs. This research involves a combination of numerical modelling, large-scale geospatial analysis, and both scientific and interview-based field work in the south and central Pacific.

I take my privileged position as a professor seriously, and spend a lot of my time translating the science of climate change to different audiences in hopes of helping people make better decisions about the future.

2022

LI, X., and S.D. DONNER. 2022. Lengthening of warm periods increased the intensity of warm-season marine heatwaves over the past four decades. Climate Dynamics: 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-022-06227-y

2021

Wynes, C.S., J. Kotcher, and S.D. Donner. 2021. Can citizen pressure influence politicians’ communication about climate change? Results from a field experiment. Climatic Change 168 (6). doi: 10.1007/s10584-021-03215-9

Findlater, K., S. Webber, M. Kandlikar, and S.D. Donner. 2021. Climate services promise better decisions but mainly focus on better data. Nature Climate Change 11: 731-737. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-01125-3

Cannon, S.E., E. Aram, T. Beiateuea, A. Kiareti, M. Peter, and S.D. Donner. 2021. Coral reefs in the Gilbert Islands of Kiribati: Resistance, resilience, and recovery after more than a decade of multiple stressors. PLoS-One 16(8). doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255304

Liang, K.E., K. Dawson, M. Stojan, D.G. Clark, C.S. Wynes, AND S.D. Donner. 2021. A Carbon Footprint Study of the Medical Residency Interview Tour in Canadian Healthcare. Medical Teacher 43(11): 1302-1308. doi: 10.1080/0142159X.2021.1944612

Gonzalez-Espinosa, P.C., and S.D. Donner. 2021. Cloudiness reduces the bleaching response of coral reefs exposed to heat stress. Global Change Biology 27(15): 3474-3486. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15676

Logan, C., J. Dunne, J.S. Ryan, M.L. Baskett, and S.D. Donner. 2021. Quantifying global potential for coral evolutionary response to climate change. Nature Climate Change, 11: 537–542. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-01037-2

2019

FINDLATER, K. M., SATTERFIELD, T., KANDLIKAR, M. and DONNER, S. D. 2019 ‘Weather and climate variability may be poor proxies for climate change in farmer risk perceptions’ Weather, Climate, and Society 11(4), 697-711 https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-19-0040.1

CANNON, S. E., DONNER, S. D., FENNER, D. and BEGER, M. 2019 ‘The relationship between macro algae taxa and human disturbance on central Pacific coral reefs’ Marine Pollution Bulletin 145(August 2019), 161-173 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.05.024

WYNES, S., DONNER, S. D., TANNASON, S. and NABORS, N. 2019 ‘Academic air travel has a limited influence on professional success’ Journal of Cleaner Production 226(July 2019), 959-967 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.109

MEHRABI, Z., DONNER, S. D., RIOS, P., GUHA-SAPIR, D., ROWHANI, P., KANDLIKAR, M. and RAMANKUTTY, N. 2019 ‘Can we sustain success in reducing deaths to extreme weather in a hotter world?’ World Development Perspectives 14(June 2019), 100107 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wdp.2019.02.018

DONNER, S. D. and CARILLI, J. 2019 ‘Resilience of Central Pacific coral reefs subject to frequent heat stress and human disturbance’ Scientific Reports 9(3484)

TSURUTA, K., HASSAN, M. A., DONNER, S. D. and ALILA, Y. 2019 ‘Modelling the effects of climatic and hydrological regime changes on the sediment dynamics of the Fraser River Basin, British Columbia, Canada’ Hydrological Processes 33(2), 244-260   https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.13321

2018

TSURUTA, K., HASSAN, M. A., DONNER, S. D. and ALILA, Y. 2018 ‘Development and Application of a Large‐Scale, Physically Based, Distributed Suspended Sediment Transport Model on the Fraser River Basin, British Columbia, Canada’ JGR Earth Surface 123(10), 2481-2508   https://doi.org/10.1029/2017JF004578

WYNES, S., NICHOLAS, K. A., ZHAO, J. and DONNER, S. D. 2018 ‘Measuring what works: quantifying greenhouse gas emission reductions of behavioural interventions to reduce driving, meat consumption, and household energy use’ Environmental Research Letters 13(11), 113002  https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aae5d7

FINDLATER, K. M., SATTERFIELD, T., KANDLIKAR, M. and DONNER, S. D. 2018 ‘Six languages for a risky climate: how farmers react to weather and climate change’ Climatic Change 148(4), 451-465   https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-018-2217-z#citeas

FINDLATER, K. M., DONNER, S. D., SATTERFIELD, T. and KANDLIKAR, M. 2018 ‘Integration anxiety: The cognitive isolation of climate change’ Global Environmental Change 50, 178-189  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2018.02.010

2017

HASSAN, M. A., DONNER, S. D., CHURCH, M. A., ROBERGE, L., MORE, M., LEACH, J., and ALI, F. 2017 ‘What are the sources of sediment into the Mississippi River?’ Geophysical Research Letters 44, 8919-8924  doi: 10.1002/2017GL074046

DONNER, S. D., RICKBEIL, G. J. M., and HERON, S. F. 2017 ‘A new, high-resolution global mass coral bleaching database’ PLoS-One 12(4), e0175490

DONNER, S. D. 2017 ‘Publicity or Perish: Finding the balance in science communication’ Biogeochemistry DOI 10.1007/s10533-017-0344-7

DONNER,  S. D. 2017 ‘Risk and Responsibility in Public Engagement by Climate Scientists: Reconsidering Advocacy During the Trump Era’ Environmental Communication 1–4, DOI: 10.1080/17524032.2017.1291101

MOTEW, M., CHEN, X., BOOTH, E. G., CARPENTER, S. R., PINKAS, P., ZIPPER, S. C., LOHEIDE II, S. P., DONNER, S. D. et al. 2017 ‘The Influence of Legacy P on Lake Water Quality in a Midwestern Agricultural Watershed’ Ecosystems 1–15 DOI:10.1007/s10021-017-0125-0

WEBBER, S. and DONNER, S. D. 2017 ‘Climate service warnings: cautions about commercializing climate science for adaptation in the developing world’ WIREs Climate Change 8(1) DOI: 10.1002/wcc.424