Biography
My career has been focused on land management in the humid tropics in relation to agricultural intensification (or its absence), with questions of land use sustainability always implicit. I have published on the phosphorus cycle in Costa Rican agroforestry, atoll geomorphology in relation to storminess and sea-level rise, secondary forest use in Malaysia, and the historical geography of northern Sweden, but my main geographical focus of interest has always been Melanesia which is where I carried out my Ph.D research (energy use on Ontong Java atoll, Solomon Islands, 1974). I moved from human ecology issues in Solomon Islands (1970s) to population and development in Fiji (1980s) and the ecology of prehistoric wetland management in the highlands of New Guinea (1990s-2017). I am currently researching issues of population change before and during colonialism in Solomon Islands, and the ecology and prehistory of irrigated terraces in the New Georgia group, western Solomon Islands. I remain interested in rainforest disturbance, human populations on atolls, and the conservation of bird populations in Ontong Java atoll.
Research
Department of Geography, Lecturer, Reader and Professor, 1973-2015
Pacific Islands
Tropical rain forest ecology and management
History of agriculture
Coastal processes
Publications
E. Hviding and T.P. Bayliss-Smith 2000. Islands of Rainforest: Agroforestry, Logging and Eco-Tourism in Solomon Islands. Ashgate, Aldershot. pp. 1-371.
T.P. Bayliss-Smith, E. Hviding and T.C. Whitmore 2003. ‘Rain forest composition and histories of human disturbance in Solomon Islands’. Ambio 32(5): 346-352.
T. Bayliss-Smith and A.E. Christensen 2008 ‘Birds and people on Ontong Java atoll, Solomon Islands, 1910-2008: continuity and change’. Atoll Research Bulletin 262: 1-36.
T. P. Bayliss-Smith, K. V. Gough, A.E. Christensen and S. Kristensen 2010. ‘Managing Ontong Java atoll: social institutions for production and governance of atoll resources in Solomon Islands’. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 31: 55-69.
T. Bayliss-Smith and E. Hviding 2015. ‘Landesque capital as an alternative to food storage in Melanesia: irrigated taro terraces in New Georgia, Solomon Islands’. Environmental Archaeology 20(4): 425-436.
