Timothy Bowles

Research Description

Timothy Bowles is an agroecologist whose research investigates soil health, climate resilience, and sustainable farming systems. He leads the Berkeley Agroecology Lab, which conducts interdisciplinary research on farming systems that rely on and restore biodiversity in order to produce food, rather than non-renewable and often harmful inputs. The lab in turns studies how these farming systems - in California, the broader U.S., and the world - affect soil health and climate resilience. The lab also collaborates widely to understand how policies and socioeconomic issues help or hinder such farming systems. Their research contributes to designing, managing, and making the transition to broader adoption of farming systems that support environmental stewardship with production of healthy food and support of farmers' livelihoods.

Education

Ph.D., Ecology, University of California Davis

B.A., Molecular and Cellular Biology, minor in Spanish, Vanderbilt University

Recent Teaching

ESPM 118, Agroecology

ESPM 197FS, Food Systems Minor Capstone

ESPM 226, Interdisciplinary Food and Agriculture Studies (changing topics, e.g. Sustainability Transition, co-taught with Alastair Iles; Agroecology and Human Health, co-taught with Yvonne Socolar)

Selected Publications

• Baur, P., Petersen-Rockney, M., Bowles, T., Ahmed, S., 2025. A mangrove metaphor for sustainable food systems centres diversification as the root of human and planetary health. Nature Food 6, 539–546. doi:10.1038/s43016-025-01185-0

• Bowles, T.M., Atallah, S.S., Campbell, E.E., Gaudin, A.C.M., Wieder, W.R., Grandy, A.S., 2018. Addressing agricultural nitrogen losses in a changing climate. Nature Sustainability 1, 399–408. doi:10.1038/s41893-018-0106-0

• Bowles, T.M., Mooshammer, M., Socolar, Y., Calderón, F., Cavigelli, M.A., Culman, S.W., Deen, W., Drury, C.F., Garcia y Garcia, A., Gaudin, A.C.M., Harkcom, W.S., Lehman, R.M., Osborne, S.L., Robertson, G.P., Salerno, J., Schmer, M.R., Strock, J., Grandy, A.S., 2020. Long-Term Evidence Shows that Crop-Rotation Diversification Increases Agricultural Resilience to Adverse Growing Conditions in North America. One Earth 2, 284–293. doi:10.1016/j.oneear.2020.02.007

• Bybee-Finley, K.A., Muller, K., White, K.E., Cavigelli, M.A., Han, E., Schomberg, H.H., Snapp, S., Viens, F., Correndo, A.A., Deiss, L., Fonteyne, S., Garcia Y Garcia, A., Gaudin, A.C.M., Hooker, D.C., Janovicek, K., Jin, V., Johnson, G., Karsten, H., Liebman, M., McDaniel, M.D., Sanford, G., Schmer, M.R., Strock, J., Sykes, V.R., Verhulst, N., Wilke, B., Bowles, T.M., 2024. Rotational complexity increases cropping system output under poorer growing conditions. One Earth S2590332224003336. doi:10.1016/j.oneear.2024.07.008

• Carlisle, L., Esquivel, K., Baur, P., Ichikawa, N.F., Olimpi, E.M., Ory, J., Waterhouse, H., Iles, A., Karp, D.S., Kremen, C., Bowles, T.M., 2022. Organic farmers face persistent barriers to adopting diversification practices in California’s Central Coast. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems 46, 1145–1172. doi:10.1080/21683565.2022.2104420

• Guzman, A., Montes, M., Hutchins, L., DeLaCerda, G., Yang, P., Kakouridis, A., Dahlquist‐Willard, R.M., Firestone, M.K., Bowles, T., Kremen, C., 2021. Crop diversity enriches arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities in an intensive agricultural landscape. New Phytologist 231, 447–459. doi:10.1111/nph.17306

• Pottinger, A., Connor, L., Guzder-Williams, B., Weltman-Fahs, M., Gondek, N., Bowles, T., 2025. Climate-driven doubling of U.S. maize loss probability: Interactive simulation with neural network Monte Carlo. Journal of Data Science, Statistics, and Visualisation 5. doi:10.52933/jdssv.v5i3.134

• Socolar, Y., Carlisle, L., Bowles, T.M., 2024. Tomato dry farming as an agroecological model for California’s drought resilient future: Farmers’ perspectives and experiences. Elem Sci Anth 12, 00139. doi:10.1525/elementa.2023.00139

• Vendig, I., Guzman, A., Cerda, G.D.L., Esquivel, K., Mayer, A.C., Ponisio, L., Bowles, T.M., 2023. Quantifying direct yield benefits of soil carbon increases from cover cropping. doi:10.1038/s41893-023-01131-7

For a full publication list, see Google Scholar

Selected Honors and Awards

• Rising Star Distinguished Ecologist, Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University, 2025

• Distinguished Teaching Award – Rausser College of Natural Resources, 2024

• California Climate and Agriculture Network (CalCAN) Climate and Agriculture Leadership Award, 2022

• UC Berkeley Graduate Assembly Faculty Mentoring Award, 2021