Overview

I am an Earth system scientist interested in long-term ecosystem and climate change. Much of my research is on peat-forming wetlands and the ways in which these intriguing ecosystems can be used to understand past and future environmental change. My research projects cross the boundaries between climate change, ecology, and conservation. Current research projects focus on reconstruction of past climate variability in the Antarctic, the contribution of peatlands to the global carbon cycle, carbon dynamics in permafrost, and developing stable isotope techniques for climate reconstruction. Closer to home, I have just completed an English Heritage funded project on sea-level change and past environments on the Isles of Scilly. My past work has followed related themes, and I published a textbook on Peatlands and environmental change and I am a pastPresident of the Quaternary Research Association. I currently co-convene the IGBP-PAGES working group C-PEAT (Carbon in Peat on EArth through Time). I have taught across a range of physical geography topics, with a focus on environmental and climatic change and supervise a number of graduate students on these areas.

I gained these somewhat eclectic research and teaching interests through an undergraduate degree in Agricultural and Environmental Science (Newcastle), a stint at the UK Nature Conservancy Council working on peatland conservation, a PhD in palaeoecology (Southampton) and an NSERC Canada Fellowship in Earth Sciences and Geography (Waterloo). I was Professor of Physical Geography and Associate Dean for Research in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business at the University of Plymouth until moving to Exeter in 2009. I became Dean of the College of Life and Environmental Sciences in 2013 and Pro-Vice-Chancellor in 2015.

Broad research specialisms:

• Past climate and sea-level change;
• wetland systems and carbon cycling,
• testate amoebae as bio-indicators

Qualifications

BSc (Newcastle)
PhD (Southampton)

Links

• Google Scholar profile
• ResearcherID
• Orchid id 0000-0003-3464-4536

Research group links

• Environmental change

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Research

Research interests

I am interested in the responses of ecosystems to climate change and management, and in using an understanding of ecosystem-climate links to reconstruct past climate variability and establish future earth system trajectories. My principal expertise is in peat-forming ecosystems, which have a key role in ecosystem services (carbon storage, biodiversity, water supply), but also are unique in recording their own past through the accumulation of peat. My research projects cross the boundaries between ecology, conservation, and climate change.

Research projects

Carbon cycling in wetlands, especially interactions between management, climate and carbon accumulation and release in peatlands
Peatland ecosystems hold very large amounts of carbon, accounting for at least a third of all global soil carbon. Understanding the dynamics of carbon and especially the way in which it is may be lost following human or natural disturbance is important to be able to predict feedbacks to future climate change. A recent research focus is on developing carbon inventories and assessing carbon accumulation rates and losses in relation to climate variability and disturbance.  We are investigating changes in global peat accumulation rates over the last 1000 years and the development of models to simulate the contribution of peatlands to the global carbon cycle. We are also working on an interdisciplinary project to understand the consequences of permafrost melting for carbon storage in arctic peatlands and soils.

Reconstruction of past climate variability
Reconstructing past climate variability is important in understanding natural climate dynamics as a context for future change. Past hydrological variability is particularly complicated to reconstruct because of regional and seasonal changes over time. Peatlands hold detailed records of past climate change as they accumulate steadily over millennia and contain well-preserved records in the peat. We have focused especially on using a group of microfossils (testate amoebae) to reconstruct change, and compiling multiple records to establish a more robust picture of hydrological variability over different spatial scales. More recently we have applied these and other approaches to understanding biologial responses to climate  change on the Antarctic Peninsula, one of the fastest warming areas on Earth. Read more about the project in Planet Earth here.

Hydrological responses of peatland systems to climate change on decadal to millennial timescales
The use of peatlands to reconstruct records of past climate change is based on an understanding of fundamental ecosystem response to climate variability. This is also important if we are to be able to predict ecosystem response to future climate change. We have developed methods for establishing high-resolution records of change for the last few hundred years and have used these with instrumental meteorological records to test hypotheses on peatland response to climate change. We are currently working on new methods of reconstructing past hydrological and climate change from peatlands. We are currently working on developing new isotope-based proxies of change from restiad peatlands in New Zealand, funded by NERC and the Leverhulme Trust.

Past environmental change and human societies
Human societies interact with the natural environment in various ways, both impacting on and being impacted by changes in resources and climate. Organic deposits associated with archaeological sites contain a wealth of evidence documenting these changes and give insights into past human lives and their relationship with the environment. Past research has mostly concerned environmental change and human settlement in upland Britain.  I have also worked in coastal settings. The Lyonesse project was a current  English Heritage funded project to discover past rates of sea-level change and landscape development during the Mesolithic through to Medieval times.

Testate amoebae as indicators of environmental and climate change
Testate amoebae are a group of protists (unicellular organisms) which form external shells (tests) and live in freshwaters and wet soils. They are known to be good indicators of soil moisture levels in soils and acidity in lakes but recent work has shown them to be responsive to other environmental factors also. Past research has focused on three areas: 1) developing techniques for reconstructing hydrological change on peatlands to determine past climate variability; 2) testing techniques for reconstructing past sea levels; and 3) using testate amoebae as biomonitors in peatland management. The work has been funded by NERC, the European Union, Scottish Natural Heritage, English Nature and Countryside Council for Wales. Testate amoebae are being used in several current research projects.
 

Research grants

• 2019 NERC
  NE/S001166/1. ICAAP: Increasing Carbon Accumulation in Arctic Peatlands. Co-I with Angela Gallego Sala (PI), Karen Anderson, Matt Amesbury and Katherine Crichton. £798,815
• 2017 NSERC of Canada
  Rob Barnett (Independent research fellow) Sea-level changes in eastern Canada over the past two millennia, in collaboration with Pascal Bernatchez,Université du Québec à Rimouski. £127,000.
• 2015 Leverhulme Trust
  Holocene evolution of the Southern Annular Mode using novel peat isotope proxies. PI, with Matt Amesbury and investigators from Cambridge and Victoria, NZ. £245,011
• 2015 EU Marie Curie Training Grant
  EU2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellowship - Anne Quillet. PEATMOD: PEATland modelling for global carbon cycle and climate models PI with Angela Gallego-Sala. €195,455
• 2013 NERC
  NE/K000179/1. CYCLOPS: Carbon Cycling Linkages of Permafrost Systems. Co-I with Iain Hartley and investigators from Edinburgh, Sheffield and Sussex Universities. c.£530k (£203,376 to Exeter).
• 2012 NERC
  NERC NE/J013595/1. Developing a novel proxy for Southern Hemisphere Holocene climate change: stable isotope analysis of restiad peat cellulose. £52,065.
• 2011 NERC
  NERC Standard grant NE/I012915/1. MILLIPEAT: Peatlands and the global carbon cycle during the past millennium: a global assessment using observations and models. (Lead PI with CoIs at Exeter, Leicester and Imperial). £465,671 (£439,433 to Exeter)
• 2010 NERC
  NERC Antarctic Funding Initiative NE/H014896/1. Terrestrial Holocene climate variability on the Antarctic Peninsula. (Lead PI, with Co-PIs at BAS and Cambridge Univ.). £709,349 (£336,739 to Exeter)
• 2009 NERC
  NERC Standard Grant NE/G020272/1. PRECIP: Holocene Land-Ocean-Atmosphere Interactions on the Eastern Seaboard of North America (Co-PI with Southampton, Swansea). £580,000 (£163,591 to Exeter)
• 2009 English Heritage
  The Lyonesse Project: Evolution of the coastal and marine environment of Scilly. (with Heritage Environment Service Cornwall Council, Cardiff University). Funded by English Heritage £129,292.

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Publications

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External Engagement and Impact

Co-lead IGBP-PAGES Working Group C-PEAT - Carbon in Peat on EArth through Time (2014-

President, Quaternary Research Association (2011-2014)

NERC Peer Review College Member (2008-2012)

NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory Steering Committee member (2006-2012)

Project leader INQUA project 0804: Peatland Archives of Holocene Carbon and Climate Change (2010-12)

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Teaching

Previous teaching at Exeter has included Global climate systems and Lessons from past climates, in addition to a variety of fieldtris, dissertation supervision and tutorials. 

Modules

2023/24

Information not currently available

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Supervision / Group

Research Fellows

Postdoctoral researchers

Postgraduate researchers

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