Group Overview

Our group provides leadership in key aspects of environmental dynamics and global change.

We have expertise in dendroclimatology and dendrochronology, tephrochronology, stable isotope analysis, biogeochemical fluxes (carbon, silicon), the occurrence and impacts of wildfire, soil hydrology and sediment tracing, argon dating and igneous petrology; primarily covering atmospheric, cryospheric, terrestrial and volcanic processes. 

Major research foci are:

  • Reducing uncertainty in understanding past and present climate dynamics
  • Occurrence and impacts of wildfires and their mitigation under changing climatic and socio-economic contexts
  • Reconstructing the timing and magnitude of pre-historic volcanism, with a view to improving volcanic hazard assessments
  • The effects of environmental and human-induced hazards in sensitive regions
  • Sustainable management and carbon capture in agricultural and forested land particularly in response to environmental and land-use change
  • Science-based dating and environmental archaeology using tree-ring stable isotopes and tephrochronology

Our approaches combines field investigations with state-of-the-art laboratory analytical approaches. The group comprises fourteen academic staff, seven post-doctoral staff and four research technicians. Our research funders include the NERC, ERC, UKRI (FLF), EPSRC, BBSRC, NSF, ESF, The Leverhulme Trust, The Royal Society, the European Commission as well as industry and government agencies.