Geography and Palaeoecology: Environmental Change

Overview: Our research focuses on how Earth's environments have changed, or are changing, over a range of timescales. Our aim is to maximise intellectual excellence in our research by building on strong biological-ecological, geomorphological and chronological traditions in late Quaternary, Holocene and contemporary studies. We welcome postgraduate interest in the following areas, where cluster members have international reputations: Carbon dynamics and climate change Geoforensics Geographical information studies and geostatistics Glacial and periglacial landscapes Past and present human-environment interactions Past climate and environmental change (using geo-morphological, biological, isotopic, sedimentological and chemical proxies) in North West Europe, the Mediterranean countries, North and South East Asia, Africa, North and South America Scientific dating and chronological techniques Stone weathering in natural and urban environments RESEARCH STRENGTHS The cluster has a vibrant palaeoecology research group studying past environment and climate change, using a variety of records from around the world. The Palaeoecology Centre was awarded the UK Queen's Anniversary Prize in 2000, and in 2003 the group was awarded £6.2m to set up the Centre for Climate, the Environment and Chronology (14CHRONO) funding the establishment of an AMS radiocarbon-dating laboratory (only the third such facility in the UK and the first in Ireland) and new research on radiocarbon, dendrochronology, tephrochronology, statistical methods of chronology construction, stable isotope analysis and palaeoecological and environmental change. At Queen's, palaeoecology complements archaeology by reconstructing the past Quaternary environments in which humans and their societies evolved, and by assessing the impact of human activities on the natural environment. In this latter area, we work closely...