Characterising Earth’s ever-changing environment in terms of its chemistry, physics, biology and more
We characterise important components of the ever-changing climate on Earth, a planetary body that has been around for roughly 4.6 billion years. Across its lifetime, Earth has sometimes been warmer and sometimes colder than it is today, providing us with the opportunity to study its natural response to environmental change.
Overall, our diverse and interdisciplinary climate and environment research seeks to develop a comprehensive understanding of Earth’s ever-changing environment in terms of its chemistry, physics, biology and more – from past dynamics to present day to likely future evolution.
If you are interested in one of the projects listed below, we encourage you to contact the primary project supervisor or the alternative contact person for further information.
Current projects
Optimisation of sensor locations for observation of air flows/pollutions [Info Sheet - Fang Sensor]
Supervisors: Dr Fangxin Fang, Professor Christopher Pain
Rapid Response Modelling for Assessment of Pollution and Toxic Releases in Complex Urban Environments [Info Sheet - Fang ROM]
Supervisors: Dr Fangxin Fang, Professor Christopher Pain
Large Scale AI Modelling for Environmental Flows [Info Sheet - Heaney Environmental Flows]
Supervisors: Dr Claire Heaney, Professor Christopher Pain
Storage and transport of microplastics in groundwater [Info Sheet - Jackson Microplastics]
Supervisors: Professor Matthew Jackson, Professor Gary Hampson, Professor Alexandra Porter (Department of Materials), Dr Geoff Fowler (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering)
Global CO2 storage capacity: Modeling limitations of geography and injectivity [Info sheet - Global CO2 Storage capacity]
Supervisor: Dr Sam Krevor and other TBA
Reservoir characterisation and modelling of CO2 storage underground [Info sheet - Reservoir characterisation and modelling of CO2 storage underground]
Supervisor: Dr Sam Krevor and others TBA
Assessing the sustainability of lithium brine extraction in high Andean salars [Info Sheet - Hughes BGS Lithium Brine Extraction]
Supervisors: Dr Andrew Hughes (British Geological Survey), Professor Anna Korre, Dr Evi Petavratzi (British Geological Survey)
Developing time-series InSAR for understanding changes to the ground surface, subsurface, biosphere and environment [Info Sheet - Mason Time-Series InSAR]
Supervisors: Dr Philippa Mason, Dr James Lawrence (Civil Engineering, Imperial College London), Professor Richard Ghail (Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway UK), Dr Cédric M. John
Submarine channels, deformation, and routing of sediment and plastics to the deep ocean [Info Sheet - Mayall Sediment Routing]
Supervisors: Professor Mike Mayall, Dr Alex Whittaker, Professor Gary Hampson, Dr Lidia Lonergan
Biomagnetic monitoring as an urban air quality assessment method [Info sheet - Biomagnetic Monitoring]
Supervisors: Prof. Adrian Muxworthy, Prof. Dominik Weiss, and Dr. David Green (Public Health)
Accelerating Scientific Discovery of Complex Scientific Applications with Process-Guided Deep Learning: Aquatic Eco-Dynamics in Lakes [Info Sheet - Piggott Lakes]
Supervisors: Professor Matthew Piggott, Dr R. Iestyn Woolway (University of Reading), Professor Stephen Maberly (UK CEH)
Understanding and minimising the potential environmental impacts of tidal range (lagoon) based renewable energy generation via advanced numerical modelling [Info Sheet - Piggott Tidal Lagoons]
Supervisor: Professor Matthew Piggott
Exploiting the GEOTRACES toolbox to characterize ocean biogeochemical processes: trace elements, isotopes and new quasi-conservative tracers [Info Sheet - Plancherel GEOTRACES]
Supervisors: Dr Yves Plancherel, Professor Mark Rehkamper, Professor Tina van de Flierdt
Modeling the global Pb cycle: from industrial emissions to the bottom of the ocean [Info Sheet - Plancherel Pb Cycle]
Supervisor: Dr Yves Plancherel
Tracking Illegal Gold Mining Safely with Earth Observations and Machine Learning [Info Sheet - Plancherel Illegal Gold Mining]
Supervisors: Dr Yves Plancherel, Dr Pablo Brito-Parada, Dr Philippa Mason
Reconstructing the history of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet using sediment provenance techniques [Info sheet - West Antarctic Ice Sheet]
Supervisors: Professor Tina van de Flierdt, Dr Jim Marschalek
Hard Rock to Heavy Metal: Data and tools for geochemical baselines and chemical fluxes through landscapes [Info Sheet - Roberts Hard Rock to Heavy Metal]
Supervisors: Dr Gareth Roberts, Dr Yves Plancherel, Dr Alex Whittaker, Charles Gowing (British Geological Survey), Dr Alex Lipp (University of Oxford, Earth Sciences)
Mapping pollutants and biodiversity throughout drainage basins [Info Sheet - Roberts Mapping Pollutants]
Supervisors: Dr Gareth Roberts, Dr Leon Barron (School of Public Health), Professor Guy Woodward (Life Sciences), Dr Alex Lipp (Earth Sciences, University of Oxford)
Modeling landscape evolution through space and time [Info Sheet - Roberts Landscape Evolution]
Supervisors: Dr Gareth Roberts, Professor Matthew Piggott, Professor Gareth Collins and Dr Alex Whittaker
Exploring terrestrial geological evidence for past glaciation and volcanism in the Thwaites Glacier catchment, Antarctica [Info Sheet - Johnson Thwaites Glacier]
Supervisors: Joanne Johnson (British Antarctic Survey), Dr Dylan Rood, Associate Professor Brent Goehring (Tulane University), and Stephen Roberts (British Antarctic Survey)
Using Cosmogenic Surface Exposure Dating to Reconstruct Late-Holocene Glacier and Climate Stability to Determine Precedence for Recent Declines in Snowpack and Water Resources in the American Pacific Northwest [Info Sheet - Rood Cosmogenic Surface Exposure]
Supervisor: Dr Dylan Rood
Will climate change make coastal erosion rates faster?: Comparing historic and Holocene cliff retreat rates using cosmogenic isotopes with numerical models [Info Sheet - Rood Coastal Erosion]
Supervisor: Dr Dylan Rood
Capture Carbon Dioxide on Shales [Info Sheet - Sephton Shales]
Supervisors: Professor Mark A. Sephton, Professor Craig Smalley, Professor Al Fraser
Forensic Detection of Microplastics [Info Sheet - Sephton Microplastics]
Supervisors: Professor Mark A. Sephton, Dr Simon Davis, David Bell (Protium)
Understanding modern biogeochemical cycles in the context of the international GEOTRACES project – Lead, zinc, and cadmium isotopes [Info sheet - GEOTRACES project]
Supervisors: Professor Mark Rehkämper, Professor Tina van de Flierdt
Geochemistry of Non-Traditional Stable Isotopes [Info Sheet - Weiss NTSI]
Supervisor: Professor Dominik Weiss
Human and Natural Control on Global Atmospheric Trace Element Cycles [Info Sheet - Weiss Atmosphere]
Supervisor: Professor Dominik Weiss
Micronutrient cycling in submerged soils and uptake into rice [Info Sheet - Weiss Micronutrient Cycling]
Supervisor: Professor Dominik Weiss
Nuclear Waste – How to deal with it safely [Info Sheet - Weiss Nuclear Waste]
Supervisor: Professor Dominik Weiss
The Aqueous Chemistry of Actinides and Metalloids [Info Sheet - Weiss Actinides and Metalloids]
Supervisor: Professor Dominik Weiss
Learning fast and generalizable climate models with neural differential equations [Info Sheet - Moseley NDEs]
Supervisors: Dr Ben Moseley, Professor Christopher Pain
Deciphering the influence of mantle dynamics on Cenozoic records of sea-level change [Info sheet - Deciphering the influence of mantle dynamics]
Supervisors: Dr Fred Richards, Gareth Roberts
Hot rocks in cold places: Quantifying mantle dynamic impacts on Antarctic Ice Sheet evolution [Info sheet - Hot rocks in cold places]
Supervisors: Dr Fred Richards