Earth System Science Research Group

The Earth System Science research group comprises members of the department of Geography and Environmental Science within the School of Human and Environmental Sciences.

The group is concerned with how the Earth works today, how the components of the system have evolved over time in response to changes in other parts of the system and predicting what will happen in the future.  The group studies natural systems and how these have been perturbed by human actions.

We work at a range of scales from the planetary to the molecular .

Due to the interdisciplinary nature of our work we actively collaborate with a wide range of Schools within the University: Biological Sciences, Agriculture, Policy and Development, Chemistry, Food Biosciences & Pharmacy Mathematics, Meteorology and Physics and a large number of external research organisations as well as other Universities e.g.:

• Forest Research,
• Rothamsted Research,
• English Heritage,
• Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, 
• British Geological Survey

Some of our recent Projects

• SINATRA - Susceptibility of catchments to INTense RAinfall and flooding
• Turf2Surf - The Multi-Scale Response of Water Quality, Biodiversity and Carbon Sequestration to Coupled Macronutrient Cycling from Source to Sea
• Assessing the potential of mRNA-FISH FACS for isolation of functional soil bacterial populations for quantifying biogeochemical cycle interactions
• DIOGENES - Dust Impacts on Glaciated Environments
• INFLAME - Indoor contamination with Flame Retardant Chemicals: Causes and Impacts
• How important is soil microbial diversity for pesticide biodegradation function and robust biodegradation kinetics?
• FUSE: Floodplain Underground SEnsors - a high-density, wireless, underground sensor network to quantify floodplain hydro-ecological interactions
• Hydrological extremes and feedbacks in the changing water cycle
• Linking improved modelling of pollution to innovative development of sensors
• Soil water - climate feedbacks in Europe in the 21st Century (SWELTER-21))
• Phosphorus contributions from wastewater treatment work discharges to watercourses and their long-term environmental impacts relative to other sources
• Integrated carbon, water and land management for poverty alleviation (ICWALPA)
• REFRESH - adaptive strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate change on European freshwater ecosystems
• Climate Change and the British Uplands
• Hampshire Avon Demonstration Test Catchment
• Environmental significance of earthworm secreted calcium carbonate
• Novel technologies for environmental monitoring
• Mitigation potential of horizontal ground coupled heat pumps (GROMIT) 
• Climate change and glacier dynamics in the Caucasus and the mountains of Southern Siberia
• Soil, health and environment network (SHE-Net)
• The palaeohydrology and palaeoclimate of Lake Megafezzan