Sea-level rise is one of the greatest threats to the global community. The UK Climate Change Committee stated that “climate change will exacerbate the already significant exposure of the English coast to flooding and erosion. The current approach to coastal management in England is unsustainable in the face of climate change.” Forecasting large-scale landscape responses is therefore essential to improved management and planning. However calibration of models is currently restricted to short-duration observational data. Newly-acquired palaeo archives from the southern North Sea (Fig. 1) provide an exciting opportunity to understand long-term responses of terrestrial and coastal areas to periods of sea-level rise. This project will utilise a large-scale palaeo dataset to develop landscape models of coastal change. Palaeo-coastline reconstructions can benefit stakeholders, decision makers and the public, providing storylines as to how landscapes may respond to future climate change.
During the last ice age, the southern North Sea comprised a terrestrial environment beyond the limit of the ice sheets, which extended across much of Europe. As the ice sheets melted, sea level rose, submerging this landscape to become the modern North Sea. Collecting core material from these environments is challenging and prohibitively expensive; but site investigations for new windfarms in the southern North Sea are providing a wealth of data, which means this research is extremely timely. Using this new offshore core material, which the supervisory team have unique access too, this studentship will use palaeo-environmental reconstruction techniques (e.g. microfossil analysis such as pollen and diatoms, and sediment dating), alongside landscape modelling, to build an integrated model of coastal palaeolandscape in the southern North Sea, to assess the ecological and landscape responses to rising sea level.
Objectives
In this project, you will work with leading scientists in the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds, and CASE Partner Wessex Archaeology (the UK-leading consultancy in archaeological and heritage services) who have a wealth of expertise working in Quaternary sediments in the North Sea region, and beyond. Specific objectives will be developed in collaboration with the student and CASE-partner and include, but are not limited to:
- Reconstructing and dating the timing of palaeoenvironmental change in the southern North Sea using cores from offshore of Norfolk, the Thames and the Dogger Bank.
- Assessing the ecological and landscape response to rising sea level based upon stratigraphy and/or microfossils in the cores.
- Developing landscape evolution models of environmental change to rising sea levels during the early and mid-Holocene
Training, CASE partner and wider research group
This research project will build upon collaboration between the University of Leeds, the offshore energy industry and Wessex Archaeology, as well as existing research relationships with the Dutch Geological Survey (TNO), Utrecht University and Deltares. The successful candidate will have access to our expanding palaeoenvironmental laboratory within The School of Earth and Environment at Leeds and work along PhD students in similar areas, as well as in the Leeds Quaternary Group. The lead supervisor (Natasha Barlow) is currently leader of a large European Research Council project (RISeR) which focuses on the Last Interglacial environments in the southern North Sea which is complementary to this PhD, and is leader of the international PALeo constraints on SEA level rise (PALSEA) research group, therefore providing the potential for wider networking opportunities.
The project is supported by CASE Partner Wessex Archaeology who will provide an additional £3.5k over the 3.5 years of the studentship to enhance the students training grant (RTSG). There will be opportunities for one or more research placements (a minimum of 3-months) at Wessex, whose head office is in Salisbury. This will provide the student the opportunity for training (e.g. in pollen analysis and landscape modelling) as well as exposure to an archaeology and geoscience consultancy environment, during the course of the project. The successful candidate will also have access to a broad spectrum of training workshops facilitated by the DTP at the University of Leeds.
Student profile
The ideal candidate will have a background in Geosciences or Geoarchaeology, with a relevant degree e.g. Geography, Environmental Science, Archaeology or Geology. A keen interest in environmental processes is desirable, in particular with a focus on the coastal landscape. Some experience with microfossils (e.g. pollen, diatoms or testate amoeba) and/or landscape modelling would be desirable.
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