About the Project
One of the main drivers of glacier response to climate change is the rate at which surface water can reach the bed of the glacier. There are two models for the response of glaciers to any potential increase in meltwater. The first argues that increased melt will cause more water to flow to the glacier bed, which promotes basal sliding and allows the glacier to flow faster. This brings more ice into the lower altitudes, which in turn promotes more melting. This increase in velocity leads to increased crevassing, which allows more surface water to reach the bed. Thus, there is accelerated glacier. However, more recently there has been an alternative model that suggests that more melt water does not necessarily lead to higher velocities, and once a summer subglacial channelized system develops, then additional melt water has little effect.
The subglacial environment is logistically very difficult to investigate, however in recent years an increasing range of innovative techniques for its study have revealed a more complex hydrological system than previously imagined. These results indicate a continuum between a hard bedrock system dominated by conduits and linked and a soft bedrock system dominated by wide anastomosing broad flat channels, water sheets and till. These latter glaciers are sensitive to meltwater production. This is particularly important as the fast flowing ice streams of Antarctica are soft bedded as well as over 80% of Icelandic glaciers, approx. 20% glaciers in Norway, 10% in the Alps, and the lowland areas of the Quaternary Ice Sheets.
The aim of this project is to investigate the sedimentology associated with these complex drainage patterns. How would we identify such a drainage system in the Quaternary record? How do fluvial and glacial processes integrate to produce distinct sediments and landforms? The student will investigate the sedimentology from both modern and Quaternary environments.
Training will include a wide range of skills including field glaciology, UAV imaging of landforms and sedimentology.
The research student will join Southampton’s Landscape Dynamics and Ecology group, which focuses on physical landscape processes, Quaternary Science and biodiversity. The group is equipped with a range of analytic equipment and facilities for surveying (e.g., dGPS, Terrestrial Laser Scanners, UAVs, Ground Penetrating Radar), sediment analysis (e.g., XRF, C-N analyzer), and microscopy (optical and petrographic microscopes and SEM). Additionally its labs are equipped for a range of palaeoecological analyses, and there is a clean lab for tephra analysis and an ancient DNA extraction facility. Recent investment has provided a state-of-the-art computer cluster for landscape modelling, SfM analysis, as well as GIS and remote sensing. Full training in all necessary techniques will be given..
Funding Notes
The PhD project will commence September 2019.
This is one of a range of topics currently being advertised. Funding will go to the project(s) with the best applicant(s). The studentship is to be funded at UKRI level, currently £14,777 per annum, with an RTSG of £750. The studentship will fully support British and EU nationals only. International students can apply but they must be able to meet the difference between home/EU and International tuition fees themselves.
References
Candidates must have or expect to gain a first or strong upper second class degree, in an appropriate discipline, not necessarily Geography. For the latest information on postgraduate opportunities see www.southampton.ac.uk/geography/postgraduate/research_degrees/studentships.page?