Emily is a doctoral researcher (PhD) in the Geography and Environment department at Loughborough University, she is interested in analysing palaeolimnological signals in lake sediment sequences to assess the influence of natural and human-induced disturbances on UK freshwater ecosystems throughout the mid-Holocene.
Prior to starting her PhD, she also studied her BSc in Geography and MSc in Environmental Monitoring, Research and Management at Loughborough University.
Key interests:
- Palaeolimnology and limnology
- Long term human induced land-use changes
- Climate change
- Catchment planning and mitigation strategies
Tracking long-term environmental change and anthropogenic stressors: using lake sediment records to investigate natural and human impact since the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition
Supervisors: Prof. David Ryves and Dr. Jeff Evans
Emily’s project will analyse sediment archives from UK waterbodies to distinguish natural impacts from direct and indirect human-induced impacts throughout the Holocene, since the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the UK.
Her project will combine geochemical and biological proxies including pigments, sedaDNA, biomarkers, diatoms, and charcoal from 14C and 210Pb-dated lacustrine sediment records. This multi-proxy approach will allow palaeolimnological signals to be used simultaneously to address the aims of her project.
Overall, Emily’s research will identify key periods of change in the chosen freshwater systems, to improve our understanding of how past stressors have affected freshwater ecosystems and improve catchment planning, mitigation, and adaptation strategies under ongoing and future environmental change.