Geography

Profile

Research Interests

• Soil erosion
• Modelling in physical Geography

I graduated from the University of Reading with a first degree in Geography with Geology and continued at Reading for my PhD research. After a temporary post at the University of Newcastle I came to Portsmouth. I am now a Principal Lecturer in the department with teaching responsibilities for earth surface materials and geographical data analysis.

Teaching

Responsibilities for the provision of teaching materials and units associated with Soils & Earth Surface Materials.

Level One

The Environmental Systems and Environmental change units contain the following relevant material:

• basic mechanisms of weathering and parent material formation
• basic mechanisms of decomposition and humus formation
• role of soil as a storage regulator in the nutrient cycling process
• concept of the `pedo-envionment & the soilscape', role of soil forming factors
• brief introduction to the idea of `diagnostic horizons and properties

Level Two

• the landforms and landforming processes unit
• concept and models of the soil system
• inorganic & organic components of the soil
• physical properties: texture, structure, colour
• chemical properties: pH, CEC, base saturation
• concept and operation of the FAO classification system
• application of the FAO to the soils of the UK
• laboratory practicals:
  • basic weights % moisture
  • loss on ignition
  • particle size; organic removal, wet sieves, dry sieve sand fraction, sedimentation silt/clay
  • separation
  • demonstration, CEC, B.Sat, laser size analysis
  • wet extraction of metals AAS determination

Level Three

Level 3 - Specialist option unit 'Applied Soil Science'

Lecture Material

• important soil units of UK, profile form and process
• Histosols organic soil processes
• Cambisols - ideas of balance
• Podsols - Fe/Al/OM movement in aerobic conditions
• Luvisols - clay movement, argillans & PZC
• Gleysols - Fe/Mn movement in anaerobic conditions
• ideas, concepts, and models of agricultural soil erosion
• arguments and evidence of soil genesis as a temporal continuum
• soil and soil material in environmental reconstruction

Residential Field Class - 8 Days Netherlands and Belgium:

• describing soil material in the field
• ISRIC (Wageningen) soils of the world, FAO classification
• the soilscape of Southern Gelderland
• soil erosion processes, laboratory and field investigation (Leuven)
• field mapping of the local soilscape
• soils on hard rocks (Ardennes)
• soils and reconstruction (Zonian Forest)

Fieldwork

Current Research Interests

My topics of research all focus around rainsplash erosion and soil surface changes resulting from soil crusting and sealing. I was one of the first UK geographers to design and use laboratory rainfall simulation and to develop the ideas of using controlled laboratory simulation to study the fundamentals of earth surface processes. In addition, I was the first UK scientist to use soil micromorphology to assess the vertical development of soils crusts and seals and to produce a model of this process and response.

Recently I have revisited 'remote sensing' approaches to soils surface monitoring. This I first considered in 1981 using a video frame grabbing and rather crude image processing systems. My new research is directed towards analytical and digital photogrammetry as a method for remotely monitoring and quantifying soil surfaces. Last summer I was given the honour title of visiting research professor at the University of Leuven (Belgium) where I worked for two months on ridge and furrow evolution.

Research Supervision

Ten research topics ready to go for any available bursary students:

• Altitudinal context and soil crust development
• Topographical roughness changes as an index of soil erodibility
• Digital, analytical photogrammetry and laser profiling: a comparative study for DEM determination in modelling
• Soil aggregate stability and soil microrelief change
• Spatial, temporal contexts and soil surface evolution: an integrated photogrammetric thin section approach
• Storm sequencing and soil erosion processes
• Crop growth, soil surface interactions: a field experimental approach
• Physical geography and multilevel modelling and assessment of its potential
• Characterising rough topographic surfaces and their changes through time
• Topographic surface change and the role played by stones

Recent Publications

More recent publications

Research Publications and Presentations before 2008