Viv Jones

Professor Jones's research focuses on using remote sensing data and environmental modelling to understand and monitor land-use and land-cover change, especially in tropical forest ecosystems, and the impacts of climate change and human activities on these ecosystems. She also investigates the potential of remote sensing for improving food security and supporting sustainable land management practices.

More about Emeritus Professor Jones

Qualifications

• 1984 - 1987: PhD (NERC) University College London, Department of Geography A palaeoecological study of the post-glacial acidification of the Round Loch of Glenhead and its catchment.
• 1980 - 1983: BSc (Hons) Geography and Botany, University of Liverpool

Career History

• 2016 - Present: Professor in Palaeolimnology, Environmental Change Research Centre, Department of Geography, University College London
• 2010 – 2016: Reader in Palaeolimnology,
• 2001- 2010: Principal Research Fellow Part-time.
• 1995-2001: Senior Research Fellow, ECRC, University College London.
• 1987-1995: Research Fellow, ECRC, University College London.

Affiliations

• International Paleolimnological Association, Freshwater Biological Association, British Ecological Society

Editorial Positions

• 2018 - Present: Editorial Board, The Holocene
• 2013 - Present: Editorial Advisory Board, The Anthropocene Review
• 2008 – Present: Editorial Board, Journal of Paleolimnology

Membership of Committees

• 2018 - Present: Deputy Chair of the UK Arctic & Antarctic Partnership Steering Committee
• 2010 – 2016: Elected committee member of the International Society for Diatom Research
• 2007 – 2013:  Member of NERC radiocarbon committee
• 2007 – 2010:  Member of ESF proposal review panel
• 2004 – 2007: Member NERC peer review committee
• 2003 – 2010: Secretary of the International Society for Diatom Research

Publications

To view Emeritus Professor Jones's publications, please visit UCL Profiles:

Publications

Research

Viv's research often involves Diatoms which are microscopic unicellular algae which grow in a wide range of habitats in damp soils, lakes, rivers and seas. Extremely common in almost all freshwater and marine environments they are an excellent ecological indicator species sensitive to acidity, nutrients and salinity. Since they have a short life cycle they respond quickly to changes in conditions. Modern communities are used by environmental scientists for monitoring water quality, especially in relation to the problems of acidification and eutrophication. Diatoms also preserve well in many lake and marine sediments and thus can be used to reconstruct past conditions on a range of timescales from decades to tens of thousands of years.

However, she is also an environmental scientist interested in the application of multi-proxy palaeoecological techniques to the understanding of present-day environmental problems. Current research interests are wide-ranging and cover the following:

• Recent environmental change in Polar regions with special reference to the Russian Arctic
• Using palaeolimnology to set targets for ecosystem restoration
• Analysis of oxygen isotopes in diatom silica and chironomid chitin
• Holocene and Late-glacial environments
• The carbon cycle in lakes
• Uses of diatoms in a wide range of contexts including forensic context

Impact

I am interested in how we can use palaeolimnology to create a better understanding of how lake ecosystems may respond to future changes whether these are due to climate change or pollution. The key to this is a deep knowledge of how lakes have responded to climate change and pollution over a range of timescales, obtained in many cases by using a multi-proxy approach.

Much of my recent work has been concerned with changes in The Arctic, a region which is already responding to anthropogenic warming and which is predicted to be impacted by enhanced warming this century. The Carbo-North project 

and the SPICE project provided scenarios of Arctic change under various warming projections which were presented to stakeholders in Town Meetings in Usinsk, Pechora and Naryan Mar, in the Komi Republic region. I am one of the few active Palaeo researchers in Russia and was recently invited to a Department of Energy and Climate Change meeting in Moscow to discuss better collaborative links with Russia.  I have been involved with several major palaeolimnological research programmes in the Arctic, I am currently a co-investigator on a NERC Arctic programme project (NERC-LAC) leading the Russian aspect of the research.

Another key aspect has been the development of the use of palaeolimnology in conservation.  Working with the RSPB at Loch Ruthwen in Scotland we established a link between the past productivity of the lake and the population of the rare Slavonian Grebe; this has directly led to research in the Flow Country in Caithness, funded by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), examining whether a palaeolimnological approach can help to understand why populations of the Common Scoter have declined in the last 3 decades. This led to a funded studentship and former student Dr Hannah Robson now works at the WWT.

More recently work with the WWT has expanded to Madagascar where a PhD student Lily Unger has been funded under a NERC CASE award to investigate how we can use lake sediments to inform conservation targets for the world's rarest bird, The Madagascan Pochard.

remain a committed member of the International Diatom Society, having served as Secretary and now a committee member. I have taught diatoms to undergraduates, masters students, PhD students, including many overseas students, and professionals, running courses for the Environment Agency for example.

Presently I am working with colleagues from the National Museum of Wales and the Natural History Museum and others to produce a Diatom Flora of the British Isles. 

Outreach

Recently I have been involved in a local campaign to Save the Beane marshes and co-ordinate the education sub-group. I have talked to sixth formers and the local Civic Society in Hertfordshire about climate change, hosted widening participation events for sixth formers at UCL and been involved with the Science Lates series at the Science Museum. 

Research Students

PhD Research Students

• 2018 - 2023: Lily Unger (NERC CASE (WWT)) Using palaeolimnology to determine restoration targets for the Madagascan Pochard
• 2015 - 2019: Emma Levin (EPSRC, Crime Science) Using diatoms as forensic tracers
• 2014 - 2019: Richard Mazebedi (Gov Botswana). Food Webs of the Okavango Delta
• 2013 - 2017: Hannah Robson  (IMPACT WWT) Using palaeolimnology to assess bird populations
• 2013 – 2017: Kirstie Scott (SeCret, Crime science) Diatoms and forensic applications
• 2010 – 2014: Alex Lombino (NERC project award) Oxygen isotopes in chironomids
• 2011 – 2014: Luca Marazzi (self-funding) Biodiversity in the Okavango Delta
• 2005 - 2009: Angela Self NERC/CASE award Chironomids and climate in the Russian Arctic
• 2003 - 2008: Jonathan Tyler NERC/CASE award Diatoms and delta 18O
• 1999 - 2004: Gina Clarke. The relationship between diatoms and climate in a European mountain lake training set: implications for detecting the Little Ice Age in lake sediments from Central Norway.
• 1996 - 2000: Patrick Rioual. Reconstruction of palaeoclimatic and palaeolimnological changes during the last interglacial from sedimentary diatom assemblages in the French Massif Central
• 1994 – 2000: Nadia Solovieva A palaeoecological study of Holocene environmental change in a small upland lake from the Kola Peninsula, Russia
• 1993 -1998: NERC/CASE student Philippa Noon with the British Antarctic Survey. Lake Sediments and climatic change in Antarctica

Masters Students (since 2010)

• 2019: Jing (Jackey) Zhu  Diatoms from a Greenland Ice Core
• 2018: Carole Roberts Palaeolimnology of Pechora Delta Russia
• 2018: Gina Charnley Recent Environmental Change and Bewick Swan populations, Pechora Delta
• 2018: Joanna Davies Palaeolimnology of King George Island Antarctica; Diatoms and Climate
• 2017: Lily Unger Plant macrofossil analysis of Australian wetlands
• 2015: Stephanie Rogers Invasive Harlequin Ladybird success
• 2015: Eleri Pritchard Signal Crayfish Success
• 2015: Lauren McLachlan Connectivity of Brown Trout
• 2014: Hamish Martin Nitrogen Deposition in the UK
• 2014: Ruth Davey Diatoms from Finnmark
• 2014: Dafie Ning Diatoms from Billabongs in Australia
• 2013: Christian Quintana Carbon cycling in Russia
• 2012: Laurence Evans  Nitrogen deposition in Greenland
• 2012: Kate Jenner Carbon trading
• 2011: Sarah Roberts  Holocene climate in northern Fennoscandia
• 2011: Catherine Peters Amphibians in Uganda
• 2010: Emma Watson Nutrient reconstruction at Loch Ruthwen

Research Grants, Prizes and Awards

• 2015-2020: NERC Hydroscape - Connectivity x Stressor Interactions Hydroscape aims to determine how stressors and connectivity interact to influence biodiversity and freshwater ecosystems across Britain
• 2012-2015:  NERC-LAC - Lakes and the Arctic carbon cycle
• 2010-2013: NERC Kamchatka - Influence of global teleconnections on Holocene climate in Kamchatka
• 2010-2012: NERC Greenland -  Long-range atmospheric Nitrogen deposition as a driver of ecological change in Arctic lakes
• 2006-2011: CARBO-North Quantifying the carbon budget in Northern Russia: past, present and future. Funding Source: EU Framework 6
• 2003: NERC Assessing regional climate signals from delta 18O diatom records in annually laminated lake sediments
• 2000 - 2003: SPICE - Sustainable Pechora in a Changing Environment. Funding Source: EU INCO-COPERNICUS
• 1998 - 2001: TUNDRA - Tundra Degradation in the Russian Arctic. Funding Source: EU FW4
• 2000 - 2005: NORPEC - Norwegian PalaeoEnvironments and Climates as reconstructed from lake sediments. Funding Source: NAVF (Norwegian Science Research Council)
• 2000: NERC Palaeolimnological evidence for circumarctic climate warming in Northern Russia (NER/B/S/2000/00733)
• 1995 - 1998: Lake sediment records of recent atmospheric pollution and environmental change on Spitzbergen. Funding Source: NAVF
• 1995 - 1997: NERC Diatom biodiversity and distribution in maritime and continental Antarctica. Joint with Dr Steve Juggins, University of Newcastle
• 1995 - 1997: NERC The use of lake sediments to determine the history of ecosystem change at Signy Island within the Holocene