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