Neil Roberts

Job title: Professor of Physical Geography, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (Faculty of Science and Technology)
Telephone: +441752585965
Email: C.N.Roberts@plymouth.ac.uk

Role
Convenor: Physical Geography Research Cluster; CeRES Coordinator

Qualifications & background

B.A., Geography, Oxford, 1975

Ph.D., London (UCL), 1980

Professional membership

Fellow of Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)

British Society for Geomorphology

Biogeography Research Group

History and Philosophy of Geography Study Group

Quaternary Research Association

American Quaternary Association (AMQUA)

British Institute at Ankara

International Society for Diatom Research

Roles on external bodies
Editor: Quaternary Science Reviews (Elsevier)

National Secretary: Heads of British Geography

Teaching interests

Physical Geography; Environmental issues (undergraduate and taught Masters)

Undergraduate:

Stage 1

• Introduction to physical geography

Stage 2

•           Environmental Change and Archaeology
•           Geographical Research
•          European overseas Fieldtrip

Postgraduate:

• Science and the Environment

Staff serving as external examiners
External examiner: undergraduate programmes in Geography, University of Edinburgh

Research interests

Holocene environmental change, palaeolimnology, diatom and stable isotope analyses, environmental archaeology, Mediterranean and Africa

Other research

Research degrees awarded to supervised students
Matthew Jones, Ph.D. 2004, "High-resolution records of climate change from lacustrine stable isotopes through the last two millennia in western Turkey’.
Amy Burgess. Ph.D. 2004, "The development of diatom-nutrient palaeolimnological inference models for UK lowland reservoirs".
Rebecca Turner, Ph.D. 2007 ‘Late Quaternary fire histories in the East Mediterranean region’.
Jessie Woodbridge, Ph.D. 2009 'Late-Holocene lake diatom-inferred palaeoclimate from central Turkey'
Zuzanna Stroynowski, Ph.D. 2009 A high-resolution climatic study of the Norwegian and Iberian shelves during the Late Holocene: a diatom perspective'

Grants & contracts

recent grants

2006-2007 Blaustein Visiting fellowship, Stanford University

2007-08 €14,520 from ESF, under the MEDCLIVAR initiative, for a workshop meeting (June 2008, Pisa) on 'Oxygen isotopes as tracers of Mediterranean climate variability: linking past, present and future' with Dr M Jones (Nottingham) and Dr G Zanchetta (Pisa)

2009-10 $22,000 from National Geographic Society, Committee for Research and Exploration ‘5000 years of climatic and cultural change in Cappadocia, central Turkey’. [grant no. 8632-09]

2010-11 British Institute at Ankara, “5000 years of climatic and cultural change in Cappadocia, central Turkey”, £13,500

2011-2013 £146,741 from Leverhulme Trust on “Deforesting Europe: a pollen-based reconstruction of Holocene land cover change”, with Dr R Fyfe and Dr J Woodbridge

Conferences organised
ESF-funded MEDCLIVAR conference meeting (June 2008, Pisa, Italy) on 'Oxygen isotopes as tracers of Mediterranean climate variability: linking past, present and future' with Dr M Jones (Nottingham) and Dr G Zanchetta (Pisa).

Books

National Research Council, . (2006) National Research Council STR Committee 2006 Surface temperature reconstructions for the past 2,000 years.. National Academies Press, Washington DC.

Roberts, N. (1998) The Holocene, 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell-Wiley

Chapters

Eastwood, WJ., Boyer, P. & Roberts, CN. (2007) 'Pollen analysis at Çatalhöyük.' in Hodder I (ed.) Excavating Çatalhöyük. South, North and KOPAL Area reports from the 1995-99 seasons. Çatalhöyük Research Project volume 3, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research / British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara Monograph pp 573 - 580

Boyer, P., Merrick, J. & Roberts, CN. (2007) 'The KOPAL on-site and off-site excavations at Çatalhöyük 1996-2001.' in Hodder I (ed.) Excavating Çatalhöyük. South, North and KOPAL Area reports from the 1995-99 seasons Çatalhöyük Research Project volume 3, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research / British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara Monograph pp 553 - 572

Rosen, A. & Roberts, CN. (2006) 'The Nature of Çatalhöyük: People and their Changing Environments on the Konya Plain' in Hodder I (ed.) Çatalhöyük perspectives: themes from the 1995-1999 seasons. Çatalhöyük Research Project volume 6, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research / British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara Monograph pp 39 - 53

Roberts, N., Stevenson, AC., Davis, B., Cheddadi, R., Brewer, S. & Rosen, A. (2004) 'Holocene climate, environment and cultural change in the circum-Mediterranean region' pp 343 - 362

Gasse, F. & Roberts, CN. (2004) 'Late Quaternary hydrologic changes in the arid and semiarid belt of northern Africa: implications for past atmospheric circulation.' in Diaz HF,Bradley RS (ed.) The Hadley Circulation: Present Past & Future Kluwer, Dordrecht pp 313 - 345

Conference Papers

Jones, MD. & Roberts, CN. (2008) 'Interpreting lake isotope records of Holocene environmental change in the Eastern Mediterranean' Meeting on the Last 15ka of Environmental Change in Mediterranean Regions. Baeza, SPAIN 17/11/2005 - 19/11/2005 PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD pp 32 - 38 , DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2007.01.012

Roberts, N., Black, S., Boyer, P., Eastwood, WJ., Griffiths, HI., Lamb, HF., Leng, MJ., Parish, R., Reed, JM., Twigg, D. & Yigitbasioglu, H. (1999) 'Chronology and stratigraphy of Late Quaternary sediments in the Konya Basin, Turkey: Results from the KOPAL Project' International Symposium on the Late Quaternary in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. MTA GEN DIRECTORATE, ANKARA, TURKEY 01/04/1997 - 04/04/1997 PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD pp 611 - 630

Journals

Articles

Vanniere, B., Power, MJ., Roberts, N., Tinner, W., Carrion, J., Magny, M., Bartlein, P., Colombaroli, D., Daniau, AL., Finsinger, W., Gil-Romera, G., Kaltenrieder, P., Pini, R., Sadori, L., Turner, R., Valsecchi, V. & Vescovi, E. (2011) 'Circum-Mediterranean fire activity and climate changes during the mid-Holocene environmental transition (8500-2500 cal. BP)' HOLOCENE 21 (1), pp 53 - 73 , DOI: 10.1177/0959683610384164

Roberts, N., Eastwood, WJ., Kuzucuoglu, C., Fiorentino, G. & Caracuta, V. (2011) 'Climatic, vegetation and cultural change in the eastern Mediterranean during the mid-Holocene environmental transition' HOLOCENE 21 (1), pp 147 - 162 , DOI: 10.1177/0959683610386819

Woodbridge, J. & Roberts, N. (2011) 'Late Holocene climate of the Eastern Mediterranean inferred from diatom analysis of annually-laminated lake sediments' QUATERNARY SCI REV 30 (23-24), pp 3381 - 3392 , DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2011.08.013

Zanchetta, G., Sulpizio, R., Roberts, N., Cioni, R., Eastwood, WJ., Siani, G., Caron, B., Paterne, M. & Santacroce, R. (2011) 'Tephrostratigraphy, chronology and climatic events of the Mediterranean basin during the Holocene: An overview' HOLOCENE 21 (1), pp 33 - 52 , DOI: 10.1177/0959683610377531

Roberts, N., Brayshaw, D., Kuzucuoglu, C., Perez, R. & Sadori, L. (2011) 'The mid-Holocene climatic transition in the Mediterranean: Causes and consequences' HOLOCENE 21 (1), pp 3 - 13 , DOI: 10.1177/0959683610388058

Fyfe, R., Roberts, N. & Woodbridge, J. (2010) 'A pollen-based pseudobiomisation approach to anthropogenic land-cover change' HOLOCENE 20 (7), pp 1165 - 1171 , DOI: 10.1177/0959683610369509

Leng, MJ., Jones, MD., Frogley, MR., Eastwood, WJ., Kendrick, CP. & Roberts, CN. (2010) 'Detrital carbonate influences on bulk oxygen and carbon isotope composition of lacustrine sediments from the Mediterranean' GLOBAL PLANET CHANGE 71 (3-4), pp 175 - 182 , DOI: 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2009.05.005

Turner, R., Roberts, N., Eastwood, WJ., Jenkins, E. & Rosen, A. (2010) 'Fire, climate and the origins of agriculture: micro-charcoal records of biomass burning during the last glacial-interglacial transition in Southwest Asia' J QUATERNARY SCI 25 (3), pp 371 - 386 , DOI: 10.1002/jqs.1332

Hoelzmann, P., Schwalb, A., Roberts, N., Cooper, P. & Burgess, A. (2010) 'Hydrological response of an east-Saharan palaeolake (NW Sudan) to early-Holocene climate' HOLOCENE 20 (4), pp 537 - 549 , DOI: 10.1177/0959683609356584

Djamali, M., Akhani, H., Andrieu-Ponel, V., Braconnot, P., Brewer, S., de Beaulieu, JL., Fleitmann, D., Fleury, J., Gasse, F., Guibal, F., Jackson, ST., Lezine, AM., Medail, F., Ponel, P., Roberts, N. & Stevens, L. (2010) 'Indian Summer Monsoon variations could have affected the early-Holocene woodland expansion in the Near East' HOLOCENE 20 (5), pp 813 - 820 , DOI: 10.1177/0959683610362813

Woodbridge, J. & Roberts, N. (2010) 'Linking neo- and palaeolimnology: a case study using crater lake diatoms from central Turkey' J PALEOLIMNOL 44 (3), pp 855 - 871 , DOI: 10.1007/s10933-010-9458-9

Woodbridge, J., Roberts, N. & Cox, EJ. (2010) 'MORPHOLOGY AND ECOLOGY OF A NEW CENTRIC DIATOM FROM CAPPADOCIA (CENTRAL TURKEY)' DIATOM RES 25 (1), pp 195 - 212

Roberts, CN., Zanchetta, G. & Jones, MD. (2010) 'Oxygen isotopes as tracers of Mediterranean climate variability: An introduction' GLOBAL PLANET CHANGE 71 (3-4), pp 135 - 140 , DOI: 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2010.01.024

Roberts, N. & Rosen, A. (2009) 'Diversity and Complexity in Early Farming Communities of Southwest Asia: New Insights into the Economic and Environmental Basis of Neolithic Catalhoyuk' CURR ANTHROPOL 50 (3), pp 393 - 402 , DOI: 10.1086/598606

Turner, R., Roberts, N. & Jones, MD. (2008) 'Climatic pacing of Mediterranean fire histories from lake sedimentary microcharcoal' GLOBAL PLANET CHANGE 63 (4), pp 317 - 324 , DOI: 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2008.07.002

England, A., Eastwood, WJ., Roberts, CN., Turner, R. & Haldon, JF. (2008) 'Historical landscape change in Cappadocia (central Turkey): a palaeoecological investigation of annually laminated sediments from Nar lake' HOLOCENE 18 (8), pp 1229 - 1245 , DOI: 10.1177/0959683608096598

Eastwood, WJ., Leng, MJ., Roberts, N. & Davis, B. (2007) 'Holocene climate change in the eastern Mediterranean region: a comparison of stable isotope and pollen data from Lake Golhisar, southwest Turkey' Journal of Quaternary Science 22 (4), pp 327 - 341

Jones, MD., Roberts, CN. & Leng, MJ. (2007) 'Quantifying climatic change through the last glacial-interglacial transition based on lake isotope palaeohydrology from central Turkey' Quaternary Research 67 (3), pp 463 - 473

Jones, M., Roberts, N., Leng, MJ. & Turkes, M. (2006) 'A high-resolution late Holocene lake isotope record fromTurkey and links to North Atlantic and monsoon climate' Geology 34 (5), pp 361 - 364 , DOI: 10.1130/G22407.1

Boyer, P., Roberts, N. & Baird, D. (2006) 'Holocene environment and settlement on the Carsamba alluvial fan, south-central Turkey: Integrating geoarchaeology and archaeological field survey' Geoarchaeology-An International Journal 21 (7), pp 675 - 698

Jones, MD., Leng, MJ., Roberts, CN., Turkes, M. & Moyeed, R. (2005) 'A coupled calibration and modelling approach to the understanding of dry-land lake oxygen isotope records' Journal of Paleolimnology 34 (3), pp 391 - 411

Roberts, N. (2002) 'Did prehistoric landscape management retard the post-glacial spread of woodland in Southwest Asia?' Antiquity 76 (294), pp 1002 - 1010

Eastwood, WJ., Tibby, J., Roberts, N., Birks, HJB. & Lamb, HF. (2002) 'The environmental impact of the Minoan eruption of Santorini (Thera): statistical analysis of palaeoecological data from Golhisar, southwest Turkey' Holocene 12 (4), pp 431 - 444

Sayer, CD. & Roberts, N. (2001) 'Establishing realistic restoration targets for nutrient-enriched shallow lakes: linking diatom ecology and palaeoecology at the Attenborough Ponds, UK' Hydrobiologia 448 (1-3), pp 117 - 142

Leng, M., Barker, P., Greenwood, P., Roberts, N. & Reed, J. (2001) 'Oxygen isotope analysis of diatom silica and authigenic calcite from Lake Pinarbasi, Turkey' Journal of Paleolimnology 25 (3), pp 343 - 349

Roberts, N., Meadows, ME. & Dodson, JR. (2001) 'The history of mediterranean-type environments: climate, culture and landscape' Holocene 11 (6), pp 631 - 634

Meadows, ME., Dodson, JR. & Roberts, CN. (2001) 'The Holocene history of mediterranean-type environments in the Eastern Hemisphere.' The Holocene 11 (6), pp 631 - 768

Roberts, N., Reed, JM., Leng, MJ., Kuzucuoglu, C., Fontugne, M., Bertaux, J., Woldring, H., Bottema, S., Black, S., Hunt, E. & Karabiyikoglu, M. (2001) 'The tempo of Holocene climatic change in the eastern Mediterranean region: new high-resolution crater-lake sediment data from central Turkey' Holocene 11 (6), pp 721 - 736

Eastwood, WJ., Pearce, NJG., Westgate, JA., Perkins, WT., Lamb, HF. & Roberts, N. (1999) 'Geochemistry of Santorini tephra in lake sediments from Southwest Turkey' GLOBAL PLANET CHANGE 21 (1-3), pp 17 - 29

Verschuren, D., Tibby, J., Leavitt, PR. & Roberts, CN. (1999) 'The environmental history of a climate-sensitive lake in the former 'White Highlands' of central Kenya' AMBIO 28 (6), pp 494 - 501

Roberts, N., Kuzucuoglu, C. & Karabiyikoglu, M. (1999) 'The Late Quaternary in the Eastern Mediterranean region: an introduction' QUATERNARY SCI REV 18 (4-5), pp 497 - 499

Reviews

Roberts, N., Jones, MD., Benkaddour, A., Eastwood, WJ., Filippi, ML., Frogley, MR., Lamb, HF., Leng, MJ., Reed, JM., Stein, M., Stevens, L., Valero-Garces, B. & Zanchetta, G. (2008) 'Stable isotope records of Late Quaternary climate and hydrology from Mediterranean lakes: the ISOMED synthesis' QUATERNARY SCI REV 27 (25-26), pp 2426 - 2441 , DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2008.09.005

Additional information

Links
Leverhulme-funded "Deforesting Europe" project web-site
http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/pages/view.asp?page=35232