William Blake

William Blake

Job title: Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) in Geography, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (Faculty of Science and Technology)
Address: Room 209, 8 Kirkby Place, Drake Circus,
Plymouth, Devon, PL4 8AA
Telephone: +441752585969
Facsimile: +44 (0)1752 233054
Email: william.blake@plymouth.ac.uk

Role

Research and teaching in Physical Geography (river catchment processes and management)
University of Plymouth Consolidated Radioisotope Facility (CORiF): Facility Manager

Qualifications & background

1994: BSc (Hons) Earth Science, Liverpool John Moores University, UK

1995: MSc Recent Environmental Change, Department of Geography, University of Liverpool, UK

2000: PhD, Department of Geography, University of Exeter, UK. "Using Be-7 as a tracer in sediment budget investigations" with Prof. Des Walling and Dr Qingping He

2001-2002: Postdoctoral research Assistant, Department of Geography, University of Wales Swansea, UK

NERC URGENT programme "Mobilisation and tranfer of heavy metals between ecosystem compartments in the Lower Swansea Valley, an urban regeneration zone", with Profs Rory Walsh and Mike Barnsley

2002-2003: Postdoctoral research officer, Department of Geography, University of Wales Swansea, UK

"The erosional consequences of varying degrees of fire-induced soil water repellency in the Sydney Forest Fires region", NERC-funded Recognised-Researcher with Drs Shakesby and Doerr (UWS), Wallbrink (CSIRO, Australia) and Humphreys (Maquarie University, Australia)

2007: Visiting Scientist, CSIRO Land and Water, Canberra, Australia

Professional membership

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

International Association for Sediment Water Science (IASWS)

International Association of Hydrological Science (IAHS)

British society for Geomorphology (BSG)

Roles on external bodies
International Association for Sediment Water Science: Board of Directors

Associate Editor: International Journal of Wildland Fire

Teaching interests
BSc/BA Geography and BSc Earth Science

Stage 1 "Practising Geography: the Physical Environment"
Stage 2 "River catchment processes"
Stage 3 "Catchment Management"
Stage 3 "Geohazards"
Stage 3 "Advanced fieldwork in geography - Borneo "

MSc Sustainable Environmental Management
MSc Global Environmental Change
MSc Coatal and Catchment Data Analysis

"Land degradation and management"
"Catchment and Coastal Dynamics"

Research interests

River catchment processes and managment; sediment budgets; sediment tracing; environmental radioactivity;

Current Research Themes:

1. Wildfire, soil erosion and downstream water quality
2. Downstream consequences of selective rotational logging in tropical rainforests
3. Impacts of agriculture on channel and estuarine siltation
4. Fallout radionuclides (Be-7, Cs-137, excess Pb-210) as tracers in sediment budget studies

For further details please use Catchment and Coastal Processes Research Group link below.

Also affiliated to:
University of Plymouth Consolidated Radioisotope Facility (CORiF)
University of Plymouth Analytical Research Facility (ARF)

UoP Research group membership

Catchment Processes and Management
Centre for Research in Environment and Society (CeRES)

Grants & contracts

Date	Funding body	Research Project Title	Collaborators		Award
March 2011	EU FP7	Quantifying sources and residence times of contaminated sediment in human-impacted river basins: an integrated approach	PI with Smith (Marie Curie Fellow)	€202k
Jun 2010	Westcountry Rivers Trust and UoP	Evaluating potential use of Compound Specific Stable Isotopes (CSSIs) as sediment tracing tools	PI with Couldrick (WRT)	£16k
April 2010	Westcountry River Trust	Carbon storage in restored wetlands (River Fal, Cornwall)	PI with Couldrick (WRT)	£6k
May 2009	Seale Hayne Educational Trust	Carbon management in moorlands; effects of drainage and re-wetting on carbon sequestration	PI with Charman and Parry	£9k
April 2009	Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)	The catastrophic Victoria wildfires: impact of extreme burn severity on the soil system	Project partner with Doerr (PI), Shakesby and University of Melbourne	£65k (£5k UoP)
Jan 2009	Danish Research Council	Development and test of new cost-effective monitoring technologies and planning design for restoration of wetlands – MONITECH	Co-I with Kronvang (PI) and others	11.6 m DKR (£1.4m) (£20k UoP)
Nov 2008	Iraqi Ministry for Education	Particulate-associated contaminants in agricultural estuaries (PhD studentship)	Director of studies with Masselink and Keith-Roach	£56k
Oct 2008	Westcountry Rivers Trust and UoP	⁷Be biogeochemistry and role as a tracer in catchment systems (PhD studentship)	Director of Studies with Keith-Roach	£56k
Nov 2007	Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)	Wildfire, soil erosion and impacts on downstream aquatic resources: evidence from the burnt Evrotas river basin, southern Peloponnese, Greece	PI with Athens Institute of Soil Science; Hellenic Centre for Marine research	£55k
Sept 2007	Environment Agency	Establishing Dominant Sediment Sources Within The Furze Brook Study Catchment’	PI with Russell (EA)	£2.5k
April 2007	The Seale-Hayne Educational Trust	Estuarine siltation in Devon and Cornwall	Co-I with Gehrels (PI) and others	£9.3k

Publications

37. Smith, H.G., Blake, W.H., Owens, P.N. (in review). Determining sediment sources following wildfire: a review of the application of sediment tracers in burned forest environments. Hydrological Processes

36. Taylor A, Blake WH, Keith-Roach MJ, Couldrick L (in review). Sorption behaviour of beryllium-7 and implications for its use as a sediment tracer. Geoderma.

35.. Taylor A, Blake WH, Keith-Roach MJ, Couldrick L (in review). Validating the use of beryllium-7 to quantify soil erosion rates using plot-scale rainfall simulation. Journal of Soils and Sediments

34.. Taylor A, Blake WH, Keith-Roach MJ, Couldrick L (in review). Optimisation of beryllium-7 gamma analysis following BCR sequential extraction. Analytica Chimica Acta

33. Leorri E, García-Artola A, Cearreta A, Irabien MJ, Blake WH (in press). Relative sea-level rise in the Basque coast (N Spain). Ocean & Coastal Management

32. Blake WH, Ficken KJ, Taylor P, Russell MA, Walling DE (in press). Tracing crop-specific sediment sources in agricultural catchments. Geomorphology.

31. RPD Walsh, K Bidin, WH Blake, NA Chappell, MA Clarke, I Douglas, R Ghazali, AM Sayer, J. Suhaimi, W Tych and KV Annammala, (2011). Long-term responses of rainforest erosional systems at different spatial scales to selective logging and climatic change. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 27 , 366(1582), 3340-3353

30. Blake W.H., Theocharopoulos S.P., Skoulikidis N., Clark P., Tountas P., R. Hartley, Amaxidis Y. (2010). Wildfire impacts on hillslope sediment and phosphorus yields. Journal of Soils and Sediments, 10(4), 671-682 ISSN: 1439-0108

29. Leorri, E., Cearreta, A., Corbett, R., Blake, W., Fatela, F., R. Gehrels, M. J. Irabien, (2010). Identification of suitable areas for high-resolution sea-level studies in SW Europe using commonly applied 210Pb models. Geogaceta, 48, 35-38. ISSN 0213-683X

28. Garcia-Artola, A., Cearreta, A., Leorri, E., Irabien, M., & Blake, W.H. (2009). Coastal salt-marshes as geological archives of recent sea-level changes. Geogaceta, 47, 109-112, ISSN 0213-683X

27. Wilkinson S.N., Wallbrink P.J., Hancock G.J., Blake W.H., Shakesby R.A., Doerr S.H. (2009) Fallout radionuclide tracers identify a switch in sediment sources and transport-limited sediment yield following wildfire in a eucalypt forest. Geomorphology. 110 (3-4), 140-151

26. Blake, W. H., Wallbrink P. J. and Droppo I.G. (2009) Sediment aggregation and implications for water quality in wildfire-affected river basins. Marine and Freshwater Research. 60, 653–659

25. Masselink G, Cointre L, Williams J, Gehrels R, Blake W (2009) Tide-driven dune migration and sediment transport on an intertidal shoal in a shallow estuary in Devon, UK. Marine Geology, 262(1), 82-95

24. Blake WH, Wallbrink PJ, Wilkinson S, Humphreys GS, Doerr SH, Shakebsy RA, Tomkins K. (2009). Deriving hillslope sediment budgets in wildfire-affected forests using fallout radionuclide tracers. Geomorphology. 104, 105-116

23. Tomkins, K. M., G. S. Humphreys, A. F. Gero, R. A. Shakesby, S. H. Doerr, P. J. Wallbrink, and W. H. Blake (2008), Postwildfire hydrological response in an El Niño–Southern Oscillation–dominated environment, Journal of Geophysical Research, 113, F02023, doi:10.1029/2007JF000853

22. Blake, W. H., I. G. Droppo, G. S. Humphreys, S. H. Doerr, R. A. Shakesby, and P. J. Wallbrink (2007), Structural characteristics and behavior of fire-modified soil aggregates, Journal of Geophysical Research, 112, F02020, doi: 10.1029/2006JF000660.

21. Blake, W.H., Walsh, R.P.D., Reed, J., Barnsley, M.J. and Smith J. (2007) Impacts of landscape remediation on the heavy metal pollution dynamics of a lake surrounded by non-ferrous smelter waste. Environmental Pollution, 148, 268-280

20. Walsh, R.P.D., Blake, W.H., Garbett-Davies, H.R., James, J.G., Dyrynda, P., Barnsley, M.J. (2007). Downstream changes in bed-sediment and streamwater metal concentrations along a watercourse in a rehabilitated post-industrial landscape in South Wales. Water, Air and Soil Pollution, 181 (1-4): 107-113

19. Tomkins K. M. , Humphreys G. S., Wilkinson, M. T., Fink, D., Hesse, P. P., Doerr, S. H., Shakesby, R. A., Wallbrink, P. J., Blake W. H. (2007). Contemporary versus long-term denudation along a passive plate margin: the role of extreme events. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 32(7), 1013-1031 ISSN: 0197-9337

18. Shakesby R.A., Wallbrink P.J., Doerr S.H., English P.M., Chafer C.J., Humphreys G.S., Blake W.H., Tomkins K.M. (2007). Distinctiveness of wildfire effects on soil erosion in south-east Australian eucalypt forests assessed in a global context. Forest Ecology and Management 238, 347–364. ISSN: 0378-1127

17. Blake, W.H., Walsh, R.P.D., Sayer, A.M. & Bidin, K. (2006). Quantifying fine-sediment sources in primary and selectively-logged rainforest catchments using geochemical tracers. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution: Focus 6: 615–623. ISSN 1567-7230

16. Owens, P.N., Blake, W.H. & Petticrew, E.L. (2006). Changes in sediment sources following wildfire in mountainous terrain: a paired-catchment approach, British Columbia, Canada. Water, Air and Soil Pollution: Focus 6: 637–645. ISSN 1567-7230

15. Blake W.H., Wallbrink, P.J., Doerr, S.H., Shakesby, R.A., Humphreys, G.S., English, P., Wilkinson, S., (2006). Using geochemical stratigraphy to indicate post-fire sediment and nutrient fluxes into a water supply reservoir, Sydney, Australia. In: Rowan J. (Ed) Sediment Dynamics and the Hydromorphology of Fluvial Systems. IAHS Publication 306, pp 363-370, ISSN 0144-7815

14. Blake, W.H., Wallbrink, P.J., Doerr, S.H., Shakesby, R.A. & Humphreys, G.S. 2006. Magnetic enhancement in fire-affected soil and its potential for sediment-source ascription. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 31, 249–264. ISSN: 0197-9337

13. Doerr, S.H., Shakesby, R.A., Blake, W.H., Chafer, C.J., Humphreys, G.S., Wallbrink, P.J. (2006). Effects of differing wildfire severities on soil wettability and implications for hydrological response. Journal of Hydrology. 319: 295-311 ISSN: 0022-1694

12. Blake, W.H., Droppo, I.G., Wallbrink P.J., Doerr, S.H., Shakesby, R.A., Humphreys, G.S. (2005). Impacts of wildfire on effective sediment particle size: implications for post-fire sediment budgets. In: Walling D.E. and Horowitz A. J. (Eds) Sediment Budgets 1. IAHS Publication 291, 143-150. ISBN 1-901502-87-2

11. Wallbrink, P.J., Blake, W.H., Doerr, S.H., Shakesby, R.A., Humphreys, G.S., English, P. (2005). Using tracer based sediment budgets to assess redistribution of soil and organic material after severe bush fires. In: Walling D.E. and Horowitz A. J. (Eds) Sediment Budgets 2. IAHS Publication 292 223-230. ISBN 1-901502-92-9

10. Doerr, S.H., Blake, W.H., , Shakesby, R.A., Stagnitti, F., Vuurens, S.H., Humphreys, G.S. & Wallbrink, P. , 2004, Heating effects on water repellency in Australian eucalypt forest soils and their value in estimating wildfire soil temperatures. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 13(2), 157-163, ISSN: 1049-8001

9. Blake, W.H., Wallbrink, P.J., Doerr, S.H., Shakesby, R.A. & Humphreys, G.S., 2004, Sediment redistribution following wildfire in the Sydney region, Australia: a mineral magnetic tracing approach. In: Golosov V., Belayev V. and Walling D.E. (eds) Sediment Transfer through the Fluvial System, IAHS Publication 288, pp 52-59 ISBN 1-901502-67-8

8. Shakesby, R.A., Chafer, C., Doerr, S.H., Blake, W.H., Humphreys, G.S. and Wallbrink, P.J. (2003). Fire severity, water repellency characteristics and hydrogeomorphological changes following the Christmas 2001 Sydney forest fires. Australian Geographer. 34, 147-175

7. Blake, W.H., Walsh, R.P.D. and Barnsley, M.J. (2003). Relating mineral magnetic measurements to sediment quality in a remediated, contaminated catchment: the significance of heavy metal delivery mode and water-sediment exchange dynamics in a small urban lake. Journal Physique, 107, 193 – 196

6. Blake, W.H., Walsh, R.P.D., Barnsley, M.J., Palmer, G., Dyrynda, P. and James, J.G. (2003) Impacts of storm flow on heavy metal concentrations in a small industrialised catchment. Hydrological Processes, 17, 1923-1939

5. Blake, W.H., Walling, D.E. and He, Q. (2002). The use of ⁷Be as a tracer in sediment budget investigations. Geografiska Annaler 84A(2), 89 – 102

4. Walling, D.E., He, Q. and Blake, W.H., 2000. River floodplains as phosphorus sinks. The Role of Erosion and Sediment Transport in Nutrient and Contaminant Transfer. IAHS Publ. No. 263: 211-218.

3. Walling, D.E., He, Q. and Blake, W.H., 1999. Use of ⁷Be and ¹³⁷Cs measurements to document short- and medium-term rates of water-induced soil erosion on agricultural land. Water Resources Research 35 (12): 3865-3874.

2. Blake, W.H., Walling, D.E. and He, Q. 1999. Fallout ⁷Be as a tracer in soil erosion investigations. Applied Radiation and Isotopes 51: 599-605.

1. Blake, W.H., Plater, A.J. and Boyle, J. 1998. Seasonal trends in the uranium-series characteristics of contemporary waters and sediment from Hawes Water, Cumbria, UK. Journal of Palaeolimnology 20: 1-14.

Conferences organised
12th International Symposium on the Interactions between Sediments and Water, Dartington, 2011.
For more details please visit the Symposium website