Dr Ian Lawson

Senior Lecturer

Researcher profile

Phone

+44 (0)1334 46 4023

Email

itl2@st-andrews.ac.uk

 

Teaching

I contribute to Honours-level Options modules in Biogeography, and in Reconstructing Environmental Change. I am particularly keen on field and laboratory teaching: I teach research methods to Honours students, including quantitative data analysis, and I frequently co-lead field classes, for example to Iceland. I also contribute to various modules at Sub-Honours and Masters level.

Research areas

I am a Quaternary scientist, trained in pollen analysis and related palaeoenvironmental techniques, with a publication record in Quaternary environmental change in ecosystems ranging from the sub-arctic to the tropics. I have a track record of expertise in the development and functioning of tropical peatlands, including their palaeoecology and geochemistry; quantitative regional-scale synthesis and analysis of environmental data; and long-term (Holocene and older) perspectives on environmental change and human impacts.

My current interests are in:

• Tropical peatland science
• Lateglacial and Holocene environmental change
• Long-term interactions between people and the environment
• The carbon cycle and the Earth system
• Quaternary Science, including pollen analysis.

I have published research based on fieldwork in Greece, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Sweden, Peru, and the Republic of Congo, as well as in the UK.

I would welcome expressions of interest from potential research students in any of these fields.

PhD supervision

• George Biddulph
• Celeste Smith

Selected publications

• Open access

  Genesis and development of an interfluvial peatland in the central Congo Basin since the Late Pleistocene

  Hawthorne, D., Lawson, I. T., Dargie, G. C., Bocko, Y. E., Ifo, S. A., Garcin, Y., Schefuß, E., Hiles, W., Jovani-Sancho, A. J., Tyrell, G., Biddulph, G., Boom, A., Chase, B. M., Gulliver, P., Page, S. E., Roucoux, K., Sjögersten, S., Young, D. M. & Lewis, S. L., 1 Apr 2023, In: Quaternary Science Reviews. 305, 24 p., 107992.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access

  Author correction to "Mapping peat thickness and carbon stocks of the central Congo Basin using field data" (Nature Geoscience, 2022,10.1038/s41561-022-00966-7)

  Crezee, B., Dargie, G. C., Ewango, C. E. N., Mitchard, E. T. A., Emba B, O., Kanyama T, J., Bola, P., Ndjango, J. B. N., Girkin, N. T., Bocko, Y. E., Ifo, S. A., Hubau, W., Seidensticker, D., Batumike, R., Imani, G., Cuní-Sanchez, A., Kiahtipes, C. A., Lebamba, J., Wotzka, H. P., Bean, H., & 7 others Baker, T. R., Baird, A. J., Boom, A., Morris, P. J., Page, S. E., Lawson, I. T. & Lewis, S. L., 1 Oct 2022, In: Nature Geoscience. 15, p. 854 1 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate › peer-review

• Open access

  Hydroclimatic vulnerability of peat carbon in the central Congo Basin

  Garcin, Y., Schefuss, E., Dargie, G. C., Hawthorne, D., Lawson, I. T., Sebag, D., Biddulph, G. E., Crezee, B., Bocko, Y. E., Ifo, S. A., Mampouya Wenina, Y. E., Mbemba, M., Ewango, C. E. N., Emba, O., Bola, P., Kanyama Tabu, J., Tyrrell, G., Young, D. M., Gassier, G., Girkin, N. T., & 9 others Vane, C. H., Adatte, T., Baird, A. J., Boom, A., Gulliver, P., Morris, P. J., Page, S. E., Sjogersten, S. & Lewis, S. L., 2 Nov 2022, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Nature. First Online, 24 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access

  Mapping peat thickness and carbon stocks of the central Congo Basin using field data

  Crezee, B., Dargie, G. C., Ewango, C. E. N., Mitchard, E. T. A., Emba B, O., Kanyama T, J., Bola, P., Ndjango, J. B. N., Girkin, N. T., Bocko, Y. E., Ifo, S. A., Hubau, W., Seidensticker, D., Batumike, R., Imani, G., Cuní-Sanchez, A., Kiahtipes, C. A., Lebamba, J., Wotzka, H. P., Bean, H., & 7 others Baker, T. R., Baird, A. J., Boom, A., Morris, P. J., Page, S. E., Lawson, I. T. & Lewis, S. L., 1 Aug 2022, In: Nature Geoscience. 15, p. 639-644

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access

  Risks to carbon storage from land-use change revealed by peat thickness maps of Peru

  Hastie, A., Honorio Coronado, E. N., Reyna, J., Mitchard, E. T. A., Åkesson, C. M., Baker, T. R., Cole, L. E. S., Oroche, C. J. C., Dargie, G., Dávila, N., De Grandi, E. C., Del Águila, J., Del Castillo Torres, D., De La Cruz Paiva, R., Draper, F. C., Flores, G., Grández, J., Hergoualc’h, K., Householder, J. E., Janovec, J. P., & 8 others Lähteenoja, O., Reyna, D., Rodríguez-Veiga, P., Roucoux, K. H., Tobler, M., Wheeler, C. E., Williams, M. & Lawson, I. T., 14 Apr 2022, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Nature Geoscience. First Online

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access

  The presence of peat and variation in tree species composition are under different hydrological controls in Amazonian wetland forests

  Llampazo, G. F., Honorio Coronado, E. N., del Aguila-Pasquel, J., Cordova Oroche, C. J., Díaz Narvaez, A., Reyna Huaymacari, J., Grandez Ríos, J., Lawson, I. T., Hastie, A., Baird, A. J. & Baker, T. R., Sept 2022, In: Hydrological Processes. 36, 9, 14 p., e14690.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access

  The vulnerability of tropical peatlands to oil and gas exploration and extraction

  Lawson, I. T., Honorio Coronado, E. N., Andueza, L., Cole, L. E. S., Dargie, G., Davies, A., Laurie, N., Okafor-Yarwood, I., Roucoux, K. & Simpson, M., 1 Dec 2022, In: Progress in Environmental Geography. 1, 1-4, p. 84-114 31 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access

  From plots to policy: how to ensure long-term forest plot data supports environmental management in intact tropical forest landscapes

  Baker, T. R., Vicuña Miñano, E., Banda-R, K., del Castillo Torres, D., Farfan-Rios, W., Lawson, I. T., Loja Alemán, E., Pallqui Camacho, N., Silman, M. R., Roucoux, K. H., Phillips, O. L., Honorio Coronado, E. N., Monteagudo Mendoza, A. & Rojas Gonzáles, R., 27 Apr 2021, In: Plants, People, Planet. 3, 3, p. 229-237 9 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

• Open access

  Intensive field sampling increases the known extent of carbon-rich Amazonian peatland pole forests

  Honorio Coronado, E. N., Hastie, A., Reyna, J., Flores, G., Grández, J., Lähteenoja, O., Draper, F. C., Åkesson, C., Baker, T. R., Bhomia, R. K., Cole, L. E. S., Dávila, N., Del Águila, J., Del Águila, M., Del Castillo Torres, D., Lawson, I. T., Martín Brañas, M., Mitchard, E. T. A., Monteagudo, A., Philips, O. L., & 9 others Ramírez, E., Ríos, M., Ríos, S., Rodriguez, L., Roucoux, K. H., Tagle Casapia, X., Vasquez, R., Wheeler, C. E. & Montoya, M., 14 Jul 2021, In: Environmental Research Letters. 16, 7, 16 p., 074048.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access

  Late survival of woodland contrasts with rapid limnological changes following settlement at Kalmanstjörn, Mývatnssveit, northeast Iceland

  Hiles, W., Lawson, I. T., Roucoux, K. & Streeter, R. T., 6 May 2021, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Boreas. Early View, 19 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

 

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