Dr Ian Lawson

Senior Lecturer

Researcher profile

Phone

+44 (0)1334 464023

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

Selected publications

• First evidence of peat domes in the Congo Basin using LiDAR from a fixed-wing drone

  Davenport, I. J., McNicol, I., Mitchard, E. T. A., Dargie, G., Suspense, I., Milongo, B., Bocko, Y. E., Hawthorne, D., Lawson, I., Baird, A. J., Page, S. & Lewis, S. L., 9 Jul 2020, In : Remote Sensing. 12, 14, 2196.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• Patterns and drivers of development in a west Amazonian peatland during the late Holocene

  Kelly, T., Lawson, I. T., Roucoux, K. H., Baker, T. & Honorio Coronado, E., 15 Feb 2020, In : Quaternary Science Reviews. 230, 106168.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• Congo Basin peatlands: threats and conservation priorities

  Dargie, G. C., Lawson, I. T., Rayden, T., Miles, L., Mitchard, E., Page, S., Bocko, Y., Ifo, S. & Lewis, S., 15 Apr 2019, In : Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change. 24, 4, p. 669-686 18 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• Peatland and wetland ecosystems in Peruvian Amazonia: indigenous classifications and perspectives

  Schulz, C., Brañas, M. M., Núñez Pérez, C., Del Águila Villacorta, M., Laurie, N., Lawson, I. T. & Roucoux, K. H., 30 Apr 2019, In : Ecology and Society. 24, 2, 16 p., 12.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• Peru: Deforestation in Times of Climate Change

  Chirif, A. (ed.), Alvarez Alonso, J., Baker, T., Elvira Belaunde, L., Martín Brañas, M., Cabieses, H., Cañas, C., Del Castillo, D., Gálvez Durand, C. M., Honorio Coronado, E., Huertas, B., Lawson, I. T., Montoya, M., Moore, T., Noningo, S., Reaño, G., Ríos, S., Roucoux, K., Smith, R., Tuesta, E. & Urrunaga, J., Dec 2019, Lima: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. 286 p.

  Research output: Book/Report ? Book

• Uses, cultural significance, and management of peatlands in the Peruvian Amazon: implications for conservation

  Schulz, C., Martín Brañas, M., Núñez Pérez, C., Del Aguila Villacorta, M., Laurie, N., Lawson, I. T. & Roucoux, K. H., Jul 2019, In : Biological Conservation. 235, p. 189-198 10 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• Climatic control on Icelandic volcanic activity during the mid-Holocene

  Swindles, G. T., Watson, E. J., Savov, I. P., Lawson, I. T., Schmidt, A., Hooper, A., Cooper, C. L., Connor, C. B., Gloor, M. & Carrivick, J. L., Jan 2018, In : Geology. 46, 1, p. 47-50 4 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• Continuous human presence without extensive reductions in forest cover over the past 2500 years in an aseasonal Amazonian rainforest

  Kelly, T. J., Lawson, I. T., Roucoux, K. H., Baker, T. R., Honorio-Coronado, E. N., Jones, T. D. & Rivas Panduro, S., 4 May 2018, In : Journal of Quaternary Science. 33, 4, p. 369-379 11 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• Deforestation and human agency in the North Atlantic region: archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence from the Western Isles of Scotland

  Bishop, R. R., Church, M. J., Lawson, I. T., Roucoux, K. H., O'Brien, C., Ranner, H., Heald, A. J. & Flitcroft, C. E., 2 Oct 2018, In : Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. First View, 40 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article

• Peat

  Kelly, T. J., Lawson, I. T. & Cole, L. E. S., 1 Jan 2018, Encyclopedia of Geochemistry. White, W. M. (ed.). Springer, p. 1197-1200 4 p. (Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series).

  Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding ? Chapter

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