Dr Katy Roucoux

Senior Lecturer

Researcher profile

Phone

+44 (0)1334 46 4025

Email

khr@st-andrews.ac.uk

 

Biography

My BSc is in Geology and Zoology (Royal Holloway University of London, 1995). My PhD research, supervised by Prof Sir Nick Shackleton, was in Quaternary palaeoclimatology and concerned the relationship between marine and terrestrial records of abrupt climatic change in southern Europe during the last glaciation (University of Cambridge, 2000). I completed a MSc degree in Science Communication (Imperial College London, 2001) and spent a further year working as a freelance science writer. In 2002, I began work as a NERC-funded post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Leeds with Prof Chronis Tzedakis, initially working on marine pollen records of the middle Pleistocene from the Iberian margin and then on terrestrial pollen records of the same interval from Lake Ioannina, Greece.  I was appointed as Lecturer in the School of Geography, University of in Leeds in 2007 and, with colleagues there, established a collaborative research project investigating the long-term history of tropical forests, particularly in Amazonia. I moved to my current post as Lecturer in Physical Geography (Environmental Change) in the School of Geography and Sustainability at the University of St Andrews in August 2014 and became a senior lecturer in 2018. I belong to the Environmental Change Research Group and the Peatlands@StAndrews research group.

Research areas

I specialise in long-term ecology and palaeoclimatology. The focus of my research is the use of palaeoecological methods, in particular sub-fossil pollen and sediments, to reconstruct past vegetation responses to climatic change and anthropogenic activity during the Pleistocene and Holocene. I am currently working on the Holocene history of tropical (particularly Amazonian) peatlands where we are investigating questions of carbon dynamics, ecological change, and the effects of human activities on peatland ecosystem function. I am leading a Leverhulme Trust funded research project entitled Valuing Intact Tropical Peatlands: An Interdisciplinary Challenge which is investigating how mestizo and indigenous communities, in the Pastaza-Maranon Foreland Basin in Peruvian Amazonia, use and value their peatlands (see project website). I continue to be involved in work on pollen records spanning multiple glacial-interglacial cycles from the Mediterranean region.  

PhD supervision

• Christopher Blake
• Camille Choquet

Selected publications

• A new tephrochronological record of a raised bog in eastern lowland Scotland

  Wang, L., Roucoux, K. H., Davies, A. L., Zhang, S., Sun, C., Streeter, R. T., Hutchison, W. & Lawson, I. T., 1 Feb 2025, In: Quaternary Geochronology. 86, 15 p., 101647.

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

• Open access

  Long-term interventions by conservation and development projects support successful recovery of tropical peatlands in Amazonia

  Honorio Coronado, E. N., Rios, J. G., Pasquel, J. D. Á., Llampazo, G. F., Oroche, C. C., Huaymacari, J. R., Pizango, G. H., Alvarado, L. F., Murayari, U. P., Reátegui, G. I., Álvarez, C. L., Aleman, E. L., Isasi-Catala, E., Gutierrez-Sotelo, J., Draper, F., Villacorta, M. D. A., Baker, T., Torres, D. D. C., Gamarra, K. D. L. C. & Guerra, D. E. & 5 others, Lawson, I. T., Brañas, M. M., Gonzales, E. M., Chávez, J. R. & Roucoux, K., 6 Mar 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) In: People and Nature. Early View, p. 1-16 16 p.

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

• Quaternary science for social justice? Reflections on fifteen years of research in Peruvian Amazonia

  Roucoux, K. H., 1 Jun 2025, Quaternary Newsletter, 165, p. 30-40 11 p.

  Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article

• Open access

  Sustainable management of non-timber forest products in Peruvian Amazonia: lessons learnt from participatory use of smartphone technology

  Wheeler, C. E., Davies, A. L., Andueza, L., Cole, L. E. S., Dávila, N., Del Águila, J., del Aguila Villacorta, M., Draper, F. C., Evans, C. L. D., Honorio Coronado, E. N., Laurie, N., Loja, E., Brañas, M. M., Mitchard, E. T. A. & Roucoux, K. H., 1 Sept 2025, In: Journal of Environmental Management. 391, 11 p., 126198.

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

• Open access

  Variation in wood density across South American tropical forests

  Sullivan, M. J. P., Phillips, O. L., Galbraith, D., Almeida, E., de Oliveira, E. A., Almeida, J., Dávila, E. Á., Alves, L. F., Andrade, A., Aragão, L., Araujo-Murakami, A., Arets, E., Arroyo, L., Cruz, O. A. M., Baccaro, F., Baker, T. R., Banki, O., Baraloto, C., Barlow, J. & Barroso, J. & 150 others, Berenguer, E., Blanc, L., Blundo, C., Bonal, D., Bongers, F., Bordin, K. M., Brienen, R. J. W., Broggio, I. S., Burban, B., Cabral, G., Camargo, J. L., Cardoso, D., Carniello, M. A., Castro, W., de Lima, H. C., Cavalheiro, L., Ribeiro, S. C., Ramos, S. C. P., Moscoso, V. C., Chave, J., Coelho, F., Comiskey, J. A., Valverde, F. C., Costa, F., Coutinho, I. A. C., da Costa, A. C. L., de Medeiros, M. B., del Aguila Pasquel, J., Derroire, G., Dexter, K. G., Disney, M., do Espírito Santo, M. M., Domingues, T. F., Dourdain, A., Duque, A., Rangel, C. D., Elias, F., Esquivel-Muelbert, A., Farfan-Rios, W., Fauset, S., Feldpausch, T., Fernandes, G. W., Ferreira, J., Nunes, Y. R. F., Figueiredo, J. C. G., Cabreara, K. G., Gonzalez, R., Hernández, L., Herrera, R., Honorio Coronado, E. N., Huasco, W. H., Iguatemy, M., Joly, C. A., Kalamandeen, M., Killeen, T., Klipel, J., Klitgaard, B., Laurance, S. G., Laurance, W. F., Levesley, A., Lewis, S. L., Lima Dan, M., Lopez-Gonzalez, G., Magnusson, W., Malhi, Y., Malizia, L., Malizia, A., Manzatto, A. G., Peña, J. L. M., Marimon, B. S., Marimon Junior, B. H., Martínez-Villa, J. A., Reis, S. M., Metzker, T., Milliken, W., Monteagudo-Mendoza, A., Moonlight, P., Morandi, P. S., Moser, P., Müller, S. C., Nascimento, M., Negreiros, D., Lima, A. N., Vargas, P. N., Oliveira, W. L., Palacios, W., Pallqui Camacho, N. C., Gutierrez, A. P., Pardo Molina, G., Pedra de Abreu, K. M., Peña-Claros, M., Pena Rodrigues, P. J. F., Pennington, R. T., Pickavance, G. C., Pipoly, J., Pitman, N. C. A., Playfair, M., Pontes-Lopes, A., Poorter, L., Prestes, N. C. C. D. S., Ramírez-Angulo, H., Réjou-Méchain, M., Reynel Rodriguez, C., Rivas-Torres, G., Rodrigues, P. M. S., de Jesus Rodrigues, D., de Sousa, T. R., Rodrigues Pinto, J. R., Rodriguez M, G. M., Roucoux, K., Ruokolainen, K., Ryan, C. M., Revilla, N. S., Salomão, R., Santos, R. M., Sarkinen, T., Scabin, A., Bergamin, R. S., Schietti, J., de Meira Junior, M. S., Serrano, J., Silman, M., Silva, R. C., Silva, C. V. J., Silva, J. O., Silveira, M., Simon, M. F., Soto-Shareva, Y. C., Souza, P., Souza, R., Sposito, T., Talbot, J., ter Steege, H., Terborgh, J., Thomas, R., Toledo, M., Torres-Lezama, A., Trujillo, W., van der Hout, P., Veloso, M. D. D. M., Vieira, S. A., Vilanova, E., Villalobos Cayo, J. M., Villela, D. M., Viscarra, L. J., Vos, V. A., Wortel, V., Ishida, F. Y., Zuidema, P. A. & Zwerts, J. A., 10 Mar 2025, In: Nature Communications. 16, 12 p., 2351.

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

• Open access

  A new data-driven map predicts substantial undocumented peatland areas in Amazonia

  Hastie, A., Householder, J. E., Honorio Coronado, E. N., Hidalgo Pizango, C. G., Herrera, R., Lähteenoja, O., de Jong, J., Winton, R. S., Aymard Corredor, G. A., Reyna, J., Montoya, E., Paukku, S., Mitchard, E. T. A., Åkesson, C. M., Baker, T. R., Cole, L. E. S., Córdova Oroche, C. J., Dávila, N., Águila, J. D. & Draper, F. C. & 13 others, Fluet-Chouinard, E., Grández, J., Janovec, J. P., Reyna, D., W Tobler, M., Del Castillo Torres, D., Roucoux, K. H., Wheeler, C. E., Fernandez Piedade, M. T., Schöngart, J., Wittmann, F., van der Zon, M. & Lawson, I. T., 1 Sept 2024, In: Environmental Research Letters. 19, 9, 14 p., 094019.

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

• Open access

  Campanian Ignimbrite tephra reveals asynchronous vegetation responses to abrupt climate change in the eastern Mediterranean region

  McGuire, A. M., Lane, C. S., Roucoux, K. H., Lawson, I. T., Koutsodendris, A., Pross, J., Margari, V. & Tzedakis, P. C., 15 Jun 2024, In: Quaternary Science Reviews. 334, 14 p., 108714.

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

• Open access

  Net primary productivity and litter decomposition rates in two distinct Amazonian peatlands

  Dargie, G. C., del Aguila-Pasquel, J., Córdova Oroche, C. J., Irarica Pacaya, J., Reyna Huaymacari, J., Baker, T. R., Hastie, A., Honorio Coronado, E. N., Lewis, S. L., Roucoux, K. H., Mitchard, E. T., Williams, M., Draper, F. C. H. & Lawson, I. T., 20 Aug 2024, In: Global Change Biology. 30, 8, 21 p., e17436.

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

• 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

  Influence of flooding variability on the development of an Amazonian peatland

  Sassoon, D., Fletcher, W. J., Roucoux, K. H., Ryan, P., Lawson, I. T., Honorio Coronado, E. N., Del Aguila Pasquel, J., Bishop, T., Åkesson, C. M. & Hastie, A., 28 Dec 2023, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Journal of Quaternary Science. Early View, 18 p.

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

 

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