Dr Katy Roucoux
Senior Lecturer
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.
- Long-term ecology
- Tropical peatlands
- Long term dynamics of tropical forests
- Quaternary palaeoecology
- Pollen analysis in ocean, lake and peat records
- Mediterranean palaeoclimate reconstruction
PhD supervision
- George Biddulph
- Camille Choquet
Selected publications
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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
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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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Open access
La industria petrolera en la cuenca del Pastaza-Marañón y sus impactos ambientales y sociales
Lawson, I. T., Laurie, N., Schulz, C., Roucoux, K. H., Andueza, L., Cole, L. E. S., Davies, A. L., Honorio Coronado, E. N. & Wheeler, C., 1 Sept 2023, Donde habitan los neba: naturaleza, cultura e impactos ambientales en los territorios del pueblo Urarina. Martín Brañas, M., Fabiano, E. & Del Castillo Torres, D. (eds.). Iquitos: Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana, p. 89–110 22 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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Open access
Los humedales y turberas en los territorios indígenas urarinas: usos, manejo y carbono almacenado
Honorio Coronado, E. N., Schulz, C., Martín Brañas, M., del Águila Pasquel, J., del Aguila Villacorta, M., Dávila Cardozo, N., Córdova Oroche, C. J., García Mendoza, G., Ríos Paredes, M. A., Cole, L. E. S., Charpentier Uraco, E., Valdivia Alarcón, S., Vargas Bernuy, V., Delgado Amasifuen, D., Paima Roque, R., Marín Reyna, W., Isla Reátegui, G. M., Dávila Tuesta, W., Baker, T. R., Reed, M. S., & 1 others , 1 Sept 2023, Donde habitan los neba: naturaleza, cultura e impactos ambientales en los territorios del pueblo Urarina. Martín Brañas, M., Fabiano, E. & Del Castillo Torres, D. (eds.). Iquitos: Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana, p. 57-87 31 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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Open access
Navigating shifting waters: subjectivity, oil extraction, and Urarina territorial strategies in the Peruvian Amazon
Andueza, L. M., del Águila Villacorta, M., Cole, L. E. S., Davies, A. L., Fabiano, E., Honorio Coronado, E. N., Laurie, N., Lawson, I. T., Martín Brañas, M., Mozombite Ruíz, W., Núñez Pérez, C., Roucoux, K. H. & Wheeler, C., Nov 2023, In: Geoforum. 146, 13 p., 103867.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Understanding different dominance patterns in western Amazonian forests
Matas‐Granados, L., Draper, F. C., Cayuela, L., de Aledo, J. G., Arellano, G., Saadi, C. B., Baker, T. R., Phillips, O. L., Honorio Coronado, E. N., Ruokolainen, K., García‐Villacorta, R., Roucoux, K. H., Guèze, M., Sandoval, E. V., Fine, P. V. A., Amasifuen Guerra, C. A., Gomez, R. Z., Stevenson Diaz, P. R., Monteagudo‐Mendoza, A., Martinez, R. V., & 8 others , 18 Dec 2023, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Ecology Letters. Early View, 15 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Letter › peer-review
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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 , 14 Apr 2022, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Nature Geoscience. First OnlineResearch output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Sustainable palm fruit harvesting as a pathway to conserve Amazon peatland forests
Hidalgo Pizango, C. G., Honorio Coronado, E. N., del Águila-Pasquel, J., Flores Llampazo, G., de Jong, J., Córdova Oroche, C. J., Reyna Huaymacari, J. M., Carver, S. J., del Castillo Torres, D., Draper, F. C., Phillips, O. L., Roucoux, K. H., de Bruin, S., Peña-Claros, M., van der Zon, M., Mitchell, G., Lovett, J., García Mendoza, G., Gatica Saboya, L., Irarica Pacaya, J., & 3 others , 1 Jun 2022, In: Nature Sustainability. 5, p. 479-487 9 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
The dating and correlation of an eastern Mediterranean lake sediment sequence: a 46–4 ka tephrostratigraphy for Ioannina (NW Greece)
McGuire, A. M., Lane, C. S., Roucoux, K. H., Albert, P. G. & Kearney, R., 25 Jul 2022, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Journal of Quaternary Science. Early View, 19 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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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