Professor Erin McClymont

Professor of Physical Geography

What do you do?

I’m a Professor of Physical Geography, where I combine my interests in the oceans and chemistry to both teach and explore how our climates have changed in the past and what this might mean for our future.

I am particularly interested in understanding why ice on land and in the sea has grown and shrunk in the past, which I started exploring during my degree in Physical Geography and have continued throughout my career.

How are you involved in this area of science? 

I’m intrigued by interactions between the oceans and ice sheets e.g. how a warmer ocean might lead to ice sheet retreat. I also explore the impacts of these changes on polar marine ecosystems.

I mainly study high-latitude environments, including the Arctic and Antarctic, but have even examined the impact of polar climate changes on tropical environments. Using chemical fossils (biomarkers) from cores of seafloor sediment, I’ve been able to look at ocean temperature changes and ice sheet response to climates which are similar to those we are seeing today (and for this century) but which last occurred ~3 million years ago.

I also study the “ice ages”, when ice sheets repeatedly grew to be much larger than we see today. I’m currently using soils from Antarctic seabird colonies to understand how fish, krill and the seabirds themselves responded to such dramatic environmental changes in the past.

What do you love about this topic?

Understanding past climate change is like a big detective story: I love the fact that I can use clues provided by biology, chemistry, ecology and geography to try to piece together what happened in the past, and think about what that means for the future.

I also love the beauty of polar environments: glaciers and ice sheets right next to the oceans is a really dramatic sight, which I can picture in the past through the data I generate. Imagining the ice sheet which once covered the British Isles and wondering why it was there started this work for me.

How does this work deliver real-world impact?

Our results have been able to test climate models against real-world data: this is important for understanding how well those models might be able to predict our future with higher greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and was used in the most recent IPCC report.

Our ongoing work with Antarctic seabirds is starting to identify both the sensitivity and resilience to change of some parts of this unique ecosystem, and may support efforts to improve conservation and management of polar oceans.

Find out more:

• Explore Professor Erin McClymont's work around seabird ecosystems.
• Discover more about the global ocean temperature project.
• Get involved and find out more about outreach opportunities with the International Ocean Drilling Program.