Staff profile

I am a Professor in the Geography Department. My research is focused upon reconstructing Holocene and recent sea-level changes using microfossil-based reconstruction methods, in order to answer questions of ice sheet history, crustal response to surface loading and predictions of future sea-level change in vulnerable coastal areas. I’m currently involved in research looking at sea-level changes over the last millennia in Greenland and what they can tell us about the changing mass-balance history of the Greenland Ice Sheet over the recent past and over longer timescales. I also work on sea-level records from key locations far from the centres of former glaciation (e.g. Indian Ocean, Australia, South Africa) which provide information on the long-term melting histories of the large ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica. My particular area of expertise is the development and application of sediment and microfossil-based methodologies in reconstructing sea-level change. My research aims to enhance accuracy and precision of sea-level reconstructions and to allow development of sea-level records from historically poorly studied locations such as low and high latitudes.

Chapter in book

• Woodroffe, S., & Barlow, N. (2015). Reference water level and tidal datum. In I. Shennan, A. Long, & B. Horton (Eds.), Handbook of sea level research. Wiley
• Woodroffe, S., & Long, A. (2012). Late Quaternary Sea-level Changes in Greenland. In S. Elias (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science, 2nd edition. Elsevier

Journal Article

• Woodroffe, S. A., Hill, J., Bustamante‐Fernandez, E., Lloyd, J. M., Luff, J., Richards, S., & Shennan, I. (online). On the varied impact of the Storegga tsunami in northwest Scotland. Journal of Quaternary Science, 38(8), 1219-1232. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3539
• Summers, G., Engelhart, S., & Woodroffe, S. (2024). The importance of diatoms for understanding subduction zone earthquakes in Alaska. PAGES Magazine, 32(1), 24-25. https://doi.org/10.22498/pages.32.1.24
• Pan, L., Mitrovica, J. X., Milne, G. A., Hoggard, M. J., & Woodroffe, S. A. (2024). Timescales of glacial isostatic adjustment in Greenland: is transient rheology required?. Geophysical Journal International, 237(2), 989-995. https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggae095
• Lin, Y., Whitehouse, P. L., Valentine, A. P., & Woodroffe, S. A. (2023). GEORGIA: A Graph Neural Network Based EmulatOR for Glacial Isostatic Adjustment. Geophysical Research Letters, 50(18), https://doi.org/10.1029/2023gl103672
• Bustamante Fernandez, E., Woodroffe, S., Lloyd, J. M., & Shennan, I. (2023). Stratigraphic evidence of relative sea level changes produced by megathrust earthquakes in the Jalisco subduction zone, Mexico. The signature of the 1995 Colima-Jalisco earthquake (Mw 8) as a modern analogue. Marine Geology, 463, Article 107100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2023.107100
• Woodroffe, S. A., Wake, L. M., Kjeldsen, K. K., Barlow, N. L. M., Long, A. J., & Kjær, K. H. (2023). Missing sea level rise in southeastern Greenland during and since the Little Ice Age. Climate of the Past, 19(8), 1585-1606. https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1585-2023
• Lin, Y., Whitehouse, P. L., Hibbert, F. D., Woodroffe, S. A., Hinestrosa, G., & Webster, J. M. (2023). Relative sea level response to mixed carbonate-siliciclastic sediment loading along the Great Barrier Reef margin. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 607, Article 118066. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2023.118066
• Puleo, P. J., Masterson, A. L., Medeiros, A. S., Schellinger, G., Steigleder, R., Woodroffe, S., Osburn, M. R., & Axford, Y. (2022). Younger Dryas and early Holocene climate in south Greenland inferred from oxygen isotopes of chironomids, aquatic Moss, and Moss cellulose. Quaternary Science Reviews, 296, Article 107810. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107810
• Medeiros, A. S., Chipman, M. L., Francis, D. R., Hamerlík, L., Langdon, P., Puleo, P. J., Schellinger, G., Steigleder, R., Walker, I. R., Woodroffe, S., & Axford, Y. (2022). A continental-scale chironomid training set for reconstructing Arctic temperatures. Quaternary Science Reviews, 294, Article 107728. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107728
• Sefton, J., Woodroffe, S., Ascough, P., & Khan, N. (2022). Reliability of mangrove radiocarbon chronologies: A case study from Mahé, Seychelles. Holocene, 32(6), 529-542. https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836221080756
• Kjær, K. H., Bjørk, A. A., Kjeldsen, K. K., Hansen, E. S., Andresen, C. S., Siggaard-Andersen, M.-L., Khan, S. A., Søndergaard, A. S., Colgan, W., Schomacker, A., Woodroffe, S., Funder, S., Rouillard, A., Jensen, J. F., & Larsen, N. K. (2022). Glacier response to the Little Ice Age during the Neoglacial cooling in Greenland. Earth-Science Reviews, 227, Article 103984. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2022.103984
• Medeiros, A. S., Milošević, Đ., Francis, D. R., Maddison, E., Woodroffe, S., Long, A., Walker, I. R., Hamerlík, L., Quinlan, R., Langdon, P., Brodersen, K. P., & Axford, Y. (2021). Arctic chironomids of the northwest North Atlantic reflect environmental and biogeographic gradients. Journal of Biogeography, 48(3), 511-525. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14015
• Sefton, J., & Woodroffe, S. (2021). Assessing the use of mangrove pollen as a quantitative sea‐level indicator on Mahé, Seychelles. Journal of Quaternary Science, 36(2), 311-323. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3272
• Pizer, C., Clark, K., Howarth, J., Garrett, E., Wang, X., Rhoades, D., & Woodroffe, S. (2021). Paleotsunamis on the Southern Hikurangi Subduction Zone, New Zealand, Show Regular Recurrence of Large Subduction Earthquakes. The Seismic Record, 1(2), 75-84. https://doi.org/10.1785/0320210012
• Lin, Y., Hibbert, F., Whitehouse, P., Woodroffe, S., Purcell, A., Shennan, I., & Bradley, S. (2021). A reconciled solution of Meltwater Pulse 1A sources using sea-level fingerprinting. Nature Communications, 12, Article 2015. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21990-y
• Larocca, L. J., Axford, Y., Woodroffe, S. A., Lasher, G. E., & Gawin, B. (2020). Holocene glacier and ice cap fluctuations in southwest Greenland inferred from two lake records. Quaternary Science Reviews, 246, Article 106529. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106529
• Steffen, R., Steffen, H., Weiss, R., Lecavalier, B. S., Milne, G. A., Woodroffe, S. A., & Bennike, O. (2020). Early Holocene Greenland-ice mass loss likely triggered earthquakes and tsunami. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 546, Article 116443. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2020.116443
• Johnson, J., Perry, C., Smithers, S., Morgan, K., & Woodroffe, S. (2019). Reef shallowing is a critical control on benthic foraminiferal assemblage composition on nearshore turbid coral reefs. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 533, Article 109240. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2019.109240
• Søndergaard, A., Larsen, N., Olsen, J., Strunk, A., & Woodroffe, S. (2019). Glacial history of the Greenland Ice Sheet and a local ice cap in Qaanaaq, northwest Greenland. Journal of Quaternary Science, 34(7), 536-547. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3139
• Swindles, G. T., Galloway, J. M., Macumber, A. L., Croudace, I., Emery, A. R., Woulds, C., Bateman, M. D., Parry, L., Jones, J. M., Selby, K., Rushby, G. T., Baird, A. J., Woodroffe, S. A., & Barlow, N. L. (2018). Sedimentary records of coastal storm surges: Evidence of the 1953 North Sea event. Marine Geology, 403, 262-270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2018.06.013
• Barlow, N., McClymont, E., Whitehouse, P., Stokes, C., Jamieson, S., Woodroffe, S., Bentley, M., Callard, S., Ó Cofaigh, C., Evans, D., Horrocks, J., Lloyd, J., Long, A., Margold, M., Roberts, D., & Sanchez-Montes, M. (2018). Lack of evidence for a substantial sea-level fluctuation within the Last Interglacial. Nature Geoscience, 11, 627-634. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0195-4
• Woodroffe, S., Long, A., Milne, G., Bryant, C., & Thomas, A. (2015). New constraints on late Holocene eustatic sea-level changes from Mahé, Seychelles. Quaternary Science Reviews, 115, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.02.011
• Woodroffe, S., Long, A., Punwong, P., Selby, K., Bryant, C., & Marchant, R. (2015). Radiocarbon dating of mangrove sediments to constrain Holocene relative sea-level change on Zanzibar in the Southwest Indian Ocean. Holocene, 25(5), 820-831. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683615571422
• Garrett, E., Shennan, I., Woodroffe, S., Cisternas, M., Hocking, E., & Gulliver, P. (2015). Reconstructing paleoseismic deformation, 2: 1000 years of great earthquakes at Chucalén, south central Chile. Quaternary Science Reviews, 113, 112-122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.10.010
• Lecavalier, B., Milne, G., Simpson, M., Wake, L., Huybrechts, P., Tarasov, L., Kjeldsen, K., Funder, S., Long, A., Woodroffe, S., Dyke, A., & Larsen, N. (2014). A model of Greenland ice sheet deglaciation constrained by observations of relative sea level and ice extent. Quaternary Science Reviews, 102, 54-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.07.018
• Woodroffe, S., Long, A., Lecavalier, B., Milne, G., & Bryant, C. (2014). Using relative sea-level data to constrain the deglacial and Holocene history of southern Greenland. Quaternary Science Reviews, 92, 345-356. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.09.008
• Garrett, E., Shennan, I., Watcham, E., & Woodroffe, S. (2013). Reconstructing paleoseismic deformation, 1: modern analogues from the 1960 and 2010 Chilean great earthquakes. Quaternary Science Reviews, 75, 11-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.04.007
• Barlow, N., Shennan, I., Long, A., Gehrels, W., Saher, M., Woodroffe, S., & Hillier, C. (2013). Salt marshes as late Holocene tide gauges. Global and Planetary Change, 106, 90-110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2013.03.003
• Brain, M., Long, A., Woodroffe, S., Petley, D., Milledge, D., & Parnell, A. (2012). Modelling the effects of sediment compaction on salt marsh reconstructions of recent sea-level rise. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 345-348, 180-193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2012.06.045
• Wake, L., Milne, G., Long, A., Woodroffe, S., Simpson, M., & Huybrechts, P. (2012). Century-scale relative sea-level changes in West Greenland — A plausibility study to assess contributions from the cryosphere and the ocean. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 315-316, 86-93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2011.09.029
• Long, A., Woodroffe, S., Milne, G., Bryant, C., Simpson, M., & Wake, L. (2012). Relative sea-level change in Greenland during the last 700 years and ice sheet response to the Little Ice Age. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 315-316, 76-85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2011.06.027
• Long, A., Woodroffe, S., Roberts, D., & Dawson, S. (2011). Isolation basins, sea-level changes and the Holocene history of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Quaternary Science Reviews, 30(27-28), 3748-3768. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2011.10.013
• Woodroffe, S., & Long, A. (2010). Reconstructing recent relative sea-level changes in West Greenland: local diatom-based transfer functions are superior to regional models. Quaternary International, 222(1-2), 91-103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2009.06.005
• Long, A., Woodroffe, S., Milne, G., Bryant, C., & Wake, L. (2010). Relative sea level change in west Greenland during the last millennium. Quaternary Science Reviews, 29(3-4), 367-383. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2009.09.010
• Woodroffe, S. (2009). Testing models of mid to late Holocene sea-level change, North Queensland, Australia. Quaternary Science Reviews, 28(23-24), 2474-2488. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2009.05.004
• Woodroffe, S., & Long, A. (2009). Salt marshes as archives of recent relative sea-level change in West Greenland. Quaternary Science Reviews, 28(17-18), 1750-1761. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2009.02.009
• Long, A., Woodroffe, S., Dawson, S., Roberts, D., & Bryant, L. (2009). Late Holocene relative sea level rise and the Neoglacial history of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Journal of Quaternary Science, 24(4), 345-359. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.1235
• Woodroffe, S. (2009). Recognising subtidal foraminiferal assemblages: implications for quantitative sea-level reconstructions using a foraminifera-based transfer function. Journal of Quaternary Science, 24(3), 215-223. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.1230
• Woodroffe, S., Horton, B., Larcombe, P., & Whittaker, J. (2005). Intertidal mangrove foraminifera from the central Great Barrier Reef shelf, Australia: Implications for sea-level reconstruction. Journal of foraminiferal research, 35(3), 259-270. https://doi.org/10.2113/35.3.259
• Woodroffe, S., & Horton, B. (2005). Holocene sea-level changes in the Indo-Pacific. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, 25(1), 29-43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jseaes.2004.01.009
• Horton, B., Whittaker, J., Thomson, K., Hardbattle, M., Kemp, A., Woodroffe, S., & Wright, M. (2005). The development of a modern foraminiferal data set for sea-level reconstructions, Wakatobi Marine National Park, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. Journal of foraminiferal research, 35(1), 1-14
• Horton, B., Larcombe, P., Woodroffe, S., Whittaker, J., Wright, M., & Wynn, C. (2003). Contemporary foraminiferal distributions of the Great Barrier Reef coastline, Australia: implications for sea-level reconstructions. Marine Geology, 198, 225-243