Amy MᶜGuire

I am a physical geographer interested in past changes in climate and environment. My research focusses on resolving the sequencing of proxy responses to climatic change, particularly the abrupt climate changes which characterise the last glacial cycle. If we can unpick what changed and when, we can start to understand what might be driving a change and what might be responding to it. To do this, I use sediment archives from below lakes and the sea which slowly accumulate over time, preserving hints of the environment at the time they were deposited. I use two main techniques in my work. The first, palynology, involves studying the pollen preserved within sediments to understand how vegetation has changed over time. Secondly, I search for tephra deposits from explosive eruptions which can travel huge distances and which provide a point in time through which we can link sediment records to one another.