Postgraduate opportunities

If you are interested in pursuing a PhD in the fields of Palaeoecology, Palynology or Palaeoclimatology, particularly with a regional focus on Mediterranean, North African and other dryland environments, please do not hesitate to get in touch by email ([email protected]). I am interested in supervising graduate student research in any of my areas of expertise. Informal inquiries by e-mail are welcome at any time.

Current administrative responsibilities

At the University of Manchester

• Teaching Peer Reviewer for SEED
• Performance and Development Reviewer
• Research Review Exercise Reviewer

Wider professional service

• External Examiner, School of Global Studies, University of Sussex
• Executive Committee Member of the Quaternary Research Association UK
• International Scientific Advisory Board Member for Territorial and Spatial Dynamics Cluster of Excellence (LabEx DynamiTe), Université Paris 1 
• Honorary International Council Member of the APLF (Association des Palynologues de Langue Française) (2014-2020).
• Member of: PALCOMM (INQUA commission on Palaeoclimate), INTIMATE (INTegration of Ice-core, Marine And TerrEstrial records), Quaternary Research Association (QRA), Royal Geographical Society, IUCN Comission on Ecosystem Management
• Grant proposal reviewer for: Natural Environment Research Council, UK; Leverhulme Trust, UK; European Research Council Consolidator Grants; Agence National de Recherche, France; Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research; Dutch Science Council; Austrian Science Fund; Hungarian Scientific Research Fund; Croatian Science Foundation.
• Editorial board member of The Holocene and Quaternary.
• Journal reviewer for: Nature, Science Advances, Nature Communications, Quaternary Science Reviews, etc.

Recent presentations

INQUA Congress Dublin (2019). Stable carbon isotope analysis on fossil Cedrus pollen shows climatic aridification in Morocco during the last 5000 years. B. Bell, W. Fletcher, H. Cornelissen, H. Grant, P. Ryan, C. Zielhofer.

INQUA Congress Dublin (2019). Decadal environmental change in the Marrakech High Atlas: Impacts of snow melt on alpine ecology during the last 500 years. B. Bell, W. Fletcher, P. Hughes presented:

INQUA Congress Dublin (2019). Multidecadal summer drought variability in Northwest Africa during the last 700 years: evidence for a circum-global oscillation in subtropical precipitation. W. Fletcher, K. Copes-Gerbitz, S. Harrison.

INQUA Congress Dublin (2019). Rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations: the overlooked factor promoting forest development in southwestern Europe across Termination I? S. Gomes, W. Fletcher, A. Stone, T. Rodrigues, D. Oliveira, M. Sanchez-Goñi, F. Abrantes,  F. Naughton.

Climate Change in Africa: Evidence, mechanisms and Impacts, Past and Present, Marrakesh, Morocco (2017). Timescales and drivers of Holocene environmental change in the Middle Atlas, Morocco: Insights from the Lake Sidi Ali palaeoecological record (Oral presentation: W. Fletcher, J. Campbell, S. Joannin, C. Zielhofer, S. Mischke, A. Mikdad).

MedPalyno, Barcelona, Spain (2017). Centennial-scale vegetation and fire dynamics in the Middle Atlas, Morocco during the last 12,000 years (Oral presentation: W. Fletcher, J. Campbell, S. Joannin).

MedPalyno, Barcelona, Spain (2017). Stable carbon isotope measurements on Cedrus atlantica pollen: first steps towards an independent drought stress proxy (Poster presentation: B. Bell, W. Fletcher, P. Ryan, H. Grant, R. Ilmen)

PAGES Open Science Meeting, Zaragoza, Spain (2017). Biotic  response  to  centennial-scale  climate  variability  in Northwest  Africa:  Were  there  Holocene  analogues  for current Cedrus atlantica dieback? (Oral presentation: W. Fletcher, J. Campbell, S. Joannin, P. Hughes, S. Mischke, C. Zielhofer)

PAGES Open Science Meeting, Zaragoza, Spain (2017). Millennial   shifts   in   Saharan   dust   supply across the decline of the African Humid Period (Co-authored oral presentation: C.   Zielhofer, W. Fletcher, H. von Suchodoletz, B. Schneider, K. Schepanski, A. Mikdad, S. Mischke)

PAGES Open Science Meeting, Zaragoza, Spain (2017). Asynchronous  patterns  of  Quaternary  disappearance of tree taxa from Southern Europe (Co-authored poster presentation: D.  Magri, F.  Di  Rita, J. Aranbarri , W. Fletcher, P. González Sampériz).

PAGES Open Science Meeting, Zaragoza, Spain (2017). Atlantic forcing of Western Mediterranean winter rain minima during the last 12,000 years (Co-authored oral presentation: C. Zielhofer, W. Fletcher, S. Mischke, M. De Batist, J. Campbell, S. Joannin, A. Junginger, B. Schneider, N.  El  Hamouti, A.  Mikdad, T.  Lauer).

PAGES Open Science Meeting, Zaragoza, Spain (2017). From the Mediterranean to the Caspian: palaeoclimate variability, environmental responses and human adaptive strategies (Session co-conveners: A. Moreno, V. Yanko-Hombach, W. Fletcher)

EGU General Assembly, Vienna, Austria (2016). Centennial-scale vegetation and climate changes in the Middle Atlas, Morocco: new insights from multi-proxy investigations at Lake Sidi Ali (Oral presentation: W. Fletcher, J. Campbell, S. Joannin, S. Mischke, C. Zielhofer, M. de Batist, and A. Mikdad)

EGU General Assembly, Vienna, Austria (2016). Stable carbon isotope fractionation in pollen of Atlas cedar: first steps towards a new palaeoecological proxy for Northwest Africa (Poster presentation: B. Bell, W. Fletcher, P. Ryan, H. Grant, and R. Ilmen)

EGU General Assembly, Vienna, Austria (2016). AMS radiocarbon dating of pollen concentrates in a karstic lake system (Poster presentation: W. Fletcher, C. Zielhofer, S. Mischke, J. Campbell, C. Bryant, D. Fink, and X. Xu)

EGU General Assembly, Vienna, Austria (2016). Anthropogenic triggers for Late Holocene soil erosion in the Jebel Toubkal, High Atlas, Morocco. (Poster presentation: W. Fletcher and Philip Hughes).

Ongoing and recent projects

• DFG 2361 Priority Programme “On the Way to the Fluvial Anthroposphere”: The Lower Havel River and Greater Donaumoos Regions: ‘Failed’ or ‘successful’ reclamation of floodplains and peatlands? – A comparative analysis (International Cooperation Partner)
• Looking to the Past: A Palaeoecological Study to Inform Restoration of Greater Manchester’s Wetlands (NEIF Dating Award)
• NERC Discipline Hopping Award (SEED-SEES) Tropical influence on the changing climate of Northwest Africa (PI)
• Holocene Glacier Dynamics and Environmental Change in the High Atlas, Morocco (PI, Leverhulme Research Project)
• DINAMO3 (Dynamic, Monitoring and Calibration of Mediterranean vegetation in response to Global Warming using long-term records), with Dr Blas Valero Garcés and Dr Penélope Gonzalez-Sampériz, Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología, Zaragoza, Spain (CGL2015-69160-R, 2016-2019)
• Impacts of abrupt glacial and deglacial climate events on vegetation and fire regime in the Middle Atlas, Morocco (PI NERC New Investigator Award)
• Millennial-scale vegetation and climate dynamics at Tenaghi Philippon, NE Greece  (PI: J Pross, Heidelberg University)
• Land-sea correlation on the Iberian margin (high-resolution palynology of Quaternary marine sediment cores) (in collaboration with Prof. M.F Sanchez Goñi, Bordeaux 1 University)
• QUEST-DESIRE (Quantifying and Understanding changes in the Earth System, Dynamics of the Earth System and the Ice-core Record) Working Group on Abrupt Climate Change. (Working group co-coordinator) (PI: Prof. Sandy Harrison, University of Bristol)
• PICC (Intégration des contraintes Paléoclimatiques pour réduire les Incertitudes sur l’évolution du Climat pendant les périodes Chaudes), Agence Nationale de la Recherche project ANR-05-BLAN-0312-02. (Director, Dr Valérie Masson-Delmotte, Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement)
• RESOLuTION (Rapid climatic and environmental shifts during oxygen isotope stages (OIS) 2 and 3 -linking high-resolution terrestrial, ice core and marine archives), European Science Foundation (ESF) Eurocores project FP33. (PI: Prof. Barbara Wohlfarth, University of Stockholm).

I currently convene the following courses:

GEOG 20072 - Pyrenees Overseas Fieldcourse

This fieldcourse concerns the climatology, ecology, hydrology and Quaternary history of the Pyrenees. It is held in Jaca, Spain.

GEOG 31041/2 - Green Planet: Plant Ecology and Global Change

This course covers the main factors that influence the growth and distribution of plant species at local to global scales, and aims to develop an appreciation of the role of the biosphere in the shaping of the Earth's climate.

GEOG 60121/2 - Environmental Change and Reconstruction II: Palaeoecology in Practice

This MSc module provides an overview of key principles in environmental change and palaeo-environmental reconstruction, and a hands-on introduction to techniques of environmental reconstruction including field and lab techniques.

I also currently co-teach the following courses:

GEOG 10401 - Environmental Processes and Global Change

GEOG 10422 - Dynamic Earth

GEOG 30131 - Mediterranean Quaternary Landscapes

GEOG 70641 -MSc Fieldcourse to Northumberland

GEOG 72901 - Climate Change: Past, Present & Future

• Professor in Physical Geography, School of Environment, Education and Development, The University of Manchester (2024 - present; Reader 2021-2024, Senior Lecturer 2015-2021, Lecturer, 2010-2015)
• Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Geosciences, J.W. Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany (2009-2010)

• CNRS Postdoctoral researcher at UMR-5805 EPOC, Bordeaux 1 University, France (2005-2009)

• PhD, Quaternary Palaeoenvironments Group, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge (2005)

• M.Phil Quaternary Science, University of Cambridge (2000)

• BA (Hons) Archaeology and Anthropology, Trinity College, University of Cambridge (1999)

My specialist area of interest is the detection and characterisation of abrupt environmental and climatic changes using vegetation records from Quaternary terrestrial and marine sediment archives.

Areas of expertise

• Palynology
• Palaeoecology
• Palaeoclimatology
• Abrupt climate changes
• Quaternary vegetation dynamics
• Mediterranean biogeography
• Geoarchaeology

Research interests and activities

• Environmental change in the Middle and High Atlas, Morocco, including vegetation history, timing and extent of glacier advances, human-environment interactions and human exploitation of the mountain environments.
• Environmental signatures in pollen geochemistry, including ultraviolet radiation responses in pollen and spores
• Radiocarbon dating of pollen concentrates
• Long-term and millennial-scale environmental changes in the Mediterranean region using high-resolution pollen analysis in the context of multi-proxy investigations of marine and terrestrial sediment archives
• Continental-scale environmental responses to rapid climate variability (including Dansgaard-Oeschger and Heinrich Events)