Researcher using a theodolite on the coast in Malta

Current research projects

Studying our Master of Research (MRes) Science and Health allows you to focus your research interests on one or two areas of science and work towards translating your learning into research related outputs – such as a submission for a peer-reviewed publication; a peer reviewed research/knowledge transfer grant application, or a presentation.

MRes Science and Health can be studied either full time (1-year) or part time (2-years). You will develop a wide variety of skills, experience and competence on this course, and the MRes will provide a thorough grounding for students moving towards Doctoral (PhD) studies, or pursuing research related activities as a career.

Within the School of the Environment, Geography and Geosciences we welcome applications from students interested in all topics, but especially those which are allied with our research areas: Geographies of Health and Well-being, Social and Cultural Geography, Economic Geography, Political Geography, Development Studies, Historical Geography, Urban Geography, Environmental Justice, Coastal and Marine Resource Management, Coastal Processes, River Management and Restoration, Quaternary Science, Environmental Change, Glaciology, Climatology, Weathering, Ecology. Specific projects and supervisors can be found below.

Please note this list of projects is not exhaustive and you'll need to meet and discuss the project you're interested in with a member of research staff before you apply.

If you have an idea not covered in the projects below, please e-mail Dr Sabine Wulf (sabine.wulf@port.ac.uk) to discuss project options and potential supervisors.

MRes Science - Geography research projects:

Quantifying the intensity and duration of storm events in Malta

Supervisor: Dr Nick Pepin and Dr Phil Soar

Prior work by staff in the department has uncovered intriguing boulder deposits on many Maltese beaches well above the normal tide line. Some of the boulders are extremely large. Various hypotheses have been put forward to explain their location, including unusual storm events caused by meteorological conditions or a tsunami. This project will examine 17 years of meteorological measurements made at Valletta meteorological station, to assess the frequency and intensity of storm events (locally named Grigale), generating strong NE winds and storm waves which attack the exposed urbanised NE coast of Malta. This would embrace ~50 Grigale events. Data include wind speeds and wind directions at hourly intervals, both mean conditions and their range (max gusts) and variability. Different statistical methods can be used to identify and rank various storm events, and to examine any trends over time. This may include traditional magnitude/frequency analysis or development of novel indices to identify individual events and assess their intensity and duration. An appreciation of data analysis techniques and a willingness to handle large datasets would be an advantage.

Reconstructing magnitude and ash dispersal of the Cañadas eruption of Teide volcano, Tenerife (Canary Islands)

Supervisors: Dr Sabine Wulf, Dr Carmen Solana and Dr James Darling

The recent effusive eruption on La Palma made clear that still little is known about the volcanic history of the Canary Islands. One of the most dangerous volcanoes is Teide on Tenerife, classified as a still active stratovolcano which last erupted in AD 1909. Teide has been hardly investigated in terms of magnitude, frequency and dispersal of volcanic ash of past eruptions. This information, however, is crucial to mitigate future volcanic risk in this region. Geochemical compositions (bulk and volcanic glass), grain sizes and morphologies of pumices from the proximal Cañadas eruption of Teide will be investigated to estimate its eruption magnitude and original magma composition. Glass chemical data will be compared with primary and secondary data of distal marine ash (tephra) layers to allow for the construction of dispersal maps. This study will involve sampling at the BOSCORF sediment core repository in Southampton and laboratory work including the use of brand-new microanalytical equipment and Scanning Electron Microscopy.

Refining the tephrostratigraphical record of Ciomadul volcano, Romania

Supervisors: Dr Sabine Wulf, Dr James Darling, and Dr Carmen Solana

Ciomadul in the southern Carpathian (Romania) is one of the rather fewer known stratovolcanoes in Europe. Recent investigations suggest that this volcano was the centre of violent explosive eruptions during the Late Quaternary which ceased approximately 29,000 year ago but is still considered a hazard of volcanic unrest. First geochemical compositions of pyroclastic (tephra) layers in the proximal and medial-distal area of Ciomadul were used to correlate mutual deposits for isopach mapping to estimate the magnitude and dispersal of past high-explosive events (Karatson et al., 2016). However, those reconstructions were obstructed by the fact that some eruptions produced magma of almost identical major element composition, and distinguishing those can only be overcome by additional trace element analysis. Brand-new microanalytical equipment recently acquired at SEGG will examine both the major and trace element composition of volcanic glass to allow for a more reliable correlation of tephra deposits. Hence, this project is mainly laboratory-based. It has the potential to produce high-impact research papers that contribute both to methodological and analytical advances in the field of tephrochronology and volcanic risk assessment.

Investigating recent glacier change from remotely-sensed imagery

Supervisors: Dr Harold Lovell, Dr Clare Boston

Globally, there have been significant losses in glacier mass during the 20th and 21st centuries - with losses in many areas increasing in the last two decades. Glacier mass loss contributes to eustatic sea level rise and has large societal implications. Understanding the controls on glacier response to climatic changes is important for predicting their response over the next century. Specifically, local factors such as shading, slope, valley width, debris cover and type of terminus will affect this response. This project will use a combination of satellite imagery, DEMs and/or previous mapping to investigate local controls on glacier change. Potential locations include Canadian Arctic, Russian Arctic, Greenland, Alaska, Himalayas, Patagonia, Antarctic region. Candidates should have an ability to manipulate and analyse remotely sensed data in ArcGIS and other remote sensing software.

Younger Dryas glacier extent and dynamics in Scotland

Supervisors: Dr Clare Boston, Dr Harold Lovell

The Younger Dryas was a period of rapid climate change at decadal to centennial time scales, and was the last time substantial ice bodies existed in Britain. The often well-preserved nature of the geomorphological and sedimentological evidence allows us to reconstruct former ice extents, ice dynamics, and retreat patterns, and examine their links to climate change. However a previously fragmentary approach to palaeo-glaciological research in Scotland has limited our understanding of these factors. This project will use a landsystems approach to examine an area of Scotland in detail and record the landform-sediment assemblages. Analysis will focus on improving understanding of palaeoclimate in the area and/or factors controlling ice mass recession.

Understanding the distribution, diversity and preservation of charcoal in the sedimentary record

Supervisor: Dr Mark Hardiman

Charcoal occurrence within sedimentary archives is often used as a proxy of past wildfire events within environmental change studies. This is particularly true of lacustrine and peat bog sequences, which are often considered to have relatively simple depositional histories allowing the application of various charcoal statistics. Despite the long history of such research relatively little attention has been given to understanding the taphonomy of charcoal in these archives. Potential projects include:

  • production of high resolution macro and micro-charcoal palaeo-records to reconstruct past wildfire frequency during periods of abrupt climate change
  • study of charcoal preservation, transport and sedimentation in both ancient and modern geomorphic systems

Techniques used in these projects include high and low-powered microscopy, analysis via Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), charring experiments, and use of a sediment flume.

Assessing post-wildfire vegetation recovery in the UK using GIS and remote sensing techniques

Supervisors: Dr Harold Lovell, Dr Mark Hardiman

Climate change models increasingly suggest that the SE of England will experience prolonged drier summers by the end of this century, a shift from a warm temperates to a Mediterranean-style climate. Potential consequences of this include making the landscape more susceptible to the occurrence of wildfires, particularly in heathland areas of southern England. This study aims to investigate the impact of wildfire on the environment, specifically the recovery of vegetation following a heathland wildfire event, through the application of GIS and remote sensing techniques. This will include the collection and analysis of field survey data using a laser scanner, and the application of automated classification techniques to a time-series of satellite images. These data will be used to analyse patterns and rates of vegetation recovery and to understand the controls on these. The project will add to our understanding of landscape and ecosystem recovery following wildfire events.

Construction of palaeo-environments using glacio-fluvial and glacio-lacustrine sediments within the Drac Valley, Grenoble France

Supervisors: Dr Malcolm Whitworth, Dr Harold Lovell, Dr Clare Boston, Dr Mark Hardiman

The Sinard area is underlain by glacio-fluvial outwash deposits and glacio-lacustrine deposits. These fill the entire valley in addition to other fluvial channels that cap the sequence but also form channels in the hanging valleys. The focus of this project would be to establish a detailed Quaternary stratigraphy of these sequences across this region in order to form a better understanding of the landscape history of the area during the Last Glacial Period (including glacial advances/retreats, formation of the large ice dammed lake, potential glacial tectonics to name a few). Stratigraphy and detailed sedimentology will be carried out across key sedimentary sections and visible volcanic ash layers, which may be a result of the Massif Central volcanic centre, will also be searched for. If present these may be used as key isochrons for determining the local sequence of events as well as adding to our understanding of the volcanic activity of the Massif Central during the Last Glacial Period.

References:

  • Lukas, S., Benn, D. I., Boston, C. M., Brook, M., Coray, S., Evans, D. J., ... & Signer, M. (2013). Clast shape analysis and clast transport paths in glacial environments: a critical review of methods and the role of lithology. Earth-Science Reviews, 121, 96-116.
  • Lane, C. S., Brauer, A., Martín-Puertas, C., Blockley, S. P., Smith, V. C., & Tomlinson, E. L. (2015). The Late Quaternary tephrostratigraphy of annually laminated sediments from Meerfelder Maar, Germany. Quaternary Science Reviews, 122, 192-206.
  • Lane, C. S., Blockley, S. P. E., Lotter, A. F., Finsinger, W., Filippi, M. L., & Matthews, I. P. (2012). A regional tephrostratigraphic framework for central and southern European climate archives during the Last Glacial to Interglacial transition: comparisons north and south of the Alps. Quaternary Science Reviews, 36, 50-58.

Dating and synchronising marine palaeoclimate records from the Eastern Mediterranean using volcanic ash layers

Supervisors: Dr Sabine Wulf, Dr Mark Hardiman

Explosive volcanism can produce huge amounts of volcanic ash (tephra) which is widely dispersed and synchronously deposited in different environments. If preserved in terrestrial and ocean sediments, tephra layers can be an important tool for reconstructing explosive histories of hazardous volcanoes and dating sediment sequences used for palaeoclimate reconstruction. This study will implement the chemical and grain size characterisation of a number of visible tephra layers from several marine sediment cores from the Eastern Mediterranean region, in order to:

  • define their volcanic source
  • construct a reliable age model
  • enable linking of available proxy data of marine cores for regional palaeoclimate reconstruction

The successful candidate will carry out both laboratory and analytical work, including the utilisation of Scanning Electron Microscopy and laser granulometry.

Mapping and measuring cold pool dynamics in mountain valleys

Supervisor: Dr Nick Pepin

In complex topography distinct microclimates are common. Understanding the formation of nocturnal cold-pools is vital to predicting areas of increased frost risk, potential fog formation, and relevant for many ecological and practical applications. Sinking of cold air under periods of negative radiation balance effectively decouples the local climate from that of the free atmosphere, which makes it very difficult to predict local conditions which is usually achieved via downscaling of larger scale model output. This project aims to combine a GIS modelling approach with field measurements to investigate the spatial extent and behaviour of cold pools in the Pyrenees (Cerdagne valley) in collaboration with the Meteorological Service of Catalonia, and/or Kevo valley in northern Finland in collaboration with the Sub-Arctic Research Centre of the University of Turku. Additional locations may be chosen by the successful applicant, if practical. The contrast between mid latitude and high-latitude sites, where one has strong diurnal cycles and the other often does not may also be an interesting area of enquiry. Strong GIS and analytical skills are an advantage. There is an opportunity to do fieldwork if desired, but this is not necessary because the lead supervisor has developed field campaigns with extensive data available already.

Establishing attitudes and perceptions of recreational boat users based in the Solent, UK, towards Marine Conservation Zones

Supervisor: Dr Jonathan Potts

This research project will focus on recreational boat users in the Solent, one of the world’s busiest offshore recreational areas. Increased pressures on marine and coastal resources have led to their degradation. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are an integral feature of marine conservation programmes globally to mitigate such degradation. Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) are a new type of MPA designated under the United Kingdom’s Marine and Coastal Access Act, 2009, and are designed to ensure the long term survival of wildlife and biodiversity in UK waters.

This study will aim to establish the attitudes and perceptions of recreational boat users (RBUs) in the Solent, United Kingdom (UK) with respect to MCZs. Specifically, this study will attempt to:

  • determine the demographic profile of the boating population in question, as well as the nature and intensity of their boating practice
  • establish what the activities, preferences, and sources of perceived conflict are amongst RBUs using the Solent
  • evaluate the understanding of and support for MCZs amongst RBUs, and establish any opportunities for more effective stakeholder engagement

Evaluating water footprinting

Supervisor: Dr Julia Brown

“Water is probably one of the most precious resources and vital for everyone’s everyday life. Despite this obvious fact, people use large amounts of water: drinking, cooking and washing, but even more for producing things such as food, paper, cotton clothes, and almost every other physical product. The water footprint of a person, company or nation is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the commodities, goods and services consumed by the person, company or nation. The idea of the water footprint is quite similar to the ecological footprint, but focussing on the use of water.” The Virtual Water Project

This research project aims to assess how effective water footprinting is in changing attitudes and behaviours towards fresh water consumption at the household level utilising a mixed methods approach. The project first involves calculating the water footprint of a range of households (up to 20). This will necessitate reviewing different water footprinting methodologies and devising a questionnaire which will need to be completed by the chosen households. The second component of the project entails qualitative methods. The researcher will interview up to 10 households to determine whether knowledge of their water footprint has the potential to change behaviour vis-àvis water pricing and water metering (i.e. demand-management).

Entrepreneurship in homes and neighbourhoods

Supervisor: Dr Carol Ekinsmyth

Small business is increasingly home-based and as such, is more likely to make use of resources and capital available at the local level (domestic neighbourhood, locality) (Mason et al, 2011). Whilst literature has explored the dimensions of home as a locus for small business at some length, considerably less focus has been aimed towards neighbourhoods (Ekinsmyth 2011). What attributes of local neighbourhoods create a vibrant and facilitative milieu for small business formation/growth and what kinds of people are setting up home and neighbourhood-based businesses? The aim of this research will be to explore these questions through a focus upon small-business owners embedded in particular neighbourhoods.

Entrepreneurship in rural areas

Supervisor: Dr Carol Ekinsmyth

Rural and peripheral areas are increasingly connected by ICTs that enable new ways of earning a living for people located there. This in turn, enables people who haven’t had access to work (by virtue of lifestage, gender, age among others) to engage in paid work, self-employment or entrepreneurship. This project will ask what attributes of rural communities and locales create a facilitative environments for small business formation/growth or self-employment and what kinds of people are setting up in business in these areas. It could become a specific project on farm diversification enterprises or concentrate on a broader range of rural-based enterprise.

Can residential segregation and immobility explain the social disadvantage of sick and disabled people?

Supervisor: Dr Caroline Day

‘Youth transitions’ is a relatively new area of interest within geographies of children and youth (Worth 2009). Youth transitions are conceptualised as the events through which young people leave childhood behind to take on new roles and responsibilities as adults. The ways in which young people negotiate this critical period can have a long-term impact, with the potential to govern the nature and quality of their future lives. Culture, place and space all have a part in dictating who will go through which transitions and at what time and not all young people will follow the same lifecourse, or will go through the same transitions. This project will investigate how young people in either UK or international contexts experience transitions to adulthood, how they are influenced by increasingly challenging socio-economic climates and how this impacts on young people’s ability to pursue their own goals and aspirations across time and space.

Young people's transitions to adulthood

Supervisor: Dr Caroline Day

Studies of “young carers” have multiplied in recent years. Since the 1990s, research has documented the roles and responsibilities that children and young people undertake within families and the negative (and sometimes positive) outcomes that caring for a parent (or relative) with a disability or chronic illness may have on their transitions to “independent adulthood” such as education and employment. A focus on “children” caring for parents with a disability or chronic illness has meant the role of older youth has often been neglected in discussions of caregiving, particularly how caring influences their futures and life transitions. This project will investigate how caring responsibilities influence young people’s experiences as they grow up into adulthood. This could include how caring roles both influence and impact on young people’s futures and life transitions; the changing role of care in society; the role of informal care work in families; and the influence of class, gender and ethnicity.

Caring and the role of young caregivers; how caring roles both influence and impact on life transitions and future aspirations

Supervisor: Dr Caroline Day

When most people think of homelessness they picture someone sleeping on the streets. Rough sleeping remains a very visible problem, particularly in big towns and cities. Yet, the vast majority of homeless people exist out of sight, living in bed & breakfasts, hostels, or on the floors or sofas of friends and families. This ‘hidden homelessness’ is increasing in the UK. With rising housing costs, a string of cuts to benefits, and a lack affordable housing, more and more people are struggling to keep a roof above their heads. This research project will look at the changing face of homelessness in the UK. This could include youth homelessness, particularly the different issues and needs young homeless people have compared to adults; the experiences of homeless people; the aspirations of homeless people; and the experiences of asylum seekers and refugees.

The changing face of homelessness

Supervisor: Dr Tara Woodyer

Traditionally, research on age has been strongly compartmentalised with studies looking at either childhood and youth or old age. Research is now beginning to focus on issues surrounding intergenerational relationships, including how we best conceptualise these relationships and how different kinds of spaces can limit or facilitate contact. This shift in approach coincides with calls within policy for more age-integrated communities. As a particular kind of leisure space inviting both reflective and interactive activities, the museum is a site that might afford insights into how to cultivate intergenerational interaction. Drawing on the researcher’s links with local military museums, this research would involve participant observation of exhibition spaces and qualitative interviews with museum practitioners.

References:

  • Beaumont, E and Sterry, P (2005) A study of grandparents and grandchildren as visitors to museums and art galleries in the UK, Museum and Society, 3(3): 167-180.
  • Vanderbeck, R (2007) Intergenerational Geographies: Age Relations, Segregation and Reengagements, Geography Compass, 1(2): 200-221.

The museum as a site for intergenerational interaction

Supervisor: Dr Tara Woodyer

Whilst play and work are commonly seen as divergent activities, play is increasingly being commodified in different kinds of work environment in relation to ideas of creativity and performance. This is readily seen in Google’s use of Lego play stations and secret rooms, TGI Friday’s use of costumed, whacky waiting staff and the playful employee-customer relations in theme parks. It is also evident in less obvious workplaces such as arctic research stations (Powell 2009). This research will use participant observation and/or qualitative interviews and/or textual analysis of company literature, and will examine the role of play in a particular workplace. This research will address questions such as: how and why does the company encourage play; what happens to play when it is commodified; what implications does the commodification of play have for workers?

References:

  • Crang, P (1994) It's showtime: on the workplace geographies of display in a restaurant in southeast England, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 12(6): 675-704.
  • Powell, R (2009) Learning from spaces of play: recording emotional practices in High Arctic Environmental Sciences, in Smith, Davidson, Cameron and Bondi (eds) Emotion, Place and Culture, Farnham: Ashgate.

Play in the workplace

Supervisor: Dr Tara Woodyer

The twenty-first century has been heralded as the “ludic century” as games and play have become the dominant cultural form of the era. Adding game elements to an application to motivate use and enhance the user experience is a growing trend known as gamification. Many of the mobile applications we now routinely engage with on our smart phones, anything from exercise apps to noise pollution monitoring apps, will have some form of gamified feature, such as game style achievements. Using a qualitative approach (involving interviews and/or focus groups and/or task based activities such as diaries), this research will examine the use of gamified features within a particular mobile app addressing questions such as: does the inclusion of game elements motivate use; does the inclusion of game elements enhance user experience; does the inclusion of game elements encourage undesirable use by certain users?

Virtual geographies: The use of gamified elements in mobile apps

Supervisor: Dr Tara Woodyer

The twenty-first century has been heralded as the “ludic century” as games and play have become the dominant cultural form of the era. Adding game elements to an application to motivate use and enhance the user experience is a growing trend known as gamification. Many of the mobile applications we now routinely engage with on our smart phones, anything from exercise apps to noise pollution monitoring apps, will have some form of gamified feature, such as game style achievements. Using a qualitative approach (involving interviews and/or focus groups and/or task based activities such as diaries), this research will examine the use of gamified features within a particular mobile app addressing questions such as: does the inclusion of game elements motivate use; does the inclusion of game elements enhance user experience; does the inclusion of game elements encourage undesirable use by certain users?

Virtual geographies: How location-based games shape engagements with physical environments

Supervisor: Dr Tara Woodyer

The rapid development of mobile computing hardware in recent years has led to devices which are not only capable of wireless data communication, but, through positioning systems like GPS, can learn about their geographical location. This combination has prompted the development of mobile location-based games (LBGs) such as Pokémon Go. These games are played in physical space, but at the same time, they are supported by actions and events in an interconnected virtual space. Using a qualitative approach, this research will examine how LBGs affect players’ perception of and behaviour in everyday spaces.

Virtual geographies: Video game play from the player's perspective

Supervisor: Dr Tara Woodyer

Videogame studies have been overwhelmingly concerned with the representational context of games. As a result, examination of the use and experience of videogames by the player has been limited. It is only recently that studies have begun to address gaming as a bodily and/or social activity. Geographers have been key in this shift of emphasis. Areas of neglect are still evident though, with studies focusing on First Person Shooter games, at the expense of other game genres. Using a qualitative approach, this research will examine a particular videogame from the player’s perspective, addressing issues such as: the role of the handset in mediating movement between virtual and non-virtual worlds, gameplay as a bodily experience, and gameplay as a social activity involving player interactions in non-virtual spaces.

Tara Woodyer is also happy to discuss other ideas for MRes research within the broad field of social and cultural geography.

Other Research Projects

Find out more about current research projects in science and health:

Please note, this list is not exhaustive and you'll need to meet and discuss the project you're interested in with a member of research staff before you apply.