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Dr Sallie Burrough

• Academic Profile
• Current Research
• Publications

Academic Profile

Sallie is a Junior Research Fellow at Hertford College and a Leverhulme funded postdoctoral researcher working with Prof. David Thomas in the School of Geography and the Environment and Prof. Kathy Willis at the Biodiversity Institute in the Department of Zoology.

She completed her DPhil thesis on the Quaternary climatic and hydrological dynamics of middle Kalahari lake systems, Botswana in Oxford in 2008 and took up the position as a postdoctoral research assisstant on a pilot research project looking at palaeolithic human occupation and hydrological and landscape dynamics of the Makgadikgadi basin, Botswana. She is a tutor in Quaternary science and dryland system science and has lectured on a range of topics including Quaternary environmental change and desert environments.

Her research interests include palaeo-environmental reconstruction, landscape dynamics in dryland systems, Palaeolithic archaeology and human dispersal in Africa.

Current Research

1. Megafloods and Megadroughts of the upper Zambezi Valley, Zambia
   This is a 3 year Leverhulme funded project (commencing October 2010) in collaboration with Professor David Thomas and Professor Kathy Willis focused on environmental change in western Zambia and the interrelationship between the hydrological systems of the Okavango and the Zambezi.
2. Palaeolithic mega-lakes and early human occupation of the Kalahari
   This pilot project aims to develop the first detailed understanding of the spatio-temporal relationship between human occupation and environmental and hydrological change. This joint Oxford- National Museum of Botswana collaborative project (funded by the Boise Fund, Oxford and the Royal Geographical Society) commenced in July 2008 and combines differential GPS mapping (NERC Geophysical Equipment Funding) of palaeolithic surface scatters and lakebed topography with environmental reconstruction through the application of palaeoecology, sedimentology and luminescence dating.
3. Landscape dynamics in the Kalahari
   This research is ongoing in collaboration with Professor David Thomas and Dr Richard Bailey. It focuses on re-examining the sensitivity of such landscapes to environmental dynamics and attempts to provide a better means by which to interpret geo-proxy evidence of past environmental change.

Selected Publications

• Thomas, D.S.G. and Burrough, S. (2012) Interpreting geoproxies of late Quaternary climate change in African drylands: implications for understanding environmental change and early human behaviour. Quaternary International, 253: 5-17.
• Thomas, D.S.G., Burrough, S. and Parker, A.G. (2012) Extreme events as drivers of early human behaviour in Africa? The case for variability, not catastrophic drought. Journal of Quaternary Science, 27(1): 7-12.
• Thomas, D.S.G. and Burrough, S.L. (2011) Climatic frameworks: legacies from the past. Chapter 3 in, Thomas, D.S.G. (ed.) (2011) Arid Zone Geomorphology: Process, Form and Change in Drylands, 3rd Edition. Wiley, 648 pp. ISBN: 9780470519080.
• Burrough, S.L., Thomas, D.S.G. and Singarayer, J.S. (2009) Late Quaternary hydrological dynamics in the Middle Kalahari: Forcing and feedbacks. Earth Science Reviews, 96(4): 313-326.
• Burrough, S.L., Thomas, D.S.G. and Bailey, R.M. (2009) Mega-Lake in the Kalahari: A Late Pleistocene record of the Palaeolake Makgadikgadi system. Quaternary Science Reviews, 28(15-16): 1392-1411.
• Burrough, S.L. and Thomas, D.S.G. (2009) Geomorphological contributions to palaeolimnology on the African Continent. Geomorphology, 103: 285-298.
• Burrough, S.L. and Thomas, D.S.G. (2008) Late Quaternary lake-level fluctuations in the Mababe Depression: Middle Kalahari palaeolakes and the role of Zambezi inflows. Quaternary Research, 69(3): 388-403.
• Burrough, S.L., Thomas, D.S.G., Shaw, P.A., and Bailey, R.M. (2007) Multiphase Quaternary highstands at Lake Ngami, Kalahari, northern Botswana. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 253(3-4): 280-299.