How have plants adapted over centuries or millennia to survive and recover from human interference? David Moreno-Mateos and his team are analysing tree species in Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest to find out, and to help inform and improve future restoration practice.
News

Why ‘de-extinct’ dire wolves are a Trojan horse to hide humanity’s destruction of nature
In a thought-provoking feature for The Conversation, Dr Rich Grenyer, Associate Professor in Biodiversity and Biogeography, examines the ethical and ecological concerns surrounding de-extinction, arguing that the allure of reviving species like dire wolves risks diverting attention from the ongoing human-driven destruction of the natural world.
Not a Zero-Waste of time! Interview with Professor Anna Lora-Wainwright
What does the future of zero-waste living look like in urban China? This interview with Professor Anna Lora-Wainwright explains the many forms that everyday environmentalist activism can take, and also explores the role of the individual and the state in zero-waste living.

Oxford Geoscience Professor Myles Allen On Solving The Problem Of Climate Change
Myles Allen has been studying how human and natural influences contribute to climate change since the early 1990s, served on the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for its 3rd, 4th and 5th Assessments, and was a Coordinating Lead Author for its special report on 'the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels,’ and has been dubbed by the BBC “the physicist behind net zero”.

Fun Kids Science Weekly podcast: Professor David Thomas on why geomorphology is the best kind of science
The Battle of the Sciences continues as Professor David Thomas from the School of Geography and the Environment talks to the Fun Kids Science Weekly podcast about why geomorphology is the best kind of science.

Dr Chloë Strevens and Dr Laurence Wainwright win Divisional Teaching Excellence Awards 2024
The Divisional Teaching Awards formally recognize the outstanding contribution to teaching and learning and the academic development of students shown by colleagues across the Social Sciences Division.

Navigating Polar Change: Climate-Smart Marine Spatial Planning for the Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean, key to Earth's environmental system, is threatened by climate change. A new paper in Science by Dr Catarina Frazão Santos, Dr Lisa Wedding, and colleagues, details how climate-smart marine spatial planning can support Antarctic seascapes, with implications for the global ocean and human wellbeing.

Floods in south Brazil have displaced 600,000 – here’s why this region is likely to see ever more extreme rain in future
A mighty river is flowing out of the Amazon rainforest, and it’s not the one you’re thinking of. In the first kilometre above the forest canopy, a “flying river” is transporting moisture evaporated from Amazonian trees southwards along the Andes mountains towards Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state in Brazil. Almost the entire state - an area larger than the UK - is currently affected by unprecedented floods. The flying river has acted like a firehose, fuelling five months of rainfall in just two weeks, further enhanced by a strong jetstream located in just the wrong position above the region. In an article for The Conversation, Dr Marcia Zilli, Dr Neil Hart, and colleague Dr Caio Coelho, explore why - based on future projections of climate change - this situation will likely get worse as the temperature rises.

Alfie Davis wins LGBTQ+ Undergraduate of the Year Award
Undergraduate Alfie Davis has been awarded the LGBTQ+ Undergraduate of the Year Award 2024.

Celebrating Excellence: Vice-Chancellor’s Awards Honour Outstanding Achievements in SoGE
The Vice-Chancellor’s Awards are a testament to excellence and innovation, and are a University-wide celebration of outstanding people. They recognise the achievements and celebrate success across the collegiate University, from academics and researchers to professional, technical and support staff.

MASIKA: A field campaign to understand the rains in East Africa
Following devastating floods in 2020, five successive failed rainy seasons caused drought which exposed millions of people to acute food shortages in East Africa. The field project, MASIKA, is the first of its kind and aims to understand the atmospheric processes operating at the start the rainy season.

Kelsey Monteith wins the Alfred Steers Dissertation Prize
2023 undergraduate Kelsey Monteith has won the Alfred Steers Dissertation Prize for her dissertation titled, 'Time is not our master. I will not bow to time on this fair.' Examining practices of cultural resistance in the Gypsy-Traveller community. The prize is awarded once per year by the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) for the best undergraduate dissertation in a UK geography department.
