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Career

2012-          Professor of Physical Geography, Swansea University

2011-2011  Reader in Physical Geography, Swansea University  

2008-2011  Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography, Swansea University

2004-2008  Lecturer in Physical Geography, Swansea University

2003-2004  Post-doctoral researcher, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

2002-2003  Post-doctoral researcher, Stockholm University, Sweden

 

Philip Leverhulme Prize Winner (Geography) 2011

I also lead the QRA's new Tephra in Quaternary Science Research Group (TIQS)

 

Key research interests

Working within the Environmental Dynamics group my principal research areas include:

• Abrupt and rapid climatic events during the Late Quaternary with a focus on the last interglacial/glacial cycle and the Late Holocene period.
• Tephrochronology of sedimentary and ice-core records.
• Dating techniques.

 

Research projects

European Research Council Independent Starting Grant. Tephra constraints on rapid climate events (TRACE). Davies, S. M. (Principal Investigator) €1.4 million (2011-2016)

NERC Standard grant (NE/F020600/1) Synchronising marine and ice-core records using tephrochronology (SMART) Davies, S.M (Principal Investigator); Austin, W. E. N. & Pearce, N. J. P (Co-Investigators) £352,134 (2009-2012)

NERC Small grant (NE/H012273/1) Holocene tephra constraints on the timing of millennial-scale variability in the subpolar North Atlantic. Austin, W.E.N. (Principal Investigator); Davies, S. M. & Cage, A. G (Co-Investigators) £51,767 (2010-2011)

Leverhulme Research grant (F/00 268/BG) Reconstructing 8000 years of Environmental and Landscape change in the Cairngorms. Wilson, R. J. (Principal Investigator); Edwards, K. J. & Davies, S. M. (Co-Investigators) £249,759 (2010-2013)

NERC New Investigators grant. Principal Investigator. Constructing a tephrochronology framework for the last interglacial-glacial transition. (2006-2008)

EU Integrated Project. Co-Investigator. European Climate of the last millennium. (2006-2010)

Nuffield Foundation Award to Newly Appointed Lecturers. Testing the synchroneity of rapid climatic events using tephrochronology. (2005-2007)

European Science Foundation EUROCORES EuroCLIMATE project. Rapid climatic and environmental shifts during Oxygen Isotope Stages (OIS) 2 and 3 – linking high-resolution terrestrial, ice core and marine archives (RESOLuTION). Collaborator. (2005-2009)

 

Other projects

Research Councils UK National Science Week Awards. Funds obtained to hold workshops for school children entitled Global Change: Global Threats. (2007 & 2009)

European Science Foundation Exploratory workshop fund. Workshop held between 9-12th April 2005 which brought 24 leading European tephrochronology scientists to Swansea. Workshop entitled ‘Building a tephrochronological framework for Europe: the key to better models of abrupt environmental change.’ (2004-2005)

 

Publications

Lowe, D. J., Davies, S. M., Moriwaki, H., Pearce, N. J., Suzuki, T. 2011. Enhancing tephrochronology and its application (INTREPID project): Hiroshi Machida commemorative volume. Quaternary International 246, 1-5 10.1016/j.quaint.2011.08.012

Walker, M. J. C., Lowe, J. J., Blockley, S. P. E., Bryant, C., Coombes, P., Davies, S. M., Hardiman, M., Turney, C. S. M., Watson, J. in press. A Lateglacial palaeoenvironmental record from Sluggan Bog, Northern Ireland: comparisons with the Greenland NGRIP GICC05 event stratigraphy. Quaternary Science Reviews 36, 124-138 10.1016/j.quascirev.2011.09.008

Davies, S. M., Abbott, P. M., Pearce, N. J. G., Wastegård, S., Blockley, S. P. E. 2012. Integrating the INTIMATE records using tephrochronology: rising to the challenge. Quaternary Science Reviews 36, 11-27 10.1016/j.quascirev.2011.04.005

Abbott, P.M., Davies, S. M., Steffensen, J. P., Pearce, N. J. G., Bigler, M., Johnsen, S. J., Seierstad, I, Svensson, A., Wastegård, S. 2012. A detailed framework of marine isotope stage 4 and 5 volcanic events recorded in two Greenland ice-cores. Quaternary Science Reviews 36, 59-77 10.1016/j.quascirev.2011.05.001

Abbott, P.M., Davies, S. M., Austin, W. E. N., Pearce, N. J. G., Hibbert, F. D., 2011. Identification of cryptotephra horizons in a North East Atlantic marine record spanning marine isotope stage 4 and 5a (~60,000-80,000 a b2k). Quaternary International 246, 177-189.10.1016/j.quaint.2011.07.033

Cage, A. G., Davies, S. M., Wastegård, S., Austin, W. E. N., 2011. Identification of the Icelandic Landnám Tephra (AD 871 ± 2) in Scottish fjordic sediment. Quaternary International 246, 168-176 10.1016/j.quaint.2011.08.016

Davies, S. M., Larsen, G., Wastegård, S., Turney, C. S. M., Hall, V. A., Coyle, L., and Thordarson, T. 2010. Widespread dispersal of Icelandic tephra: how does the Eyjafjöll eruption of 2010 compare to past Icelandic events? Journal of Quaternary Science 25, 605-611. 

Davies, S. M., Wastegård, S., Abbott, P. M., Barbante, C., Bigler, M., Johnsen, S. J., Rasmussen, T. L., Steffensen, J. P., and Svensson, A. 2010. Tracing volcanic events in the NGRIP ice-core and synchronising North Atlantic marine records during the last glacial period. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 294, 69-79.

 

Coulter, S. E., Pilcher, J. R., Hall, V. A., Plunkett, G., Davies, S. M. 2010. Testing the reliability of the new JEOL FEGSEM 6500F electron microprobe for quantitative major element analysis of glass shards from rhyolitic tephra. Boreas 39, 163-169.

 

Wastegård, S. and Davies, S. M. 2009. An overview of distal tephrochronology in northern Europe during the last 1000 years. Journal of Quaternary Science 24 (5) 500-512.

Davies, S. M., Wastegård, S., Rasmussen, T. L., Johnsen, S. J., Steffensen, J. P., Andersen, K. K., Svensson, A. 2008. Identification of the Fugloyarbanki tephra in the NGRIP ice-core: a key tie-point for marine and ice-core sequences during the last glacial period. Journal of Quaternary Science 23, 409-414.

 

Svensson, A., Andersen, K. K., Bigler, M., Clausen, H. B., Dahl-Jensen, D., Davies, S. M., Johnsen, S. J., Muscheler, R., Parrenin, F., Rasmussen, S. O., Röthlisberger, R., Seierstad, I., Steffensen, J. P., Vinther, B.M. 2008. A 60,000 year Greenland stratigraphic ice-core chronology. Climate of the Past 4, 47-58.

 

Veres, D., Davies, S. M., Wohlfarth, B., Preusser, F., Wastegård, S., Ampel, L., Hormes, A., Possnert, G., Raynal, J-P, Vernet, G. 2008. Age, origin and significance of a new middle MIS 3 tephra horizon identified within a long-core sequence from Les Echets, France . Boreas 37, 434-443.

 

Wohlfarth, B., Veres, D., Ampel, L., Lacourse, T., Blaauw, M., Preusser, F., Andrieu-Ponel, V., Kéravis, D., Lallier-Vergès, E., Björck, S., Davies, S. M., de Beaulieu, J-L., Risberg, J., Hormes, A., Kasper, H. U., Possnert, G., Reille, M., Zander, A. 2008. Rapid ecosystem response to abrupt climate changes during the last glacial period in Western Europe, 40-16 kyr BP. Geology 36 (5), 407-410.

Davies, S. M., Elmquist, M., Bergman, J., Wohlfarth, B., Hammarlund, D. 2007. Cryptotephra sedimentation processes within two lacustrine sequences from west central Sweden. The Holocene. 17, 319-330. 

Veres, D., Wohlfarth, B., Andrieu-Ponel, V., Björck, S., de Beaulieu, J.-L., Digerfeldt, G., Ponel, P., Ampel, L., Davies, S., Gandouin, E. and Belmecheri, S. 2007. The lithostratigraphy of the Les Echets basin, France: tentative correlation between cores. Boreas, 36, 326-340.

Svensson, A., Andersen, K. K., Bigler, M., Clausen, H. B., Dahl-Jensen, D., Davies, S. M., Johnsen, S. J., Muscheler, R., Rasmussen, S. O., Rothlisberger, R., Steffensen, J-P; Vinther, B. M.. 2006. The Greenland Ice Core Chronology 2005, 15-42 ka. Part 2: comparison to other records. Quaternary Science Reviews 25, 3258-3267.

Turney, C. S. M., ven den Burg, K., Wastegård, S., Davies, S. M., Whitehouse, N. J., Pilcher, J. R., Callaghan, C. 2006. North European last Glacial-interglacial transition (LGIT; 15-10 ka) tephrochronology: extended limits and new events. Journal of Quaternary Science 21, 335-345.

Wohlfarth, B., Blaauw, M., Davies, S. M., Andersson, M., Wastegård, S., Hormes, A., Possnert, G. 2006. Constraining the age of Lateglacial and early Holocene pollen zones and tephra horizons in southern Sweden with Bayesian probability methods. Journal of Quaternary Science 21, 321-334.

Davies, S. M., Hoek, W. Z., Bohncke, S. J. P., Lowe, J. J., Pyne O’Donnell, S., Turney, C. S. M. 2005. Detection of Lateglacial distal tephra layers in the Netherlands. Boreas 34, 123-135.

Lowe, J: J., Walker, M. J. C., Scott, M., Harkness, D. D., Bryant, C. L., Davies, S. M. 2004. A coherent high-precision radiocarbon chronology for the Lateglacial sequence at Sluggan Bog, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland. Journal of Quaternary Science 19, 147-158.

Turney, C. S. M., Lowe, J. J., Davies, S. M., Hall, V. A., Lowe, D. J., Wastegård, S., Hoek, W. Z., Alloway, B., SCOTAV and INTIMATE groups. 2004. Tephrochronology of Last Termination sequences in Europe: a protocol for improved analytical precision and robust correlation procedures (a joint SCOTAV-INTIMATE proposal). Journal of Quaternary Science 19, 111-120.

Davies, S. M., Wohlfarth, B., Wastegård, S., Andersson, M., Blockley, S., Possnert, G. 2004. Were there two Borrobol Tephras during the early Late-glacial period: implications for tephrochronology? Quaternary Science Reviews 23, 581-89.

Davies, S. M., Wastegård, S., Wohlfarth, B. 2003. Extending the limits of the Borrobol Tephra to Scandinavia and detection of new early Holocene tephras. Quaternary Research 59, 345-52.

Mackie, E., Davies, S. M., Turney, C. S. M., Dobbyn, K., Lowe, J. J., Hill, P. 2002. The use of magnetic separation techniques to detect basaltic microtephra in last glacial-interglacial transition (LGIT: 15-10 ka cal. BP) sediment sequences in Scotland. Scottish Journal of Geology 38, 21-30.

Davies, S. M., Branch, N. P., Lowe, J. J., Turney, C. S. M. 2002. Towards a European tephrochronological framework for Termination 1 and the early Holocene. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series A 360, 767-802.

Davies, S. M., Turney, C. S. M., Lowe, J. J. 2001. Identification and significance of a visible basalt-rich Vedde Ash layer in a Late-glacial sequence on the Isle of Skye, Inner Hebrides, Scotland. Journal of Quaternary Science 16, 99-104.

  

Other roles / responsibilities

2010-2013 Quaternary Research Association Awards Officer.

2007-2011 President of the INQUA (International Quaternary Union Association) International focus group on Tephrochronology and Volcanism (INTAV).

2003-2007 Vice-president of the INQUA Sub Commission for Tephrochronology and Volcanism (SCOTAV).

2003-2011 Member of INQUA Commission on Stratigraphy and Chronology.

 

PhD student supervision

Eliza Cook (2010-) First supervisor.

Aleksandra Zawalna-Geer (2009-) University of Auckland, New Zealand. External supervisor.

Inger Seierstad (2005-) European Science Foundation studentship based at the University of Copenhagen. External supervisor.

Peter Abbott (2005-2009) NERC studentship. First supervisor. Completed.