The terrestrial biosphere responds rapidly and sensitively to climate change and is important in mediating physical and biogeochemical feedbacks to climate. There are still enormous uncertainties in our understanding of how the terrestrial biosphere will respond to changes in climate in the 21st century, and large uncertainties in predictions of the climate feedbacks. Many issues that limit our ability to predict the future of the terrestrial biosphere can be addressed by examining what happened in the recent geologic past – where the drivers of climate change are relatively well known and there is abundant globally-distributed, quantitative, well-dated and unambiguous evidence of the biospheric response. The goal of this project is to unleash the power of the palaeo-record to understand the interactions of climate and the terrestrial biosphere, and to explain how terrestrial systems (vegetation, fire, hydrology, biogeochemical cycles including the carbon, trace gas and dust cycles) respond and contribute to long-term (millennial) and rapid (decadal to centennial) climate changes. I will use process-based models with global palaeodata syntheses to address four specific challenges to our understanding of past and future climate and environmental change: (1) How does vegetation respond to rapid climate change and what are the consequences of this response for climate? (2) To what extent does increasing CO2 enhance tree growth or competitive fitness, and how does this translate into changes in ecosystems and ecosystem services? (3) How does the terrestrial biosphere respond to changes in climate variability and the prevalence of extreme events? (4) How does the land surface affect regional climates, and why do models persistently fail to predict these effects accurately? In addressing these challenges, I will deliver public-access data sets, model outputs and comparison tools so the strengths of the palaeorecord can be exploited by the wider global change commun

Medieval archaeology has been strongly shaped by the predominance of male-biased perspectives within academia and the modern world. Castle studies in particular is a very male-dominated discipline with out-dated approaches which reproduce exclusively male-centred interpretations, thereby resulting in an impoverished understanding of how people interacted within these spaces. This study seeks to address this problem by taking a more human centred approach which reveals long ignored nuances in social practices. This will be achieved by examining the architecture, material culture (buildings and objects) and historical record of high medieval period England, Ireland and Normandy (1066-1398). HeRstory aims, through deep contextual analysis, to highlight how the material culture of this period both constructed and reinforced gendered roles in medieval society. This will challenge current perspectives in this area of medieval archaeology which imposes typical masculine views into the medieval past such as an exclusive focus on power/status or the tendency to predominantly view this era through the lens of warfare. For the first time, these new understandings of what it was like to be a woman or man in a medieval castle will be revealed. These new perspectives can be extrapolated outwards to achieve nuanced comprehensions of this time period which are far more inclusive/cognisant of gender constructs. This research challenges existing patriarchal and unilinear understandings of the medieval world by providing an insight into how people lived in and interacted with their environments such as the access to and position of rooms within the castle as well as the personal objects that surrounded them. In particular, this research significantly enhances our understandings of gender identities in Europe during this period. By moving to Reading's Dept. of Archaeology and working with Prof. Gilchrist, the researcher will significantly enhance her skillset and career.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.