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Tom Hoseason

Tom

t.hoseason@qmul.ac.uk

Profile

Research interests:

Geomorphology, land surface processes, landscape evolution, forest ecology, climate change, remote sensing, GIS, numerical modelling

 

Project title:

Quantifying topographic variability in forested landscapes

 

Project information:

The role of forests in influencing geomorphic processes has long been recognised. However, quantifying relationships between ecological and geomorphological processes remains challenging. Many of the world’s forests are experiencing significant physical and climatic pressures, leading to changes in forest properties, alongside changes in hillslope sediment dynamics. The advent of new remote sensing technologies offers opportunities to examine forested landscapes in a novel way. The high-resolution point clouds produced by Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) are revolutionising the study of forest ecology, allowing for new insights into above-ground forest structure and ecosystem dynamics. High-resolution digital elevation models can also be produced using TLS measurements within these landscapes, allowing for the coupling of ecological and topographic parameters at unprecedented scales.

Wind-driven tree throw is a major disturbance in forests, that mobilises significant quantities of sediment downslope as trees are uprooted. Tree throw leaves distinct pit-and-mound structures, producing characteristic topographic roughness within forested landscapes. Quantifying this roughness across a range of ecosystems across a climate gradient will allow us to disentangle the complex relationship between climate, trees and sediment transport. Enhancing our understanding of sediment flux in forested landscapes has many important consequences for forest and landscape management, including soil availability and production, terrestrial carbon stocks, soil hydrology, and hillslope stability.

 

 

Academic background:

MSc Geoscience, University College London (UCL)

BSc Environmental Science, University of East Anglia (UEA)

 

Supervisors:

Dr Stuart Grieve, QMUL

Prof Gemma Harvey, QMUL

Dr Emily Lines, University of Cambridge

 

Funding:

London NERC DTP (Cohort 10)

 

Publications:

Fox, M., Hoseason, T., Bernard, T., Sinclair, H., Smith, A. G. G.  (2023) Bedload-Bedrock Contrasts Form Enigmatic Low-Relief Surfaces of the Pyrenees. Geophysical Research Letters, 50(6), e2022GL101995, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL101995

 

Memberships:

British Society of Geomorphology

Research

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