My research centres around understanding processes and landscapes of soil change. My work has two main themes:
Soil Carbon Dynamics – As a SAGES lecturer I am part of a Scotland wide pooling initiative researching terrestrial carbon dynamics, current and recent projects in this area include:
-Effect of commercial forestry operations, including destumping, on soil disturbance, in collaboration with Forest Research and UPM Tilhill Ltd.
-Assessing spatial variability of carbon, iron and aluminium concentrations in gleyed soils as a means of understanding the stabilisation of soil organic carbon. NERC small grant in collaboration with University of Edinburgh.
-Soil organic cabon stabilisation processes in paddy soils. Carnegie grant for field sampling in Sri Lanka.
-Effect of soil structure on SOC distribution and lability. NERC funded PhD project in collaboration with Rothamstead Research Institute, and EU COST funded project in collaboration with Universities of Torino and Bologna.
-Geoarchaeology – The application of soil science techniques, particularly soil micromorphology and soil geochemistry, to address archaeological questions of site formation processes and space use, Current and recent projects in this area include:
-InterArChive: Geochemical soil signatures of burials and burial practice. A collaborative ERC project with Don Brothwell, University of York.
-Development of SASSA (Soil Analysis Support System for Archaeologists). NERC knowledge transfer grant.
-Multi-element soil analysis to aid interpretation of space use on archaeological sites. NERC and -Historic Scotland funded collaboration with University of York.
-Site formation processes at the Xeropolis-Lefkandi tell site, Greece. Collaboration with University of Oxford.
-Development of soil quality indicators for cultural heritage preservation. DEFRA funded as part of UK Soil Indicators Consortium.
-The Geoarchaeology of 16th and 17th Century Alum and Copperas industry around Poole Harbour. In collaboration with the Poole Habour Heritage Project.
I have been a lecturer in soil science at Stirling University since 2008.
Cultural Landscape risk Identification, Management and Assessment
01/07/2015 – 30/06/2018
Mitigation works on the field systems and cultural soils as part of the Jerah Forestry Plan
01/04/2015 – 31/12/2016
European Research Council Advanced Investigator Grant.
01/09/2009 – 15/03/2015
Collison J, Wilson C, Moffat A & Gallacher J (2015) Soil physical disturbance resulting from stump harvesting, Scottish Forestry, 69 (2), pp. 20-27.
Vincent-Akpu IF, Tyler A, Wilson C & Mackinnon G (2015) Assessment of physicochemical properties and metal contents of water and sediments of Bodo Creek, Niger Delta, Nigeria. Toxicological & Environmental Chemistry, Toxicological and Environmental Chemistry, 97 (2), pp. 135-144.
Hapca SM, Baveye PC, Wilson C, Lark RM & Otten W (2015) Three-Dimensional Mapping of Soil Chemical Characteristics at Micrometric Scale by Combining 2D SEM-EDX Data and 3D X-Ray CT Images, PLoS ONE, 10 (9), Art. No.: e0137205.
Golding KA, Simpson I, Wilson C, Lowe EC, Schofield JE & Edwards KJ (2015) Europeanization of sub-Arctic environments: perspectives from Norse Greenland’s outer fjords, Human Ecology, 43 (1), pp. 61-77.
Bellamy PS, Broadbent G, Corney M & Wilson C (2014) Investigations on the South Shore of Brownsea Island by the Dorset Alum and Copperas Industries Project., Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 135, pp. 272-283.
