Departmental Research Projects

Dr Sarah Woodroffe

Lecturer in the Department of Geography

Telephone: +44 (0) 191 33 41932

Fax: +44 (0)191 33 41801

Room number: S201

Lecturer in Quaternary Environmental Change

Fax: +44 (0) 191 33 41801

Contact Dr Sarah Woodroffe (email at s.a.woodroffe@durham.ac.uk)

Biography

I am a lecturer in the Geography Department. My research is focused upon reconstructing Holocene and recent sea-level changes using microfossil-based reconstruction methods, in order to answer questions of ice sheet history, crustal response to surface loading and predictions of future sea-level change in vulnerable coastal areas. I’m currently involved in research looking at sea-level changes over the last millennia in Greenland and what they can tell us about the changing mass-balance history of the Greenland Ice Sheet over the recent past and over longer timescales. I am also working on sea-level records from key locations far from the centres of former glaciation which provide information on the long-term melting histories of the large ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica. My particular area of expertise is the development and application of new statistical sediment and microfossil-based methodologies (including transfer functions) in reconstructing sea-level change. These are designed to enhance accuracy and precision and to allow development of sea-level records from historically poorly studied locations such as low and high latitudes.

Research Groups

Research Projects

Constraining Greenland Ice Sheet Mass Balance Using Salt Marsh Sediment Sequences
Reconstructing ice sheet history using relative sea-level (RSL) observations and modelling

Publications

Book chapters: online

Woodroffe, S.A. & Long, A.J. (2012). Late Quaternary Sea-level Changes in Greenland. In Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science, 2nd edition. Editor in Chief Elias & S.A. Elsevier. Accepted.

Journal papers: academic

Barlow, N.L.M., Shennan, I., Long, A.J., Gehrels, W.R., Saher, M.H, Woodroffe, S.A. & Hillier, C. (2013). Salt marshes as late Holocene tide gauges. Global and Planetary Change 106: 90-110.
Wake, L.M., Milne, G.A., Long, A.J., Woodroffe, S.A., Simpson, M.J.R. & Huybrechts, P. (2012). Century-scale relative sea-level changes in West Greenland — A plausibility study to assess contributions from the cryosphere and the ocean. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 315-316: 86-93.
Brain, M.J., Long, A.J, Woodroffe, S.A., Petley, D.N., Milledge, D.G. & Parnell, A.C. (2012). Modelling the effects of sediment compaction on salt marsh reconstructions of recent sea-level rise. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 345-348: 180-193.
Long, A.J., Woodroffe, S.A., Milne, G. A., Bryant, C.L., Simpson, M.J.R. & Wake, L.M. (2012). Relative sea-level change in Greenland during the last 700 years and ice sheet response to the Little Ice Age. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 315-316: 76-85.
Long, A.J., Woodroffe, S.A., Roberts, D.H. & Dawson, S. (2011). Isolation basins, sea-level changes and the Holocene history of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Quaternary Science Reviews 30(27-28): 3748-3768.
Woodroffe, S.A. & Long, A.J. (2010). Reconstructing recent relative sea-level changes in West Greenland: local diatom-based transfer functions are superior to regional models. Quaternary International 221(1-2): 91-103.
Long, A.J., Woodroffe, S.A., Milne, G.A., Bryant, C.L. & Wake, L.M. (2010). Relative sea level change in west Greenland during the last millennium. Quaternary Science Reviews 29(3-4): 367-383.
Long, A.J., Woodroffe, S.A. , Dawson, S., Roberts, D.H. & Bryant, C.L. (2009). Late Holocene relative sea-level rise and the Neoglacial history of the Greenland ice sheet. Journal of Quaternary Science 24(4): 345-359.
Woodroffe, S.A. (2009). Recognising subtidal foraminiferal assemblages: implications for quantitative sea-level reconstructions using a foraminifera-based transfer function. Journal of Quaternary Science 24(3): 215-223.
Woodroffe, S.A. & Long, A.J. (2009). Salt marshes as archives of recent relative sea-level change in West Greenland. Quaternary Science Reviews 28(17-18): 1750-1761.
Woodroffe, S.A. (2009). Testing models of mid to late Holocene sea-level change, North Queensland, Australia. Quaternary Science Reviews 28(23-24): 2474-2488.
Woodroffe, S.A. & Horton, B.P. (2005). Holocene sea-level changes in the Indo-Pacific. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 25(1): 29-43.
Woodroffe, S.A., Horton, B.P., Larcombe.P.E. & Whittaker, J.E. (2005). Intertidal mangrove foraminifera from the central Great Barrier Reef shelf, Australia: Implications for sea-level reconstruction. Journal of Foraminiferal Research 35(3): 259-270.
Horton, B. P., Larcombe, P., Woodroffe, S. A., Whittaker, J. E., Wright, M. R. & Wynn, C. (2003). Contemporary foraminiferal distributions of the Great Barrier Reef coastline, Australia: implications for sea-level reconstructions. Marine Geology 198: 225-243.