Staff Profile
Dr Chris Stokes
Contact Dr Chris Stokes (email at c.r.stokes@durham.ac.uk)
Biography
My research is focussed on glaciers, and ranges from the monitoring of small mountain glaciers over the last few decades to large-scale reconstructions of ice sheets over tens of thousands of years. A common theme of much of my work is the use of remote sensing (e.g. satellite imagery), which allows repeat monitoring of changes in present-day glaciers and provides an efficient means to visualise and investigate the landforms left behind by former ice sheets during the last ice age.
Together with postgraduate students, postdoctoral researchers and collaborators from both the UK and abroad, recent research can be grouped under the following broad themes:
Measuring and monitoring the response of glaciers to recent climate change: this involves both satellite remote sensing and field-based studies to investigate how glaciers are responding to recent climate change and variability, with a particular focus on glaciated regions of Russia (e.g. the Caucasus, Russian High Arctic islands and Siberia) and major outlet glaciers in Greenland and East Antarctica.
Reconstructing former ice sheet and ice stream dynamics: this work uses satellite imagery to map glacial landforms left behind by former ice sheets in order to reconstruct their evolution and links to the ocean-climate system. Early work focussed on locating and reconstructing the behaviour of fast-flow features, known as ice streams, and this has since evolved into looking at their role in the deglaciation of former ice sheets. A key component of this work has been to assess how well numerical ice sheet models reproduce ice stream dynamics, which has implications for predicting and modelling future ice sheet behaviour. Whilst much of this work has been focussed on the North American (Laurentide) Ice Sheet, I’ve contributed to studies on all of the world’s major ice sheets.
Investigating the formation of subglacial bedforms: satellite imagery is an efficient technique to map a variety of glacial landforms created by glaciers and ice sheets. Recent work has contributed towards the collection of large datasets of landform characteristics and these have been used to formulate and test ideas about their formation (e.g. drumlins and mega-scale glacial lineations) and refine numerical models of ice flow over sediments. These datasets have also been used to help interpret recent geophysical evidence of subglacial bedforms beneath ice streams in Antarctica.
Glacial landforms and landscapes on Mars: imagery of Mars is now comparable (and, in places, much better) than that for the Earth’s surface. Based on Earth analogues, recent work has investigated the potential role of glaciers (and liquid water) in shaping Martian landscapes.
In 2009 I was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize (£70,000) in recognition of my research contributions, and in 2013 I was awarded the British Society for Geomorphology’s Gordon Warwick Medal. I currently serve on the Editorial Boards for The Cryosphere and the Journal of Maps.
External Research Projects
External Supervisions
- Andrew Turner (Northumbria University).
Former PhD Students
- Heather Channon (2012): Multi-scale analysis of the landforms and sediments of palaeo-ice streams.
- Victoria Brown (2012): Ice stream dynamics at the north-western margin of the Laurentide Ice Sheet.
- Katie Grant (2010): Changes in glacier extent since the Little Ice Age and links to 20th/21st Century climatic variability on Novaya Zemlya, Russian Arctic.
Research Groups
Research Projects
- Climate Change and Glacier Dynamics in the Caucasus and the Mountains of Southern Siberia
- Identification and characterisation of ice stream sticky spots: an improved understanding of ice stream basal mechanics and shut-down
- Reconstructing ice stream behaviour during marine ice sheet collapse
- Terrestrial record of former Arctic ice streams: elucidating the controls on ice stream location and vigour, The
- Testing the instability mechanism for subglacial bedform production
- Understanding Marine Ice Stream Retreat Using Numerical Modelling and Geophysical Data
Selected Publications
Journal papers: academic
- Stokes, C.R., Shahgedanova, M., Evans, I.S. & Popovnin, V.V. Accelerated loss of alpine glaciers in the Kodar Mountains, south-eastern Siberia . Global and Planetary Change. 2013;101:82-96.
- Hillier, J.K., Smith, M.J., Clark, C.D., Stokes, C.R. & Spagnolo, M. Subglacial bedforms reveal an exponential size-frequency distribution. Geomorphology. 2013;190:82-91.
- Stokes, C.R., Fowler, A.C., Clark, C.D., Hindmarsh, R.C.A. & Spagnolo, M. The instability theory of drumlin formation and its explanation of their varied composition and internal structure. Quaternary Science Reviews. 2013;62:77-96.
- Livingstone, S.J., O'Cofaigh, C.O., Stokes C.R., Hillenbrand, C-D., Vieli, A. & Jamieson, S.S.R. Antarctic palaeo-ice streams. Earth-Science Reviews. 2012;111:90-128.
- Stokes, C.R., Tarasov, L. & Dyke, A.S. Dynamics of the North American Ice Sheet complex during its inception and build-up to the Last Glacial Maximum. Quaternary Science Review. 2012;50:86-104.
- Lovell, H., Stokes, C.R., Bentley, M.J. & Benn, D.I. Evidence for rapid ice flow and proglacial lake evolution around the central Strait of Magellan region, southernmost Patagonia. Journal of Quaternary Science. 2012;27:625-638.
- Turner, A.J., Woodward, J., Dunning, S.A., Shine, A.J., Stokes, C.R. & O'Cofaigh, C. Geophysical surveys of the sediments of Loch Ness, Scotland: implications for the deglaciation of the Moray Firth Ice Stream, British-Irish Ice Sheet. Journal of Quaternary Science. 2012;27:221-232.
- Winsborrow, M.C.M., Stokes, C.R. & Andreassen, K. Ice-stream flow switching during deglaciation of the southwestern Barents Sea. Geological Society of America Bulletin. 2012;124:275-290.
- Jamieson, S.S.R., Vieli, A., Livingstone, S.J., Ó Cofaigh, C. Stokes, C.R. Hillenbrand, C-D. & Dowdeswell, J.A. Ice-stream stability on a reverse bed slope. Nature Geoscience. 2012;5:799–802.
Media Contacts
Available for media contact about:
- Geography: Glacial landforms
- Environmental change: Glaciers and climate change
Grants Awarded
- 2012: NERC (NE/J00782X/1) "How important are ice streams in accelerating ice sheet deglaciation?" PI: C. Stokes; Co-I: C. Clark (Sheffield) £197,631
- 2010: NERC (NE/G015430/1 & NE/G018677/1) "Understanding marine ice stream retreat using numerical modelling and geophysical data". PI: A. Vieli (Durham, UK); Co-Is: C. O'Cofaigh (Durham, UK), C. Stokes (Durham, UK), C-D. Hillenbrand (BAS, UK) £403,878
- 2010: Philip Leverhulme Prize, PI: C. Stokes, £70,0000
- 2009: The Royal Society (JP080776) "Reconstructing ice stream behaviour during marine ice sheet collapse". PI: C. Stokes (Durham, UK); Co-I: K Andreassen (University of Tromso, Norway), £10,602
- 2007: EU INTAS "Evaluating the recent and future climate change and glacier dynamics in the mountains of southern Siberia". PI: M.Shahgedanova (Reading, UK); Co-Is: CR Stokes (Durham, UK), D. Hasell, J. Lowe, S. Gurney (Reading, UK), O. Baume, W. Hagg, C. Mayer (Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Germany), D. Shesternyov, A. Chuprova, S. Tataurov (Laboratory of Cryospheric Science, Chita, Russia), V. Popovnin, A. Aleynikov, N. Kovalenko (Moscow State University, Russia), T. Khromova, S. Kutuzov, A. Muraviev, G. Nosenko (Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow), Y. Narozhny (Tomsk State University, Russia) EU150,000
- 2007: EU INTAS "Modelling climate change, glacier dynamics, and water availability in the Caucasus". PI: M. Shahgedanova (Reading, UK); Co-Is: C. Stokes (Durham, UK), D. Hasell, J. Lowe (Reading, UK), R. Gobidzhishvili, A. Javakhishvili (Georgian Academy of Science, Georgia), V. Popovnin, A. Aleynikov (Moscow State University, Russia), O. Baume, W. Hagg, C. Mayer (Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Germany) EU120,000
- 2006: NERC (NE/D011175/1) "Testing the instability mechanism for subglacial bedform production" PI: C.Clark (Sheffield, UK); Co-Is: P. Dunlop (Ulster, NI), A. Fowler (Oxford, UK), R. Hindmarsh (BAS, UK), F. Ng (Sheffield, UK), C. Stokes (Durham, UK) £412,000
- 2006: The Nuffield Foundation Undergraduate Research Bursary, "Ice sheet dynamics at the northern margin of the former North American (Laurentide) Ice Sheet. PI: C. Stokes (Durham, UK) £1290
- 2005: The Royal Society, "Modelling glacial response to climate change in the Caucasus Mountains". PI: M.Shahgedanova (Reading, UK); Co-Is: C. Stokes (Durham, UK), V. Popovnin, A. Aleynikov, D. Petrakov (Moscow State University, Russia), S. Gurney (Reading, UK) £11,995.
- 2003: NERC (NER/M/S/2003/00050) "Identification and characterisation of ice stream sticky spots: an improved understanding of ice stream basal mechanics and shut-down". PI: C. Stokes (Durham, UK); Co-Is: C. Clark (Sheffield), S. Tulaczyk (California, Santa Cruz, US), O. Lian (Fraser Valley, Canada) £49,300
- 2002: The Nuffield Foundation (NAL/00443/G) "The terrestrial record of former Arctic ice streams: Elucidating the controls on ice stream location and vigour". PI: C. Stokes (Reading, UK); Co-I: C. Clark (Sheffield, UK) £5300