Staff Profile

Dr Stewart Jamieson, BSc, MSc, PhD

Contact Dr Stewart Jamieson (email at stewart.jamieson@durham.ac.uk)

Biography

I am a NERC Postdoctoral Fellow and Proleptic Lecturer in Geography. My research focuses on understanding controls on ice sheet behaviour, long-term landscape evolution, topographic reconstruction, glacial geomorphology. In particular, I am interested in understanding and quantifying the impact that interactions between these and other large-scale processes have upon ice sheet dynamics. Geographically, my work centres upon Antarctica although I also have interests in Patagonia and the Himalayas.

I use an approach that links numerical models of ice sheets, ice streams, tectonics and rivers to geological and geomorphological evidence for past system behaviour. A significant component of my model-based research is carried out using synthetic systems to understand the responses of ice sheets and ice streams to perturbations in bed conditions produced under conditions of glacial erosion and deposition.

My current project investigates the importance of glacial erosion and deposition for controlling the advance and retreat of marine-terminating ice streams. This builds upon a major component of my previous work which focused on determining how patterns of glacial landscape evolution under terrestrial ice sheets can perturb ice dynamics on million year timescales. My regional focus remains on Antarctica although I am also working on projects in Greenland, Norway and Arctic Canada.

Long-term landscape evolution of Antarctica

Much of my work has focussed on understanding patterns of long-term landscape evolution in Antarctica. By making links between numerical models of ice behaviour and our knowledge of landsystems that were produced under ice in the Northern Hemisphere, I have been able to predict how Antarctica has been modified by its long-lived ice sheet. This has led to better understanding of long-term interactions between ice and the landscape in Antarctica.

Read more.

I am also working on using our understanding of glacial erosion processes and patterns to reconstruct the former landscape of Antarctica. This work forms part of theANTscape project to generate a range of palaeotopographic maps of Antarctica over the past 130 Million Years (www.antscape.org). This work is sponsored by Antarctic Climate Evolution (ACE) group of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR).

Research Groups

• Quaternary Environmental Change (QEC)

Research Projects

• Understanding Marine Ice Stream Retreat Using Numerical Modelling and Geophysical Data

Research Interests

• Ice Sheet Modelling
• Glaciology
• Landscape Evolution

Publications

Journal papers: academic

• 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.
• Wilson, D.S., Jamieson, S.S.R., Barrett, P.J., Leitchenkov, G., Gohl, K. & Larter, R.D. Antarctic topography at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 2012;335-336:24-34.
• 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.
• Pross, J., Contreras, L., Bijl, P.K., Greenwood, D.R., Bohaty, S.M., Schouten, S., Bendle, J.A., Röhl, U., Tauxe, L., Raine, J.I., Huck, J.E., van de Flierdt, T., Jamieson, S.S.R., Stickley, C.E., van de Schootbrugge, B., Escutia, C., Brinkhuis, H. & Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 318 Scientists Persistent near-tropical warmth on the Antarctic continent during the early Eocene epoch. Nature. 2012;488:73-77
• Jamieson, S.S.R., Sugden, D.E. & Hulton, N.R.J. The evolution of the subglacial landscape of Antarctica. Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 2010;293:1-27.
• Jamieson, S.S.R., Hulton, N.R.J. & Hagdorn, M. Modelling landscape evolution under ice sheets. Geomorphology. 2008;97:91-108.
• Hebeler, F., Purves, R.S. & Jamieson, S.S.R. The impact of parametric uncertainty and topographic error in ice-sheet modelling. Journal of Glaciology. 2008;54:889-919.
• Jamieson, S.S.R., Hulton, N.R.J., Sugden, D.E., Payne, A.J. & Taylor, J. Cenozoic Landscape evolution of the Lambert basin, East Antarctica: the relative role of rivers and ice sheets. Global and Planetary Change. 2005;45:35-49.
• Jamieson, S.S.R., Sinclair, H.D., Kirstein, L.A. & Purves, R.S. Tectonic forcing of longitudinal valleys in the Himalaya: morphological analysis of the Ladakh Batholith, North India. Geomorphology. 2004;58:49-65.

Books: sections

• Marchant, D.R., Jamieson, S.S.R. & Sugden, D.E. The geomorphic signature of massive subglacial floods in Victoria Land, Antarctica. In: Siegert, M.J. Kennicutt II, M.C. & Bindschadler, R.A. Subglacial Aquatic Environments, Geophysical Monograph Series. Washington, USA: American Geophysical Union; 2011:111-127.
• Jamieson, S.S.R. & Sugden, D.E. Landscape evolution of Antarctica. In: Cooper, A. K., Barrett, P. J. Stagg, H. Storey, B. Stump, E. Wise, W. & and the 10th ISAES editorial team. Antarctica: A Keystone in a Changing World - Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences. Washington D.C.: National Academies Press; 2008:39-54.

Grants Awarded

• 2012: The influence of evolving bed topography on marine ice stream stability (£236113.39 from NERC - Natural Environment Research Council)