Deserts and dryland environments are complex both in terms of their responses to major global change drivers and with respect to human interactions in the past, present and future. The group uses novel approaches to investigate landscape dynamics at a range of temporal scales, working in conjunction with climate scientists, archaeologists and geomorphologists. Current projects, in Africa, Arabia and Asia, are focussing on the dynamics of aeolian systems; the dynamic relationships between early and modern humans and changing environments; and developing new proxies of landscape change. The details of any DPhil project will be developed with the student, but would likely include fieldwork components, the use of techniques such as luminescence dating and sedimentological approaches, and the opportunity to work in a multidisciplinary context.
