University of St Andrews
 
 

School of Geography & Geosciences

Department of
Earth & Environmental Sciences

 
portrait image
tel: +44 01334 463914
fax: +44 01334 463949
email: rjsw@st-andrews.ac.uk
room: 331

Dr Robert Wilson

Senior Lecturer


 

I graduated with a BSc (hons) degree in Geology from Durham University in 1992. In 1993, I was awarded a graduate honours diploma from the Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies (IASOS), University of Tasmania, Australia. During 1994, I stayed at IASOS and worked as a tree-ring laboratory technician. On returning to Europe, I worked as a Geologist for a building company in Germany while also starting up my own tree-ring laboratory undertaking historical dating in the Bavarian Forest Region. In 1997, I moved to Canada and acquired a MSc (1999) and PhD (2003) in Environmental Science from the University of Western Ontario. Between 2003 and 2007 I returned to the United Kingdom and worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at Edinburgh University. In 2006, I also became an adjunct Associate Research Scientist at the Tree-Ring Laboratory, Columbia University while in October 2007, I took up a lectureship position at St Andrews.

My research focus and passion is dendrochronology with specific emphasis on the reconstruction and understanding of climate for the last 1000-2000 years. Over the last few years, I have also work with other annually resolved proxy archives such as corals and historical documents to target other regions (e.g. the tropics) and seasons (e.g. winter) which cannot normally be examined using tree-ring data. I am also currently funded through the European Commission to utilises non-annually resolved proxy data such as speleothem, lake sediment and ice core archives to study past climate. Since arriving at St Andrews I have set up a modest tree-ring laboratoryfor the measurement of tree ring-width data.

My research interests include dendrochronology, palaeoclimatology of the last 2000 years, and other annually resolved proxy archives (e.g. corals and historical documents).

Rob Wilson

Supervisor for

Research overview

Late Holocene palaeoclimatology using tree-rings. Have also worked with historical and coral archives.

  • Earth and Environmental Sciences

    School of Geography and

    Geosciences

    Irvine Building

    St Andrews

    KY16 9AL

    United Kingdom

    Phone: +44 (0)1334 463914

  • Scottish Oceans Institute

    http://soi.st-andrews.ac.uk/

  • St Andrews Sustainability Institute

    http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/sasi/home/

  • Geography & Sustainable Development

    1/04/11 to 31/07/11

    School of Geography and

    Geosciences

    Irvine Building

    St Andrews

    KY16 9AL

    United Kingdom

    Phone: +44 (0)1334 463914

  • School of Geography and Geosciences

    1/10/07 to 31/03/11

    School of Geography and

    Geosciences

    Irvine Building

    St Andrews

    KY16 9AL

    United Kingdom

    Phone: +44 (0)1334 463914

 

Recent Publications

Anchukaitis, KJ, Breitenmoser, P, Briffa, KR, Buchwal, A, Buentgen, U, Cook, ER, D'Arrigo, RD, Esper, J, Evans, MN, Frank, D, Grudd, H, Gunnarson, BE, Hughes, MK, Kirdyanov, AV, Koerner, C, Krusic, PJ, Luckman, B, Melvin, TM, Salzer, MW, Shashkin, AV, Timmreck, C, Vaganov, EA & Wilson, RJS 2012, ' Tree rings and volcanic cooling ' Nature Geoscience , vol 5, no. 12, pp. 836-837.
Esper, J, Frank, DC, Timonen, M, Zorita, E , Wilson, R , Luterbacher, J, Holzkämper, S, Fischer, N, Wagner, S, Nievergelt, D, Verstege, A & Büntgen, U 2012, ' Orbital forcing of tree-ring data ' Nature Climate Change , vol 2, no. 12, pp. 862-866.
Okumura, Y, Schneider, D, Deser, C & Wilson, R 2012, ' Decadal-interdecadal climate variability over Antarctica and linkages to the tropics: analysis of ice core, instrumental, and tropical proxy data ' Journal of Climate , vol 25, no. 21, pp. 7421–7441.
Wilson, R , Loader, NJ, Rydval, M, Patton, H, Frith, A , Mills, CM , Crone, A, Edwards, C, Larsson, L & Gunnarson, BE 2012, ' Reconstructing Holocene climate from tree rings: The potential for a long chronology from the Scottish Highlands ' The Holocene , vol 22, no. 1, pp. 3-11.
Singer, MB , Stella, J, Piegay, H, Dufour, S , Wilson, R & Johnstone, L 2012, ' Contrasting water-uptake and growth responses to drought in co-occurring riparian tree species ' Ecohydrology .
Wilson, R & Bates, CR 2012, ' Lake sonar surveys and the search for sub-fossil wood ' Dendrochronologia , vol 30, no. 1, pp. 61-65.
Kiss, A , Wilson, R & Bariska, I 2011, ' An experimental 392-year documentary-based multi-proxy (vine and grain) reconstruction of May-July temperatures for KAszeg, West-Hungary ' International journal of biometeorology , vol 55, no. 4, pp. 595-611.
Dobrovolny, P, Moberg, A, Brazdil, R, Pfister, C, Glaser, R , Wilson, R , van Engelen, A, Limanowka, D, Kiss, A, Halickova, M, Mackova, J, Riemann, D, Luterbacher, J & Boehm, R 2010, ' Monthly, seasonal and annual temperature reconstructions for Central Europe derived from documentary evidence and instrumental records since AD 1500 ' CLIMATIC CHANGE , vol 101, no. 1-2, pp. 69-107.
Luterbacher, J, Koenig, SJ, Franke, J, van der Schrier, G, Zorita, E, Moberg, A, Jacobeit, J, Della-Marta, PM, Kuettel, M, Xoplaki, E, Wheeler, D, Rutishauser, T, Stoessel, M, Wanner, H, Brazdil, R, Dobrovolny, P, Camuffo, D, Bertolin, C, van Engelen, A, Gonzalez-Rouco, FJ , Wilson, R , Pfister, C, Limanowka, D, Nordli, O, Leijonhufvud, L, Soderberg, J, Allan, R, Barriendos, M, Glaser, R, Riemann, D, Hao, Z & Zerefos, CS 2010, ' Circulation dynamics and its influence on European and Mediterranean January-April climate over the past half millennium: results and insights from instrumental data, documentary evidence and coupled climate models ' CLIMATIC CHANGE , vol 101, no. 1-2, pp. 201-234.
Zorita, E, Moberg, A, Leijonhufvud, L , Wilson, R , Brazdil, R, Dobrovolny, P, Luterbacher, J, Boehm, R, Pfister, C, Riemann, D, Glaser, R, Soderberg, J & Gonzalez-Rouco, F 2010, ' European temperature records of the past five centuries based on documentary/instrumental information compared to climate simulations ' CLIMATIC CHANGE , vol 101, no. 1-2, pp. 143-168.
Leijonhufvud, L , Wilson, R , Moberg, A, Soderberg, J, Retso, D & Soderlind, U 2010, ' Five centuries of Stockholm winter/spring temperatures reconstructed from documentary evidence and instrumental observations ' CLIMATIC CHANGE , vol 101, no. 1-2, pp. 109-141.
Fish, T , Wilson, R , Edwards, C , Mills, C , Crone, A, Kirchhefer, AJ, Linderholm, HW, Loader, NJ & Woodley, E 2010, ' Exploring for senescence signals in native scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) in the Scottish Highlands ' FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT , vol 260, no. 3, pp. 321-330.
Stott, KJ , Austin, WEN , Sayer, MDJ, Weidman, CR , Cage, AG & Wilson, RJS 2010, ' The potential of Arctica islandica growth records to reconstruct coastal climate in north west Scotland, UK ' Quaternary Science Reviews , vol 29, no. 13-14, pp. 1602-1613.
Wilson, R , Cook, E, D'Arrigo, R, Riedwyl, N, Evans, MN, Tudhope, A & Allan, R 2010, ' Reconstructing ENSO: the influence of method, proxy data, climate forcing and teleconnections ' Journal of Quaternary Science , vol 25, no. 1, pp. 62-78.
Frank, D, Esper, J, Zorita, E & Wilson, R 2010, ' A noodle, hockey stick, and spaghetti plate: a perspective on high-resolution paleoclimatology ' Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change , vol 1, no. 4, pp. 507-516.
Buentgen, U, Franke, J, Frank, D , Wilson, R , Gonzalez-Rouco, F & Esper, J 2010, ' Assessing the spatial signature of European climate reconstructions ' Climate Research , vol 41, no. 2, pp. 125-130.
D'Arrigo, R , Wilson, R & Tudhope, A 2009, ' The impact of volcanic forcing on tropical temperatures during the past four centuries ' Nature Geoscience , vol 2, no. 1, pp. 51-56.
D'Arrigo, R, Jacoby, G, Buckley, B, Sakulich, J, Frank, D , Wilson, R , Curtis, A & Anchukaitis, K 2009, ' Tree growth and inferred temperature variability at the North American Arctic treeline ' Global and Planetary Change , vol 65, no. 1-2, pp. 71-82.
D'Arrigo, R, Allan, R , Wilson, R , Palmer, J, Sakulich, J, Smerdon, JE, Bijaksana, S & Ngkoimani, LO 2008, ' Pacific and Indian Ocean climate signals in a tree-ring record of Java monsoon drought ' International Journal of Climatology , vol 28, pp. 1889-1901.
Buentgen, U, Frank, D , Wilson, R , Carrer, M & Urbinati, C 2008, ' Testing for tree-ring divergence in the European Alps ' Global Change Biology , vol 14, pp. 2443-2453.
Dept. of Earth Sciences
Irvine Building
University of St Andrews
St Andrews
KY16 9AL, Scotland UK
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