The Toploje Member chert is a Roadian to Wordian autochthonous– parautochthonous silicified peat preserved within the Lambert Graben, East Antarctica. It preserves a remarkable sample of terrestrial life from high-latitude central Gondwana prior to the Capitanian mass extinction event from both mega- and microfossil evidence that includes cryptic components rarely seen in other fossil assemblages. The peat layer is dominated by glossopterid and cordaitalean gymnosperms and contains sparse herbaceous lycophytes, together with a broad array of dispersed organs of ferns and other gymnosperms. The peat also hosts a wide range of fungal morphotypes, Peronosporomycetes, rare arthropod remains and a diverse coprolite assemblage. The fungal and invertebrate-plant interactions associated with various organs of the Glossopteris plant reveal the cryptic presence of a ‘component community’ of invertebrate herbivores and fungal saprotrophs centred around the Glossopteris organism, and demonstrate that a multitude of ecological interactions were well developed by the Middle Permian in high-latitude forest mires. Comparisons of coal maceral data from co-occurring coal seams with quantitative analyses of the silicified peat constituents reveals that while silicified peats provide an unparalleled sample of the organisms forming these coal deposits, they do not necessarily reflect the constituents that ultimately dominate the coal maceral volume.

This study was designed to test the hypothesis that riverbank erosion processes altered with increasing distance from a river source. The River Swale, northern England, was monitored at nine sites throughout its 109-km length, from December 1995 – March 1998. Erosion pins, bank-edge surveying, and Photo-Electronic Erosion Pins (PEEPs) were used to determine rates and timings of erosion. The rates were compared against a range of environmental variables based on temperature, river stage, and precipitation at 14-day intervals for erosion pins and 15-minute intervals for PEEPs. This allowed processes of erosion to be inferred. Catchment erosion rates were modelled using quadratic equations, simulating a mid-basin peak of 3.58 m a\(^{-1}\). Rates of erosion were low upstream, 0.07 m a\(^{-1}\), and also downstream, 0.12 m a\(^{-1}\). Subaerial processes, especially frost action, dominated upstream. Fluvial entrainment was most influential mid-catchment. Mass failures were most efficient downstream, but were more frequent mid-catchment. Piping, sapping and cantilever failures did not follow the same trends and were modelled separately. The length of the erosion season increased downstream as the number of active processes increased.

A series of detailed laboratory experiments have been carried out to investigate the processes of needle-ice growth and the mechanisms by which needle ice incorporates and transports sediment. The use of laboratory techniques has made it possible to control and monitor the environmental conditions at the soil surface closely, and thus isolate the elements that are important for needle ice growth. Two types of fine-grained soil sample were used: disturbed (remoulded) and undisturbed. These were taken from sites where needle ice was seen to grow naturally. Remoulding the soil sample affected the growth of needle ice and therefore the amount of sediment uplifted by the ice. Several types of needle ice were observed: clear, multitiered, crystals with dispersed sediment, soil caps and soil aggregates. Each type was produced under different conditions of soil-surface temperature and moisture. Soil-moisture availability was particularly important in controlling the type and rate of crystal growth. An algorithm has been developed with which to predict the type of crystal that will grow in a given freezing cycle. It is suggested that sediment becomes incorporated into the crystals when there is a disturbance in the environment of needle-ice growth. This disturbance is a result of instabilities in the balance of heat at the freezing front caused when either soil-surface temperature or soil-moisture content fall below a minimum threshold. Typical sediment yields ranged from 0.002 to 2.5 g cm\(^-\)\(^2\). The sediment incorporated into the needle-ice crystals was coarser than the bulk soil from which it was lifted. The transport of sediment by needle ice was also investigated. It was found that the distance of sediment transport is dependent on the slope angle, length of ice crystal, process of crystal melt, and type of marker particle and soil sample. A series of simple, statistical models is presented that attempts to predict the growth and morphological effects of needle ice.

The effects of explosive volcanism on local ecosystems are investigated in Middle Ordovician siliciclastics from the Welsh Basin. Bulk sampling analysis has provided quantitative data, regarding population proportions and abundance, following ash deposition in nearshore, shallow dysaerobic basin, and deeper basinal facies. Consistent ecological effects include the destruction of small sessile benthos by rapid burial, followed by re-establishment of mobile and opportunistic taxa, and a bimodal, planktic-benthic bloom in dysaerobic facies. The results are explained through vertical circulation initiated by turbid surface waters following ash deposition. Upwelling of subsurface, nutrient-rich waters of stratified basins is accompanied by downwelling of oxygenated surface waters, entrained into broadly spaced columns. The duration and nature of the events are investigated by ecological, sedimentological, and mechanical approaches, and high sedimentation rate invoked, resulting from seismicity associated with local volcanism. Systematic studies are included on Porifera, Echinodermata and Palaeoscolecida, the unusual preservation of each resulting from volcanism-related processes. The poriferan fauna provides significant information on non-lithistid demosponges and hexactinellids, including the earliest representatives of several groups. Rapid silicification of the proteinaceous skeleton of two species indicates a new source of soft-tissue preservation. Echinoderms comprise the most diverse pre-Caradoc fauna known from Britain, including six crinoids, three asteroids, and a cystoid.

This thesis aims to develop the foundations for a new validation strategy for route-based road weather forecasts that will enable validation of route-based models at a vastly improved spatial and temporal resolution, and in doing so provide a tool for rapid appraisal of new model parameterisations. A validation strategy that uses clustering techniques to create clusters of forecast points with similar geographical and infrastructure characteristics is presented, as well as two methodologies for de-parameterising key geographical and infrastructure parameters in the ENTICE route-based model that are currently not measured at the spatial scale demanded by a route-based forecast. The proposed validation strategy facilitates the analysis of forecast statistics at the cluster level, which is shown to provide a more representative measure of the model’s spatial forecasting ability. The majority of thermal variations around the study route are well represented by the clustering solutions, presenting the opportunity for new sampling strategies with the potential to validate forecasts at a vastly improved spatial and temporal resolution. De-parameterisation of the road construction and surface roughness parameters within the ENTICE model using Ground Penetrating Radar and airborne LIDAR data has been shown to significantly improve the spatial forecasting ability of ENTICE, with the model changes leading to refinement of the clustering solution which enables it to better capture the physical relationship between road surface temperature and the geographical and infrastructure parameters around the study route. Suggestions for future research are provided along with a blueprint for the future of route-based road weather forecasts.

Many millions of people watch television weather forecasts everyday, but a detailed analysis of the information such forecasts convey and how and why viewers watch them has not previously been undertaken. New technology is presenting television stations with both challenges and opportunities. Viewers no longer have to rely on watching a forecast at a time dictated by the television station, they can now choose when, where and how to watch forecasts. This thesis reviews the visual presentation of weather forecasts from paintings of the 14th Century to the latest on-demand technology. Viewers are surveyed to assess their recall of weather forecasts and their preferences for how information should be presented, displayed and broadcast in order to maximise audience figures and the financial attractiveness of the television weather forecast to potential sponsors or licence fee payers. Using the results of the research, a proposal is made for the creation of an internet based television weather channel.

This study has four principal aims. The first was to classify chironomid assemblages in canals using pupal exuviae. The second was to understand the distribution of species, their ecology and function. The third was to find indicator taxa which were suitable to classify canals in terms of water and sediment chemistry. The fourth was to analyze potential boundaries between Water Framework Directive (WFD) classes and develop a method to calculate ecological quality ratios that will support the objectives of the WFD. Calibrated chironomid-based inference models were constructed and these were used successfully to predict water and sediment chemistry parameters. This study found that there was potential to apply this tool to the requirements of the WFD and define ecological potential of canals through comparison of observed to reference EQRs (Ecological Quality Ratio). This was despite the fact that the study was conducted within a small geographical area.

Groundwater (GW) -fed streams are a common feature of paraglacial floodplains and are regarded as ‘biodiversity hotspots’, due to their role as valuable aquatic habitats. The hydrological dynamics which support GW-fed streams remain poorly understood. There is a need to improve understanding given paraglacial environments are extremely sensitive to the impacts of climate change. To address this significant knowledge gap site specific research was conducted on GW-fed streams within Denali National Park & Preserve, Alaska, during 2013 and 2014. Hydrometric, hydrochemical, hydrogeomorphic, and geophysical techniques were utilised to improve understanding of the hydrological dynamics and hydrogeomorphic controls that influence GW-fed stream occurrence. Paleochannels across paraglacial floodplains were identified as important preferential flow pathways (PFPs); and a first-order control upon GW-fed streams. In addition hillslope-runoff was established as an important hydrological flux to GW-fed streams. Colluvial deposits (e.g. talus cones) were highlighted as valuable hydrological stores on valleys-sides that made a direct contribution to streamflow. This research has raised concerns about the long-term stability of GW-fed streams in paraglacial environments due to changes in hydrogeomorphic controls (PFPs). It has also raised more immediate concerns about the short- to medium-term implications of shifting hydrologic regimes (e.g. declining winter snowpack) for GW-fed streams.

The passive continental margins which surround the North Atlantic region have been subject to widespread post-Triassic exhumation, the timing, magnitude and causes of which are debated. Exhumation of up to 6km (but more generally ≤3km) has been shown to have affected the Western UK Continental Shelf. This region contains a series of intra-plate extensional basins which formed during Permian-Jurassic rifting. Using a combination of palaeothermal (apatite fission-track analysis and vitrinite reflectance data) seismic and compaction data, this study has revealed an exhumation history of far greater complexity than previously suspected across the Southwest UK, with regional kilometer-scale exhumation episodes beginning during the Upper Triassic-Lower Jurassic (215-195Ma), Lower Cretaceous (140-120Ma), early Paleogene (75-55Ma), Eocene-Oligocene (35-20Ma) and Neogene (20-10Ma). Upper Triassic-Lower Jurassic exhumation appears confined to the footwalls of major basin bounding faults, suggesting footwall uplift was the principal cause of this episode of exhumation. Lower Cretaceous exhumation corresponds with continental breakup SW of Britain, suggesting a causative link. Early Paleogene exhumation was coeval with the Laramide phase of Alpine orogeny suggesting a causative link and additionally, marked heterogeneities in the pattern of this exhumation have been identified, casting doubt on the previously invoked role of plume-related epeirogenesis. Eocene-Oligocene and Neogene exhumation coincides temporally with the Pyrenean and Late Alpine compressional episodes. Seismic data shows that early and late Cenozoic exhumation was probably caused by compressional deformation related to Alpine orogenesis and/or Atlantic ridge-push. These observations imply that events at plate margins have exerted the primary control upon intra-plate exhumation in the Southwest UK onshore and offshore basin system with local faults providing an important control on the distribution of this exhumation

The Newry Igneous Complex (NIC) in Northern Ireland comprises three largely granodioritic plutons, together with an intermediate-ultramafic body at its northeast end. Geochronology shows that the NIC becomes broadly younger to the southwest and towards the centres of individual plutons. Geophysical results from the recent Tellus Survey of Northern Ireland have been combined with petrology and geochemistry to establish 17 distinct zones within the NIC, which are interpreted to represent separately intruded magma pulses. A combination of Anisotropy of Magnetic Susceptibility (AMS), petrographical and field data shows that the NIC was emplaced as a series of laccoliths into a tension-releasing bend on a strike-slip fault. This regime is proposed to have been facilitated by two deep-seated crustal lineaments. Inflation is suggested to have occurred due to magma pressure during emplacement of each individual zone. At least five constituent parts of the NIC are interpreted to have been emplaced separately at successively higher crustal levels. Thus the intrusion is thought to represent a series of stacked laccoliths, produced by a southwestward migrating source.