Professor John Anderson, Lead Investigator

Related to: Loughborough University

Professor Anderson leads the Polar & Arctic Research Group at the Department of Geography at Loughborough University, although he currently holds a Senior Visiting Professorship at the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology in China.

He is particularly interested in limnology (the study of freshwater), using sediment records from lake beds to investigate how both human and natural processes have affected the structure and functioning of lakes and their interaction with their surroundings over various timescales. Lake ecosystems exhibit changes in response to processes at all timescales, from diurnal and seasonal changes in response to heat and energy budget changes to longer-term adjustments to vegetation changes in the lake catchment, a process particularly relevant to the LAC project.

Since undertaking studies and beginning his career in Scandinavia, Professor Anderson has studied southwest Greenland in particular for well over a decade. The Kangerlussuaq area in particular has been of considerable interest to him, with its thousands of limnologically diverse lakes which are sensitive to regional changes in climate. They are therefore useful for studying past changes in regional climate and the lakes’ biological responses to these.

Professor Anderson has recently been awarded the prestigious Wolfson Research Merit Award by the Royal Society.

Contact information

Email: n.j.anderson@lboro.ac.uk
Phone: 01509 228194