Botany

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Trinity College
Dublin 2
Ireland

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Professor Henry Lamb

Professor Henry Lamb

Adjunct Professor, Botany

I am a Quaternary palaeoecologist and biogeographer with expertise in lake-sediment coring, pollen analysis, and X-ray fluorescence geochemistry of lacustrine sediments.  My principal research interests are in climate dynamics and human responses in eastern Africa, focusing on how climatic changes may have influenced the origin and dispersal of early modern humans.   I have a strong and developing interest in biodiversity, nature restoration and peatlands. My route to semi-retirement in central Ireland as Emeritus Professor at Aberystwyth, and Adjunct Professor at Trinity, took me from Trinity (BA Natural Sciences, 1976), Minnesota (MSc Ecology, 1978) and Sidney Sussex College Cambridge (Research Fellow 1981-1983, PhD Botany 1982) to employment at Aberystwyth (Geography and Earth Sciences, 1983 - 2022). 

  

My work was principally on lake sediment records from Labrador, Morocco, Turkey, Kenya, Wales, Ireland, Japan and Ethiopia.  Research on Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile, yielded a 250,000-year record of environmental change in the Ethiopian highlands, with implications for early human dispersal from Africa, and for the history of Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean. Collaboration with colleagues in Germany, the US and the UK involved work on cores from locations close to some of the world's most important fossil hominin sites, including a 600,000-year record from Chew Bahir in south Ethiopia. I enjoyed working with Japanese, German and UK colleagues on the 60,000-year varved sequence from Lake Suigetsu (Japan), and on high-resolution records from Central America. I am fortunate to have worked with excellent PhD students, and with expert colleagues. 

  

I also have a continuing interest in the interface between science and the arts. Work with artist Julian Ruddock (Aberystwyth School of Art) resulted in a 2022 exhibition ‘The Hominin Project’, based on our research on Ethiopian palaeoenvironments. Current art-science involvement centres on a project entitled Nature Restoration Past and Present: changing attitudes to the Natural World in partnership with Aberystwyth’s School of Art, the National Botanic Garden of Wales, and the National Museum of Wales.  

 

In Ireland, I have worked on sites in Co Clare and Co Kerry. Now based in Co Offaly, I am becoming involved with peatland conservation, biodiversity policy, and I am currently rewilding former pastureland, including planting native trees. 

 

Publications and Further Research Outputs

  • Warren J. Eastwood, Abdrew Fairbairn, Elizabeth Stroud, Neil Roberts, Henry Lamb, Hakan Yi"itba""o"lu, Çetin "enkul, Andrew Moss, Rebecca Turner, Peter Boyer, Comparing pollen and archaeobotanical data for Chalcolithic cereal agriculture at Çatalhöyük, Turkey, Quaternary Science Reviews, 2018Journal Article, 2018
  • Finn Viehberg, Janna Just, Jonathan R. Dean, Bernd Wagner, Sven Oliver Franz, Nicole Klasen, Thomas Kleinen, Patrick Ludwig, Asfawossen Asrat, Henry Lamb, Melanie J. Leng, Janet Rethemeyer, Antoni E. Milodowski, Martin Claussen, Frank Schäbitz, Environmental change during MIS4 and MIS 3 opened corridors in the Horn of Africa for Homo sapiens expansion, Quaternary Science Reviews, 2018Journal Article, 2018
  • Helen Roberts, Charlotte L. Bryant, Dei Huws, Henry Lamb, Generating long chronologies for lacustrine sediments using luminescence dating, Quaternary Science Reviews, 2018Journal Article, 2018
  • Katie L. Loakes, David B. Ryves, Henry Lamb, Frank Schäbitz, Michael Dee, Jonathan J. Tyler, Keely Mills, Suzanne McGowan, Late Quaternary climate change in the north-eastern highlands of Ethiopia, Quaternary Science Reviews, 2018Journal Article, 2018
  • Henry F. Lamb, C. Richard Bates, Charlotte L. Bryant, Sarah J. Davies, Dei G. Huws, Michael H. Marshall, Helen M. Roberts, Harry Toland, 150,000-year palaeoclimate record from northern Ethiopia supports early, multiple dispersals of modern humans from Africa, Scientific Reports, 8, (1), 2018Journal Article, 2018
  • Gordon Schlolaut, Richard A. Staff, Achim Brauer, Henry Lamb, Michael H. Marshall, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Takeshi Nakagawa, An extended and revised Lake Suigetsu varve chronology from ~50 to ~10 ka BP based on detailed sediment micro-facies analyses, Quaternary Science Reviews, 2018Journal Article, 2018
  • Martin Trauth, Verena Foerster, Annett Junginger, Asfawossen Asrat, Henry Lamb, Frank Schaebitz, Abrupt or Gradual? Change Point Analysis of the Late Pleistocene-Holocene Chew Bahir Record from Southern Ethiopia, Quaternary Research, 2018Journal Article, 2018
  • Catherine Mariel Martin-Jones, Christine Lane, Nicholas Pearce, Victoria C. Smith, Henry Lamb, Frank Schaebitz, Finn Viehberg, Maxwell C. Brown, Ute Frank, Asfawossen Asrat, Recurrent explosive eruptions from a high risk Main Ethiopian Rift volcano throughout the Holocene, Geology, 2017Journal Article, 2017
  • Christopher Campisano, Andrew S. Cohen, J. Ramon Arrowsmith, Asfawossen Asrat, Anna K. Behrensmeyer, Erik T. Brown, Alan L. Deino, Danile M. Deocampo, Craig S. Feibel, John D. Kingston, Henry Lamb, Tim K. Lowenstein, Anders Noren, Daniel O. Olago, R. Bernhart Owen, Jon D. Pelletier, Richard Potts, Kaye Reed, Robin W. Renaut, James Russell, Joellen L. Russell, Frank Schäbitz, Jeffery R. Stone, Martin H. Trauth, Jonathan G. Wynn, The Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project, Paleoanthropology, 2017Journal Article, 2017
  • Schlolaut, G., Brauer, A., Nakagawa, T., Lamb, H.F., Tyler, J.J., Staff, R.A., Marshall, M.H., Bronk Ramsey, C., Bryant, C.L., Tarasov, P.E., Evidence for a bi-partition of the Younger Dryas Stadial in East Asia associated with inversed climate characteristics compared to Europe, Scientific Reports, 7, 2017Journal Article, 2017
  • Martin-Jones, C.M., Lane, C.S., Pearce, N.J.G., Smith, V.C., Lamb, H.F., Oppenheimer, C., Asrat, A., Schaebitz, F., Glass compositions and tempo of post-17 ka eruptions from the Afar Triangle recorded in sediments from lakes Ashenge and Hayk, Ethiopia, Quaternary Geochronology, 37, 2017, p15-31Journal Article, 2017
  • Henry F. Lamb, C. Richard Bates, Charlotte L. Bryant, Sarah J. Davies, Dei G. Huws, Michael H. Marshall, Helen M. Roberts, Harry Toland, Author Correction: 150,000-year palaeoclimate record from northern Ethiopia supports early, multiple dispersals of modern humans from Africa, Scientific Reports, 8, (1), 2018Journal Article, 2018
  • Martin-Jones, C.M., Lane, C.S., Pearce, N.J.G., Smith, V.C., Lamb, H.F., Oppenheimer, C., Asrat, A., Schaebitz, F., Reprint of Glass compositions and tempo of post-17 ka eruptions from the Afar Triangle recorded in sediments from lakes Ashenge and Hayk, Ethiopia, Quaternary Geochronology, 40, 2017Journal Article, 2017
  • Graciela Gil-Romera, Y. Pueyo, Henry Lamb, M. Sevilla-Callejo, D. Turton, Bush encroachment and long-term savanna dynamics, Quaternary International, 2016Journal Article, 2016
  • C. Martin-Jones, C. S. Lane, Henry Lamb, Nicholas Pearce, V. C. Smith, Developing a Holocene tephrostratigraphy of Ethiopia, Quaternary International, 2016Journal Article, 2016
  • F. Schäbitz, Bernd Wagner, F. Viehberg, V. Wennrich, J. Rethemeyer, J. Just, N. Klasen, A. Asrat, Henry Lamb, V. Förster, M. Trauth, A. Junginger, A. Cohen, First results from the deep drilling at Chew Bahir (S-Ethiopia), Quaternary International, 2016Journal Article, 2016
  • Lamb HF, Gasse F, Benkaddour A, El Hamouti N, Van der Kaars S, Perkins WT, Pearce NJ, Roberts CN, Relation between century-scale Holocene arid intervals in tropical and temperate zones , Nature , 373 , (6510 ), 1995, p134 - 137Journal Article, 1995
  • Cohen A, Campisano C, Arrowsmith R, Asrat A, Behrensmeyer A.K, Deino A, Feibel C, Hill A, Johnson R, Kingston J, Lamb H, Lowenstein T, Noren A, Olago D, Owen R.B, Potts R, Reed K, Renaut R, SchÀbitz F, Tiercelin J.J, Trauth M.H, Wynn J, Ivory S, Brady K, O'Grady R, Rodysill J, Githiri J, Russell J, Foerster V, Dommain R, Rucina S, Deocampo D, Russell J, Billingsley A, Beck C, Dorenbeck G, Dullo L, Feary D, Garello D, Gromig R, Johnson T, Junginger A, Karanja M, Kimburi E, Mbuthia A, McCartney T, McNulty E, Muiruri V, Nambiro E, Negash E.W, Njagi D, Wilson J.N, Rabideaux N, Raub T, Sier M.J, Smith P, Urban J, Warren M, Yadeta M, Yost C, Zinaye B, The Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project: Inferring the environmental context of human evolution from eastern African rift lake deposits, Scientific Drilling, 21, 2016, p1 - 16Journal Article, 2016, DOI , URL
  • Jolly Dominique, Prentice I Colin, Bonnefille Raymonde, Ballouche Aziz, Bengo Martin, Brenac Patrice, Buchet Guillaume, Burney David, Cazet Jean†Pierre, Cheddadi Rachid, Biome reconstruction from pollen and plant macrofossil data for Africa and the Arabian peninsula at 0 and 6000 years , Journal of Biogeography , 25 , (6 ), 1998, p1007 - 1027Journal Article, 1998
  • Raper E, Davies S, Perkins B, Lamb H, Hermanson M, Soares A, Stephenson T, Ecological conditions of ponds situated on blast furnace slag deposits located in South Gare Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Teesside, UK, Environmental Geochemistry and Health, 37, (3), 2015, p545 - 556Journal Article, 2015, DOI , URL
  • Lamb HF, Eicher U, Switsur VR, An 18,000-year record of vegetation, lake-level and climatic change from Tigalmamine, Middle Atlas, Morocco , Journal of biogeography , 1989, p65 - 74Journal Article, 1989
  • Roberts Neil, Jones MD, Benkaddour A, Eastwood WJ, Filippi ML, Frogley MR, Lamb HF, Leng Melanie J, Reed JM, Stein M, Stable isotope records of Late Quaternary climate and hydrology from Mediterranean lakes: the ISOMED synthesis , Quaternary Science Reviews , 27 , (25-26 ), 2008, p2426 - 2441Journal Article, 2008
  • Foerster V, Vogelsang R, Junginger A, Asrat A, Lamb H.F, Schaebitz F, Trauth M.H, Environmental change and human occupation of southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya during the last 20,000 years, Quaternary Science Reviews, 129, 2015, p333 - 340Journal Article, 2015, DOI , URL
  • Cheddadi R, Lamb HF, Guiot Joel, van der Kaars Sander, Holocene climatic change in Morocco: a quantitative reconstruction from pollen data , Climate dynamics , 14 , (12 ), 1998, p883 - 890Journal Article, 1998
  • Grove M, Lamb H, Roberts H, Davies S, Marshall M, Bates R, Huws D, Climatic variability, plasticity, and dispersal: A case study from Lake Tana, Ethiopia, Journal of Human Evolution, 87, 2015, p32 - 47Journal Article, 2015, DOI , URL
  • Roberts Neil, Black S, Boyer Peter, Eastwood Warren J, Griffiths HI, Lamb HF, Leng MJ, Parish R, Reed JM, Twigg D, Chronology and stratigraphy of Late Quaternary sediments in the Konya Basin, Turkey: results from the KOPAL project , Quaternary Science Reviews , 18 , (4-5 ), 1999, p611 - 630Journal Article, 1999
  • Cheddadi R, Nourelbait M, Bouaissa O, Tabel J, Rhoujjati A, López-Sáez J.A, Alba-Sánchez F, Khater C, Ballouche A, Dezileau L, Lamb H, A History of Human Impact on Moroccan Mountain Landscapes, African Archaeological Review, 32, (2), 2015, p233 - 248Journal Article, 2015, DOI , URL
  • Eastwood WJ, Roberts Neil, Lamb HF, Tibby JC, Holocene environmental change in southwest Turkey: a palaeoecological record of lake and catchment-related changes , Quaternary Science Reviews , 18 , (4-5 ), 1999, p671 - 695Journal Article, 1999
  • Loomis S.E, Russell J.M, Lamb H.F, Northeast African temperature variability since the Late Pleistocene, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 423, 2015, p80 - 90Journal Article, 2015, DOI , URL
  • Lamb HF, Late Quaternary vegetational history of southeastern Labrador , Arctic and Alpine Research , 12 , (2 ), 1980, p117 - 135Journal Article, 1980
  • Battarbee R.W, Lamb H, Bennett K, Edwards M, Bjune A.E, Kaland P.E, Berglund B.E, Lotter A.F, SeppÀ H, Willis K.J, Herzschuh U, Birks H.H, John Birks: Pioneer in quantitative palaeoecology, Holocene, 25, (1), 2015, p3 - 16Journal Article, 2015, DOI , URL
  • Lamb Henry F, Bates C Richard, Coombes Paul V, Marshall Michael H, Umer Mohammed, Davies Sarah J, Dejen Eshete, Late Pleistocene desiccation of Lake Tana, source of the blue Nile , Quaternary Science Reviews , 26 , (3-4 ), 2007, p287 - 299Journal Article, 2007
  • B. Wagner, A. Kolvenbach, F. Schäbitz, Viehberg, A. Junginger, V. Wennrich, J. Rethemeyer, T. Endale, Henry Lamb, A. Asrat, Late Glacial and Holocene environmental history of the Ethiopian Highlands inferred from a 12 m long sediment record from Dendi crater lakes, Quaternary International, 2016Journal Article, 2016
  • C. S. Lane, Catherine Mariel Martin-Jones, T. C. Johnson, Henry Lamb, Nicholas Pearce, C. A. Scholz, V. C. Smith, D. Verschuren, Toward a late Quaternary tephrostratigraphic framework for connecting East African palaeoenvironmental archives, Quaternary International, 2016Journal Article, 2016
  • Gordon Schlolaut, Achim Brauer, Takeshi Nakagawa, Henry Lamb, Michael Henry Marshall, Megumi Kato-Saito, Richard Staff, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Charlotte Bryant, Indications of a pan-hemispheric bi-partition of the Younger Dras Stadial from Lake Suigetsu, Japan, European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2016, Vienna, Austria, 17 Apr 2016, 2016Journal Article, 2016
  • Foerster, V., Vogelsang, R., Junginger, A., Asrat, A., Lamb, H.F., Schaebitz, F., Trauth, M.H., Reply to the comment on "Environmental change and human occupation of southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya during the last 20,000 years. Quaternary Science Reviews 129: 333-340", Quaternary Science Reviews, 141, 2016, p130-133Journal Article, 2016
  • Cohen, A., Campisano, C., Arrowsmith, R., Asrat, A., Behrensmeyer, A.K., Deino, A., Feibel, C., Hill, A., Johnson, R., Kingston, J., Lamb, H., Lowenstein, T., Noren, A., Olago, D., Owen, R.B., Potts, R., Reed, K., Renaut, R., Schäbitz, F., Tiercelin, J.J., Trauth, M.H., Wynn, J., Ivory, S., Brady, K., O'Grady, R., Rodysill, J., Githiri, J., Russell, J., Foerster, V., Dommain, R., Rucina, S., Deocampo, D., Russell, J., Billingsley, A., Beck, C., Dorenbeck, G., Dullo, L., Feary, D., Garello, D., Gromig, R., Johnson, T., Junginger, A., Karanja, M., Kimburi, E., Mbuthia, A., McCartney, T., McNulty, E., Muiruri, V., Nambiro, E., Negash, E.W., Njagi, D., Wilson, J.N., Rabideaux, N., Raub, T., Sier, M.J., Smith, P., Urban, J., Warren, M., Yadeta, M., Yost, C., Zinaye, B., The Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project: Inferring the environmental context of human evolution from eastern African rift lake deposits, Scientific Drilling, 21, 2016, p1-16Journal Article, 2016
  • Sarah Davies, Henry Lamb, Stephen J. Roberts, Micro-XRF core scanning in palaeolimnology: recent developments, Micro-XRF Studies of Sediment Cores , 2015Journal Article, 2015
  • Cheddadi, R., Nourelbait, M., Bouaissa, O., Tabel, J., Rhoujjati, A., López-Sáez, J.A., Alba-Sánchez, F., Khater, C., Ballouche, A., Dezileau, L., Lamb, H., A History of Human Impact on Moroccan Mountain Landscapes, African Archaeological Review, 32, (2), 2015, p233-248Journal Article, 2015
  • Grove, M., Lamb, H., Roberts, H., Davies, S., Marshall, M., Bates, R., Huws, D., Climatic variability, plasticity, and dispersal: A case study from Lake Tana, Ethiopia, Journal of Human Evolution, 87, 2015, p32-47Journal Article, 2015
  • Raper, E., Davies, S., Perkins, B., Lamb, H., Hermanson, M., Soares, A., Stephenson, T., Ecological conditions of ponds situated on blast furnace slag deposits located in South Gare Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Teesside, UK, Environmental Geochemistry and Health, 37, (3), 2015, p545-556Journal Article, 2015
  • Foerster, V., Vogelsang, R., Junginger, A., Asrat, A., Lamb, H.F., Schaebitz, F., Trauth, M.H., Environmental change and human occupation of southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya during the last 20,000 years, Quaternary Science Reviews, 129, 2015, p333-340Journal Article, 2015
  • Battarbee, R.W., Lamb, H., Bennett, K., Edwards, M., Bjune, A.E., Kaland, P.E., Berglund, B.E., Lotter, A.F., Seppä, H., Willis, K.J., Herzschuh, U., Birks, H.H., John Birks: Pioneer in quantitative palaeoecology, Holocene, 25, (1), 2015, p3-16Journal Article, 2015
  • Loomis, S.E., Russell, J.M., Lamb, H.F., Northeast African temperature variability since the Late Pleistocene, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 423, 2015, p80-90Journal Article, 2015
  • Schlolaut, G., Brauer, A., Marshall, M.H., Nakagawa, T., Staff, R.A., Bronk Ramsey, C., Lamb, H.F., Bryant, C.L., Naumann, R., Dulski, P., Brock, F., Yokoyama, Y., Tada, R., Haraguchi, T., Event layers in the Japanese Lake Suigetsu 'SG06' sediment core: Description, interpretation and climatic implications, Quaternary Science Reviews, 83, 2014, p157-170Journal Article, 2014
  • Costa, K., Russell, J., Konecky, B., Lamb, H., Isotopic reconstruction of the African Humid Period and Congo Air Boundary migration at Lake Tana, Ethiopia, Quaternary Science Reviews, 83, 2014, p58-67Journal Article, 2014
  • Ross, N., Siegert, M.J., Rivera, A., Bentley, M.J., Blake, D., Capper, L., Clarke, R., Cockell, C.S., Corr, H.F.J., Harris, W., Hill, C., Hindmarsh, R.C.A., Hodgson, D.A., King, E.C., Lamb, H., Maher, B., Makinson, K., Mowlem, M., Parnell, J., Pearce, D.A., Priscu, J., Smith, A.M., Tait, A., Tranter, M., Wadham, J.L., Whalley, W.B., Woodward, J., Ellsworth Subglacial Lake, West Antarctica: A Review of Its History and Recent Field Campaigns, Antarctic Subglacial Aquatic Environments, 2013, p221-233Journal Article, 2013
  • Staff, R.A., Schlolaut, G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Brock, F., Bryant, C.L., Kitagawa, H., van der Plicht, J., Marshall, M.H., Brauer, A., Lamb, H.F., Payne, R.L., Tarasov, P.E., Haraguchi, T., Gotanda, K., Yonenobu, H., Yokoyama, Y., Nakagawa, T., Integration of the old and new Lake Suigetsu (Japan) terrestrial radiocarbon calibration data sets, Radiocarbon, 55, (4), 2013, p2049-2058Journal Article, 2013
  • Mowlem, M.C., Tsaloglou, M.-N., Waugh, E.M., Floquet, C.F.A., Saw, K., Fowler, L., Brown, R., Pearce, D., Wyatt, J.B., Beaton, A.D., Brito, M.P., Hodgson, D.A., Griffiths, G., Bentley, M., Blake, D., Capper, L., Clarke, R., Cockell, C., Corr, H., Harris, W., Hill, C., Hindmarsh, R., King, E., Lamb, H., Maher, B., Makinson, K., Parnell, J., Priscu, J., Rivera, A., Ross, N., Siegert, M.J., Smith, A., Tait, A., Tranter, M., Wadham, J., Whalley, B., Woodward, J., Probe Technology for the Direct Measurement and Sampling of Ellsworth Subglacial Lake, Antarctic Subglacial Aquatic Environments, 2013, p159-186Journal Article, 2013
  • Staff, R.A., Nakagawa, T., Schlolaut, G., Marshall, M.H., Brauer, A., Lamb, H.F., Bronk Ramsey, C., Bryant, C.L., Brock, F., Kitagawa, H., Van der Plicht, J., Payne, R.L., Smith, V.C., Mark, D.F., Macleod, A., Blockley, S.P.E., Schwenninger, J.-L., Tarasov, P.E., Haraguchi, T., Gotanda, K., Yonenobu, H., Yokoyama, Y., The multiple chronological techniques applied to the Lake Suigetsu SG06 sediment core, central Japan, Boreas, 42, (2), 2013, p259-266Journal Article, 2013
  • Ramsey, C.B., Staff, R.A., Bryant, C.L., Brock, F., Kitagawa, H., Van Der Plicht, J., Schlolaut, G., Marshall, M.H., Brauer, A., Lamb, H.F., Payne, R.L., Tarasov, P.E., Haraguchi, T., Gotanda, K., Yonenobu, H., Yokoyama, Y., Tada, R., Nakagawa, T., A complete terrestrial radiocarbon record for 11.2 to 52.8 kyr B.P, Science, 338, (6105), 2012, p370-374Journal Article, 2012
  • Gil-Romera G, Adolf C, Benito B.M, Bittner L, Johansson M.U, Grady D.A, Lamb H.F, Lemma B, Fekadu M, Glaser B, Mekonnen B, Sevilla-Callejo M, Zech M, Zech W, Miehe G, Long-term fire resilience of the Ericaceous Belt, Bale Mountains, Ethiopia, Biology Letters, 15, (7), 2019Journal Article, 2019, DOI , URL