Joseph Holden
prof-joseph-holden.bsky.social
Joseph Holden
@prof-joseph-holden.bsky.social

Chair of Physical Geography, University of Leeds. Director of water@leeds. Director of NERC UK freshwater quality research programme. Peatlands, hydrology, carbon cycling, soil carbon, land management, flooding, agriculture & water, forest cover change .. more

Joseph Holden is a British physical geographer who specialises in hydrological research, geomorphology and land management. He is Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Leeds. .. more

Environmental science 62%
Geography 17%

New fully-funded PhD project working on flooding, climate change, catastrophe modelling and the re-insurance industry: unrisk-cdt.ac.uk/projects/cli... Work with @floodre.bsky.social Erica Thompson and I.

Our new free to access paper from Josiah Judson's PhD showing how alley width and slope position of agroforestry trees in the UK influence soil functioning www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @pippachapmn.bsky.social @researchleeds.bsky.social @envleeds.bsky.social
Alley width and slope position influence soil carbon storage, nutrient dynamics and hydrology at a mature silvoarable site, SW England
Optimising benefits from agroforestry requires better understanding of spatial factors such as alley width and slope position. We sampled soil (0–50 c…
www.sciencedirect.com

Third paper from Qiuyu Zhu's PhD now out. Qiuyu coupled Spatially Distributed TOPMODEL to a hydrodynamic model to see how different NFM techniques interact. This allows us to study flood effects at larger catchment scales. Free access here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
A Coupled Hydrological‐Hydrodynamic Modelling Approach for Assessing the Impacts of Multiple Natural Flood Management Interventions on Downstream Flooding
While natural flood management (NFM) as a flood mitigation strategy is becoming widely used, there remains a lack of evidence regarding the effectiveness of different NFM scenarios under high flow ev...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Read our article published in Nature Water about what has made our Yorkshire Integrated Catchment Solutions Programme @yorkshireicasp.bsky.social such a success. Free access here: rdcu.be/eHWAM @springernature.com @researchleeds.bsky.social @envleeds.bsky.social
A solutions-focussed operational model to connect catchment water research to environmental resilience
Nature Water - A transferable and operational model involving cross-sector collaborations, transdisciplinary project co-design and translation of cutting-edge research, has unlocked integrated...
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Fab work by our PhD student Resti Salmayenti who has published her first thesis paper in Environmental Research Letters showing how drainage and land cover interact to affect fire occurrence in Indonesian peatlands. Our paper is open access here: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

Great work by our PhD student Yu Liu who has shown in AGU Advances that recent forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon causes substantial reductions in dry season precipitation. Open access here: agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Recent Forest Loss in the Brazilian Amazon Causes Substantial Reductions in Dry Season Precipitation
Recent forest loss (3.2%) in the Brazilian Amazon causes a mean 5.4% reduction in dry season precipitation 76.9% of reduced precipitation is due to decreased nonlocal water vapor, not local evapo...
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Wetland fragmentation is strongly associated with high population densities. African wetlands store an estimated 54 ± 11 Gt of carbon (surpassing Europe’s 12–31 Gt). If drained, they could release 260 MtC / yr, nearly ten times the carbon sequestration of pristine wetlands (27 MtC /yr).

Our paper in Nature Communications presents a new 10 metre resolution map of wetlands across Africa. The work was done through Sani Garba's PhD study and provides an excellent basis for future analysis and conservation. The paper is open access www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Wetland fragmentation associated with large populations across Africa - Nature Communications
This study presents a map of wetland extent for the whole of Africa at 10 m resolution. A strong link was found between broken up wetlands and human population density. Such fragmented wetlands could ...
www.nature.com

New paper published from my PhD student Di Wu showing that polystyrene microplastic pollution adversely impacts female zebrafish more than males www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @carterlj.bsky.social Free version here if you have a paywall: eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/220647/
Female zebrafish are more affected than males under polystyrene microplastics exposure
Microplastics are ubiquitous in freshwater and can be absorbed into fish skin and gills, accumulate in the gut, and be transported to other tissues, t…
www.sciencedirect.com

Nice new open access paper from my PhD student Qiuyu Zhu on science of natural flood management over last 30 years showing good evidence for both continued investment in NFM and in research to optimise NFM actions wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
A Quantitative Review of Natural Flood Management Research
A quantitative review of themes covered by previous studies on natural flood management and nature-based solutions including an assessment of the impact of natural flood management on flood peaks by ....
wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

We welcome applications for this great project on flooding: unrisk-cdt.ac.uk/projects/qua... Deadline 13 January 2025.
Quantifying the role of land cover in ‘slowing the flow’ for flood risk reduction in a changing climate – Understanding Uncertainty to Reduce Climate Risks
unrisk-cdt.ac.uk

Check out our new UK NERC-funded doctoral training centre in climate change uncertainty and risk - funded projects now available for applicants: unrisk-cdt.ac.uk Hosted by University of Leeds in collaboration with Exeter and UCL
Understanding Uncertainty to Reduce Climate Risks – NERC Centre for Doctoral Training
unrisk-cdt.ac.uk

New fully funded PhD project available on peatland windfarms and carbon impacts from disturbance supervised by @catmoody.bsky.social and I yes-dtn.ac.uk/research/the... Deadline for applications = 8 January 2025
The impact of a wind farm on carbon emissions from peat - Yorkshire Environmental Sciences • Doctoral Training Network
How do wind farms impact on carbon cycling in peatlands? Investigate carbon emissions in air and water from a recently constructed wind farm on Shetland.
yes-dtn.ac.uk

Our new paper out in Nature Communications led by Dafydd Elias sheds new light on how plant litter, microbes & soil minerals interact to develop mineral-associated soil organic carbon = crucial for long-term soil C storage rdcu.be/d0T4Q @natureportfolio.bsky.social @universityofleeds.bsky.social
Microbial and mineral interactions decouple litter quality from soil organic matter formation
Nature Communications - This study challenges the hypothesis that high-quality plant litters form stable, mineral-associated soil organic carbon most efficiently, providing evidence that...
rdcu.be