Professor Mike Walker

Honorary Professor
Photograph of Professor Mike Walker.

Contact

Email: walker@lamp.ac.uk
Phone: n/a
Fax: +44 (0)1970 622 659

Research

Group Affiliation

Biography

Mike's main research interests are in the Late Quaternary, and especially in the Lateglacial (15-10 k cal yrs BP), a period on which he has been working for more than 30 years. He is particularly interested in short-term climate change, its impact on landscape, and its manifestation in proxy records. His research has also been concerned with aspects of stratigraphy and chronology, especially radiocarbon dating, during the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition. He has published more than 130 scientific papers and other contributions, and is co-author of two major Quaternary textbooks: Reconstructing Quaternary Environments (with John Lowe), (1st edition, Longman, 1984; 2nd edition, Addison-Wesley-Longman, 1997), and Late Quaternary Environmental Change: Physical and Human Perspectives (with Martin Bell), (1st edition, Longman, 1992; 2nd edition, Pearson International, 2005). His most recent book is Quaternary Dating Methods, (John Wiley, Chichester & New York, 2005).

Mike Walker has chaired the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Radiocarbon Facilities Steering Committee (1995-1999), the NERC Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Strategy Group (2000-2004), and the NERC Cosmogenic Isotope Analysis Facility Steering Committee (2005-2007). He was a member of the NERC Earth Sciences Peer Review Committee (1999-2002), of the Services Review Group (2001), and of the EFCHED (Environmental Factors in the Chronology of Human Evolution and Dispersal) Steering Committee (2001-2006). He has been President of the Quaternary Research Association of Great Britain (1999-2002), and Editor of Journal of Quaternary Science (1995-1999). He continues to serve on the Editorial Board of Journal of Quaternary Science (John Wiley) and is a former member of the Editorial Board of Quaternary Science Reviews (Elsevier: 2000-2005). He was the European co-ordinator for the IGCP-253 Termination of the Pleistocene ‘North Atlantic Seaboard Program' (1990-1994), and co-founder, in 1995 of INTIMATE (Integration of Ice core, Marine and Terrestrial Records), now a core program of the INQUA (International Union for Quaternary Research) Palaeoclimate Commission. He served as Secretary of the Palaeoclimate Commission from 1999-2003, and is currently a Member of the INQUA Commission on Stratigraphy and Chronology and of the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS) of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). He has recently Chaired a Joint Working Group of INTIMATE and the SQS to define the base of the Holocene.

Staff Publications

Peer Reviewed Book Chapters & Journal Articles

2012

  1. Walker, M.J.C., Berkelhammer, M.,  Björck, S., Cwynar, L.C., Fisher, D.A., Long, A.J., Lowe, J.J., Newnham, R.M.,  Rasmussen, S.O.  & Weiss, H. Formal subdivision of the Holocene Series/ Epoch: a Discussion Paper by a Working Group of INTIMATE (Integration of ice-core marine and terrestrial records) and the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (International Commission on Stratigraphy). Journal of Quaternary Science, 27, 649-659.
  2. Walker, M. Dating environmental change and constructing chronologies. In Handbook of Environmental Change (edited by J.A. Matthews, P.J. Bartlein, K.R. Briffa, A.G. Dawson, A. de Vernal, T. Denham, S.C. Fritts & F. Oldfield), Sage Publications, London, 92-115.
  3. Walker, M., Lowe, J., Blockley, S., Bryant, C., Coombes, P., Hardiman, M., Turney, C. & Watson, J. Lateglacial and Early Holocene palaeoenvironmental ‘events’ in Sluggan Bog, Northern Ireland: comparisons with the Greenland NGRIP GICC05 event stratigraphy. Quaternary Science Reviews, 36, 124-138

2010

  1. Gibbard PL, Head MJ, Walker MJC, The Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy . In Press. Formal ratification of the Quaternary System/Period and the Pleistocene Series/Epoch with a base at 2.58 Ma. Journal of Quaternary Science, 25: 96-102

2009

  1. Walker M, Johnsen S, Rasmussen SO, Steffensen JP, Popp T, Gibbard P, Hoek W, Lowe J, Bjorck S, Cwynar L, Hughen K, Kershaw P, Kromer B, Litt T, Lowe DJ, Nakagawa T, Newnham R, Schwander J. 2009. Formal Definition and dating of the GSSP (Global Stratotype Section and Point) for the base of the Holocene using the Greenland NGRIP ice core and selected auxiliary records. Journal of Quaternary Science, 24: 3-17.
  2. Walker M., Jones, S., Hall, J. & Sambrook, P. A preliminary palaeoecological record from Llyn Llech Owain, near Gorslas, Carmarthenshire. Archaeology in Wales, 49, 53-58.

2008

  1. Bates MR, Barham AJ, Jones S, Parfitt K, Parfitt S, Pedley M, Preece RC, Walker M, Whittaker JE. 2008. Holocene sequences and archaeology from the Crabble Mill site, Dover, UK, and their regional significance. Proceedings of the Geologists Association, 119: 299-327.
  2. Lowe JJ, Rasmussen SO, Björck S, Hoek WZ, Steffensen JP, Walker MJC, Yu Z, group Ti. 2008. Synchronisation of Palaeoenvrionmental events in the North Atlantic Region during the Last Termination: a revised protocol recommended by the INTIMATE group. Quaternary Science Review, 27: 6-17.
  3. Palmer AP, Rose J, Lowe JJ, Walker M. 2008. Annually-laminated Late Pleistocene sediments from Llangorse Lake, South Wales, UK: Chronology and Palaeonenvironmental siginificance. Proceedings of the Geologists Association, 119: 245-258.
  4. Walker M, Johnsen S, Rasmussen SO, Steffensen JP, Popp T, Gibbard P, Hoek W, Lowe J, Björck S, Cwynar L, Hughen K, Kershaw P, Kromer B, Litt T, Lowe DJ, Nakagawa T, Newnham R, Schwander J. 2008. The Global Stratotype section and Point (GSSP) for the Holocene Series/Epoch (Quaternary System/Period) in the NGRIP ice core. Episodes, 31: 264-267.

2007

  1. Walker MJC, JJ L. 2007. Quaternary Science 2007: a Fifty-Year Retrospective. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 164: 1073-1092.
  2. Lowe JJ, Walker MJC, Porter SA. 2007. Understanding Quaternary climatic change. Encyclopaedia of Quaternary Science, 1: 28-39.

2006

  1. Walker M, Jones S, Hussey R, Buckley S. 2006. Mesolithic burning on the Welsh uplands: Evidence from Esgair Ffraith, near Lampeter, west Wales. Archaeology in Wales, 46: 3-10.
  2. Catt JA, Gibbard PL, Lowe JJ, McCarroll D, Scourse JD, Walker MJC, Wymer JJ. 2006. Quaternary: ice sheets and their legacy. The Geology of England and Wales , : 430-467.

Books

2005

  1. Bell M, Walker MJC. 2005. Late Quaternary Environmental Change: Physical and Human Perspectives.
  2. Walker M. 2005. Quaternary Dating Methods.