Dr Michael Burn
School of Biological and Environmental Sciences
Faculty of Science
Email: M.J.Burn@ljmu.ac.uk
Telephone: 0151 231 2188
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My research and teaching interests include reconstructing environmental and climatic change from lake sediment records in tropical South America and the Caribbean Region with particular emphasis on climate dynamics of the last millennium. I analyse sediment archives of environmental and climatic change in the tropical Atlantic and Caribbean and aim to develop novel approaches to extend the instrumental record of climate variability back in time.
My principal aims are to:
1) Investigate Late-Holocene records of natural hazards (drought, hurricanes, tsunamis, fire) in the Caribbean spanning the last two millennia using natural archives of environmental change
2) Develop the application of paleo-environmental proxies (sediment geochemistry, ostracods, gastropods, foraminifera, stable isotopes, charcoal) to reconstruct environmental change in the Caribbean
3) Disentangle human versus natural controls on landscape change in the Caribbean spanning the last few millennia
Research Grants:
NERC Urgency Funding 2024 (NE/Z504270/1): Re-evaluating Late Holocene storm reconstructions in Jamaica following the passage of Hurricane Beryl (FEC £99,214) (PI). With Jonathan Holmes (Co-I, UCL) and Debbie-Ann Gordon-Smith (PP, The University of the West Indies, Jamaica)
External postgraduate supervision:
Rajne Reynolds (UWI): "Long-term records of environmental change from two mangrove lagoons in Jamaica"
Kadane Coates (UWI): "Geochemical evidence of rapid environmental change from a sediment record from Hunts Bay, Kingston Harbour, Jamaica"
Theresa Rodriguez (PhD, UWI): "Examining seasonal changes in the Yallahs Delta Front and reconstructing the past climate of the Yallahs region, St. Thomas, Jamaica. 2014
Degrees
2008, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom, PhD
2003, University of London, United Kingdom, MSc Quaternary Science
2002, Royal Holloway University of London, United Kingdom, BSc Geography
Academic appointments
Senior Lecturer in Geography, Liverpool John Moores University, 2022 - present
Lecturer in Physical Geography, Department of Geography and Geology, The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, 2008 - 2022
Highlighted publications
Holmes J, Burn M, Cisneros-Dozal LM, Jones M, Metcalfe S. 2023. An 1800-year oxygen-isotope record of short- and long-term hydroclimate variability in the Northern neotropics from a Jamaican marl lake Quaternary Science Reviews, 301 DOI Publisher Url Public Url
Elliott S, Maezumi SY, Robinson M, Burn M, Gosling WD, Mickleburgh HL, Walters S, Beier ZJM. 2022. The legacy of 1300 years of land use in Jamaica Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, DOI Publisher Url Public Url
Burn M, Boger R, Holmes J, Bain A. 2022. A long-term perspective of climate change in the Caribbean and its impacts on the island of Barbuda Perdikaris S, Boger R. Barbuda: Changing Times, Changing Tides Routledge 9781032326399 DOI Publisher Url
Burn MJ. 2021. On the Interpretation of Natural Archives of Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Activity Geophysical Research Letters, 48 DOI Publisher Url
Burn MJ, Palmer SE. 2015. Atlantic hurricane activity during the last millennium Scientific Reports, 5 DOI Author Url Publisher Url
Journal article
Greenway H, Holmes J, Burn M. 2024. The response of ostracod faunal assemblages to hydrology, lake level and carbon cycling in a Jamaican marl lake: a palaeolimnological investigation Journal of Micropalaoeontology, 43 :81-91 DOI Publisher Url Public Url
LeBlanc AR, Kennedy LM, Burn M, Bain A, Perdikaris S. 2024. Human-driven fire and vegetation dynamics on the Caribbean island of Barbuda from early indigenous to modern times The Holocene, DOI Publisher Url Public Url
Holmes J, Burn M, Cisneros-Dozal LM, Jones M, Metcalfe S. 2023. An 1800-year oxygen-isotope record of short- and long-term hydroclimate variability in the Northern neotropics from a Jamaican marl lake Quaternary Science Reviews, 301 DOI Publisher Url Public Url
Elliott S, Maezumi SY, Robinson M, Burn M, Gosling WD, Mickleburgh HL, Walters S, Beier ZJM. 2022. The legacy of 1300 years of land use in Jamaica Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, DOI Publisher Url Public Url
Burn MJ. 2021. On the Interpretation of Natural Archives of Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Activity Geophysical Research Letters, 48 DOI Publisher Url
Heller CA, Michelutti N, Burn MJ, Palmer SE, Smol JP. 2021. The response of diatom assemblages in a Jamaican coastal lagoon to hurricane and drought activity over the past millennium Holocene, 31 :1359-1365 DOI Publisher Url Public Url
Palmer SE, Burn MJ, Holmes J. 2020. A multiproxy analysis of extreme wave deposits in a tropical coastal lagoon in Jamaica, West Indies Natural Hazards, 104 :2531-2560 DOI Publisher Url
Bain A, Faucher AM, Kennedy LM, LeBlanc AR, Burn MJ, Boger R, Perdikaris S. 2017. Landscape Transformation During Ceramic Age and Colonial Occupations of Barbuda, West Indies Environmental Archaeology, 23 :36-46 DOI Publisher Url
Burn MJ, Holmes J, Kennedy LM, Bain A, Marshall JD, Perdikaris S. 2016. A sediment-based reconstruction of Caribbean effective precipitation during the ‘Little Ice Age’ from Freshwater Pond, Barbuda Holocene, 26 :1237-1247 DOI Publisher Url
Burn MJ, Palmer SE. 2015. Atlantic hurricane activity during the last millennium Scientific Reports, 5 DOI Author Url Publisher Url
Burn MJ, Palmer SE. 2014. Solar forcing of Caribbean drought events during the last millennium Journal of Quaternary Science, 29 :827-836 DOI Publisher Url
Whitney BS, Mayle FE, Burn MJ, Guillén R, Chavez E, Pennington RT. 2014. Sensitivity of Bolivian seasonally-dry tropical forest to precipitation and temperature changes over glacial-interglacial timescales Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 23 :1-14 DOI Publisher Url
Burn M. 2012. A Late Holocene record of Human Ecodynamics in Barbuda, Lesser Antilles Quaternary International, 279-280 :75-76 DOI Publisher Url
Whitney BS, Mayle FE, Punyasena SW, Fitzpatrick KA, Burn MJ, Guillen R, Chavez E, Mann D, Pennington RT, Metcalfe SE. 2011. A 45kyr palaeoclimate record from the lowland interior of tropical South America Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 307 :177-192 DOI Publisher Url
Burn MJ, Mayle FE, Killeen TJ. 2010. Pollen-based differentiation of Amazonian rainforest communities and implications for lowland palaeoecology in tropical South America Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 295 :1-18 DOI Publisher Url
Burn MJ, Mayle FE. 2008. Palynological differentiation between genera of the Moraceae family and implications for Amazonian palaeoecology Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 149 :187-201 DOI Publisher Url
Chapters
Burn M, Boger R, Holmes J, Bain A. 2022. A long-term perspective of climate change in the Caribbean and its impacts on the island of Barbuda Perdikaris S, Boger R. Barbuda: Changing Times, Changing Tides Routledge 9781032326399 DOI Publisher Url
Mayle FE, Burn MJ, Power M, Urrego DH. 2009. Vegetation and Fire at the Last Glacial Maximum in Tropical South America PAST CLIMATE VARIABILITY IN SOUTH AMERICA AND SURROUNDING REGIONS: FROM THE LAST GLACIAL MAXIMUM TO THE HOLOCENE 14 :89-+ 978-90-481-2671-2 DOI Publisher Url
Research Grants Awarded:
NERC Urgency Funding 2024 (NE/Z504270/1), Re-evaluating Late Holocene storm reconstructions in Jamaica following the passage of Hurricane Beryl, Jonathan Holmes (UCL), Grant value (£): 99,214 (FEC), Duration of research project: 1 Year. 2024
Editorial boards:
Scientific Reports, Editorial Board Member, https://www.nature.com/srep/. 2017
Membership of professional bodies:
Member of the British Ecological Society, British Ecological Society, https://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/. 2006