Navigating the waters of climate change

Climate change is increasing the risk of extreme droughts in East Anglia which will impact the water supply, farming, and local ecosystems. Looking at historical drought patterns by analysing past climate data, such as tree rings, we can begin to understand how droughts have behaved over time and allow for a deeper understanding of drought frequency, severity, and duration. By combining this long-term climate information with modern research methods, the project aims to uncover the effects of climate change on drought in East Anglia.

As glaciers retreat, they reveal fresh soil teeming with surprises—including bacteria that help clean our air. Some of these tiny microbes can ‘eat’ carbon monoxide, a harmful gas that contributes to global warming. My samples come from Svalbard, where temperatures are rising seven times faster than the Arctic average. Join me as we uncover the hidden world of these bacteria, the role they might play in newly forming ecosystems, and what their presence could mean for our changing climate.

Whilst much of the story of Moana is based in fiction, there is a real historical basis for the pause and then resumption of human settlement of Polynesia. The first human settlers reached western Polynesia (e.g. Samoa) around 3,000 years ago, but didn’t then colonise eastern Polynesia (e.g. Tahiti) until around 1,000 years ago. Our work at the University of East Anglia and the University of Southampton has uncovered significant changes in the climate of Polynesia around 1,000 years ago, which may have been a key reason for the eastward expansion of the Polynesian people.