Staff Profile

Biography

2024-present PDRA in Compound Specific Radiocarbon Dating, Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, University of Oxford

2021-present Visiting Researcher, School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University

2021-2024 Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Geography, Durham University

2017-2021 Research Associate, School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University

2012-2017 PhD in Geography, School of Geography, University of Nottingham - “Carbon cycling in Arctic lakes: sedimentary biomarker reconstructions from Disko Island, West Greenland”

2011-2012 MSc in Environmental Management, School of Geography, University of Nottingham

2008-2011 BSc in Geography, School of Geography, University of Nottingham (1st Class Hons)

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ORCID

Research Overview

I am an environmental biogeochemist with a particular interest in answering earth science questions intersecting the carbon cycle and paleoclimate especially in northern and southern latitudes.

As a Visiting Researcher at Newcastle University, I continue to work on publications and collaborations stemming from the organic geochemical aspects of the NERC Changing Arctic Ocean Seafloor (ChAOS) project on which I was a PDRA at School of Natural and Environmental Sciences between April 2017 and March 2021.

In this exciting research, I participated in summer 2017, 2018 & 2019 NERC cruises aboard the RRS James Clark Ross to collect sediment cores along a changing sea ice gradient in the Barents Sea. In this project I analysed these sediments for a range of lipid biomarkers to quantify the bioavailability, transformation and cycling of organic carbon, focusing on its burial at the seafloor. I continue to collaborate with researchers at Newcastle University including developing projects focused on permafrost carbon cycling in the Arctic.

I then worked at Durham University (Department of Geography) where I worked on an EU funded project - ANTSIE (ANTarctic Sea Ice Evolution from a novel biological archive). In this, I used novel biological archives to reconstruct Antarctic sea-ice conditions at a variety of timescales. These biological remains formed from the preserved remains of regurgitated stomach contents from snow petrels, which feed within and at the edges of the sea-ice pack.

Currently I am working at the University of Oxford in the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU) in the School of Archaeology where I am focused on developing and refining methods for compound-specific radiocarbon dating. Compound-specific approaches offer the potential to improve dating accuracy, or facilitate a more accurate age where one has been difficult to obtain. It has the potential to solve critical questions in archaeology, help improve chronologies for palaeoclimate and better understand the source and pathways of carbon in earth sciences.

My PhD (University of Nottingham) developed organic geochemical paleoenvironmental reconstructions of carbon cycling using lake sediments on Disko Island, West Greenland to understand the drivers of recent and Holocene-scale climate change.

Current:

PDRA in compound-specific radiocarbon - National Environmental Isotope Facility (NEIF), Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit

Previous:

ANTSIE (ANTarctic Sea Ice Evolution from a novel biological archive) (EU)

Changing Arctic Ocean Seafloor (ChAOS) (NERC)

• Articles

  • Stevenson MA, Airs RL, Abbott GD. Unprecedented sea-ice minima enhances algal production deposited at the Arctic seafloor. Environmental Research Letters 2023, 18(11), 114046.
  • Marz C, Freitas F, Faust J, Godbold J, Henley S, Tessin A, Abbott GD, Arndt S, Barnes D, Grange L, Gray N, Head I, Hendry K, Hilton R, Reed A, Rhul S, Souster T, Solan M, Stevenson M, Tait K, Widdicombe S. Biogeochemical consequences of a changing Arctic shelf seafloor ecosystem. Ambio 2022, 51, 370-382.
  • Liang J, Lupien RL, Xie H, Vachula RS, Stevenson MA, Han B-P, Lin Q, He Y, Wang M, Liang P, Huang Y, McGowan S, Hou J, Russell JM. Lake ecosystem on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau severely altered by climatic warming and human activity. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 2021, 576, 110509.
  • Chen X, McGowan S, Qin B, Huang X, Stevenson MA, Zhang Z, Zeng L, Bai X. Effects of climate change on a subtropical montane peatland over the last two centuries: Evidence from diatom records. Holocene 2021, 31(7), 1112-1123.
  • Stevenson MA, Mcgowan S, Pearson EJ, Swann GEA, Leng MJ, Jones VJ, Bailey JJ, Huang X, Whiteford E. Anthropocene climate warming enhances autochthonous carbon cycling in an upland Arctic lake, Disko Island, West Greenland. Biogeosciences 2021, 18(8), 2465-2485.
  • Stevenson MA, Faust JC, Andrade LL, Freitas FS, Gray ND, Tait K, Hendry KR, Hilton RG, Henley SF, Tessin A, Leary P, Papadaki S, Ford A, März C, Abbott GD. Transformation of organic matter in a Barents Sea sediment profile: coupled geochemical and microbiological processes. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 2020, 378(2181), 20200223.
  • Faust JC, Stevenson MA, Abbott GD, Knies J, Tessin A, Mannion I, Ford A, Hilton R, Peakall J, März C. Does Arctic warming reduce preservation of organic matter in Barents Sea sediments?. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 2020, 378(2181), 20190364.
  • Liang J, Huang C, Stevenson MA, Qiao Q, Zeng L, Chen X. Changes in summer diatom composition and water quality in urban lakes within a metropolitan area in central China. International Review of Hydrobiology 2020, 105(3-4), 94-105.
  • Freitas FS, Hendry KR, Henley SF, Faust JC, Tessin AC, Stevenson MA, Abbott GD, März C, Arndt S. Benthic-pelagic coupling in the Barents Sea: an integrated data-model framework. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 2020, 378(2181), 20190359.
  • Stevenson MA, Abbott GD. Exploring the composition of macromolecular organic matter in Arctic Ocean sediments under a changing sea ice gradient. Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 2019, 140, 102-111.
  • Chen X, Qiao Q, McGowan S, Zeng L, Stevenson MA, Xu L, Huang C, Liang J, Cao Y. Determination of geochronology and sedimentation rates of shallow lakes in the middle Yangtze reaches using ²¹⁰Pb, ¹³⁷Cs and spheroidal carbonaceous particles. CATENA 2019, 174, 546-556.
  • Chen X, McGowan S, Xiao X, Stevenson MA, Yang X, Li Y, Zhang E. Direct and indirect effects of Holocene climate variations on catchment and lake processes of a treeline lake, SW China. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 2018, 502, 119-129.
  • Chen X, Stevenson MA, Zeng L, Qiao Q. Diatom distribution in an alpine basin (central China) in relation to environmental factors and substrata. Diatom Research 2017, 32(3), 251-262.
  • Chen X, Bu Z, Stevenson MA, Cao Y, Zeng L, Qin B. Variations in diatom communities at genus and species levels in peatlands (central China) linked to microhabitats and environmental factors. Science of The Total Environment 2016, 568, 137-146.
  • Stevenson MA, McGowan S, Anderson NJ, Foy RH, Leavitt PR, McElarney YR, Engstrom DR, Pla-Rabés S. Impacts of forestry planting on primary production in upland lakes from north-west Ireland. Global Change Biology 2016, 22(4), 1490-1504.
  • Stevenson MA. Arctic carbon cycling in an upland lake: preliminary results from Disko Island, west Greenland. Quaternary Newsletter 2015, 135, 28-30.
  • Taranu ZE, Gregory-Eaves I, Leavitt PR, Bunting L, Buchaca T, Catalan J, Domaizon I, Guilizzoni P, Lami A, McGowan S, Moorhouse H, Morabito G, Pick FR, Stevenson MA, Thompson PL, Vinebrooke RD. Acceleration of cyanobacterial dominance in north temperate‐subarctic lakes during the Anthropocene. Ecology Letters 2015, 18(4), 375-384.
  • Chen X, Qin Y, Stevenson MA, McGowan S. Diatom communities along pH and hydrological gradients in three montane mires, central China. Ecological Indicators 2014, 45, 123-129.

• Book Chapter

  • McGowan S, Stevenson M, Whiteford E, Pearson E. Carbon processing in Arctic lakes when vegetation changes on land. In: Callaghan, TV; Savela,H, ed. INTERACT Stories of Arctic Science. Aarhus University, 2015, pp.138-139.

• Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

  • Freitas FS, Stevenson MA, Abbott GD, Hilton R, Henley S, Faust J, Tessin A, März C, Solan M, Hendry K, Arndt S. Integrated data-model assessment of organic matter reactivity in the changing Barents Sea sediments. In: 29th International Meeting on Organic Geochemistry. 2019, Gothenburg, Sweden: European Association of Organic Geochemists.
  • Stevenson MA, Abbott GD. Changes in sedimentary organic matter burial across a retreating sea ice gradient in the Arctic Barents Sea. In: 29th International Meeting on Organic Geochemistry. 2019, Gothenburg, Sweden.

• Working Paper

  • Saitta ET, Vinther J, Crisp MK, Abbott GD, Kaye TG, Pittman M, Bull I, Fletcher I, Chen X, Collins MJ, Sakalauskaite J, Mackie M, DalBello F, Dickinson MR, Stevenson MA, Donohoe P, Heck PR, Demarchi B, Penkman KEH. Non-avian dinosaur eggshell calcite contains ancient, endogenous amino acids. bioRxiv 2020, 129999.