Professor Tim Lenton
Current Post: Professor in Earth System Science
Room Number: 01.37F
Telephone: 01603 591414 (+44 1603 591414)
Fax: 01603 591327 (+44 1603 591327)
Email: t.lenton@uea.ac.uk
Research Interests
Earth system science; gaia theory; earth system modelling, global biogeochemical cycles, co-evolution of life and its environment; grid computing; e-Science.
Biography
My unifying research interest is in understanding the Earth as a whole system. I did my PhD in the School of Environmental Sciences at UEA, on what regulates the nutrient balance of the ocean and the oxygen content of the atmosphere, supervised by Andy Watson. At that time, I also began collaborating with James Lovelock on the development of the Gaia theory of Earth as a self-regulating system, and the Daisyworld model. From 1998 to 2004, I worked as an Earth system modeller at the NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology near Edinburgh. There I built a simple coupled carbon cycle-climate model and began a project developing a Grid-ENabled Integrated Earth system model (GENIE). I returned to the School in 2004, where I have been building an Earth system modelling group. I now lead the GENIEfy project and a QUEST project to understand the causes of the glacial-interglacial changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide. I am also working with members of my group on understanding the major transitions in Earth history, and on using Artificial life techniques to simulate the evolution of environmental regulation.
Significant Publications
Lenton, T.M., Marsh, R., Price, A.R., Lunt, D.J., Aksenov, Y., Annan, J.D., Cooper-Chadwick, T., Cox, S.J., Edwards, N.R., Goswami, S., Hargreaves, J.C., Harris, P.P., Jiao, Z., Livina, V.N., Payne, A.J., Rutt, I.C., Shepherd, J.G., Valdes, P.J., Williams, G., Williamson, M.S., Yool, A. (2007) Effects of atmospheric dynamics and ocean resolution on bi-stability of the thermohaline circulation examined using the Grid ENabled Integrated Earth system modelling (GENIE) framework. Climate Dynamics 29(6), 591-613. DOI: 10.1007/s00382-007-0254-9
Goldblatt, C., T. M. Lenton and A. J. Watson (2006). "Bistability of atmospheric oxygen and the great oxidation." Nature 443: 683-686, doi:10.1038/nature05169.
Lenton, T. M., M. S. Williamson, N. R. Edwards, R. Marsh, A. R. Price, A. J. Ridgwell, J. G. Shepherd, S. J. Cox and the GENIE team (2006). "Millennial timescale carbon cycle and climate change in an efficient Earth system model." Climate Dynamics 26(7-8): 687-711, doi:10.1007/s00382-006-0109-9.
Lenton, T. M. and A. J. Watson (2004). "Biotic enhancement of weathering, atmospheric oxygen and carbon dioxide in the Neoproterozoic." Geophysical Research Letters 31(5): L05202, doi:10.1029/2003GL018802.
Lenton, T. M. (2000). "Land and ocean carbon cycle feedback effects on global warming in a simple Earth system model." Tellus 52B, 1159-1188, doi:10.1034/j.1600-0889.2000.01104.x.
Lenton, T. M. (1998). "Gaia and natural selection." Nature 394: 439-447, doi:10.1038/28792.
Click here for full list of publications since 2000
