Research interests

Tom has over 30 years of experience, a Professorship of Earth System Science at Heriot-Watt University (HWU) Edinburgh, Leader of the Biogeochemistry Group and Director International Development and Director of Research at the Lyell Centre.

As a trained geologist and organic biogeochemist, his core scientific expertise lies in assessing the role and functioning of Carbon and nutrients as primary drivers of Ecosystems, Climate Change and Energy Resources. With a focus on Earth surface processes connecting the atmosphere, land sources with ocean sinks, and the sedimentary record his research takes a holistic Earth Systems approach that crosses boundaries between terrestrial, marine, palaeo and applied sciences. The aim of his research is to trace, understand and predict the source, fate, interactions and burial of organic carbon and nutrients as they travel through the environment at different modes of climate and human perturbation, and explore the interactions with and impacts on the (Micro)Biosphere, the Geosphere (soils, rocks, minerals), the Hydrosphere (surface-subsurface) and Society.

The nature of his research is inherently multi-disciplinary, combining geology, palaeo-climatology/palaeo-oceanography, geochemistry (organic, inorganic, isotopic), sedimentology, hydrology, aspects of microbiology, biogeochemical and global climate modeling, and ecosystem sciences. This approach enables to improve understanding of modern processes at critical Earth surface interfaces, including soil-river transitions in tropical rainforests, river–shelf-deep sea fan transitions (e.g. Congo, Amazon, Yangtze), anoxic/euxinic redox systems (e.g. Namibian shelf), and the dynamics of organic matter transport and focusing in deep ocean sediments (e.g. North Atlantic drift deposits). This focus on the sources, fate, and interactions of organic carbon, as it moves through the modern environment, is stored in the sediments, and utilized by biological and abiological prosesses, directly underpins Ecosystem Research and the reconstruction of past climate-ocean systems, including Late Quaternary glacial-interglacial cycles and Paleogene-Mesozoic Oceanic Anoxic Events (OAEs) and Hyperthermals, and ultimately hydrocarbon source rock formation.

His background is in research and training/teaching in Kiel (GEOMAR), Bremen University, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (Royal NIOZ), Newcastle University and, since 2016, at The Lyell Centre at Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh.

Research grants and projects

£ 7.44 M of external income from Research Council, NGO and Industry funding.

Other keywords

Global Biogeochemical Cycles
Climate Change
Carbon Cycling
Land-Ocean-Coupling
Paleoclimate
Biogeochemistry
Ecosystem Sciences
International Science

Thomas Wagner

Professor Earth System Sciences