Environmental change

We integrate expertise across multiple disciplines to provide the evidence base and solutions to tackle the world's most pressing environmental challenges.

• Exploring our changing ice environments
  As our ice sheets melt, the Earth's ability to regulate its own temperature diminishes, and sea levels rise. But it's not just ice in Antarctica and Greenland we need to focus on – how can we help the people who rely on mountain glaciers to prepare for a future with less water, and possibly less food as a result?
• The future is copper
  A theatre and research collaboration exploring the uses, abuses and future of copper mining in a globally changing environment.
• The Dark Planet: Explorations of the wild night
  More than half of the world’s species are nocturnal by habit so how do we enhance our knowledge of these night time worlds and how they may be affected by climate change?
• Using UAVs for conservation: Monitoring endangered giraffe populations in Northern Cameroon
  How can we monitor endangered species in the wild over large distances when their populations are so small?
• Quantifying the greenhouse emissions gap
  In 2015 the Paris Agreement stipulated that global warming must be limited to well below 2°C if we are to avoid dangerous climate change. Much of this depends on reducing manmade greenhouse gases.
• Drivers and consequences of environmental change in drylands
  As climate changes, the world’s driest regions will be hit hardest. Already in a delicate balance with limited rainfall and high temperatures, dryland environments and the societies within them, are now facing immense challenges of adapting to environmental change.
• Making cities more pollinator-friendly
  As we face an increasingly urban future, we need to protect and cultivate greater biodiversity in our cities for the sake of people and pollinators alike.
• Understanding the resilience of Colombian forest biodiversity
  After a long history of bloody conflict, there’s understandable pressure to make Colombia’s damaged forests more economically productive. But with so little data on these environments, it’s hard to predict the potential impacts.
• Changing ice: Developing interdisciplinary research on Earth’s cold places
  This project is developing the University of Bristol’s capacity for interdisciplinary research on Earth’s cold places.
• Traffic effects on the atmospheric electric field
  How can we better understand how manmade pollutants are affecting the electrical environment and thus affecting nature and human health?

• Diverse
  Our breadth is our strength. With over 200 members, we research all aspects of our changing planet from land, sea, ice, and air – from the wilderness to the cities, human to the physical, from local to global and from the ancient past to the future.
• Impactful leadership
  We work with governments, non-governmental organisations and industry to provide advice and set the political agenda.  Our research features heavily in leading reports such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Reports, the National Pollinator Strategy and we verify the amount of greenhouse gases that the UK produces against the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) estimates. 
• Cutting edge
  We use cutting-edge models, theory, experiments and observations to understand earth system dynamics across all time scales to understand how to limit, manage and adapt to the challenges of our time. From precision greenhouse gas measurements to models of past climates to environmental justice.