
Dr Christopher Williamson
PhD(Cardiff), BSc(N'cle)
Current positions
Associate Professor in Polar Microbiology
School of Geographical Sciences
Contact
Press and media
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Research interests
I lead the MicroLab@Bristol research group (www.microlabbristol.org) that specalises in the study of cold-adapted microbial communities and how they interact with their rapidly changing cryospheric environments. I am an expert in snow and glacier algae that bloom across the cryosphere during spring and summer melt seasons. My work includes a combination of field, laboratory and modelling approaches, and tends to link cell or community level (eco)physiology with broader-scale landscape processes and environmental change. As well as extensive work across arctic, alpine and antarctic environments, I also work closer to home on a series of freshwater and marine microalgal related projects.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
CASP-ICE: Cryospheric Algal Sampling Protocols - International Collaboration and Exchange
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Geographical SciencesDates
01/11/2023 to 31/10/2026
Convolutional Neural Networks for Environmental Monitoring
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Geographical SciencesDates
09/12/2020 to 30/06/2021
Can Glacial Flour Stimulate Nitrogen Cycling in Cropland?
Principal Investigator
Role
Principal Investigator
Description
- GRF acts to increase Red Clover yield over the growth period compared to controls, particularly Icelandic GRF. This in turn enhances the amount of fixed nitrogen by amended legume…Managing organisational unit
School of Geographical SciencesDates
24/09/2020 to 22/09/2022
BLACK and BLOOM: variations in the albedo of the Greenland Ice Sheet as a result of interactions between microbes and particulates.
Role
Co-Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Geographical SciencesDates
01/07/2015 to 30/06/2020
Thesis supervisions
Publications
Recent publications
01/08/2025A new dark ice albedo threshold and its applications
Environmental Research Letters
Micromelt sampling of the glacier algal nutrient environment
FEMS Microbiology Ecology
New method provides first evidence of fine-scale in situ heterogeneity in glacier algal photophysiology
European Journal of Phycology
Alpine glacier algal bloom during a record melt year
Frontiers in Microbiology
Cryogenian origins of multicellularity in Archaeplastida
Genome Biology and Evolution



