Department of Geography

Dr Mark D Bateman

Reader in Quaternary Palaeoenvironments

	Room number:	F5
	Telephone (internal):	27929
	Telephone (UK):	0114 222 7929
	Telephone (International):	+44 114 222 7929
	Email:	M.D.Bateman@Sheffield.ac.uk

Mark Bateman received a first class BSc in Geography from the University of London in 1991 and a DPhil from Sussex University in 1995. In 1995 he joined the Sheffield Geography department as a PDRA to set up and run the luminescence laboratory for the Sheffield Centre for International Drylands Research. In 1998 he was appointed Lecturer in Physical Geography and in 2004 he was promoted to Senior Lecturer. Since 2006 he has been a Reader in Palaeoenvironmental Reconstruction.

Research interests

Current research

• Within Southern Africa there are a range of geomorphic features indicative of aeolian activity, many of which are not presently active. This work aims to establish the timing and regional significance of phases of activity to inform debates about major Late Quaternary rainfall zone shifts.

  More details on my southern African work

• Research is investigating processes of post-depositional disturbance of sedimentary sequences in the upland sand-sheets in south-eastern USA with a view to differentiating between in situ weathered and mixed sediments from intact sediments which contain a palaeoclimate signal.

  More details on my south-eastern USA work

• Much of North-Western Europe, is covered with aeolian sediments relating to the Last Glacial maximum through to the Holocene which hold key palaeoenvironmental information for areas which were not glaciated but subject to periglacial conditions.

  More details on my aeolian sand deposition work

• During much of the Quaternary, the lowlands of England experienced cold, non-glacial conditions. A legacy of these periods are the periglacial structures found in the stratigraphic record, many of which contain wind-blown material. Recent progress in understanding contemporary features indicates that the cryostratigraphical record may hold key information on the rates of climatic amelioration. Investigations are being carried out to date and characterise such structures in Arctic Canada and relate them to relict evidence in NW Europe.

  More details on my cryostratigraphy work

Key publications

• Bateman, M.D., Boulter, C.H., Carr, A.S., Frederick, C.D., Peter, D. and Wilder, M. (2007). Preserving the palaeoenvironmental record in Drylands: Bioturbation and its significance for luminescence derived chronologies. Sediment Geology, 195(1-2), 5-19.
  doi:10.1016/j.sedgeo.2006.07.003
  SHERPA Archive version (open access)
• Bateman, M.D. and Murton, J.B. (2006). The Chronostratigraphy of Late Pleistocene Glacial and Periglacial Aeolian Activity in the Tuktoyaktuk Coastlands, NWT, Canada. Quaternary Science Reviews, 25(19-20), 2552-2568.
  doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2005.07.023
  SHERPA Archive version (open access)
• Bateman, M.D., Holmes, P.J., Carr, A.S., Horton, B.P. and Jaiswal, M.K. (2004). Aeolianite and Barrier Dune Construction Spanning the Last Two Glacial-Interglacial Cycles from the Southern Cape Coast, South Africa. Quaternary Science Reviews, 23, 1681-1698.
  doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2004.02.001
  SHERPA Archive version (open access)
• Bateman, M.D. and Godby, S.P. (2004). Late-Holocene Inland Dune Activity in the UK: A case study from Breckland East Anglia. The Holocene, 14, 579-588.
  doi:10.1191/0959683604hl735rp
  SHERPA Archive version (open access)
• Bateman, M.D., Thomas, D.S.G. and Singhvi, A.K. (2003). Extending the aridity record of the Southwest Kalahari: current problems and future perspectives. Quaternary International, 111, 37-49.
  doi:10.1016/S1040-6182(03)00013-2
  SHERPA Archive version (open access)

Other information