Professor Andy Hodson
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Room number: | E20 |
| Telephone (internal): | 27950 | |
| Telephone (UK): | 0114 222 7950 | |
| Telephone (International): | +44 114 222 7950 | |
| Email: | A.J.Hodson@Sheffield.ac.uk |
Andy Hodson received his BSc in Environmental Science from the University of Southampton, and followed with a PhD Climate, Hydrology and Sediment Transfer Process Interactions in a Sub-polar Glacier Basin from the Department of Geography, University of Southampton in 1994. In 1995 he was appointed as a Departmental Lecturer in the School of Geography, University of Oxford, and the next year moved to Sheffield as a Lecturer in Geography; he was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2002, Reader in 2007 and awarded a Chair in January 2011.
Andy is Network Coordinator for the EU NSINK Programme
NEW! First edition of The Ecology of Snow and Ice Environments by Johanna Laybourn-Parry, Martyn Tranter and Andy Hodson
Research Interests
Biogeochemistry of cold regions, glacier ecology, meltwater geochemistry, glacier hydrology, hydrometeorology of snow and ice
Current Research
Meltwater geochemistry
- How do glacial processes promote/hinder the sequestration of atmospheric gases (especially CO2) during rock weathering reactions?
- How does the legacy of glaciation influence the chemistry of natural surface waters?
Biogeochemistry of glacial environments
- How are the magnitude, bioavailability and composition of atmospheric nutrient inputs modified during storage in glacial environments?
- How does glacial activity influence the sequestration of nutrients such as P, Fe and Si from the earth's crust following rock-water interaction?
Glacier Ecology
- How does the community composition and activity of glacial ecosystems vary through time and space?
- How are microbial habitats distributed across glacial systems and what processes govern their formation / longevity?
- How sensitive are these habitats to climate change?
Glacier Hydrology and hydrometeorology
- How do heat fluxes produce meltwater fluxes?
- How are meltwaters conveyed through the glacial system and what conditions do they encounter in transit?
Teaching
I teach those skills that allow students to do more than simply write nice essays about environmental science problems. I therefore teach good practice from laboratory and field perspectives, from Level 1 in the first year, to MSc level in the fourth year. In this way I help students plan, execute and report experiments in hydrology, environmental chemistry and glaciology.
All of my teaching involves field work, some of which is conducted in local upland catchments in the Peak District, whilst other work takes place upon remote glaciers in the European High Arctic.
Andy teaches on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses including:
GEO150 Practical Methods for Physical Geography
GEO154 Environmental Science Level 1 Field ClassGEO6603 Environmental Process Fluxes
GEO6604 Geochemical Techniques in Environmental Analysis
GEO6613 Arctic/Alpine Field CourseAll staff also engage in personal supervision and tutoring of individual students at all three undergraduate levels in the following modules:
GEO163 (Information & Communication Skills for Geographers)
GEO263 or GEO264 (Research Design in Human or Physical Geography)
GEO356 (Geographical Research Project)
Key publications
- Hodson, A.J., Bøggild, C.E., Hanna, E., Huybrechts, P., Langford, H., Cameron, K. and Houldsworth, A. (2010). The cryoconite ecosystem on the Greenland ice sheet. Annals of Glaciology, 51(56), 123-129.
http://www.igsoc.org/annals/v51/56/a56A017.pdf - Hodson, A.J., Roberts, T., Engvall, A.C., Holmén, K. and Mumford, P.N. (2009). Glacier ecosystem response to episodic nitrogen enrichment in Svalbard, European High Arctic. Biogeochemistry.
doi:10.1007/s10533-009-9384-y - Hodson, A.J., Heaton, T., Langford, H. and Newsham, K. (2009). Chemical weathering and solute export by meltwater in a maritime Antarctic glacier basin. Biogeochemistry.
doi:10.1007/s10533-009-9372-2 - Hodson, A.J., Anesio, A.M., Tranter, M., Fountain, A.G., Osborn, M., Priscu, J., Laybourn-Parry, J. and Sattler, B. (2008). Glacial Ecosystems, Ecological Monographs, 78(1), 41-67.
Archived online PDF (open access) - Hodson, A.J., Mumford, P.N., Kohler, J. and Wynn, P.M. (2005). The High Arctic glacial ecosystem: new insights from nutrient budgets. Biogeochemistry 72(2), 233-256.
doi:10.1007/s10533-004-0362-0 - Hodson, A.J., Tranter, M. and Vatne, G. (2000). Contemporary rates of chemical denudation and atmospheric CO2 sequestration in glacierised basins: an Arctic perspective. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 25(13), 1447-1471.
doi:10.1002/1096-9837(200012)25:13<1447::AID-ESP156>3.0.CO;2-9
Other Information
Andy likes participating in the International Glaciological Society's UK and Nordic branch meetings and spending as much time as possible in Svalbard. Here he has an adjunct position in the Arctic Geology department at UNIS, where he runs an MSc module entitled "Arctic Glaciers and Landscape".