Roland Gehrels
Professor

Profile

Biography

Roland is a Quaternary geologist and physical geographer specialising in sea-level science, with a career spanning teaching, research, academic leadership and international scholarly service. He was appointed Professor of Physical Geography in June 2013 and served as Head of the Department of Environment and Geography from 2019 to 2025.

Before joining the University of York, Roland spent nearly eighteen years at the University of Plymouth, where he advanced from Lecturer to Professor, was awarded a Chair in 2007, and contributed to the Quaternary Environments Research Group, leading research in sea-level studies.

Roland began his scientific career with postdoctoral research at the University of Durham, working with Ian Shennan and the late Michael Tooley, following his PhD at the University of Maine (USA), where he investigated Holocene sea-level changes in the Gulf of Maine under Dan Belknap and Joe Kelley. His earliest work in the field was carried out during his MSc in Applied Quaternary Geology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in collaboration with the late Orson van de Plassche.

Research

Overview

Roland’s research examines sea-level change across timescales from decades to millennia, integrating geological archives with instrumental observations to improve understanding of climate-driven coastal change.

He began his career as a Holocene sea-level scientist, developing high-resolution reconstructions from intertidal sediments. Over the past three decades, his work has focused on coupling geological field evidence with tide-gauge observations to reconstruct historical sea-level change. A major contribution has been the reconstruction of the acceleration of sea-level rise during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries at sites in the North and South Atlantic as well as the Southwest Pacific. This research demonstrated that recent rapid sea-level changes are global in extent and closely linked to global warming.

More recently, he has extended sea-level reconstruction techniques developed for Holocene intertidal sediments to earlier interglacial periods, providing new insights into ice-sheet dynamics under warmer-than-present climates. His current research has two main strands: (1) fingerprinting the sources of recent sea-level rise, and (2) investigating the links between sea-level rise and blue carbon storage in intertidal environments.

Projects

Sea-level rise and carbon sequestration – This includes C-SIDE (Carbon Storage in Intertidal Environments), a NERC-funded project undertaken with the University of St Andrews, Bangor University, the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, and the University of Leeds. C-SIDE is the first UK-wide empirical assessment of saltmarsh carbon storage, accretion rates, environmental drivers and long-term stability. Related work is conducted in collaboration with Dr Lucy McMahon (former PhD student).

Recent and Holocene sea-level change in the Southern Hemisphere – Research in Australia and New Zealand conducted with Dr Sophie Williams and Dan King (former PhD students), Rewi Newnham (Victoria University of Wellington), Bruce Hayward (Geomarine Research), and the New Zealand SeaRise Programme. Work in the South Atlantic is undertaken with Dr Graham Rush (former PhD student) and Dr Ed Garrett (York).

Sea-level records from freshwater coastal peat deposits – Research with Dr Geoff Richards (former PhD student) and Professor Bill Anderson (Appalachian State University, USA), developing new sedimentary archives for reconstructing Holocene sea-level changes.

Microplastics in salt marshes – Research led by Anna Gilbert (current PhD student).

ExTaSea (EXtreme upper TAil of SEA-level rise) – A European Commission Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship awarded to Dr Fiona Hibbert, using geological records to constrain high-end projections of future sea-level rise.

Late Holocene sea-level records from North Atlantic saltmarshes – A long-standing international research programme supported by a range of funders over several decades. Field sites are in Canada (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick), the USA (Maine, Connecticut), Iceland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Portugal, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

External activities

Memberships

• President INQUA Commission on Coastal and Marine Processes (2011-2015).
• UK National Correspondent of UNESCO IGCP Project 495 ‘Quaternary Land-Ocean Interactions. Driving Mechanisms and Coastal Responses’ (2004-2009) and UNESCO IGCP Project 588 ‘Preparing for Coastal Change’ (2010-2011).
• Chair of the North and West Europe Working Group, INQUA Commission on Coastal and Marine Processes (2007-2011).
• Member of the NERC Peer Review College (2012 – present)
• Member of the Marine Geology Editorial Board (2002 – 2023)
• Member of the NERC Radiocarbon Steering Committee (2014-2016)
• Member of the PALSEA Steering Committee (2010-2017)
• Contributing author IPCC Assessment Report 5, Working Group 1, Chapter 13, Sea-Level Change

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Earth: Past, Present & Future
• Various module contributions on coastal environments and sea-level change
• Dissertation supervision

Postgraduate

• MSc supervision
• Atmosphere & Ocean Science
• Various module contributions on coastal environments and sea-level change