Profile
Biography
Christopher is an interdisciplinary environmental social scientist passionate about integrating natural and social science, and the humanities in ways that help society to understand and navigate Anthropocene challenges, especially in the long-term. He has previously worked on the social dimensions of climate, food security, natural resource, disaster, and ecosystem challenges.
He has held postdoctoral positions at McGill University and the University of Leeds, with a PhD in Geography from the University of Dundee.
Career
Postdoctoral Researcher, ResNet Synthesis Team, Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University
Visiting Research Fellow, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds
PhD, Geography, University of Dundee, UK, 2017.
Thesis: Exploring power in the theory and practice of resilience
Supervisors: Professor Ioan Fazey, Dr Susan Mains
MSc, Rural Sociology, University of Alberta, Canada, 2011.
Thesis: Exploring dimensions of place-power and culture in the social resilience of forest-dependent communities
Supervisors: Professor John R Parkins, Professor Naomi Krogman
BA, International Development Studies, University of Winnipeg, Canada, 2008.
Research
Overview
Based in the Levehulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity and the Department of Environment and Geography, Christopher’s research explores multi-century human-environmental futures on Earth and ways to plan for those futures now. It builds on the outputs of a White Rose University Consortium funded project he led at Leeds, called Refugia of Futures Past. Here, his team modelled different climate change scenarios to the year 2500, together with vegetation, heat stress, and crop changes to begin to broadly picture the kinds of futures we might have to adapt to. The aim was to provide some initial and indicative research to understand the kinds of climate futures our grandchildren may face. This work appeared in Global Change Biology and The Conversation, receiving international news and science media interest.
Publications
Selected publications
Zurek M, Ingram J, Sanderson Bellamy A, Goold C, Lyon C, Alexander P, Barnes A, Bebber D, Breeze T, Bruce A, Collins L, Davies J, Doherty B, Ensor J, Franco S, Gatto A, Lamprinopoulou C, Liu L, Merkle M, Norton L, Ollerton J, Oliver T, Potts S, Reed M, Sutcliffe C, Withers P. Food system resilience: A multidimensional concept, Annual Review of Environment and Resources, In Press.
Martin-Ortega J, Rothwell SA, Anderson A, Okumah M, Lyon C, Sherry E, Johnston C, Withers PJA, Doody DG. 2022. Are stakeholders ready to transform phosphorus use in food systems? A transdisciplinary study in a livestock intensive system, Environmental Science and Policy, 131:177-187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2022.01.011
Lyon C, Saupe EE, Smith CJ, Hill DJ, Beckerman AP, Stringer LC, Marchant R, McKay J, Burke A, O’Higgins P, Dunhill AM, Allen BJ, Riel-Salvatore J, Aze T. 2022. Climate change research and action must look beyond 2100, Global Change Biology, 28(2):349-361. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15871
Fazey I, Schäpke N, Caniglia G, Hodgson A, Kendrick I, Lyon C, Page G, Patterson J, Riedy C, Strasser T, Verveen S, Adams D, Goldstein B, Klaes M, Leicester G, Linyard A, McCurdy A,…Young H. 2020. Transforming knowledge systems for life on Earth: Visions of future systems and how to get there. Energy Research & Social Science 70:101724. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2020.101724
Lyon C, Cordell D, Jacobs B, Martin-Ortega J, Marshall R, Camargo-Valero MA, Sherry E. 2020. Five pillars for stakeholder analyses in sustainability transformations: The global case of phosphorus. Environmental Science and Policy, 107:80-89.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2020.02.019
Stringer LC, Fraser EDG, Harris D, Lyon C, Pereira LM, Ward C, Simelton E. 2020. Adaptation and development pathways for different types of farmers. Environmental Science and Policy 104:174-189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2019.10.007
Fazey I, Wise RM, Lyon C, Câmpeanu C, Moug P, Davies TE. 2016. Past and future Adaptation pathways. Climate and Development 8(1):26-44. doi:10.1080/17565529.2014.989192
Lyon C & Parkins JR. 2013. Toward a social theory of resilience: Social systems, cultural systems, and collective action in transitioning forest-based communities. Rural Sociology 78(4):528–49. doi:10.1111/ruso.12018
