Dr Simon Dadson

Current research

• Changing Land-Atmosphere Feedbacks in Tropical African Wetlands Financial support from the Natural Environment Research Council (2011-2014)
• Impacts of Climate Change on Soil Erosion, Sediment Transport and Carbon in the UK and Europe In collaboration with University of Leeds and University of Exeter; Financial support from the Natural Environment Research Council (2007-2010)
• Effects of Climate Change on Snow Hydrology in the Alps In collaboration with Technische Universität, Wien; Financial support from the British Council (2007-2008)
• Wetland Inundation Dynamics in the JULES land-surface Model Financial support from European Commission, WATCH (2007-2009)
• Grid-based River Flow Modelling for Application in a Regional Climate Model Financial support from Met Office (2005-2010)
• Erosion of an Active Mountain Belt: Erosion, Runoff variability, and Seismicity in Taiwan Financial support from NERC; Royal Society; Geological Society of America; NASA (2000-2004)

Research interests

My research interests lie in exploring the links between land-surface climate, hydrology, and geomorphology. These links range from the potential impacts of future climate change on river flows, to the study of how continental-scale weather patterns have influenced the development of mountain topography over the past few million years. In my role as an Environmental Modeller at CEH at Wallingford, I am responsible for developing hydrological models for use in climate change applications.

Before coming to CEH, I completed a PhD in the Department of Earth Sciences in Cambridge, on the erosion of tectonically-active mountain belts. This work involved estimating erosion rates in Taiwan using modern river sediment loads, Holocene river incision and thermochronometry on million-year time-scales.

I am also a Lecturer in Physical Geography at St John's College, Oxford.

Selected publications

See also the NERC Open Research Archive.

Hovius, Niels; Meunier, Patrick; Lin, Ching-Weei; Chen, Hongey; Chen, Yue-Gau; Dadson, Simon; Horng, Ming-Jame; Lines, Max. 2011 Prolonged seismically induced erosion and the mass balance of a large earthquake. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 304 (3-4). 347-355. 10.1016/j.epsl.2011.02.005

Dadson, S. J., Ashpole, I., Harris, P., Davies, H. N., Clark, D. B., Blyth, E. & Taylor, C. M. (2010) Wetland inundation dynamics in a model of land-surface climate: Evaluation in the Niger inland delta region. Journal of Geophysical Research, 115, D23114.

Dadson, S. (2010) Geomorphology and earth system science. Progress in Physical Geography, 34, 385-398.

Turowski, J. M., Rickenmann, D. & Dadson, S. J. (2010) The partitioning of the total sediment load of a river into suspended load and bedload: a review of empirical data. Sedimentology, 57, 1126-1146.

Parajka, J., Dadson, S., Lafon, T. & Essery, R. (2010) Evaluation of snow cover and depth simulated by a land surface model using detailed regional snow observations from Austria. J. Geophys. Res., 115, D24117.

Slaymaker, O., Spencer, T. & Dadson, S. (2009) Landscape, and landscape-scale processes as the unfilled niche in the global environmental change debate: an introduction. IN Slaymaker, O., Spencer, T. & Embleton-Hamann, C. (Eds.) Geomorphology and Global Environmental Change. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Lin, G.-W., Chen, H., Hovius, N., Horng, M. J., Dadson, S., Meunier, P. & Lines, M. (2008) Effects of earthquake and cyclone sequencing on landsliding and fluvial sediment transfer in a mountain catchment. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 33, 1354-1373.

Chen, H., Dadson, S.J., and Chi, Y.G. (2006) Recent rainfall-induced landslides and debris flows in northern Taiwan. Geomorphology, 77: 112-125.

Galewsky, J., Stark, C.P., Dadson, S.J., Wu, C.C., Sobel, A.H., and Horng, M.J. (2006) Tropical cyclone triggering of sediment discharge in Taiwan. Journal of Geophysical Research, 111: F03014.

Dadson, S.J., Hovius, N., Pegg, S.A., Dade, W.B., Horng, M.J., and Chen, H. (2005) Hyperpycnal sediment delivery from the Taiwan mountain belt to the ocean. Journal of Geophysical Research, 110, No. F4, F04016.

Dadson, S.J., and Church, M.A. (2005) Post-glacial evolution of glaciated valleys: A stochastic landscape evolution model. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 30(11): 1387-1403.

Dadson, S.J., Hovius, N., Chen, H., Dade, B., Lin, J.C., Hsu, M.L., Lin, C.W., Horng, M.J., Chen, T.C., Milliman, J., and Stark, C.P. (2004) Earthquake-triggered increase in sediment delivery from an active mountain belt. Geology, 32(8): 733-736.

Hovius, N., Lague, D., and Dadson, S.J. (2004) Processes, rates, and patterns of mountain belt erosion. In, Owens, P.N., and Slaymaker, O. (eds.) Mountain Geomorphology. Arnold.

Dadson, S.J., Hovius, N., Chen, H., Dade, B., Hsieh, M.L., Willett, S.D., Hu, J.C., Horng, M.J., Chen, M.C., Stark, C.P., Lague, D., and Lin, J.C. (2003) Links between erosion, runoff variability and seismicity in the Taiwan orogen. Nature, 426: 648-651.