Prof. Bryan M. Spears

My research focusses on lakes, rivers and estuaries and their responses to changes in climate and land-use. 

My work spans a wide range of disciplines and scales of application from aquatic ecology to large-scale biogeochemical processes, and, from catchment scale experimentation to global scale policy analyses, respectively. I have led a series of national and international projects assessing ecosystem responses to the most pervasive threats to water resource security, globally, including nutrient and metal pollution and their interactions with climate change. I am the UKCEH Principle Investigator of Natural Environment Research Council National Capability Long-Term Science Multiple Centre projects delivering long-term and large-scale data on land-water-atmosphere nutrient interactions through freshwaters, from land to sea, with focus on the UK and polar ecosystems (e.g., LOCATE and BIOPOLE projects).

I led the Our Phosphorus Future project bringing together the international community to raise awareness on the need for more sustainable phosphorus use globally. My work informs large-scale ecosystem restoration initiatives, including on the recovery of lakes following nutrient pollution abatement, namely of phosphorus and nitrogen. I co-chair working groups of the International Society of Limnology and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) World Water Quality Alliance to accelerate effective restoration practices, internationally.

Click here to find out more about CEH research on lake restoration: http://www.ceh.ac.uk/our-science/projects/uk-lake-restoration