Professor SARAH METCALFE's Outputs (38)

Anthropogenic increase in organic carbon production and burial in two tropical Mexican crater lakes (2025)
Journal Article
Rantala, M., Israde-Alcántara, I., Safaierad, R., Tylmann, W., Lepoint, G., Francus, P., Smol, J. P., Meyer-Jacob, C., Grooms, C., Mattielli, N., Metcalfe, S., Etmański, P., & Fagel, N. (2025). Anthropogenic increase in organic carbon production and burial in two tropical Mexican crater lakes. Science of the Total Environment, 971, Article 179041. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.179041

Lakes bury significant amounts of organic carbon (OC) in their sediments contributing to the removal of carbon from the short-term carbon cycle. Mounting evidence points to broadscale increases in lake OC burial rates under growing human perturbation... Read More about Anthropogenic increase in organic carbon production and burial in two tropical Mexican crater lakes.

Exploring soil erosion in the lake basins of Michoacán, Mexico: From sediment cores to conservation policies (2024)
Journal Article
Aguilera Lara, J., & Metcalfe, S. E. (2024). Exploring soil erosion in the lake basins of Michoacán, Mexico: From sediment cores to conservation policies. Journal of Quaternary Science, https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3676

Understanding soil erosion, its history and links to potential drivers such as land use (particularly agriculture and deforestation), different cultural perspectives and climate change are crucial for the development of effective management and conse... Read More about Exploring soil erosion in the lake basins of Michoacán, Mexico: From sediment cores to conservation policies.

Past Answers to Present Concerns. The Relevance of the Premodern Past for 21st Century Policy Planners: Comments on the State of the Field (2024)
Journal Article
Haldon, J., Mordechai, L., Dugmore, A., Eisenberg, M., Endfield, G., Izdebski, A., Jackson, R., Kemp, L., Labuhn, I., McGovern, T., Metcalfe, S., Morrison, K. D., Newfield, T., & Trump, B. (2025). Past Answers to Present Concerns. The Relevance of the Premodern Past for 21st Century Policy Planners: Comments on the State of the Field. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 16(1), Article e923. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.923

How is history relevant to the present, or indeed the future? Governments around the world have used history to inform planning and decision-making in various fields for years, but more recently it has taken on a renewed importance as governments gra... Read More about Past Answers to Present Concerns. The Relevance of the Premodern Past for 21st Century Policy Planners: Comments on the State of the Field.

Environmental significance of kaolinite variability over the last centuries in crater lake sediments from Central Mexico (2023)
Journal Article
Fagel, N., Israde-Alcántara, I., Safaierad, R., Rantala, M., Schmidt, S., Lepoint, G., Pellenard, P., Mattielli, N., & Metcalfe, S. (2024). Environmental significance of kaolinite variability over the last centuries in crater lake sediments from Central Mexico. Applied Clay Science, 247, Article 107211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clay.2023.107211

Environmental conditions have a notable impact on clay minerals, primarily because of the chemical reactions they undergo with their immediate environment. These reactions are more pronounced in hot and humid tropical regions, and therefore, the stud... Read More about Environmental significance of kaolinite variability over the last centuries in crater lake sediments from Central Mexico.

Estimating background concentrations of PM2.5 for urban air quality modelling in a data poor environment (2023)
Journal Article
Draper, E. L., Whyatt, J. D., Taylor, R. S., & Metcalfe, S. E. (2023). Estimating background concentrations of PM2.5 for urban air quality modelling in a data poor environment. Atmospheric Environment, 314, Article 120107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2023.120107

Atmospheric dispersion models are widely applied to simulate pollutant concentrations such as PM2.5 for use in long- and short-term health studies. A significant proportion of PM2.5 originates outside urban areas in which many people live. It is impo... Read More about Estimating background concentrations of PM2.5 for urban air quality modelling in a data poor environment.

Spectral Characteristics of Beached Sargassum in Response to Drying and Decay over Time (2023)
Journal Article
Chandler, C. J., Ávila-Mosqueda, S. V., Salas-Acosta, E. R., Magaña-Gallegos, E., Escalante Mancera, E., Gómez Reali, M. A., de la Barreda-Bautista, B., Boyd, D. S., Metcalfe, S. E., Sjogersten, S., van Tussenbroek, B., Silva, R., & Foody, G. M. (2023). Spectral Characteristics of Beached Sargassum in Response to Drying and Decay over Time. Remote Sensing, 15(17), Article 4336. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15174336

The bloom of pelagic Sargassum in the Atlantic Ocean has become increasingly problematic, especially when the algae have beached. A build-up of decaying beached material has damaging effects on coastal ecosystems and tourism industries. While remote... Read More about Spectral Characteristics of Beached Sargassum in Response to Drying and Decay over Time.

Monitoring holopelagic Sargassum spp. along the Mexican Caribbean coast: understanding and addressing user requirements for satellite remote sensing (2023)
Journal Article
de la Barreda-Bautista, B., Metcalfe, S. E., Smith, G., Sjögersten, S., Boyd, D. S., Cerdeira-Estrada, S., López-Ramírez, P., Magaldi, A., Ressl, R., Perera-Valderrama, S., Caballero-Aragon, H., Siordia, O. S., Couldridge, J., Gray, P., Silva, R., Van Tussenbroek, B. I., Escalante‐Mancera, E., & Foody, G. (2023). Monitoring holopelagic Sargassum spp. along the Mexican Caribbean coast: understanding and addressing user requirements for satellite remote sensing. Frontiers in Marine Science, 10, Article 1166000. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2023.1166000

Massive influxes of holopelagic Sargassum spp. (Sargassum natans and S. fluitans) have been causing major economic, environmental and ecological problems along the Caribbean coast of Mexico. Predicting the arrival of the sargassum as an aid to addres... Read More about Monitoring holopelagic Sargassum spp. along the Mexican Caribbean coast: understanding and addressing user requirements for satellite remote sensing.

An 1800-year oxygen-isotope record of short- and long-term hydroclimate variability in the northern neotropics from a Jamaican marl lake (2023)
Journal Article
Holmes, J., Burn, M., Cisneros-Dozal, L. M., Jones, M., & Metcalfe, S. (2023). An 1800-year oxygen-isotope record of short- and long-term hydroclimate variability in the northern neotropics from a Jamaican marl lake. Quaternary Science Reviews, 301, Article 107930. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107930

Hydroclimate variability on multi-decadal timescales has been a prominent feature of the circum-Caribbean region over the common era, with marked dry intervals noted in particular for the period 800–950 CE coinciding with the Terminal Classic Period... Read More about An 1800-year oxygen-isotope record of short- and long-term hydroclimate variability in the northern neotropics from a Jamaican marl lake.

Changing water quality and thermocline depth along an aquaculture gradient in six tropical crater lakes (2022)
Journal Article
Briddon, C. L., Metcalfe, S., Taylor, D., Bannister, W., Cunanan, M., Santos-Borja, A. C., Papa, R. D., & McGowan, S. (2023). Changing water quality and thermocline depth along an aquaculture gradient in six tropical crater lakes. Hydrobiologia, 850(2), 283-299. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-022-05065-7

Understanding how lakes respond to changes in nutrient loading along a productivity gradient can help identify key drivers of aquatic change, thereby allowing appropriate mitigation strategies to be developed. Physical, chemical and biological water... Read More about Changing water quality and thermocline depth along an aquaculture gradient in six tropical crater lakes.

Response of a low elevation carbonate lake in the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico) to climatic and human forcings (2022)
Journal Article
Metcalfe, S. E., Holmes, J. A., Jones, M. D., Gonzalez, R. M., Primmer, N. J., Dyrzo, H. M., Davies, S. J., & Leng, M. J. (2022). Response of a low elevation carbonate lake in the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico) to climatic and human forcings. Quaternary Science Reviews, 282, Article 107445. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107445

The importance of climate change, specifically drought, across the Maya region in the northern Neotropics, remains a topic of lively debate. Part of this discussion hinges on the coherency of response to climatic variability across different archives... Read More about Response of a low elevation carbonate lake in the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico) to climatic and human forcings.

A multiproxy database of western North American Holocene paleoclimate records (2021)
Journal Article
Brown, K. J., Cumming, B. F., Rodysill, J. R., Lachniet, M. S., Fritz, S. C., Bennett, J. R., Galloway, J. M., Schoups, G., Gavin, D. G., Munroe, J. S., Dawson, A., Shuman, B. N., Goman, M. F., Metcalfe, S., Wahl, D. B., Morris, J. L., Staines-Urías, F., Jiménez-Moreno, G., Kirby, M. E., Marsicek, J. P., …Routson, C. C. (2021). A multiproxy database of western North American Holocene paleoclimate records. Earth System Science Data, 13(4), 1613-1632. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-1613-2021

Holocene climate reconstructions are useful for understanding the diverse features and spatial heterogeneity of past and future climate change. Here we present a database of western North American Holocene paleoclimate records. The database gathers p... Read More about A multiproxy database of western North American Holocene paleoclimate records.

Climatic and environmental change in the western Tibetan Plateau during the Holocene, recorded by lake sediments from Aweng Co (2021)
Journal Article
Zhang, Y., Zhang, J., McGowan, S., Metcalfe, S., Jones, M., Leng, M. J., & Hou, J. (2021). Climatic and environmental change in the western Tibetan Plateau during the Holocene, recorded by lake sediments from Aweng Co. Quaternary Science Reviews, 259, Article 106889. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.106889

Understanding the strength and extent of the Asian summer monsoon (including the East Asian summer monsoon and the Indian summer monsoon) in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) region is crucial for predicting possible changes in the regional eco-environment an... Read More about Climatic and environmental change in the western Tibetan Plateau during the Holocene, recorded by lake sediments from Aweng Co.

Can δ18O help indicate the causes of recent lake area expansion on the western Tibetan Plateau? A case study from Aweng Co (2020)
Journal Article
Zhang, Y., Jones, M., Zhang, J., McGowan, S., & Metcalfe, S. (2020). Can δ18O help indicate the causes of recent lake area expansion on the western Tibetan Plateau? A case study from Aweng Co. Journal of Paleolimnology, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-020-00158-6

© 2020, Springer Nature B.V. Glacier-fed lakes on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) have undergone rapid expansions since the late 1990s, concurrent with the changing climate. However, the dominant cause(s) of lake area increases is still debated. To identify... Read More about Can δ18O help indicate the causes of recent lake area expansion on the western Tibetan Plateau? A case study from Aweng Co.

A Tale of Maize, Palm, and Pine: Changing Socio-Ecological Interactions from Pre-Classic Maya to the Present Day in Belize (2020)
Journal Article
Rushton, E. A. C., Whitney, B. S., & Metcalfe, S. E. (2020). A Tale of Maize, Palm, and Pine: Changing Socio-Ecological Interactions from Pre-Classic Maya to the Present Day in Belize. Quaternary, 3(4), Article 30. https://doi.org/10.3390/quat3040030

The environmental impact of the ancient Maya, and subsequent ecological recovery following the Terminal Classic decline, have been the key foci of research into socio-ecological interactions in the Yucatán peninsula. These foci, however, belie the co... Read More about A Tale of Maize, Palm, and Pine: Changing Socio-Ecological Interactions from Pre-Classic Maya to the Present Day in Belize.

Diatoms in a sediment core from a flood pulse wetland in Malaysia record strong responses to human impacts and hydro‐climate over the past 150 years (2020)
Journal Article
Briddon, C. L., McGowan, S., Metcalfe, S. E., Panizzo, V., Lacey, J., Engels, S., Leng, M., Mills, K., Shafiq, M., & Idris, M. (2020). Diatoms in a sediment core from a flood pulse wetland in Malaysia record strong responses to human impacts and hydro‐climate over the past 150 years. Geo: Geography and Environment, 7(1), Article e00090. https://doi.org/10.1002/geo2.90

Rapid development and climate change in southeast Asia is placing unprecedented pressures on freshwater ecosystems, but long term records of the ecological consequences are rare. Here we examine one basin of Tasik Chini (Malaysia), a UNESCO‐designate... Read More about Diatoms in a sediment core from a flood pulse wetland in Malaysia record strong responses to human impacts and hydro‐climate over the past 150 years.

Community perception, adaptation and resilience to extreme weather in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico (2020)
Journal Article
Metcalfe, S. E., Schmook, B., De la Barreda-Bautista, B., Endfield, G., Mardero, S., Manzon Che, M., Medina Gonzalez, R., Munguia Gil, T., Navarro Olmedo, S., Perea, A., & Boyd, D. S. (2020). Community perception, adaptation and resilience to extreme weather in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Regional Environmental Change, 20(1), Article 25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-020-01586-w

© 2020, The Author(s). Perceptions of climate change, the impacts of and responses to climatic variability and extreme weather are explored in three communities in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, in relation to livelihood resilience. These communities... Read More about Community perception, adaptation and resilience to extreme weather in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.

Precipitation regionalization, anomalies and drought occurrence in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico (2020)
Journal Article
De la Barreda, B., Metcalfe, S. E., & Boyd, D. S. (2020). Precipitation regionalization, anomalies and drought occurrence in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. International Journal of Climatology, 40(10), 4541-4555. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.6474

© 2020 The Authors. International Journal of Climatology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of the Royal Meteorological Society. Climate change projections have identified the Yucatan Peninsula as being vulnerable to increasing drought. U... Read More about Precipitation regionalization, anomalies and drought occurrence in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.

Challenges and considerations of applying nature-based solutions in low- and middle-income countries in Southeast and East Asia (2020)
Journal Article
Lechner, A. M., Gomes, R. L., Rodrigues, L., Ashfold, M. J., Selvam, S. B., Wong, E. P., Raymond, C. M., Zieritz, A., Sing, K. W., Billa, L., Sagala, S., Moug, P., Cheshmehzangi, A., Lourdes, K., Azhar, B., Sanusi, R., Ives, C. D., Tang, Y.-T., Tan, D. T., Chan, F. K. S., …Gibbins, C. (2020). Challenges and considerations of applying nature-based solutions in low- and middle-income countries in Southeast and East Asia. Blue-Green Systems, 2(1), 331-351. https://doi.org/10.2166/bgs.2020.014

Low- and middle-income countries in Southeast and East Asia face a range of challenges related to the rapid pace of urbanisation in the region, the scale of pollution, climate change, loss of ecosystem services and associated difficulties for ecologi... Read More about Challenges and considerations of applying nature-based solutions in low- and middle-income countries in Southeast and East Asia.

Recent disruptions in the timing and intensity of precipitation in Calakmul, Mexico (2019)
Journal Article
Mardero, S., Schmook, B., Christman, Z., Metcalfe, S. E., & De La Barreda-Bautista, B. (2020). Recent disruptions in the timing and intensity of precipitation in Calakmul, Mexico. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 140, 129–144. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-019-03068-4

This study addresses changes in the timing and intensity of precipitation from 1982 to 2016 from three meteorological stations around Calakmul, Mexico, a landscape balancing biodiversity conservation and smallholder agricultural production. Five meth... Read More about Recent disruptions in the timing and intensity of precipitation in Calakmul, Mexico.

20,000 years of societal vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in southwest Asia (2019)
Journal Article
Jones, M., Abu-Jaber, N., AlShdaifat, A., Baird, D., Cook, B. I., Cuthbert, M. O., Dean, J. R., Djamali, M., Eastwood, W., Fleitmann, D., Haywood, A., Kwiecien, O., Larsen, J., Maher, L. A., Metcalfe, S. E., Parker, A., Petrie, C. A., Primmer, N., Richter, T., Roberts, N., …Weeks, L. (2019). 20,000 years of societal vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in southwest Asia. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, 6(2), https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1330

The Fertile Crescent, its hilly flanks and surrounding drylands has been a critical region for studying how climate has influenced societal change, and this review focuses on the region over the last 20,000 years. The complex social, economic and env... Read More about 20,000 years of societal vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in southwest Asia.