Dr Geraldene Wharton

Dr Geraldene Wharton, BSc Hons (Sheff) PhD (Soton)
Reader in Physical Geography

School of Geography
Queen Mary, University of London
Mile End Road, London E1 4NS
Phone: 020 7882 5436
Fax: 020 7882 7479
Email: g.wharton@qmul.ac.uk

Undergraduate Teaching:
GEG324 Water & Catchment Management (convenor)
GEG250 Research Strategies in Physical Environments (convenor)

and contributions to:

GEG245 Geomorphological & Hydrological Processes
GEG130 Earth: Portrait of a Planet
GEG179 Environmental Ideas & Practice
GEG119 Global Environmental Issues

Professional Activities:

  • Professional membership: British Hydrological Society; British Society for Geomorphology, International Association of Sediment and Water Science; International Association of Hydrological Sciences; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society with Institute of British Geographers.
  • Honorary Positions: UK River Restoration Board of Director (since 2000).
  • External Examining: (a) PhD examining: University of Nottingham; King’s College London, Royal Holloway University of London; (b) King’s College London, MSc Examiner; (c) University of London, External Degrees Programme.

Research interests:

Research areas:
Geraldene Wharton’s current research focuses on the interactions of plants, water and fine sediments in rivers. She has a particular interest in the role that plants play as river ecosystem engineers in trapping and retaining fine sediments, and how the aggregated nature of these fine sediments affects their entrainment and transport characteristics. This research has been funded by the Environment Agency and the Natural Environment Research Council through the Lowland Catchment Research Thematic Programme. The research conducted through LOCAR has been important in demonstrating the significance of biotic processes in the sediment dynamics of chalk river systems in several ways. First, it has quantified how in-channel plants modify flow patterns and the amount of sediment that they are able to trap and retain and the character of these deposits. Secondly, how suspension-feeding invertebrates modify the nature of these sediments with implications for the transport of fine particles in rivers and nutrient processing. And thirdly, the identification and measurement of methane production from sediments trapped by stands of Ranunculus spp. (water crowfoot) in a chalk stream, which may represent a further, and hitherto unknown, impact of intensive agriculture. These findings have implications for the ecological functioning and status these important aquatic systems, recognised as a priority habitat under the European Union Habitats and Species Directive. On-going work in this area is being conducted in collaboration with Roger Wotton (University College London), Ian Droppo (Environment Canada) and Natural England.

Geraldene’s second main area of research is river restoration with current investigations centred on nitrogen dynamics in reconnected floodplains (in collaboration with Fotis Sgouridis, Kate Heppell and Mark Trimmer at QMUL), and the challenges and appraisal of urban river restoration schemes. This urban river restoration work has been funded by the Environment Agency, and the award of an ESRC-NERC Transdisciplinary seminar series, CROCUS (Channel RestOration in Contaminated Urban Settings) jointly with the Flood Hazard Research Centre at Middlesex University. Geraldene also has a practical involvement in river restoration as a Director of the UK River Restoration Centre, a not-for-profit company promoting the science and practice of river restoration.

Current research students:

  • Grieg Rhyland Davies (started September 2007) Transport of fine sediments in vegetated chalk streams.
  • Bob Grabowski (started September 2007) Stability of fine-grained bed sediments in lowland vegetated streams.
  • Fotis Sgouridis (started September 2005) Nitrogen and carbon cycling in the reconnected floodplains of the River Cole, Oxfordshire (UK).

Publications:

  • Wharton, G. and Gilvear, D. (2007) River restoration in the UK: meeting the needs of both the EU Water Framework Directive and flood defence? International Journal of River Basin Management 5 (2): 143-154.
  • Sanders, I. A., Trimmer, M., Heppell, C. M., Cotton, J. A., Wharton, G., Hildrew, A. G. and Flowers, E. J. (2007) Emission of methane from chalk streams has potential implications for agricultural practices. Freshwater Biology 52: 1176-1186.
  • Clarke, S. J., Wharton, G. and Cotton, J. A. (2006) Spatial and temporal variations in the sediment habitat of Ranunculus spp. in lowland chalk streams – implications for using macrophytes as environmental monitors of sediment and water health? Water, Air & Soil Pollution: Focus 6: 393-401.
  • Cotton, J. A., Wharton, G., Bass, J. A. B., Heppell, C. M. and Wotton, R. S. (2006) The effects of seasonal changes to in-stream vegetation cover on patterns of flow and accumulation of sediment. Geomorphology 77: 320-334.
  • Wharton, G., Cotton, J. A., Wotton, R. S., Bass, J. A. B., Heppell, C. M., Trimmer, M., Sanders, I. A. and Warren, L. L. (2006) Macrophytes and suspension-feeding invertebrates modify flows and fine sediments in the Frome and Piddle Catchments, Dorset (UK). Journal of Hydrology 330: 171-184.
  • Warren, L. L., Wharton, G. and Wotton, R. S. (2005) The role of faecal pellets in lowland permeable catchments. Internationale Vereinigung für theoretische und angewandte Limnologie 29: 167-169 (ISSN 0368-0770).
  • Clarke, S. J., Bruce-Burgess, L. and Wharton, G. (2003) Form and function: principles for river restoration using an eco-geomorphological approach. Aquatic Conservation: Marine & Freshwater Ecosystems 13: 439-450.
  • Clarke, S. J. and Wharton, G. (2001) Sediment nutrient characteristics and aquatic macrophytes in lowland English rivers. The Science of the Total Environment, 266, 103-112.
  • Clarke, S. J. and Wharton, G. (2000) An investigation of marginal habitat and macrophyte community enhancement on the River Torne, UK. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management, 16, 225-244.
  • Wharton, G. (2000) Managing River Environments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (90 pp).
  • Wharton, G. and Tomlinson, J. J. (1999) Flood discharge estimation from river channel dimensions: results of applications in Java, Burundi, Ghana and Tanzania. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 44(1), 1-17.
  • Wharton, G. (1995) The channel-geometry method: guidelines and applications. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 20, 649-660.
  • Wharton, G. (1994) Progress in the use of drainage network indices for rainfall-runoff modelling and runoff prediction. Progress in Physical Geography, 18 (4), 539-557.
  • Wharton, G. (1992) Flood estimation from channel size: guidelines for using the channel-geometry method. Applied Geography, 12, 339-359.
  • Wharton, G., Arnell, N. W., Gregory, K. J. and Gurnell, A. M. (1989) River discharge estimated from river channel dimensions. Journal of Hydrology, 106, 365-376.