Sign in

Joseph Holden

@prof-joseph-holden.bsky.social
169 followers 63 following 23 posts

Chair of Physical Geography, University of Leeds. Director of water@leeds. Director of NERC UK freshwater quality research programme. Peatlands, hydrology, carbon cycling, soil carbon, land management, flooding, agriculture & water, forest cover change

PostsRepliesMedia
Joseph Holden @prof-joseph-holden.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
First paper from Pei Xue's excellent PhD out today showing drivers of riverflow sensitivity to changing rainfall in 547 British rivers: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... @water.leeds.ac.uk @envleeds.bsky.social @researchleeds.bsky.social @domspracklen.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Drivers of Runoff Sensitivity in the Rivers of Great Britain
This graphical abstract summarises the spatial structure of runoff sensitivity across Great Britain. We find that runoff sensitivity varies greatly across regions and seasons. Vegetation cover and so...
021
Joseph Holden @prof-joseph-holden.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Our new open access paper from Hong Wang's PhD in Nature Climate Change @springernature.com shows how climate warming causes more barriers for river habitats due to river temperatures exceeding tolerance thresholds for fish species: www.nature.com/articles/s41... @water.leeds.ac.uk
nature.com
Climate warming drives thermal shocks and accelerated freshwater habitat fragmentation - Nature Climate Change
Assessing 9,809 freshwater fish species globally, this study shows risk to a high proportion of species in the tropics, and severe extremes in non-tropical regions. Under high emissions, gradual warmi...
042
Joseph Holden @prof-joseph-holden.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Cereal box pinhole projector to make an octopus smile during the eclipse #octoeclipse @octopus.energy
120
Joseph Holden @prof-joseph-holden.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Another great paper from Resti Salmayenti's PhD now out showing that peatland restoration & conservation management reduces tropical peatland fires (esp. during stronger El Nino). Free access here: agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/... @andybairdj.bsky.social @envleeds.bsky.social
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Tropical Peatland Restoration Reduces Fire Occurrence
Hotspots density in restored peatlands reduced significantly by up to 2.6 km−2 compared to matched unrestored peatlands in 2019 Deep wells show greater hotspot reduction and cover a larger area, ...
175
Joseph Holden @prof-joseph-holden.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
Final paper out from Josiah Judson's PhD. Trees on shallow gradients or the riparian zone contribute to flood management without substantially impacting land available for productive agriculture. Free access: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... @pippachapmn.bsky.social @envleeds.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Spatial Layout of Trees on Farms Influences Magnitude and Timing of River Flow Peak
Effectiveness of agroforestry as a lowland NFM strategy is spatially modelled for a range of planting layouts. Peak flow for a 10-year storm was attenuated by 2.6% and delayed by 19 min with just 0.6....
182
Joseph Holden @prof-joseph-holden.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
First paper now out from Rossana Escanilla-Minchel's PhD - showing land cover change impacts on riverflow in central Chile during different ENSO phases. Open access here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... @geomorphmark.bsky.social @water.leeds.ac.uk environment.leeds.ac.uk/geography/pg...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Land Cover Change Drives River Flow Modifications in Central Chile
This study examines the combined effects of land cover change and ENSO on streamflow dynamics in four coastal catchments of central Chile, using a 45-year (1979–2023) dataset of remote sensing and hy...
033
Joseph Holden @prof-joseph-holden.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
New funded PhD opportunity on large-scale export of aquatic carbon from peatlands: yes-dtn.ac.uk/research/lar... Join an amazing group of peatland researchers at the University of Leeds. Project supervised by me, Paul Morris, Jiren Xu (Glasgow), Taylor Maavara (Cary). Deadline 7 January 2026
yes-dtn.ac.uk
Large-scale export of aquatic carbon from peatlands - Yorkshire Environmental Sciences • Doctoral Training Network
Peatlands are wetland environments in which saturated, anoxic soil conditions cause carbon-rich plant detritus – peat – to accumulate over thousands of years. Peatlands are thought to store approximat...
001
Joseph Holden @prof-joseph-holden.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
New fully-funded PhD project working on flooding, climate change, catastrophe modelling and the re-insurance industry: unrisk-cdt.ac.uk/projects/cli... Work with @floodre.bsky.social Erica Thompson and I.
042
Joseph Holden @prof-joseph-holden.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Our new free to access paper from Josiah Judson's PhD showing how alley width and slope position of agroforestry trees in the UK influence soil functioning www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @pippachapmn.bsky.social @researchleeds.bsky.social @envleeds.bsky.social
sciencedirect.com
Alley width and slope position influence soil carbon storage, nutrient dynamics and hydrology at a mature silvoarable site, SW England
Optimising benefits from agroforestry requires better understanding of spatial factors such as alley width and slope position. We sampled soil (0–50 c…
050
Joseph Holden @prof-joseph-holden.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Third paper from Qiuyu Zhu's PhD now out. Qiuyu coupled Spatially Distributed TOPMODEL to a hydrodynamic model to see how different NFM techniques interact. This allows us to study flood effects at larger catchment scales. Free access here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
A Coupled Hydrological‐Hydrodynamic Modelling Approach for Assessing the Impacts of Multiple Natural Flood Management Interventions on Downstream Flooding
While natural flood management (NFM) as a flood mitigation strategy is becoming widely used, there remains a lack of evidence regarding the effectiveness of different NFM scenarios under high flow ev...
041
Joseph Holden @prof-joseph-holden.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
We shouldn't say peatlands act as sponges...but they can slow flow and dampen droughts. Our new paper led by Kirsten Lees onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1... @peatofmind.bsky.social @peatymike.bsky.social @em-shuttleworth.bsky.social @andybairdj.bsky.social @researchleeds.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
The Sponge Analogy Problem: Moving Towards Clearer Communication of Peatland Hydrological Processes
Correctly communicating peatland hydrology.
2328
Joseph Holden @prof-joseph-holden.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Read our article published in Nature Water about what has made our Yorkshire Integrated Catchment Solutions Programme @yorkshireicasp.bsky.social such a success. Free access here: rdcu.be/eHWAM @springernature.com @researchleeds.bsky.social @envleeds.bsky.social
rdcu.be
A solutions-focussed operational model to connect catchment water research to environmental resilience
Nature Water - A transferable and operational model involving cross-sector collaborations, transdisciplinary project co-design and translation of cutting-edge research, has unlocked integrated...
062
Joseph Holden @prof-joseph-holden.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
Fab work by our PhD student Resti Salmayenti who has published her first thesis paper in Environmental Research Letters showing how drainage and land cover interact to affect fire occurrence in Indonesian peatlands. Our paper is open access here: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
011
Joseph Holden @prof-joseph-holden.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
Great work by our PhD student Yu Liu who has shown in AGU Advances that recent forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon causes substantial reductions in dry season precipitation. Open access here: agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Recent Forest Loss in the Brazilian Amazon Causes Substantial Reductions in Dry Season Precipitation
Recent forest loss (3.2%) in the Brazilian Amazon causes a mean 5.4% reduction in dry season precipitation 76.9% of reduced precipitation is due to decreased nonlocal water vapor, not local evapo...
010
Joseph Holden @prof-joseph-holden.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
Our paper in Nature Communications presents a new 10 metre resolution map of wetlands across Africa. The work was done through Sani Garba's PhD study and provides an excellent basis for future analysis and conservation. The paper is open access www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Wetland fragmentation associated with large populations across Africa - Nature Communications
This study presents a map of wetland extent for the whole of Africa at 10 m resolution. A strong link was found between broken up wetlands and human population density. Such fragmented wetlands could ...
130
Joseph Holden @prof-joseph-holden.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
New paper published from my PhD student Di Wu showing that polystyrene microplastic pollution adversely impacts female zebrafish more than males www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @carterlj.bsky.social Free version here if you have a paywall: eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/220647/
sciencedirect.com
Female zebrafish are more affected than males under polystyrene microplastics exposure
Microplastics are ubiquitous in freshwater and can be absorbed into fish skin and gills, accumulate in the gut, and be transported to other tissues, t…
041
Joseph Holden @prof-joseph-holden.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Nice new open access paper from my PhD student Qiuyu Zhu on science of natural flood management over last 30 years showing good evidence for both continued investment in NFM and in research to optimise NFM actions wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
A Quantitative Review of Natural Flood Management Research
A quantitative review of themes covered by previous studies on natural flood management and nature-based solutions including an assessment of the impact of natural flood management on flood peaks by ....
041
Joseph Holden @prof-joseph-holden.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Check out our new UK NERC-funded doctoral training centre in climate change uncertainty and risk - funded projects now available for applicants: unrisk-cdt.ac.uk Hosted by University of Leeds in collaboration with Exeter and UCL
unrisk-cdt.ac.uk
Understanding Uncertainty to Reduce Climate Risks – NERC Centre for Doctoral Training
120
Joseph Holden @prof-joseph-holden.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
New fully funded PhD project available on peatland windfarms and carbon impacts from disturbance supervised by @catmoody.bsky.social and I yes-dtn.ac.uk/research/the... Deadline for applications = 8 January 2025
yes-dtn.ac.uk
The impact of a wind farm on carbon emissions from peat - Yorkshire Environmental Sciences • Doctoral Training Network
How do wind farms impact on carbon cycling in peatlands? Investigate carbon emissions in air and water from a recently constructed wind farm on Shetland.
032
Joseph Holden @prof-joseph-holden.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
A few hours left to apply for a peatland research fellow position with us: jobs.leeds.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...
jobs.leeds.ac.uk
Job Opportunity at University of Leeds: Research Fellow in Peatland Monitoring Data
Research Fellow in Peatland Monitoring Data Salary: Grade 7 (£39,105 – £46,485 p.a. depending on experience) This role will be based on the university campus, with scope for it to be undertaken in a h...
020
Joseph Holden @prof-joseph-holden.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
Our new paper out in Nature Communications led by Dafydd Elias sheds new light on how plant litter, microbes & soil minerals interact to develop mineral-associated soil organic carbon = crucial for long-term soil C storage rdcu.be/d0T4Q @natureportfolio.bsky.social @universityofleeds.bsky.social
rdcu.be
Microbial and mineral interactions decouple litter quality from soil organic matter formation
Nature Communications - This study challenges the hypothesis that high-quality plant litters form stable, mineral-associated soil organic carbon most efficiently, providing evidence that...
03210