Dr Bianca Cavazzin

Originally from Northern Italy, I have always loved being outdoors, whether climbing, hiking, or spending time in the water! My undergraduate dissertation at the University of Brighton explored changes in deep-water formation in the Adriatic Sea in relation to climate change. Following my BSc in Geography, I pursued an MSc in Environmental Monitoring, Modelling and Reconstruction at the University of Manchester, with a thesis focused on biomonitoring, spatial and statistical analysis. During my PhD in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, I specialised in climate reconstruction, freshwater environments, and biomarkers.

My research has encompassed a variety of subjects, including anthropogenic impacts on wetlands, paleoclimate reconstruction, biomarker development, statistical and spatial (GIS) modelling, environmental pollution (organic pollutants, biomonitoring), analytical chemistry, and organic residue analysis in archaeological contexts. Prior to my current position, I was a Lecturer in Organic Geochemistry at the University of Glasgow, and I worked as a Mass Spectrometry Scientist at the British Museum.

I am interested in research-led teaching, ideally in partnership with industries across sectors. I have developed and delivered content for lectures, labs, tutorials, and field classes across a variety of topics, including GIS (Geographical Information Science) and remote sensing, terrestrial and freshwater environments, earth science, physical geography, climate modelling and reconstruction, global challenges, statistics and R, organic geochemistry, and archaeology.

Currently, I teach across the BSc Geography and Wildlife Ecology & Conservation Science programs. My modules include: Introduction to Global Environments (foundation), Natural Environments (1^st year), Applied GIS (2^nd year) and the residential Malta field class (2^nd year). I am also involved in the Honours Project in the final year. I am always keen to involve students at any stage of their studies in fieldwork and lab-based research to provide hands-on experience and practical skills.

My current research focuses on environmental change through soil, wetlands, and biomarker analysis, integrating statistical and spatial modelling. I study wetlands as carbon storage systems, analysing organic pollutants and human encroachment in Scottish peatlands and the Ganges River wetlands in collaboration with the Birla Institute of Technology (India). My work also involves biomarkers for paleoclimate reconstruction in the plains of Canada, providing insights into historical environmental shifts. I am involved in research projects that study soil health in the UK and South Africa, assessing past and present impacts of human activity. To support these projects, I apply statistical and spatial modelling techniques to large environmental datasets, uncovering patterns in climate dynamics and pollution impact. By combining fieldwork, geochemical analysis, and computational modelling, my research contributes to a deeper understanding of ecosystem resilience, climate change, and anthropogenic influences across diverse geographic regions.

Since 2025 I am the Chair of Dissemination, Impact and Outreach for the AGRI-DRY Doctoral Training Partnership – funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No 101120560 and supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

PhD students:

• Meike Van Lit (2023 – ongoing) “Past spoils, present toils: An interdisciplinary research on the effect of past human activity on present soil health based in Aberdeenshire, Scotland”. Funding: AHRC Doctoral Training Program
• Alexandra Vasilyeva (2024 – ongoing) “Land cover changes and formation of cultural landscapes” . Funding: Dryland agriculture and Land use; past, present and future resilience [AGRI-DRY] – Doctoral Training Partnership
• Montaha Alammar (2024 – ongoing) “Reconstructing Sea Surface Temperature (SST) Anomalies and Salinity Variations During Key Climatic Periods (MIS 3 & MIS 4) in the North Atlantic”. Self-funding

MSc by research:

• Robin Loyd (2024 – ongoing) “Acidification of surface waters in upland peaty catchments”

I welcome applications from prospective PhD and MSc by research students on a range of topics.

Grants awarded

• 2024/2025 PI, Carnegie Research Incentive Grant, "Characterisation of Persistent Organic Pollutants in a high-latitude Scottish blanket peat bog" (£14,000. Reference: RIG013290)
• 2024/2025 Co-I, The Royal Society of Edinburgh Research grant. "Assessing the role of encroaching urbanisation on the ecological, hydrological and geomorphic characteristics of the Kabartal Wetland (A Ramsar Site)." (£6256)
• 2023 PI, NERC Supporting Interdisciplinarity in Discovery Science (£14,008. Award code: NE/X018296/1)
• 2022 PI, University of Kent QR Uplift fund for research equipment (£6000)
• 2022 PI, University of Kent outreach fund for Environmental Chemistry course (£6000)
• 2021 Co-I, AHRC CapCo, Capability for Collections fund (£530,693. Reference: AH/V011766/1).
• 2018 SAGES small grant schemes – 3rd call (£750). Research visit to visit NIOZ.
• 2017 Mac Robertson Travel scholarship for 3 months research visit at the University of Regina, Canada (£2800).
• 2017 SAGES small grant schemes – 2nd call (£750). Research visit to visit NIOZ.
• 2017 Sir Alwyn Williams Postgraduate scholarship – fieldwork in Canada (£1000).
• 2016 AGU student travel grant ($1000).
• 2016 SAGES small grant schemes – 1st call (£750).
• 2016 University of Glasgow Mobility Scholarship to visit NIOZ (£1000).

Public engagements

• SOIL: Unearthing soil’s vital role in our planet’s future. Somerset House exhibition. Collaborators: artist Lauren Gault (http://somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/soil)
• SAMHLA a cultural project exploring land and place relations (2024). Collaborators: artist Lauren Gault and ATLAS ARTS. July 19th and 20th, Isle of Skye. https://atlasarts.org.uk/programme/samhla-about-the-project
• British Museum exhibition: Peru a journey in time (Nov 2021/Feb 2022).

Conference presentations

• Van Lit, M., Aitkenhead, M., Coull, M., Jorat, E. Given, M., Cavazzin, B. (2024) Past spoils, present toils: An interdisciplinary research on the effect of past human activity on present soil health based in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. James Hutton Institute Annual Conference.
• , J., Cavazzin, B., Juggins, S., Haig, H., Leavitt, P.R., Araie, H., Nakamura, H., Shiraiwa, Y., Couto, J. M., Toney, J.L. (2018) Alkenone distribution and producers in Canadian lakes: Implications for palaeotemperature reconstructions. American Geophysical Union, Washington D.C. (USA).
• Zwick, M.M., Haig, H., Leavitt, P.R., Cavazzin, B., J.L. (2018) Long chain diols of the Canadian Prairies – Occurrence and relationship with environmental parameters. Goldschmidt, Boston, MA, USA.
• Cavazzin, B., Plancq, J., Haig, H., Leavitt, P.R., Juggins, S., Pearson, E., Schouten, S., Toney, J.L. (2018) Application of lacustrine biomarkers to reconstruct Late Holocene temperature change in the Saskatchewan Great Plains. British Organic Geochemistry Society Meeting, Bristol (UK).
• , J., Cavazzin, B., Juggins, S., Haig, H., Leavitt, P.R., Araie, H., Nakamura, H., Shiraiwa, Y., Couto, J. M., Toney, J.L. (2018) Alkenone distribution and producers: insights from Canadian lakes. British Organic Geochemistry Society Meeting, Bristol (UK).
• , J., Cavazzin, B., Juggins, S., Haig, H., Leavitt, P.R., Araie, H., Nakamura, H., Shiraiwa, Y., Couto, J. M., Toney, J.L. (2018) Distribution et producteurs d’alcénones lacustres: apports de l’étude de lacs canadiens. Réunion des Géochimistes Organiciens Français, Lyon, France.
• Cavazzin, B., Plancq, J., Haig, H., Leavitt, P.R., Juggins, S., Pearson, E., Schouten, S., Toney, J.L. (2017) Development of lacustrine biomarkers to reconstruct Late Holocene temperature change in the Saskatchewan Great Plains. Goldschmidt conference, Paris (France).
• , J., Cavazzin, B., Juggins, S., Haig, H., Leavitt, P.R.., Couto, J. M., Toney, J.L. (2017) Environmental controls on the distribution of long-chain alkenones in the Canadian Prairies: Insights for the development of the lacustrine alkenone-based temperature proxy. Goldschmidt conference, Paris (France).
• Cavazzin, B., Plancq, J., Haig, H., Leavitt, P.R., Juggins, S., Pearson, E., Schouten, S., Toney, J.L. (2016). Palaeotemperature change in drought-prone Canadian prairies. American Geophysical Union, San Francisco. (USA).

Invited research talks

• The Peat Café (2023) - an interdisciplinary lunchtime lecture series. “Past and future: biomarkers in peatlands”.
• NERC IAPETUS DTP conference (2019). University of Durham. “Data analysis issues and solutions (statistical and laboratory approaches)”.
• ALKENoNE conference (2016) University of Tsukuba, Japan. “Application of bacterial lipids for environmental surveillance”.