Dr. Sallie Burrough
Academic Profile
Sallie is a Junior Research Fellow at Hertford College and a Leverhulme funded postdoctoral researcher working with Prof. David Thomas in the School of Geography and the Environment and Prof. Kathy Willis at the Biodiversity Institute in the Department of Zoology.
Her primary research interests lie in understanding Quaternary climate variability and in particular, landscape dynamics and biodiversity in dryland systems and the implications of environmental change for human populations past and present.
She completed her DPhil thesis on the Quaternary climatic and hydrological dynamics of the Makgadikgadi basin and middle Kalahari lake systems and has since been part of a number of projects looking at palaeolithic human occupation and hydrological and landscape dynamics in central southern Africa. Her current research seeks to understand long term environmental change in Barotseland, western Zambia. This research aims to integrate data from a number of archaeological sites with a focus on understanding the relationship between ecosystem change and landscape instability, identifying environmental extremes and baselines relevant for human populations throughout the late Quaternary and into the present day. She is a tutor in Quaternary science and dryland system science and lectures on a range of courses including Quaternary environmental change and desert environments.
Current Research
Megafloods and Megadroughts of the upper Zambezi Valley, Zambia
This is a 3 year Leverhulme Trust funded project (commencing October 2010) in collaboration with Professor David Thomas and Professor Kathy Willis focused on environmental change in western Zambia and the interrelationship between the hydrological systems of the Okavango and the Zambezi.
Palaeolithic mega-lakes and early human occupation of the Kalahari
This pilot project aims to develop the first detailed understanding of the spatio-temporal relationship between human occupation and environmental and hydrological change. This joint Oxford- National Museum of Botswana collaborative project (funded by the Boise Fund, Oxford and the Royal Geographical Society) commenced in July 2008 and combines differential GPS mapping (NERC Geophysical Equipment Funding) of palaeolithic surface scatters and lakebed topography with environmental reconstruction through the application of palaeoecology, sedimentology and luminescence dating.
Landscape dynamics in the Kalahari
This research is ongoing in collaboration with Professor David Thomas and Dr Richard Bailey. It focuses on re-examining the sensitivity of such landscapes to environmental dynamics and attempts to provide a better means by which to interpret geo-proxy evidence of past environmental change.
Contact
Email: sallie.burrough@ouce.ox.ac.uk
Publications
Burrough SL, Thomas, D.S.G, Davies L, Bailey RMB. (in press) From landform to process: Morphology and formation of lake-bed barchan dunes, Makgadikgadi, Botswana. Geomorphology
Burrough S.L., Breman, E and Dodd, C (in press) An insight into past vegetation of the Middle Kalahari Palaeolakes during the late Quaternary. Journal of Arid Environments
Thomas, DSG Burrough, S.L. and Parker, AG (2012), Extreme events as drivers of early human behaviour in Africa? The case for variability, not catastrophic drought. Journal of Quaternary Science 27, 7–12
Thomas, DSG and Burrough S.L. (2011) Climatic frameworks: legacies from the past. In Thomas D.S.G. (Ed) Arid Zone Geomorphology. 3rd Edition. Wiley, 648 pp.
Thomas DSG, Burrough S.L. (2012) Interpreting geo-proxies of late Quaternary climate change in African drylands: implications for understanding environmental and early human behaviour. Quaternary International, 253, 5-17
Telfer, M.W., Bailey, R.M., Burrough, S.L., Stone, A.E.S, Thomas, D.S.G. and Wiggs, G.S.F. (2010) Understanding linear dune chronologies: Insights from a simple accumulation model. Geomorphology, 120(3-4), 195-208.
Burrough, S.L., Thomas, D.S.G. and Singarayer, J.S. (2009) Late Quaternary hydrological dynamics in the Middle Kalahari: Forcing and feedbacks. Earth Science Reviews, 96(4): 313-326.
Burrough, S.L., Thomas, D.S.G. and Bailey, R.M. (2009) Mega-Lake in the Kalahari: A Late Pleistocene record of the Palaeolake Makgadikgadi system. Quaternary Science Reviews, 28(15-16): 1392-1411.
Burrough, S.L. and Thomas, D.S.G. (2009) Geomorphological contributions to palaeolimnology on the African Continent. Geomorphology, 103: 285-298.
Burrough, S.L. and Thomas, D.S.G. (2008) Late Quaternary lake-level fluctuations in the Mababe Depression: Middle Kalahari palaeolakes and the role of Zambezi inflows. Quaternary Research, 69(3): 388-403.
Burrough, S.L., Thomas, D.S.G., Shaw, P.A., and Bailey, R.M. (2007) Multiphase Quaternary highstands at Lake Ngami, Kalahari, northern Botswana. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 253(3-4): 280-299.