Professor Bronwen Whitney

I am a palaeoecologist with expertise on the human drivers of ecosystem change in the tropical Americas. My research is widely interdisciplinary, incorporating archaeological and historical perspectives in the investigation of past land use change and the resulting impact on plant communities, biodiversity, and fire regimes. Recent research has uncovered evidence of Pre-Columbian hydrological engineering in the seasonal wetlands of the Bolivian Amazon.

I have recently turned my research to reconstructing past landscapes of Northumberland, supported by the Leverhulme-funded project 'Community, Landscape and Social Stratification in early medieval Northumbria'. This project aims to use environmental archives that reflect the activities of the everyday to investigate the economic and social transformations of the post-Roman world.

My research also investigates climate-driven ecosystem change across seasonally dry tropical forests, savannas and wetlands over thousands of years, including tropical peatlands. Recent published studies have highlighted emerging fire threats in the world's largest tropical wetland and the first study of a previously undescribed Sphagnum peatland on the Caribbean coast, which has challenged our understanding of tropical peatland ecology and biogeography.

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• Forest change in the northern Yucatan lowlands (Mexico) during Maya cultural periods: Insights from a paired lake reconstruction, Bermingham, A., Whitney, B., Metcalfe, S., Jones, M., Martinez-Dyrzo, H., Medina-Gonzalez, R. 1 Jan 2026, In: The Holocene
• Millennial-scale fire and climate dynamics in the world’s largest tropical wetland show emerging fire threat to flooded ecosystems  , Whitney, B., Neves, D., Loughlin, N., D'Apolito, C., Tavares Carla, C., Hocking, E., Mayle, F., Power, M., Silva, A., Assine, M. 1 Apr 2026, In: Global and Planetary Change
• A tropical Sphagnum peatland ecosystem in lowland Belize, Whitney, B., Swindles, G., Cameron, I., Gałka, M., Meerman, J. 22 Sep 2025, In: Current Biology
• Ecohydrological response of a tropical peatland to rainfall changes driven by Intertropical Convergence Zone variability, Swindles, G., Whitney, B., Gałka, M., Mullan, D., Low, R., Gallego-Sala, A., Lopez, R., Kilbride, E., Graham, C., Baird, A. 1 Mar 2025, In: Journal of Biogeography
• Culture, Climate and Landscape shape the savanna and wetland mosaic of the Bolivian Amazon, Whitney, B., Walker, J., Duncan, N., Loughlin, N. 13 Sep 2024, In: Frontiers in Water
• Insights into past land-use and vegetation change in the Llanos de Moxos (Bolivia) using fungal non-pollen palynomorphs, Loughlin, N., Mayle, F., Nuñez Otaño, N., O'Keefe, J., Duncan, N., Walker, J., Whitney, B. 1 Jun 2021, In: Journal of Archaeological Science
• Island resource exploitation by the ancient Maya during periods of climate stress, Ambergris Caye, Belize: Island climate refuge of the ancient Maya, Bermingham, A., Whitney, B., Loughlin, N., Hoggarth, J. 1 Jun 2021, In: Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
• Pre-Columbian fire management and control of climate-driven floodwaters over 3500 years in southwestern Amazonia, Duncan, N., Loughlin, N., Walker, J., Hocking, E., Whitney, B. 5 Oct 2021, In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
• A Tale of Maize, Palm, and Pine: Changing Socio-Ecological Interactions from Pre-Classic Maya to the Present Day in Belize, Rushton, E., Whitney, B., Metcalfe, S. 17 Oct 2020, In: Quaternary
• Identifying drivers of forest resilience in long-term records from the Neotropics, Adolf, C., Tovar, C., Kühn, N., Behling, H., Berrío, J., Dominguez-Vázquez, G., Figueroa-Rangel, B., Gonzalez-Carranza, Z., Islebe, G., Hooghiemstra, H., Neff, H., Olvera-Vargas, M., Whitney, B., Wooller, M., Willis, K. 29 Apr 2020, In: Biology Letters

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• MAPPP - Maya Archaeology and Paleoecology Partnership Project, Whitney, B. (Principal Investigator), Arts & Humanities Research Council, 03/05/21 - 02/05/23, 0.00
• Shifted Ecological Baselines in the Brazillianb Savannah (SEBBS), Whitney, B. (Principal Investigator), Natural Environment Research Council, 01/09/19 - 31/01/21, £91,901.00
• Paleoethnobotany and Landscape in the Southwestern Amazon, Whitney, B. (Principal Investigator), Arts & Humanities Research Council, 01/06/18 - 31/05/20, £189,234.00
• Climate and Landscape Change in the Pantanal: Assessing environmental vulnerabilities and future water security in Brazil’s wetland wilderness, Whitney, B. (Principal Investigator), British Council, 01/04/16 - 31/10/16, £42,500.00

• Loretta-Ann Jilks Palaeoenvironmental evidence of wetland domestication in the Llanos de Mojos, Bolivian Amazon. Start Date: 01/10/2021 End Date: 17/10/2025
• Loretta-Ann Jilks Palaeoenvironmental evidence of wetland domestication in the Llanos de Mojos, Bolivian Amazon. Start Date: 01/10/2021 End Date: 21/02/2026

• Geography PhD June 29 2009
• Fellow (FHEA) Higher Education Academy (HEA) 2016