Position: PhD Researcher
Address: Environmental Research Institute, Castle Street, Thurso, Caithness, KW14 7JD
Tel: +44 (0) 1847 889596
Fax: +44 (0)1847 890014
E-mail: John.Coll@thurso.uhi.ac.uk
Joined ERI: November 2000
Background:
First Degree: BSc (Hons)
Environmental Science with Biology.
University of Stirling.
PhD: Local scale assessment of climate change and its impacts in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. UHI Millennium Institute / Open University Validation Service. Awarded July 2007.
Research Interests:
The possible consequences of global warming for the Highlands. Via a broad understanding of climate change research, taking an interdisciplinary approach to understand the regional implications, e.g.:
•
Environmental change on different timescales. Variability and trends in
observed climatic variables. Elevational influences on temperature and
precipitation in maritime upland regions. Variability in the
winter North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and prospective future changes.
• Evaluating Regional Climate Model (RCM) performance in topographically
diverse regions. Working with observed and climate model data to improve
the local scale resolution of shifts in key climatic variables.
• Renewable energy resources; their role in sustainable communities
and in mitigating wider climatic change. Can policy response and science
uncertainty be reconciled in formulating regional adaptation strategies?
Publications:
Upland climate change impacts – towards improved site-scale assessments for land managers? John Coll, Stuart W. Gibb, John Harrison (2006). In Global Change in Mountain Regions. Ed. M.F. Price. Sapiens Publishing, Dumfries. pp 273-275
Modelling
future climate in the Scottish Highlands - an approach integrating local
climatic variables and climate model outputs
John Coll, Stuart W. Gibb and John Harrison (2005)
In The Mountains Of Europe: Conservation, Management , People
and Nature, ed. By D.B.A. Thompson, M.F. Price and C.A. Galbraith.
HMSO, Edinburgh. pp 103-119.
Sensitivity
of Ferry Services to the Western Isles of Scotland to Changes in Wave
Climate. David Woolf a, b, John
Coll a, c, Stuart Gibb a,
c and Peter Challenor a, b. (2004)
a Tyndall Centre for Climate Change, UK, b Southampton Oceanography Centre,
UK. C University of Highlands and Islands, UK.
Paper presented at OMAE conference, Vancouver, Canada.
Sensitivity of ferry services to the Western Isles of Scotland to changes in wave and wind climate. David Woolf a, b,John Coll a, c, Stuart Gibb a, c,and Peter Challenor a, b. a Tyndall Centre for Climate Change, UK, b National Oceanography Centre, UK. c, University of Highlands and Islands, UK. Submitted to Climatic Change, Dec. 2005.
Contract Research Reports:
The
possible impact of North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) changes on the coastline
and communities of the western Highlands and Western Isles. Part of Tyndall
Centre Project IT1.15: The effects of the North Atlantic Oscillation on
the coasts of the UK. John Coll and Stuart Gibb.
Assessing the impact on various sectors as Scottish collaborators on a
UK-wide multi-disciplinary project. Delivered October 2003.
Scenarios
of the future – Scotland Under Climate Change. Setting : Coasts
and Seas
John Coll, John Allen, John Harrison. Contract report to Scottish
Natural Heritage (SNH). Delivered July 2004.
A Review of Potential Tidal Stream Energy Development in the Pentland Firth. A scoping study for North Highland College, UHIMI. John Coll and John Allen. Delivered February 2005.
A Review of Potential Tidal Stream Energy Development in the Pentland Firth.
John Coll 1, 2 and John Allen 1, 3,. 1. Environmental Research Institute, North Highland College, Castle Street, Thurso. 2. Tyndall Centre for Climate Change, UK. 3. National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. February 2005.
Selected Conference Presentations:
Upland climate change impacts – towards improved site-scale assessments for land managers?
John Coll 1, 2, Stuart W. Gibb1, John Harrison3. 1 Environmental Research Institute, North Highland College, UHI Millennium Institute, Castle Street, Thurso, Caithness, Scotland, UK. 2 Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. 3 Department of Geography, University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland, UK.
Presented at: 1. Open Science Conference. Global Change in Mountain Regions: Perth, Scotland, UK, 1-5 October 2005. 2. Tyndall Assembly: Oxford, UK, 23-25 November 2005.
North Atlantic Oscillation Driven Changes To Wave Climate in the Northeast Atlantic: Implications for Ferry Services to the Western Isles.
John Coll 1, 3, David Woolf 1, 2, Stuart Gibb 1, 3, Peter Challenor 1, 2 and Michael Tsimplis 1, 2
1 Tyndall Centre for Climate Change, UK. 2 Southampton Oceanography Centre, UK, 3 Environmental Research Institute, UHI Millennium Institute, UK
Presented at: 1. Human/Environment Interaction Research (HARC): Patterns, Connections and Methods Workshop; Seattle, 25-26 October 2003. 2. SEARCH (A Study of Environmental Arctic Change) Open Science Seattle, Washington, 27-30 October 2003. Attendance enabled by a Scholarship award from the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCUS).
Modelling
climate change related shifts in land-use in the Scottish Highlands -
an approach integrating local climatologies and climate model scenarios.
John Coll, Stuart W. Gibb and John Harrison
Presented at: Nature and People, conservation and management
in the mountains of Northern Europe. Pitlochry, Scotland, UK. 06-09 November
2002. Organised as part of the SNH contribution to the International Year
of the Mountains.
Invited Seminar Presentations:
Delivered to broad audiences comprising academics, policy makers, politicians and representatives from various stakeholder organisations as well as the interested public:
Climate change in the British uplands, a view from the Highlands: Can policy response live with science uncertainty? Delivered as part of the Economic and Social research Council’s Transdisciplinary Seminar Series 2004-2006. ‘Sustaining Mountain Landscapes: Conflict and compromise in British uplands.’ April 2005, Perth College, Perth, UK.
Climate change - a Moray Firth context: Possible changes and the implications? Moray Firth Partnership Conference, Highland Council Chambers. May 2005, Inverness, UK.
Sustaining the environment in a changing climate – challenges and opportunities. Part of a National Science Week set of events, Inverness College, Inverness, March 2006.
Media Dealings
Associated with the increased public interest in global warming as an issue and the associated rising profile of climate change research, there has been an increased media attention on aspects of the research here. Consequently I have been involved in, e.g. writing press releases for both Scottish national and local press and providing interviews to journalists. Live and recorded interviews for Scottish national and regional TV and radio have also featured.
Via the Open University production link I have provided data on the wind climatalogy of the Western Isles, and indications of what regional climate change could mean for the West Coast of Scotland to the researchers and producers of the BBC2 ‘Coast’ series for the 2005 and 2006 series of programmes. Scottish upland climate change information (e.g. likely localised snowlie change/impact on species and habitats) was also supplied to the researchers for the David Attenborough BBC programme ‘Climate Change: Britain under Threat’ screened February 2007.
Other Info:
When not working I have a keen interest in rock climbing. In recent years training has been directed towards frequent visits to the world famous sandstone boulders in the Forest of Fontainebleau, France. I have also climbed extensively elsewhere throughout Britain and Europe. I am also keen on running, both as an activity in its own right, and for helping to maintain climbing fitness.
