James Thayer

Background

About James Thayer

I'm a geomorphologist with an interest in using sedimentary archives to explore how past environmental change has affected watersheds. My past and present research interests focus on - reconstructing the hydroclimatic history of southern Ontario through lake-level and flood records - reconstructing the hydrogeomorphic response of watersheds to hydroclimatic and base level changes - exploring how the modern channel morphology and floodplain development processes adjust to changes in river discharge, valley slope, bed material size, sediment supply, and confinement - exploring how the spatial distribution of glacial landforms, base level changes, and environmental history dictate the spatial distribution of river and floodplain characteristics - reconstructing the deglacial geomorphic history of southern Ontario As a doctoral candidate at the University of Western Ontario, I looked at the effect of Holocene hydroclimatic change on lake levels and landscape erosion in a small southern Ontario watershed. Prior to this, I did my Masters in fluvial geomorphology where I examined how river and floodplain characteristics evolved downstream in a glacially-conditioned watershed. Many of my past projects are published in academic journals. My research experience in fluvial geomorphology has given me skills in channel surveying, bed surface analysis, floodplain sampling and stratigraphy, flood frequency modeling, simple sediment transport modeling, and floodplain geochronology. Additional skills include aerial photo interpretation, statistical analysis, desktop analysis, and project design.