Dr Giles Wiggs is a Professor of Aeolian Geomorphology at the University of Oxford. His current research involves the study of aeolian geomorphology and furthering his understanding of the processes that lead to the formation of aeolian land formations and the long-term dynamic processes. Dr Giles interests fall in the determination of threshold erosion, and the environmental impact of changing sand dune dynamics (School of Geography and Environment).

I decided to choose Dr Giles as a geomorphologist because he studies aeolian geomorphology which is a very unique area of study. I find his work studying the way that dessert landscapes have impacts not only on the scale of the dessert but with other ecosystems very interesting (School of Geography and Environment). Desserts have always fascinated me because I don't quite understand the way that their dynamic environment works, and things that I don't quite grasp are really intriguing.

Dr Giles, along with other authors of "Spatial variability of ocean fertilizing nutrients in the dust‐emitting ephemeral river catchments of Namibia," wrote about the way that nutrients from dryland areas in Namibia provide important nutrients to not only the river systems but the the oceans in which those rivers empty out into. They consider that if nutrient-enriched and eroded sediments were considered on a global scale there could be a significant ocean productivity impact (Dansie, et al., 2018).

Dr Giles, co-author of the paper on Grain-Size Variation on Dunes in the Southwest Kalahari, Southern Africa, goes into detail about how the grain size variation from different dune profiles provide evidence that the grain size is consistent from the top of the profile to the bottom. The only difference is that the top of the dune crests were more well sorted than the bases. This study showed that there is very little variability in the grain sorting in the Kalahari dunes in South Africa compared to other dunes around the world (Livingstone, et al.).

Citations:

Dansie, A. P., Thomas, D. S. G., Wiggs, G. F. S., and Munkittrick, K. R. (2018) Spatial variability of ocean fertilizing nutrients in the dust‐emitting ephemeral river catchments of Namibia. Earth Surf. Process. Landforms, 43: 563– 578. doi: 10.1002/esp.4207.

Livingstone, I., Bullard, J. E., Wiggs, G. F., & Thomas, D. S. (1999). Grain-Size Variation on Dunes in the Southwest Kalahari, Southern Africa. SEPM Journal of Sedimentary Research, Vol. 69 (1999),. doi:10.1306/d4268a31-2b26-11d7-8648000102c1865d

School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford. (n.d.). Retrieved September 10, 2020, from https://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/gwiggs.html