Staff profile

Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Durham University & Director of i-CONN Innovative Training Network

My research falls broadly into the following themes: climate change and extreme events, ecohydrology and ecogeomorphology, land degradation, critical transitions and ecosystem state change, biogeochemical fluxes, and biophysical resilience of drylands. My research within these themes is focused on understanding interactions and feedbacks between hydrology, geomorphology and ecology that drive surface processes in terrestrial systems. Most of my research to date has been in drylands, where low rainfall and high land-use pressures make these feedbacks particularly pronounced, and often alter the capacity of these systems to provide essential ecosystem services. My research relies heavily on multiple approaches: experimental work, long-term data synthesis, remote sensing, process-based modelling and geospatial analysis. 

H2020 i-CONN innovative training network

I am the scientific director of the i-CONN ITN (2019 - 2023). The goal of i-CONN is to train a new cohort of researchers specialized in the developing field of Connectivity Science who will be capable of developing interdisciplinary approaches to connectivity across a range of disciplines and real-life applications. 

• Catchments and Rivers
• Hazards and Surface Change

• 2019: i-CONN: Interdisciplinary connectivity: Understanding and managing complex systems using connectivity science, Interreg (ERDF) Europe, €4 million, 2019-10-01 - 2023-09-30
• 2013: Investigating the differential ecogeomorphic responses of drylands to variations in climatic drivers and anthropogenic disturbances: an international collaboration(£1400.00 from British Society for Geomorphology)

Chapter in book

• Caylor, K.K., Okin, G.S., Turnbull, L., Wainwright, J., Wiegand, T., Franz, T.E. & Parsons, A.J (2013). Integrating short-and long-range processes intomodels: the emergence of pattern. In Patterns of Land Degradation in Drylands: Understanding Self-Organised Ecogeomorphic Systems. Mueller, E.N., Wainwright, J., Parsons, A.J. & Turnbull, L. Springer.
• Mueller, E.N., Wainwright, J., Parsons, A.J. & Turnbull, L. (2013). Land degradation in drylands: an ecogeomorphological approach. In Patterns of Land Degradation in Drylands: Understanding Self-Organised Ecogeomorphic Systems. Mueller, E.N., Wainwright, J., Parsons, A.J. & Turnbull, L. Springer.
• Jeltsch, F., Lefever, R., Turnbull, L., Scarsoglio, S., Alados, C.L., Rallart, F., Mueller, E.N, Millington, J, Wainwright, J, Wierzoerek, M & Grimm, V (2013). Resilience, self-organization, complexity and pattern formation. In Patterns of Land Degradation in Drylands: Understanding Self-Organised Ecogeomorphic Systems. Mueller, E.N., Wainwright, J., Parsons, A.J. & Turnbull, L. Springer.
• Cerda, A., Gallart, R., Li, J., Papanastasis, V.P., Parmenter, R.R., Turnbull, L., Parsons, A.J. & Wainwright, J. (2013). Long-range ecogeomorphic processes. In Patterns of Land Degradation in Drylands: Understanding Self-Organised Ecogeomorphic Systems. Mueller, E.N., Wainwright, J., Parsons, A.J. & Turnbull, L. Springer.
• Turnbull, L., Wainwright, J. & Ravi, S. (2013). Vegetation change in the southwestern USA: patterns and processes. In Patterns of Land Degradation in Drylands: Understanding Self-Organised Ecogeomorphic Systems. Mueller, E.N., Wainwright, J., Parsons, A.J. & Turnbull, L. Springer.
• Turnbull, L., Hochstrasser, T., Wieczorek, M., Baas, A., Wainwright, J., Scarsoglio, S., Tietjen, B, Jeltsch, F & Mueller, E.N (2013). Approaches to modelling ecogeomorphic systems. In Patterns of Land Degradation in Drylands: Understanding Self-Organised Ecogeomorphic Systems. Mueller, E.N., Wainwright, J., Parsons, A.J. & Turnbull, L. Springer.

Edited book

• Mueller, E.N., Wainwright, J., Parsons, A.J. & Turnbull, L. (2013). Patterns of Land Degradation in Drylands: Understanding Self-Organised Ecogeomorphic Systems. Springer.

Journal Article

• Poeppl, R.E., Polvi, L.E. & Turnbull, L. (2023). (Dis)connectivity in hydro-geomorphic systems - emerging concepts and their applications. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 48(6): 1089-1094.
• Osumgborogwu, Ikenna Emmanuel, Wainwright, John, Turnbull, Laura & Uzoigwe, Luke O. (2022). A multi‐method approach to analyse changes in gully characteristics between 2009 and 2018 in southeast Nigeria. Land Degradation & Development 33(9): 1398-1409.
• Voutsa, Venetia Battaglia, Demian Bracken, Louise, Brovelli, Andrea Costescu, Julia Diaz Munoz, Mario Fath, Brian. D. Funk, Andrea Guirro, Mel Hein, Thomas Kerschner, Christian Kimmich, Christian Lima, Vinicius Messe, Arnaud Parsons, Anthony. J., Perez, John Poeppl, Ronald Prell, Christina Recinos, Sonia Shi, Yanhua Tiwari, Shubham Turnbull, Laura Wainwright, John Waxenecker, Harald & Huett, Marc-Thorsten (2021). Two classes of functional connectivity in dynamical processes in networks. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 18(183): 20210486.
• Newman-Thacker, F & Turnbull, L (2021). Investigating the drivers of the unprecedented Chernobyl Power Plant Wildfire in April 2020 and its effects on 137Cs dispersal. Natural Hazards 109(2): 1877-1897.
• Turnbull, L. & Wainwright, J. (2019). From structure to function: understanding shrub encroachment in drylands using hydrological and sediment connectivity. Ecological Indicators 98: 608-618.
• Turnbull, L., Hütt, M., Ioannides,A.A., Kininmonth, S., Poeppl, R., Tockner, K., Bracken, L.J., Keesstra, S., Liu, L., Masselink, R. & Parsons, A.J. (2018). Connectivity and complex systems: learning from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Applied Network Science 3: 11.
• Nunes, João Pedro, Wainwright, John, Bielders, Charles L., Darboux, Frédéric, Fiener, Peter, Finger, David & Turnbull, Laura (2018). Better models are more effectively connected models. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 43(6): 1355-1360.
• Moreno-de las Heras, M., Turnbull, L. & Wainwright, J. (2016). Seed-bank structure and plant-recruitment conditions regulate the dynamics of a grassland-shrubland Chihuahuan ecotone. Ecology 97(9): 2303-2318.
• Cunliffe, A.M., Puttock, A.K., Turnbull, L., Wainwright, J. & Brazier, R.E. (2016). Dryland, calcareous soils store (and lose) significant quantities of near-surface organic carbon. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface 121(4): 684-702.
• Sanchez, C.A., Childers, D.L., Turnbull, L., Upham, R.F. & Weller, N. (2016). Aridland constructed treatment wetlands II: Plant mediation of surface hydrology enhances nitrogen removal. Ecological Engineering 97: 658-665.
• Weller, N.A., Childers, D.L., Turnbull, L. & Upham, R.F. (2016). Aridland constructed treatment wetlands I: Macrophyte productivity, community composition, and nitrogen uptake. Ecological Engineering 97: 649-657.
• Moreno-de las Heras, M., Diaz-Sierra, R., Turnbull, L. & Wainwright, J. (2015). Assessing vegetation structure and ANPP dynamics in a grassland–shrubland Chihuahuan ecotone using NDVI–rainfall relationships. Biogeosciences 12(10): 2907-2925.
• Hale, R.L, Turnbull, L, Earl, S.R, Childers, D.L & Grimm, N.B (2015). Stormwater Infrastructure Controls Runoff and Dissolved Material Export from Arid Urban Watersheds. Ecosystems 18(1): 62-75.
• Bracken, L.J., Turnbull, L., Wainwright, J. & Bogaart, P. (2015). Sediment connectivity: a framework for understanding sediment transfer at multiple scales. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 40(2): 177-188.
• Hale, Rebecca, Turnbull, Laura, Earl, Stevan, Grimm, Nancy, Riha, Krystin, Michalski, Greg, Lohse, Kathleen & Childers, Dan (2014). Sources and transport of nitrogen in arid urban watersheds. Environmental Science and Technology 48(11): 6211–6219.
• Hallett, L., Hsu, J., Cleland, E.E., Collins, S.L., Dickson, T.L., Farrer, E.C., Gherardi, L.A., Gross, K.L., Hobbs, R.K., Turnbull, L. & Suding, K.N. (2014). Biotic mechanisms of community stability shift along a precipitation gradient. Ecology 95(6): 1693-1700.
• Turnbull, L., Parsons, A.J., Wainwright, J. & Anderson, J.P. (2013). Runoff responses to long-term rainfall variability in a shrub-dominated catchment. Journal of Arid Environments 91: 88-94.
• Cleland, E.E, Collins, S.L, Dickson, T.L, Farrer, E.C, Gross, K.L, Gherardi, L.A, Hallett, L, Hobbs, R, Hsu, J, Turnbull, L & Suding, K (2013). Sensitivity of grassland plant community composition to spatial versus temporal variation in precipitation. Ecology 94(8): 1687-1696.
• Brazier, R.E., Turnbull, L., Wainwright, J. & Bol, R. (2013). Carbon loss by water erosion in drylands: implications from a study of vegetation change in the southwest USA. Hydrological Processes
• Wilcox B.P., Turnbull, L., Young, M.H., Williams, J., Ravi, S., Seyfried, M.S., Bowling, D.R., Scott, R.S., Germino, M. Caldwell, T. & Wainwright, J. (2012). Invasion of shrublands by exotic grasses: ecohydrological consequences in cold versus warm deserts. Ecohydrology 5(2): 160-173.
• Turnbull, L., Wilcox, B.P., Belnap, J., Ravi, S., D’Odorico, P., Childers, D.L., Gwenzi, W., Okin, G.S., Wainwright, J., Caylor, K.K. & Sankey, T. (2012). Understanding the role of ecohydrological feedbacks in ecosystem state change in drylands. Ecohydrology 5(2): 174-183.
• Wainwright, J., Turnbull, L., Ibrahim, T.G., Lexartza-Artza, I., Thomton, S.F. & Brazier, R.E. (2011). Linking Environmental Régimes, Space and Time: Interpretations of Structural and Functional Connectivity. Geomorphology 126(3-4): 387-404.
• Turnbull, L., Wainwright, J. & Brazier, R.E. (2011). Nitrogen and phosphorus dynamics during runoff events over a transition from grassland to shrubland in the south-western United States. Hydrological Processes 25(1): 1-17.
• Turnbull, L., Wainwright, J., Brazier, R.E. & Bol, R. (2010). Biotic and Abiotic Changes in Ecosystem Structure over a Shrub-Encroachment Gradient in the Southwestern USA. Ecosystems 13(8): 1239-1255.
• Turnbull, L., Wainwright, J. & Brazier, R.E. (2010). Changes in hydrology and erosion over a transition from grassland to shrubland. Hydrological Processes 24(4): 393-414.
• Turnbull, L., Wainwright, J. & Brazier, R.E. (2010). Hydrology, erosion and nutrient transfers over a transition from semi-arid grassland to shrubland in the South-Western USA: A modelling assessment. Journal of Hydrology 388(3-4): 258-272.
• Turnbull, L., Brazier, R.E., Wainwright, J., Dixon, L. & Bol, R. (2008). Use of carbon isotope analysis to understand semi-arid erosion dynamics and long-term semi-arid land degradation. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 22(11): 1697-1702.
• Turnbull, L., Wainwright, J. & Brazier, R.E. (2008). A conceptual framework for understanding semi-arid land degradation: ecohydrological interactions across multiple-space and time scales. Ecohydrology 1(1): 23-34.

Newspaper/Magazine Article

• Turnbull, L. (2011). Phosphorus and food security: Framing a global sustainability challenge through art. The Sustainability Review 2(2).