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Earth Science
UK
2026

D-Index & Metrics

Earth Science

D-Index
114
Citations
43556
World Ranking
59
National Ranking
7

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Earth Science in United Kingdom Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Earth Science in United Kingdom Leader Award
  • 2022 - Research.com Earth Science in United Kingdom Leader Award

Overview

Desmond E. Walling is affiliated with the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom and has contributed significantly to research within Earth and Planetary Sciences, Environmental Science, and Agricultural and Biological Sciences. Their work spans several key subfields including Atmospheric Science, Soil Science, Earth-Surface Processes, Global and Planetary Change, and Ecology.

Their research focuses extensively on topics such as soil erosion and sediment transport, cryospheric studies and observations, climate change and permafrost, geology and paleoclimatology research, radioactive contamination and transfer, aeolian processes and effects, and hydrology and sediment transport processes.

The scientist has contributed to numerous publications in prominent scientific venues. Notable recent papers include:

  • Exceptional increases in fluvial sediment fluxes in a warmer and wetter High Mountain Asia (2021, Science)
  • High Mountain Asia hydropower systems threatened by climate-driven landscape instability (2022, Nature Geoscience)
  • Warming-driven erosion and sediment transport in cold regions (2022, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment)
  • Using reservoir sediment deposits to determine the longer-term fate of chernobyl-derived 137Cs fallout in the fluvial system (2021, Environmental Pollution)
  • The competing controls of glaciers, precipitation, and vegetation on high-mountain fluvial sediment yields (2024, Science Advances)

Their frequent coauthors include Dongfeng Li, Ting Zhang, Xixi Lu, Irina Overeem, and Michèle Koppes, reflecting collaborations that contribute to studies on sediment transport, landscape instability, and environmental contamination.

These collaborations and interdisciplinary approaches have led to publications in several recurring venues, including:

  • Science
  • Nature Geoscience
  • Nature Reviews Earth & Environment
  • Science Advances
  • Environmental Pollution

Best Publications

  • The sediment delivery problem

    D.E. Walling

  • Recent trends in the suspended sediment loads of the world's rivers

    D.E. Walling;D. Fang

  • Human impact on land : ocean sediment transfer by the world's rivers

    D.E. Walling

  • Tracing suspended sediment sources in catchments and river systems

    D.E. Walling

  • Interpreting particle size effects in the adsorption of 137Cs and unsupported 210Pb by mineral soils and sediments

    Q. He;D.E. Walling

  • Assessing the accuracy of suspended sediment rating curves for a small basin

    D. E. Walling

  • Source type ascription for fluvial suspended sediment based on a quantitative composite fingerprinting technique

    A.L. Collins;D.E. Walling;G.J.L. Leeks

  • Improved Models for Estimating Soil Erosion Rates from Cesium‐137 Measurements

    Unknown

  • Comparative advantages and limitations of the fallout radionuclides 137Cs, 210Pbex and 7Be for assessing soil erosion and sedimentation

    Lionel Mabit;M. Benmansour;Desmond E. Walling

  • Linking land use, erosion and sediment yields in river basins

    D. E. Walling

  • Time-integrated sampling of fluvial suspended sediment: a simple methodology for small catchments

    J. M. Phillips;M. A. Russell;D. E. Walling

  • Water–air temperature relationships in a Devon river system and the role of flow

    B. W. Webb;P. D. Clack;D. E. Walling

  • Erosion and sediment yield: a global overview

    D. E. Walling;B. W. Webb

  • Selecting fingerprint properties for discriminating potential suspended sediment sources in river basins

    A.L Collins;D.E Walling

  • A preliminary assessment of the potential for using caesium-137 to estimate rates of soil erosion in the Loess Plateau of China

    Zhang Xinbao;D. L. Higgitt;D. E. Walling

  • Calibration of caesium-137 measurements to provide quantitative erosion rate data

    D. E. Walling;T. A. Quine

  • Fingerprinting suspended sediment sources in the catchment of the River Ouse, Yorkshire, UK

    Desmond E. Walling;Philip N. Owens;Graham J. L. Leeks

  • Estimating the discharge of contaminants to coastal waters by rivers: Some cautionary comments

    D.E. Walling;B.W. Webb

  • The evolution of sediment source fingerprinting investigations in fluvial systems

    Desmond E. Walling

  • Documenting catchment suspended sediment sources: problems, approaches and prospects

    A. L. Collins;D. E. Walling

  • Use of 137Cs measurements to investigate soil erosion on arable fields in the UK: potential applications and limitations

    D. E. Walling;T. A. Quine

  • Storage of sediment-associated nutrients and contaminants in river channel and floodplain systems

    D.E Walling;P.N Owens;J Carter;G.J.L Leeks

Frequent Co-Authors

Graham J.L. Leeks
Graham J.L. Leeks UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Adrian L. Collins
Adrian L. Collins Rothamsted Research
Timothy A. Quine
Timothy A. Quine University of Exeter
Philip N. Owens
Philip N. Owens University of Northern British Columbia
Andrew Nicholas
Andrew Nicholas University of Exeter
Ian D L Foster
Ian D L Foster Rhodes University
Jamie Woodward
Jamie Woodward University of Manchester
Ana Navas
Ana Navas Spanish National Research Council
William H. Blake
William H. Blake Plymouth University
Lionel Mabit
Lionel Mabit International Atomic Energy Agency

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