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Environmental Sciences
UK
2026

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Best Female Scientists

D-Index
117
Citations
51760
World Ranking
642
National Ranking
62

Environmental Sciences

D-Index
120
Citations
55996
World Ranking
124
National Ranking
7

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Environmental Sciences in United Kingdom Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Best Female Scientists Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Environmental Sciences in United Kingdom Leader Award
  • 2023 - Research.com Environmental Sciences in United Kingdom Leader Award
  • 2022 - Research.com Environmental Sciences in United Kingdom Leader Award
  • 2013 - Fellow of the Ecological Society of America (ESA)

Overview

Sandy P. Harrison is affiliated with the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. Their research primarily focuses on environmental science and earth and planetary sciences, with significant contributions in several related subfields including global and planetary change, atmospheric science, plant science, ecology, and nature and landscape conservation.

The scientist's work addresses a range of topics that intersect various aspects of climate and ecological dynamics. Notable areas of study include geology and paleoclimatology research, plant water relations and carbon dynamics, fire effects on ecosystems, climate variability and models, ecology and vegetation dynamics studies, tree-ring climate responses, and plant responses to elevated CO2 levels.

Among recent publications, the following papers stand out:

  • The PMIP4 Last Glacial Maximum experiments: preliminary results and comparison with the PMIP3 simulations (2021) published in Climate of the past
  • Large-scale features and evaluation of the PMIP4-CMIP6 midHolocene simulations (2020) published in Climate of the past
  • Organizing principles for vegetation dynamics (2020) published in Nature Plants
  • Eco-evolutionary optimality as a means to improve vegetation and land-surface models (2021) published in New Phytologist
  • P-model v1.0: an optimality-based light use efficiency model for simulating ecosystem gross primary production (2020) published in Geoscientific model development

The scientist has collaborated frequently with colleagues such as I. Colin Prentice, Han Wang, Ian J. Wright, Yicheng Shen, and Huiying Xu. These collaborations reflect ongoing research engagements across multiple studies and projects.

Publication venues where Sandy P. Harrison has frequently contributed include:

  • Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
  • Climate of the past
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
  • Environmental Research Letters
  • New Phytologist

Their scholarly output spans major fields and topics in environmental and earth sciences, emphasizing the interconnection between climate processes and biological systems. Research topics explored cover both large-scale planetary processes and detailed ecological and physiological plant dynamics.

In recognition of their work, Sandy P. Harrison was awarded the Fellow of the Ecological Society of America (ESA) in 2013.

Best Publications

  • Fire in the Earth System

    David M. J. S. Bowman;Jennifer K. Balch;Jennifer K. Balch;Jennifer K. Balch;Paulo Artaxo;William J. Bond

  • TRY - a global database of plant traits

    J. Kattge;S. Díaz;S. Lavorel;I. C. Prentice

  • A global biome model based on plant physiology and dominance, soil properties and climate

    I. Colin Prentice;Wolfgang Cramer;Sandy P. Harrison;Rik Leemans

  • TRY plant trait database : Enhanced coverage and open access

    Jens Kattge;Gerhard Bönisch;Sandra Díaz;Sandra Lavorel

  • Results of PMIP2 coupled simulations of the Mid-Holocene and Last Glacial Maximum - Part 1: experiments and large-scale features

    P. Braconnot;B. Otto-Bliesner;S. Harrison;S. Joussaume

  • Evaluation of climate models using palaeoclimatic data

    Pascale Braconnot;Sandy P. Harrison;Masa Kageyama;Patrick J. Bartlein

  • Ecosystem dynamics based on plankton functional types for global ocean biogeochemistry models

    Corinne Le Quéré;Sandy P Harrison;Sandy P Harrison;I Colin Prentice;I Colin Prentice;Erik Theodoor Buitenhuis

  • Climate and human influences on global biomass burning over the past two millennia

    J. R. Marlon;P. J. Bartlein;C. Carcaillet;D. G. Gavin

  • Changes in Fire Regimes Since the Last Glacial Maximum: An Assessment Based on a Global Synthesis and Analysis of Charcoal Data

    Mitch J. Power;J. Marlon;N. Ortiz;P. J. Bartlein

  • Dust sources and deposition during the last glacial maximum and current climate: A comparison of model results with paleodata from ice cores and marine sediments

    Natalie Mahowald;Karen Kohfeld;Margaret Hansson;Yves Balkanski

  • Pollen-based continental climate reconstructions at 6 and 21 ka: A global synthesis

    Patrick J Bartlein;S P Harrison;S P Harrison;S Brewer;Simon Connor

  • Climate change and Arctic ecosystems: 2. Modeling, paleodata‐model comparisons, and future projections

    JO Kaplan;JO Kaplan;NH Bigelow;IC Prentice;SP Harrison;SP Harrison

  • Impact of vegetation and preferential source areas on global dust aerosol: Results from a model study

    Ina Tegen;Sandy P. Harrison;Karen Kohfeld;I. Colin Prentice

  • Terrestrial biogeochemical feedbacks in the climate system

    Almut Arneth;S. P. Harrison;S. P. Harrison;S. Zaehle;K. Tsigaridis;K. Tsigaridis

  • Relative importance of climate and land use in determining present and future global soil dust emission

    I. Tegen;Martin Werner;S. P. Harrison;K. E. Kohfeld

  • DIRTMAP: the geological record of dust

    Karen E. Kohfeld;Sandy P. Harrison

  • Climate and biome simulations for the past 21,000 years

    J. Kutzbach;R. Gallimore;S. P. Harrison;P. Behling

  • Palaeovegetation (Communications arising): Diversity of temperate plants in east Asia

    SP Harrison;G Yu;H Takahara;IC Prentice

  • The role of dust in climate changes today, at the last glacial maximum and in the future

    Sandy P. Harrison;Karen E. Kohfeld;Caroline Roelandt;Tanguy Claquin

  • Plant functional types: are we getting any closer to the Holy Grail?

    Sandra Lavorel;Sandra Díaz;J. Hans C. Cornelissen;Eric Garnier

Frequent Co-Authors

Patrick J. Bartlein
Patrick J. Bartlein University of Oregon
Karen E. Kohfeld
Karen E. Kohfeld Simon Fraser University
Ayako Abe-Ouchi
Ayako Abe-Ouchi University of Tokyo
Pascale Braconnot
Pascale Braconnot Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS
Bette L. Otto-Bliesner
Bette L. Otto-Bliesner National Center for Atmospheric Research
Masa Kageyama
Masa Kageyama Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS
Stephen Sitch
Stephen Sitch University of Exeter
John E. Kutzbach
John E. Kutzbach University of Wisconsin–Madison
Ina Tegen
Ina Tegen Leibniz Association
Almut Arneth
Almut Arneth Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

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