Antony Brown
Job description
Tony Brown's PhD combined floodplain geomorphology with paleoecology and identified the most important anthropogenic effect on the largest river in Britain, The Severn in his PhD (Southampton, UK). He was subsequently appointed Associate Professor of Soil at the University of Leicester in 1983 and soon after Joint Lecturer in Geography and Archaeology. In 1997 he moved to the University of Exeter where he developed interests in wetland environmental archaeology and pursued his master's degree in wetland archaeology. In 2007 he moved back to the University of Southampton to direct the Palaeoenvironmental Laboratory in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences. At Southampton he had developed research on the use of sedaDNA in paleoecology and environmental archaeology and in 2019 was appointed to a professorship at Tromsø Museum in Norway where he is one of the directors of the ArcECoGEN Aurora Research Centre, UiT Norway. In 1997 he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a fellow of the Geological Society of London in 2000.
Tony Brown has also been one of the developers of forensic palynology and worked on several high-profile cases, including the Severs, Kinczyk and Neave cases, and has received several of Chief-Constable's praise for his work. In 1997-2003 he was partially posted to the UN-ICTY Bosnian Exhumation Team. He has published paper in this area and was a member of the Forensic Science Advisory Group (FSAG). He has appeared in several TV and radio programmes on this work, including the BBC 'Expert Witness' series (2023-2024).
Antony Brown,
Mary Lucas,
Inger Greve Alsos,
Bastian Fromm,
S. Hudson
:
The sedaDNA revolution and archaeology: Progress, challenges, and a research agenda
Journal of Archaeological Science 2025 DOI
John R. Stewart,
Inger Greve Alsos,
Antony Brown,
Love Dalén,
Peter D. Heintzman
:
The progressive evolution of cold-adapted species
Trends in Ecology & Evolution 2025 DOI
Sandra Garces Pastor,
Peter D. Heintzman,
Scarlett Zetter,
Youri Lammers,
Nigel Yoccoz,
Jean-Paul Theurillat
et al.:
Wild and domesticated animal abundance is associated with greater late-Holocene alpine plant diversity
Nature Communications 2025 DOI
Antony Brown,
Ben Pears,
Sara Cucchiaro,
Paolo Tarolli,
Andreas Lang,
Pengzhi Zhao
et al.:
The Geoarchaeology of Agricultural Terraces in Europe: Construction, Resilience and Implications for Sediment Delivery
Geoarchaeology 2025 DOI
Ben Pears,
Andreas Lang,
Daniel Joseph Fallu,
Mark Roberts,
David Jacques,
Lisa Snape
et al.:
Lynchet-Type Terraces, Loess, and Agricultural Resilience on Chalk Landscapes in the UK and Belgium
Scarlett Poppy Saunders Hovey Zetter,
Sandra Garces Pastor,
Youri Lammers,
Antony Gavin Brown,
Kevin Walsh,
Tomasz Goslar
et al.:
SedaDNA shows that transhumance of domestic herbivores has enhanced plant diversity over the Holocene in the Eastern European Alps
Anastasia Poliakova,
Antony Gavin Brown,
Inger Greve Alsos
:
Exotic pollen in sediments from the high Arctic Lake Tenndammen, Svalbard archipelago: diversity, sources, and transport pathways
Inger Greve Alsos,
Victor Boussange,
Dilli Prasad Rijal,
Marieke-Lise Beaulieu,
Antony Gavin Brown,
Ulrike Herzschuh
et al.:
Using ancient sedimentary DNA to forecast ecosystem trajectories under climate change
Roseanna J. Mayfield,
Dilli Prasad Rijal,
Peter D. Heintzman,
Peter G. Langdon,
Dirk N. Karger,
Antony Gavin Brown
et al.:
Holocene summer temperature reconstruction from plant sedaDNA and chironomids from the northern boreal forest
Anastasia Poliakova,
Antony Gavin Brown,
Tomasz Goslar,
Inger Greve Alsos
:
75. Lake Tenndammen, Colesdalen, Nordenskiöld Land, western Svalbard (Spitsbergen) archipelago
Aloïs Nicolas Revéret,
Dilli Prasad Rijal,
Peter D. Heintzman,
Antony Gavin Brown,
Kathleen R. Stoof-Leichsenring,
Inger Greve Alsos
:
Environmental DNA of aquatic macrophytes: The potential for reconstructing past and present vegetation and environments
Grzegorz Osipowicz,
Monika Badura,
Antony Gavin Brown,
Samuel M. Hudson,
Michał Jankowski,
Daniel Makowiecki
et al.:
Human-environment interactions in the Mesolithic – The case of site Paliwodzizna 29, a lakeside site in central Poland
Antony Brown,
Daniel Fallu,
Sara Cucchiaro,
Monica Alonso-Eguiluz,
Rosa Maria Albert,
Kevin Walsh
et al.:
Early to Middle Bronze Age agricultural terraces in north-east England: Morphology, dating and cultural implications
Pengzhi Zhao,
Daniel Fallu,
Ben R. Pears,
Camille Allonsius,
Jonas J. Lembrechts,
Stijn Van de Vondel
et al.:
Quantifying soil properties relevant to soil organic carbon biogeochemical cycles by infrared spectroscopy: The importance of compositional data analysis
Soil & Tillage Research 2023 DOI
Lucas Dane Elliott,
Dilli Prasad Rijal,
Antony Brown,
Jostein Bakke,
Lasse Topstad,
Peter D. Heintzman
et al.:
Sedimentary Ancient DNA Reveals Local Vegetation Changes Driven by Glacial Activity and Climate
Ben Pears,
Antony Gavin Brown,
Phillip S Toms,
Jamie Wood,
Benjamin T Pennington,
Richard Jones
:
Rapid laminated clastic alluviation associated with increased Little Ice Age flooding co-driven by climate variability and historic land-use in the middle Severn catchment, UK
Inger Greve Alsos,
Victor Boussange,
Dilli Prasad Rijal,
Marieke-Lise Beaulieu,
Antony Gavin Brown,
Ulrike Herzschuh
et al.:
Using ancient sedimentary DNA to forecast ecosystem trajectories under climate change
Research Square 2023 DOI
Samuel M Hudson,
Clive Waddington,
Ben Pears,
Natalie Ellis,
Luke Parker,
Derek Hamilton
et al.:
Lateglacial and Early Holocene palaeoenvironmental change and human activity at Killerby Quarry, North Yorkshire, UK
Aya Komatsu,
Elisabeth Cooper,
Inger Greve Alsos,
Antony Brown
:
Towards a Jōmon food database: construction, analysis and implications for Hokkaido and the Ryukyu Islands, Japan
Antony Brown,
Dilli Prasad Rijal,
Peter D. Heintzman,
Charlotte, L. Clarke,
Hans Peter Blankholm,
Helge Irgens Høeg
et al.:
Paleoeconomy more than demography determined prehistoric human impact in Arctic Norway
Sandra Garces Pastor,
Inger Greve Alsos,
Peter D. Heintzman,
Youri Lammers,
Eric Coissac,
Sébastien Lavergne
et al.:
High resolution ancient sedimentary DNA shows that alpine plant diversity is associated with human land use and climate change
Inger Greve Alsos,
Dilli Prasad Rijal,
Dorothee Ehrich,
Dirk Nikolaus Karger,
Nigel Yoccoz,
Peter D. Heintzman
et al.:
Postglacial species arrival and diversity buildup of northern ecosystems took millennia
Samuel M. Hudson,
Ben Pears,
David Jacques,
Thierry Fonville,
Paul Hughes,
Inger Greve Alsos
et al.:
Life before Stonehenge: The hunter-gatherer occupation and environment of Blick Mead revealed by sedaDNA, pollen and spores
Pengzhi Zhao,
Sebastian Doetterl,
Zhengang Wang,
Alison M. Hoyt,
Enheng Wang,
Hanqing Yu
et al.:
Factors controlling SOC stability in colluvial soils under contrasting climate and soil weathering conditions
European Journal of Soil Science 2022 DOI
Antony Brown,
Thierry Fonville,
Maarten Van Hardenbroek,
Graeme Cavers,
Anne Crone,
Finbar Mccormick
et al.:
New integrated molecular approaches for investigating lake settlements in north-western Europe
Antony Brown,
Maarten van Hardenbroek,
Thierry Fonville,
Kimberley L. Davies,
Helen Mackay,
E Murray
et al.:
Ancient DNA, Lipid Biomarkers and Palaeoecological Evidence Reveals Construction and Life on early Medieval Lake Settlements
Sara Cucchiaro,
G Paliaga,
Daniel Fallu,
Ben Pears,
Kevin Walsh,
P Zhao
et al.:
Volume estimation of soil stored in agricultural terrace systems: a geomorphometric approach
Antony Brown,
Edward Rhodes,
Steven R Davis,
Y Zhang,
Ben Pears,
Nicki J. Whitehouse
et al.:
Late Quaternary evolution of a lowland anastomosing river system: geological-topographic inheritance, non-uniformity and implications for biodiversity and management.
Quaternary Science Reviews 2021 DOI
Pengzhi Zhao,
Daniel Fallu,
Sara Cucchiaro,
Paolo Tarolli,
Clive Waddington,
David Cockroft
et al.:
SOC stabilization mechanisms and temperature sensitivity in old terraced soils
Victor Baker,
gerardo benito,
Antony Brown,
Paul A. Carling,
Yehouda Enzel,
Noam Greenbaum
et al.:
Fluvial palaeohydrology in the 21st century and beyond
Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 2021 DOI
Dilli Prasad Rijal,
Peter D. Heintzman,
Youri Lammers,
Nigel Yoccoz,
Kelsey Lorberau,
Iva Pitelkova
et al.:
Sedimentary ancient DNA shows terrestrial plant richness continuously increased over the Holocene in northern Fennoscandia
Antony Brown,
Kevin Walsh,
Daniel Joseph Fallu,
Sara Cucchiaro,
Paolo Tarolli
:
European agricultural terraces and lynchets: from
archaeological theory to heritage management
Antony Brown,
Daniel Joseph Fallu,
Kevin Walsh,
Sara Cucchiaro,
Paolo Tarolli,
Pengzhi Zhao
et al.:
Ending the Cinderella status of terraces and lynchets in Europe: The geomorphology of agricultural terraces and implications for ecosystem services and climate adaptation
Dilli Prasad Rijal,
Peter D. Heintzman,
Nigel Gilles Yoccoz,
Antony Gavin Brown,
Inger Greve Alsos,
Kari Anne Bråthen
:
Millennia of spatiotemporal plant diversity trajectories captured by sedimentary ancient DNA
2024
Scarlett Poppy Saunders Hovey Zetter,
Sandra Garces Pastor,
Youri Lammers,
Andreas Tribsch,
Antony Gavin Brown,
Eric Coissac
et al.:
Ancient DNA metabarcoding uncovers the effects of climate change and human impact on Austrian sub-alpine lake, Großer Winterleitensee
2023
Sandra Garces Pastor,
Peter D. Heintzman,
Scarlett Poppy Saunders Hovey Zetter,
Antony Gavin Brown,
Youri Lammers,
Boris Vanniere
et al.:
Impact of climate and domesticated mammals on Holocene plant richness in the European Alps revealed by sedaDNA
2023
Scarlett Poppy Saunders Hovey Zetter,
Sandra Garces Pastor,
Youri Lammers,
Andreas Tribsch,
Antony Gavin Brown,
Eric Coissac
et al.:
Holocene Plant Dynamics from a lake in the Austrian Alps
2021
Anastasia Poliakova,
Anders Schomacker,
David Sanderson,
Antony Brown,
Inger Greve Alsos
:
Spheroidal carbonaceous particles record reflects a history of coal combustion and helps to establish event-based stratigraphy for the High Arctic lake Tenndammen, Svalbard
2021
Anastasia Poliakova,
Antony Brown,
David Sanderson,
Inger Greve Alsos
:
Flood and desiccation events reconstructed based on luminescence profiles and palaeobotanical proxies from the High Arctic lake Tenndammen, Svalbard
2021
Scarlett Zetter,
Sandra Garces Pastor,
Youri Lammers,
Andreas Tribsch,
Antony Brown,
Eric Coissac
et al.:
Holocene reconstruction of plant communities and impacts of human activity from sedaDNA in the Austrian Alps
2021
Sandra Garces Pastor,
Youri Lammers,
Peter D. Heintzman,
Antony Brown,
Willy Tinner,
Christoph Schwörer
et al.:
Exceptionally rich sedaDNA record from a subalpine lake in the Central Alps reveals plant responses to climate change and human land use
2021
Inger Greve Alsos,
Peter D. Heintzman,
Dilli Prasad Rijal,
Antony Brown,
Charlotte L. Clarke,
Anne Elisabeth Bjune
et al.:
Ancient sedimentary DNA reveals long-term impact of climate change on northern flora
2020
Sandra Garces Pastor,
Peter D. Heintzman,
Youri Lammers,
Scarlett Zetter,
Antony Brown,
Kevin Walsh
et al.:
Holocene plant community changes in the Western Alps, as inferred from sedaDNA
2020
Dilli Prasad Rijal,
Peter D. Heintzman,
Youri Lammers,
Kari Anne Bråthen,
Nigel Yoccoz,
Antony Brown
et al.:
Temporal pattern of terrestrial plant diversity in northern Fennoscandia
2020
Scarlett Zetter,
Sandra Garces Pastor,
Youri Lammers,
Antony Brown,
Andreas Tribsch,
Eric Coissac
et al.:
Holocene reconstruction of plant and mammal communities in the Austrian and Italian Alps
2020
Scarlett Zetter,
Sandra Garces Pastor,
Youri Lammers,
Andreas Tribsch,
Antony Brown,
Eric Coissac
et al.:
Holocene flora reconstruction in the Austrian Alps
2020
Scarlett Zetter,
Sandra Garces Pastor,
Youri Lammers,
Antony Brown,
Andreas Tribsch,
Eric Coissac
et al.:
Spuren früher Almwirtschaft in Alpensee
04. mayo 2020 FULLTEKST
Scarlett Zetter,
Sandra Garces Pastor,
Youri Lammers,
Antony Brown,
Andreas Tribsch,
Eric Coissac
et al.:
Uraltes Erbgut aus Alpenseen zeigt Entwicklung der Almwirtschaft
04. mayo 2020 FULLTEKST
Anastasia Poliakova,
Lena Håkansson,
Anders Schomacker,
Antony Brown,
Sofia Elisabeth Kjellman,
Inger Greve Alsos
:
Multi-proxy study based on sedaDNA, pollen and plant macrofossils detects high proportion of Svalbard flora over the past 700 years
2020
Anastasia Poliakova,
Lena Håkansson,
Anders Schomacker,
Antony Brown,
Sofia Elisabeth Kjellman,
Inger Greve Alsos
:
Multi-proxy study on ancient plant DNA, geochemical profiles, macro- and microfossils established event-based chronology for the High Arctic lake Tenndammen, Svalbard
2020
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Research interests
- sedaDNA
- palaeoecology
- geoarchaeology
- lacustraine and fluvial environments
- TLS
- sedimentology
