Dr Lottie Miller

I'm a Quaternary palynologist and organic geochemist interested in vegetation response over episodes of global climate change on various timescales. My current research focuses on applying compound specific carbon and hydrogen isotope analysis to reconstruct Pliocene vegetation and hydrological conditions in the Red Sea region. I previously worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Münster and before that at MARUM (University of Bremen), where I used palynology and organic isotope geochemistry to understand past climate and environmental change in South Africa, using both marine and terrestrial Quaternary archives. Prior to this, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oslo, again using organic isotope geochemistry, but this time to understand the causes of the elevated extinction rates during the Carnian Pluvial Event (Late Triassic). During my PhD (The Open University) I worked as the palynologist on the ICDP Lake Bosumtwi Drilling Project and generated a 540,000 year record of vegetation change in West Africa.

Research Interests

Palaeoclimatology, palaeoceanography, palaeoecology, geochemistry, Quaternary palynology (pollen and dinoflagellate cysts), cyclostratigraphy.

1. Neumann, F., Finch, J., Hahn A., Miller., C., Scott, L., Schefuss, E., Nanguem, L., Cawthra, H., Engelbrecht, F., 2025. Vegetation and climate dynamics in a 16,000 zear marine sequence offshore Mozambique in Delagoa Bight, south-eastern Africa. (Quaternary International) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2025.109956
2. Liebrand, D, de Bakker, A., Johnstone, H., Miller, C., 2023. Disparate energy sources for slow and fast Dansgaard–Oeschger cycles (Climate of the Past). https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1447-2023
3. Fietz, S, Baker, A., Miller, C., Naafs, D., Peterse, F., Finch, J., Humphries, M., Schefuß, E., Roychoudhury, A., Routh, J., 2023. Terrestrial temperature evolution of southern Africa during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene: evidence from the Mfabeni Peatland. (Quaternary Science Reviews). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107870
4. Gosling, W., Miller, C., Shanahan, T., Holden, P., Overpeck, J., Langevelde, F., 2022. Long-term changes in moisture, not CO2, are the primary driver of woody cover change in the tropics. (Science). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abg4618
5. Gosling, W. McMichael, C., Groenewoud, Z., Roding, E., Miller, C., Julier, A., 2021. Preliminary evidence for green, brown and black worlds in tropicalwestern Africa during the Middle and Late Pleistocene. Quaternary Vegetation Dynamics–The African Pollen Database. 13-26. CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003162766-3
6. Hahn, A., Neumann, F., Miller, C., Finch, J., Frankland, T., Cawthra., Schefuß, E., Zabel, M., 2021. Mid-to Late Holocene climatic and anthropogenic influences in Mpondoland, South Africa (Quaternary Science Reviews). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.106938
7. Miller, C., Baranyi, V., 2021. Triassic Climates. Encyclopedia of Geology (Second Edition). Invited contribution for book chapter. Pages 514–524.
8. Hahn, A., Schefuß, E., Groeneveld, J., Miller, C., Zabel, M., 2021. Glacial to interglacial climate variability in the southeastern African subtropics (25–20° S). (Climate of the Past). https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-345-2021
9. Esteban, I., Bamford, MK., House, A., Miller, C., Neumann, F., Schefuß, E., Pargeter, J., Cawthra, H., Fisher, E., 2020. Coastal palaeoenvironments and hunter-gatherer plant-use at Waterfall Bluff rock shelter in Mpondoland (South Africa) from MIS 3 to the Early Holocene (Quaternary Science Reviews). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106664
10. Miller, C., Hahn, A., Liebrand, D., Zabel, M., Schefuß, E. 2020. Mid-and low latitude effects on eastern South African rainfall over the Holocene (Quaternary Science Reviews). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.106088
11. Miller, C., Finch, J., Hill, T, Peterse, F., Humphries, M., Zabel, M., Schefuß, E., 2019. Late Quaternary climate variability at Mfabeni peatland, eastern South Africa (Climate of the Past). https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1153-2019
12. Olsen, P., Geissman, J., Kent, D., Gehrels, G., Mundil, R., Irmis, R., Lepre, C., Kürschner, W., Rasmussen, C., Giesler, D., Parker, W., Zakharova, N., Kürschner, W., Miller, C., Baranyi, V., Schaller, M., Whiteside, J., Schnurrenberger, D., Noren, A., Shannon, K., O’Grady, R., Colbert, M., Maisana, J., Edey, D., Kinney, S. 2018. Colorado Plateau Coring Project, Phase I (CPCP-I): A continuously cored, globally exportable chronology of Triassic continental environmental change from Western North America (Scientific Drilling). https://doi.org/10.5194/sd-24-15-2018
13. Baranyi, V., Miller, C., Ruffell, A., Hounslow, M., Kürschner, W., 2018. A continental record of the Carnian Pluvial Episode (CPE) from the Mercia Mudstone Group (UK): palynology and climatic implications (Journal of the Geological Society). https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2017-150
14. Hahn, A., Miller, C., Andó, S., Bouimetarhan, I., Cawthra, H.C., Green, A.N., Radeff, G., Schefuß, E., Zabel, M. 2018. The provenance of terrigenous components in marine sediments along the east coast of southern Africa (Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems). https://doi.org/10.1029/2017GC007228
15. Miller, C., Kürschner, W., da Silva, AC., Peterse, F., Baranyi, V., Reichart, G.J., 2017. Astronomical age constraints and extinction mechanisms of the Late Triassic Carnian crisis (Nature Scientific Reports 7, 2557). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-02817-7
16. Jardine, P.E., Fraser, W.T., Lomax, B.H., Sephton, M.A., Shanahan, T.M., Miller, C.S., Gosling, W.D., 2016. Pollen and spores as biological recorders of past ultraviolet irradiance (Nature Scientific Reports 6, 39269). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep39269
17. Miller, C., Gosling, W., Kemp, D., Coe, A., Gilmour, I., 2016. Drivers of ecosystem and climate change in tropical West Africa over the past ~540,000 years (Journal of Quaternary Science 31, 70, 671–677) https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.2893
18. Shanahan, T., Hughen, K., Overpeck, J., McKay, N., Scholz, C., Peck, J., King, J., Heil, C., Gosling, W., Miller, C., 2016. CO2 and fire influence tropical ecosystem stability in response to climate change. Nature Scientific Reports 6, 1–8). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep29587
19. Miller, C., Leroy, S., Collins, P., Lahijani. H., 2016. Late Holocene vegetation and ocean variability in the Gulf of Oman. Quaternary Science Reviews 143, 120–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.05.010
20. Keen, H.F., Gosling, W., Montoya, E., Hanke, F., Miller, C., Valencia, B.J., Williams, J.J. 2014. A statistical sub-sampling tool for extracting vegetation community and diversity information from pollen assemblage data. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 84, 48–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2014.05.001
21. Miller, C., Gosling, W., Kemp, D., 2014. Late Quaternary interglacial forest associations in lowland tropical West Africa. Invited review to Quaternary Science Reviews 84, 7–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.10.027
22. Gosling, W., Miller, C., Livingstone, D., 2013. Atlas of the tropical West African pollen flora. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 199, 1–135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2013.01.003
23. Miller, C., Leroy, S., Izon, G., Lahijani, H., Cundy, A., Teesdale, P., 2013. Palynology: A tool to identify abrupt events? An example from Chabahar Bay, southern Iran. Marine Geology, 337, 195–201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2013.03.004
24. Leroy, S., Lahijani, H., Djamali, M., Naqinezhad, A., Moghadam, M., Arpe, K., Shah-Hosseini, M., Hosseindoust M., Miller, C., Tavakoli, V., Habibi, P., Naderi Beni, M., 2011. Late Little Ice Age palaeoenvironmental records from the Anzali and Amirkola Lagoons (south Caspian Sea): Vegetation and sea level changes. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 302, 415–434. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2011.02.002
25. Leroy, S., Marco, S., Bookman, R., Miller, C., 2009. Impact of earthquakes on agriculture during the Roman-Byzantine period from the Dead Sea laminated sediment. Quaternary Research 73, 191–200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yqres.2009.10.003

Head of Geography - New College Bradford.

https://ncbradford.ac.uk/course?id=15