Professor Tom Spencer

College positions: Emeritus Fellow, Registrar of The Robert Cripps Gallery

University position: Professor of Coastal Dynamics

Subject: Geography

Group membership: Governing Body, Buildings and Conservation Committee, Development Committee, Conference Committee, Special Events Committee, Cloverleaf, Wine Committee

Professor Tom Spencer is an Emeritus Fellow at Magdalene, he is Emeritus Professor of Coastal Dynamics and Director of Cambridge Coastal Research Unit.

Professor Spencer's research explores physical geography at the intersection of geomorphology, geological sciences, and biological sciences. His work focuses particularly on coral reefs and associated ecosystems such as seagrass beds and mangroves, as well as coastal geomorphology.

Research Interest

  • Monitoring and Modelling Environmental Processes
    Hydrodynamics, sedimentation, and ecological processes in temperate tidal wetlands and mangrove swamps; estuarine hydro- and morpho-dynamics; coastal zone management with emphasis on global environmental change.
  • Environmental Change
    Global environmental change in the ocean basins, including large-scale coral bleaching dynamics in the western Indian Ocean and sea-level changes on Pacific Ocean islands. Vulnerability of coastal wetlands to sea level rise at both global and regional scales.
  • Earth Observation
    Visualising the annual to decadal evolution of large-scale coastal morphology and sediment dynamics. Use of multi-spectral scanner technology to assess the stability of major European estuaries. Application of digital videography for coral reef monitoring and terrestrial laser-scanning at the coast.

Qualifications

  • MA Magdalene College, University of Cambridge
  • PhD Magdalene College, University of Cambridge ‘Limestone erosion rates and microtopography; Grand Cayman Island, West Indies’

KEY PUBLICATIONS

Salt marsh surface survives true‐to‐scale simulated storm surges, by Spencer, T., Möller, I., Rupprecht, F., Bouma, T.J., van Wesenbeeck, B.K., Kudella, M., Paul, M., Jensen, K., Wolters, G., Miranda‐Lange, M. and Schimmels, S., 2016. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 543–552.

Global coastal wetland change under sea-level rise and related stresses: The DIVA Wetland Change Model, by Spencer, T., Schuerch, M., Nicholls, R.J., Hinkel, J., Lincke, D., Vafeidis, A.T., Reef, R., McFadden, L. and Brown, S., 2016. Global and Planetary Change, vol. 139, pp. 15–30.

Southern North Sea storm surge event of 5 December 2013: Water levels, waves and coastal impacts, by Spencer, T., Brooks, S.M., Evans, B.R., Tempest, J.A. and Möller, I., 2015. Earth-Science Reviews, vol. 146, pp. 120–145.

Shoreline retreat and sediment release in response to accelerating sea level rise: Measuring and modelling cliffline dynamics on the Suffolk Coast, UK, by Brooks, S.M. and Spencer, T., 2012. Global and Planetary Change, vol. 80–81, pp. 165–179.

Dynamics of sedimentation in a tide-dominated backbarrier salt-marsh, Norfolk, UK, by French, J.R. and Spencer, T., 1993. Marine Geology, vol. 110, no. 3–4, pp. 315–331.