University of Aberdeen

https://www.quadrat.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2019/08/Brasier-Alex.png
Current Position Senior Lecturer in Geology
Telephone +44 (0)1224 273449
Email a.brasier@abdn.ac.uk
Departments School of Geosciences
ECR Sometimes
Quadrat Core Themes Biodiversity, Earth Systems, Environmental Management
Methods I Use Bio / Geo / Chemical Analytical
Profiles

PURE    ORCID

General

Aberdeen Centre for Electron Microscopy, Analysis and Characterisation

Key Research Interests

  • Effects of ancient terrestrial organisms (e.g. microbes, fungi, primitive plants) on rock weathering, soil production, and
    on carbonate precipitation in soils, lakes, and marine environments
  • Marine carbonate depositional environments (e.g. coral reefs) and the causes of changes in types of organisms
    constructing reefs
  • Processes of fossilisation of life, including for example preservation of microbes in limestones of modern and ancient
    alkaline lakes
  • Evolution of the Earth System over geological time, using stable isotopes (C,O,S) and inorganic geochemistry
  • Microscopy, including ‘cutting edge’ optical and electron microscopy

Recent Key Papers

  • Brasier, A., et al. (2018). A microbial role in the construction of Mono Lake carbonate chimneys? Geobiology, vol. 16, no. 5,
    pp. 540-555. DOI: HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.1111/GBI.12292
  • Brasier, AT., et al. (2014). Carbon isotopic evidence for organic matter oxidation in soils of the Old Red Sandstone (Silurian to
    Devonian, South Wales, UK). Journal of the Geological Society, vol. 171, no. 5, pp. 621-634.
    HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.1144/JGS2013-136
  • Brasier, AT., et al. (2013). Earth’s earliest global glaciation? Carbonate geochemistry and geochronology of the Polisarka
    Sedimentary Formation, Kola Peninsula, Russia. Precambrian Research, vol. 235, pp. 278-294.
    HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.1016/J.PRECAMRES.2013.06.007

Summary Title of Current Studentships

  • Devonian stromatolites of the Orcadian Basin
  • Records of environmental change from the stratigraphy and palynology of Cretaceous rocks in the Benue Trough, Nigeria
  • Carbon isotopes, stratigraphy and environmental change: the Middle/Upper Cambrian Positive Excursion (SPICE) in Port-au-Port Group, Western Newfoundland, Canada
  • QUADRAT DTP student, Cian McAuley: Are land plants good or bad for coral reefs?
  • QUADRAT DTP student, Lucy Kerr: Did earthworms change the world? Investigating how animals and plants revolutionised carbon cycling in calcareous soils through deep time