Professor Lee Brown

Profile

I am Professor of Aquatic Science in the River Basin Processes and Management research group and across water@leeds, where I lead research on river ecosystems and aquatic ecology. Through my research I aim to increase understanding of how aquatic ecosystem biodiversity and functional processes respond to environmental change.

I am a freshwater ecologist with a particular interest in river ecosystems. My work crosses several research fields (population and community ecology, hydrology, water quality, geomorphology). I work on climate change impacts on river ecosystems in mountainous regions (alpine, Arctic), the effects of catchment management and water quality (e.g. environmental-flows, land management) on rivers in the UK, and aquatic food webs. Administratively, I previously held the roles of Director of Research & Innovation and have been the school’s REF2021 and REF2029 submission leader.

Feel free to contact me for reprints of papers, or if you are interested in studying/working in our research group. I am interested in supervising PhDs on topics such as aquatic ecology (biodiversity, food webs), functional processes in aquatic ecosystems (metabolism, decomposition, production, biomass production), traits, functional diversity and community assembly. Follow me on LinkedIn for project general updates: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-brown-32a13586/ and Instagram for fieldwork pictures: https://www.instagram.com/riverprofessor/

Responsibilities

• REF2029 lead
• Associate Director - water@leeds

Research interests

Arctic and alpine river ecosystems

Glaciers cover ∼10% of the Earth’s land surface, but they are shrinking rapidly across most parts of the world, leading to cascading impacts on downstream systems. Changes in river hydrology, water quality and morphology caused by climate-change induced glacier loss are projected to be the greatest of any hydrological system, with major implications for riverine and near-shore marine environments. The majority of my published and ongoing work relates to the effects of glacier retreat on river biodiversity and river habitat dynamics. This work has been undertaken in rivers around the world, including those in Alaska, the Andes, the European Alps, French Pyrenees, Greenland, Himalayas, New Zealand Alps, Scandinavia and Svalbard. I was a contributing author to the IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) and, in recognition of my work, I was awarded the 2022 Royal Geographical Society’s Ralph Brown Award. I currently lead a NERC Pushing the Frontiers grant (2025-28) and associated pieces of work to advance understanding of Himalayan River and Stream Ecosystems (Hi-RISE).

Environmental flows and aquatic ecosystems

The regulation of river flows by large dams is one of the biggest stressors affecting river ecosystems across the world. In many westernised countries, major legislative efforts are underpinning the development of new approaches to mitigate the impacts of dams. These approaches are based on optimising the management of river flows to maintain services to humans (e.g. water supply, hydropower) whilst protecting and/or rejuvenating the aquatic environment with water of adequate quantity and quality in space and time (i.e. environmental flows, aka e-flows). We work to generate an evidence base for the best ways to manage the quantity, quality and patterns of e-flows to sustain river ecosystems. I was the co-ordinator of an EU Marie Curie funded ITN called Euro-FLOW (A EUROpean training and research network for environmental FLOW management in river basins) which trained a cohort of 15 researchers to be future leaders in the science, business and policy of this field, and continue to work with consultancies and water utilities to find ways to modify dam compensation flows to maximise water supply, river water quality and biodiversity. Part of this research involves the study of greenhouse gas emissions from rivers.

Drivers of change in aquatic ecosystems

My research in this area has included the study of land management and restoration effects on river ecosystems, particularly in peatland dominated catchments which cover around 500 million hectares of global land surface, storing up to half the world's soil carbon. I was the principle investigator on the EMBER project (Effects of Moorland Burning on the Ecohydrology of River Basins) and led several projects studying the biodiversity of peatland ponds. I am currently a co-investigator on the EU WaterLANDS project which is a 5-year EU-funded project that will restore wetland sites across Europe and lay the foundations for scalable protection across much wider areas. Other research in this theme includes the study of temporal trends in UK river biodiversity funded by the NERC Drivers and Repercussions of UK Insect Decline project, and work with collaborators from the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institue of Hydrobiology looking at responses to restoration of China’s freshwaters.

Aquatic food webs

An understanding of the connections between individuals and species can help to develop a more coherent understanding of how ecosystems respond to environmental change. My research on aquatic food webs has been undertaken in a variety of settings, from mesocosms looking at the effects of drought, through to glacier-fed rivers in the European Alps, with additional contributions to various synthesis papers.

See my publications record for further details about my work in each of these research areas.

• HARVEST: High-mountain Asia - building Resilience to water Variability using Experiments, Surveys and accounts of Tradition
• Impacts of global warming in sentinel systems: from genes to ecosystems
• Implications of glacier retreat for aquatic biodiversity in the Himalayas

Qualifications

• PhD, Physical Geography, University of Birmingham
• PGCLTHE, University of Leeds
• BSc, Environmental Biogeoscience, University of Leeds

Professional memberships

• British Ecological Society
• Freshwater Biological Association

Research groups and institutes

• River Basin Processes and Management

Current postgraduate researchers

• Nicky Kerr