Staff profile

I am a biogeoscientist with interests that encompass climate and environmental change in physical, geochemical and biological contexts. I have experience in palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, co-production of knowledge with indigenous communities, and in science communication and outreach. 

I am currently a Research Associate at Durham University, working on Arctic and Antarctic sea ice reconstruction within the Horizon Europe project Past to Future (P2F): towards fully paleo-informed future climate projections. I am compiling and synthesising sea ice proxy records into reconstructions of past sea ice configurations. Collated and new data will feed into Earth System Models to deliver improved climate model tuning and evaluation, which is essential for accurately predicting future trajectories of sea ice decline and the cascading impacts on climate, ecosystems and societies globally.

I have also worked on the northward expansion of beavers in the Arctic, tundra plant ecophysiology, and Holocene sea ice reconstruction focused on utilising driftwood as a novel proxy for surface ocean circulation dynamics. 

Career

2025-present. Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Geography, Durham University.

2023-2024. Visiting Scholar, Department of Geogrpahy, University of Cambridge.

2023-2024. Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Life Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University.

2022-2023. Research Coordinator & Communications Lead, Nature-based Solutions Initiative, University of Oxford.

2016. Graduate Tutor, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford.

Qualifications

DPhil, School of Geography and the Environment, Hertford College, University of Oxford, 2021.

MSci Geology & Geophysics, Imperial College London, 2013.

Teaching and Learning

Guest Lecturer - Reconstructing Environmental Change (25/26).

 

 

• High latitude climate and environmental change
• Palaeoclimate
• Dendroclimatology and dendroecology
• Palaeoceanography
• Organic and isotope geochemistry
• Sea ice
• Marine sediments

Journal Article

• Dendrochronology and remote sensing reveal beaver occupancy and colonization dynamics in an expanding Arctic population
  
  Hole, G. M., Büntgen, U., Wang, Y., DeVries, B., Rees, G., & Wheeler, H. C. (2026). Dendrochronology and remote sensing reveal beaver occupancy and colonization dynamics in an expanding Arctic population. Ecosphere, 17(3), Article e70557. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70557
• Dropped in the Ocean – 87Sr/86Sr as a provenance tool for ice-rafted Arctic driftwood
  
  Hole, G. M., Sinclair, D., & Macias-Fauria, M. (2022). Dropped in the Ocean – 87Sr/86Sr as a provenance tool for ice-rafted Arctic driftwood. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 590, Article 110856. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2022.110856
• A Driftwood‐Based Record of Arctic Sea Ice During the Last 500 Years From Northern Svalbard Reveals Sea Ice Dynamics in the Arctic Ocean and Arctic Peripheral Seas
  
  Hole, G. M., Rawson, T., Farnsworth, W. R., Schomacker, A., Ingólfsson, Ó., & Macias‐Fauria, M. (2021). A Driftwood‐Based Record of Arctic Sea Ice During the Last 500 Years From Northern Svalbard Reveals Sea Ice Dynamics in the Arctic Ocean and Arctic Peripheral Seas. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 126(10), Article e2021JC017563. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021jc017563
• Out of the woods: Driftwood insights into Holocene pan‐Arctic sea ice dynamics
  
  Hole, G. M., & Macias‐Fauria, M. (2017). Out of the woods: Driftwood insights into Holocene pan‐Arctic sea ice dynamics. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 122(9), 7612-7629. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017jc013126