Helen Moggridge

Helen received her PhD from King’s College London in 2007. She subsequently worked as a Lecturer in Physical Geography at King’s College London, before joining Natural England in 2009 to work in freshwater biodiversity conservation. In 2010, she was appointed as a Lecturer in Physical Geography at the University of Sheffield, where she worked until 2017. She joined UCL in September 2021.

Teaching

I teach the following modules: 

• Thinking Geographically I (GEOG0151)
• Human Ecology: Geographical Perspectives (GEOG0007)     
• Understanding our Planet (GEOG0005) 
• Geography in the Field 1 (GEOG0013)  
• Dissertation (GEOG0037) 

Publications

• Hough, I., Moggridge, H. and Warren, P. and Shucksmith, J. (2021) Establishing regional flow-ecology relationships through multisite analysis. Water and Environment Journal. Available for early view: https://doi.org/10.1111/wej.12757
• Richards, D., Moggridge, H.L., Warren, P.H. and Maltby, L. (2020) Impacts of hydrological restoration on floodplain grazing marsh communities. Wetlands Ecology and Management 28(3) 403-417 DOI: https://d-nb.info/1215333080/34
• Pasten-Zapata, E., Jones, J., Moggridge, H.L. and Widmann, M. (2020) Evaluation of the performance of Euro-CORDEX RCMs for assessing hydrological climate change impacts in Great Britain: a comparison of different spatial resolutions and quantile mapping bias correction methods. Journal of Hydrology 584 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2020.124653
• Koziol, K., Moggridge, H.L., Cook, J.M. and Hodson, A.J. (2019) Organic carbon fluxes of a surface glacier: A case study of Foxfonna, a small Arctic glacier. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 44(2), 405-416 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.4501
• Richards, D.R., Moggridge, H.L., Maltby, L. and Warren, P.H. (2018) Impacts of habitat heterogeneity on the provision of multiple ecosystem services in a temperate floodplain. Basic and Applied Ecology 29, 32-43 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2018.02.012
• Richards, D., Warren, P.H., Maltby, L. and Moggridge, H.L. (2017) Awareness of greater number of ecosystem services affects preferences for floodplain management. Ecosystem Services 24, 138-146. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2017.02.001
• Anderson, D., Moggridge, H., Shucksmith, J. and Warren, P.H. (2015) Quantifying the impact of water abstraction for low head ‘run of the river’ hydropower on localized river channel hydraulics and benthic macroinvertebrates. River Research and Applications. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.2992
• Anderson, D., Moggridge, H., Warren, P.H. and Shucksmith, J. (2015) The impacts of small-scale hydropower on the physical and ecological condition of rivers. Water and Environment Journal 29(2), 268-276 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/wej.12101
• Richards, D, Warren, P, Moggridge, H. and Maltby, L. (2015) Spatial variation in the impact of dragonflies and debris on recreational ecosystem services in a floodplain wetland. Ecosystem Services 15, 113-121 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2015.08.005
• Shuker, L., Moggridge, H. and Gurnell, A. (2015) Assessment of hydromorphology in heavily modified rivers: a new application of the River Habitat Survey. Area 47(4), 396-407 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12185
• Moggridge, H. and Higgit, D.L. (2014) Interactions between riparian vegetation and fluvial processes within tropical Southeast Asia: synthesis and future directions for research. Progress in Physical Geography 38(6), 716-733 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0309133314548745
• Moggridge, H., Hill, M.J. and Wood, P.J. (2014) Urban aquatic ecosystems: the good, the bad and the ugly. Fundamental and Applied Limnology 185(1), 1-6 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1127/fal/2014/0716
• Richards, D., Maltby, L., Moggridge, H. and Warren, P. (2014) European water voles in a reconnected lowland river floodplain: habitat preferences and distribution patterns following the restoration of flooding. Wetlands Ecology and Management 22(5), 539-549 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-014-9350-x
• Everard, M. and Moggridge, H.L. (2011). Rediscovering the value of urban rivers. Urban Ecosystems. 15(2): 293–314 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-011-0174-7
• Moggridge, H.L. and Gurnell, A. (2010). Hydrological controls on the transport and deposition of plant propagules within riparian zones. River Research and Applications, 26(4), 512–527.DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.1273
• Moggridge, H.L. and Gurnell, A. (2009). Controls on the sexual and asexual regeneration of Salicaceae along a highly dynamic, braided river system. Aquatic Science, 71(3), 305–317.DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00027-009-9193-3
• Moggridge, H.L., Gurnell, A. and Mountford, J.O. (2009). Propagule input, transport and deposition in riparian environments: the importance of connectivity for diversity. Journal of Vegetation Science, 20(3), 465–474. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1654-1103.2009.05498.x
• Schnauder, I. and Moggridge, H.L. (2009). Vegetation and hydraulic-morphological interactions at the individual plant, patch and channel scale. Aquatic Science, 71(3), 318–330. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00027-009-9202-6
• Gurnell, A., Thomson, K., Goodson, J and Moggridge, H.L. (2008) Propagule deposition along river margins: linking hydrology and ecology. Journal of Ecology 96(3), 553-565 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2745.2008.01358.x

Research Interests

My research explores the interactions between hydrology, geomorphology and ecology in rivers and wetlands. I am particularly interested in how these processes respond to human activities and the impact on biodiversity and the provision of ‘ecosystem services’, to support the development of effective management approaches. This research programme combines process-focused investigation of riverine systems with interdisciplinary and applied science. Previous research has included:

• Interactions between river flows and floodplain vegetation biodiversity. Previous projects have used field techniques to show how river flows facilitate plant propagule dispersal onto floodplains and demonstrated its relevance to floodplain biodiversity (Moggridge and Gurnell, 2010; Moggridge et al., 2009; Gurnell et al., 2008). I have also investigated the ability of vegetation to ‘engineer’ these processes by creating suitable habitat for plant establishment (Moggridge and Gurnell, 2009; Schnauder and Moggridge, 2009), which has an important application for the conservation and restoration of biodiversity within these environments.
• Impacts of human activities on river and floodplain ecosystems. My research seeks to better understand how climate change, habitat fragmentation, flow changes and management practices impact the physical character of rivers and the biodiversity that they support. Previous field-based research projects have shown how management practices, such as installing hydropower schemes (Anderson et al., 2015), breaching flood embankments (Richards et al., 2020) and direct in-channel interventions, such as weir removal and wood introduction (Shuker et al., 2015), impact biodiversity in rivers and floodplains. Many of these projects were conducted in collaboration with conservation organisations including the Environment Agency and the Peak District National Park.
• Ecosystem service provision within freshwater ecosystems. Previous collaborative projects have investigated the coincidence between biodiversity and ecosystem service provision at the site- and landscape-scale within the Humberhead Levels wetlands, UK (e.g. Richards et al. 2015, 2018). I also contributed to a situation analysis of how urbanisation and climate change may affect freshwater ecosystem services provision in the Global South, as part of the NERC, ESRC and DFID Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation research programme.