Professor Ric Williams BSc, MSc, PhD
Professor Earth, Ocean and Ecological Sciences
Research
Research Overview
I am climate scientist interested in the role of the ocean in the climate system, addressing how the ocean provides climate and carbon feedbacks that affect the planet response to carbon emissions.
My expertise is in ocean dynamics and the transfer of heat, nutrients and carbon in the global ocean. I have experience in ocean and climate modelling including assessing model responses in terms of theory and in comparing with the available data.
I am the co-lead of the University of Liverpool research theme ‘Climate Futures’, which is addressing the research challenges of the science, societal response and solutions in climate change and the need to move to net zero carbon.
Research Interest 1
In my research, I focus on addressing different questions as to how the climate system operates:
How is the ocean warming and heat storage linked to ocean circulation?
How is surface warming linked to carbon emissions?
Why do plankton flourish over some parts of the ocean and not others?
How similar is the behaviour of the Gulf Stream in the ocean and the Jet Stream in the atmosphere?
How is the ocean carbon cycle affected by ocean physics and biology?
Research Group Membership
Research Grants
Understanding Interdecadal Changes in the Ocean Carbon Sink (UNICORNS)
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
January 2022 - November 2024
Asymmetries in ocean heat and carbon uptake, and effects on marine hazards
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
May 2020 - April 2024
SNAP-DRAGON - Subpolar North Atlantic Processes - Dynamics and pRedictability of vAriability in Gyre and OverturNing
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
September 2020 - February 2024
Southern Ocean carbon indices and metrics (SARDINE)
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
January 2020 - May 2024
Mechanistic controls of surface warming by ocean heat and carbon uptake
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
June 2016 - August 2019
How does ocean warming and steric sea level rise depend on carbon emissions?
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
May 2014 - April 2016
The UK Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program (UK-OSNAP)
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
January 2014 - January 2019
FASTNET - Fluxes Across the Sloping Topography of the North East Atlantic
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
April 2012 - October 2016
Climate variability in the North Atlantic Ocean: wind-induced changes in heat content, sea level and overturning.
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
January 2011 - May 2014
Dynamical Regimes in the Deep Ocean.
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
July 1999 - July 2002
A monitoring array along the western margin of the Atlantic.
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
May 2003 - April 2009
Does nutrient transport control phytoplankton blooms over the North Sea?
DEPARTMENT FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS (UK)
October 2003 - October 2006
Iron Biogeochemistry in the High Latitude North Atlantic Ocean
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
September 2009 - November 2013
The role of oceanic ventilation in the coupled climate system.
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
October 2000 - December 2003
Physical and chemical forcing of diazotrophy in the (sub)-tropical Atlantic Ocean
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
October 2010 - March 2014
Transport and storage of nutrients, carbon and heat in the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean.
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
January 2005 - April 2009
Mediterranean model networking and archiving program - MEDNET.
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
February 1999 - July 2001
The role of sloping topography in the overturning circulation of the North Atlantic.
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
January 2004 - June 2008
Attribution of climate change in the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean: exploiting tritium-helium data and adjoint sensitivity analyses.
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
May 2006 - August 2010
A nutrient and carbon pump over mid-ocean ridges (RidgeMix).
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
January 2015 - February 2019
Nutrient Streams and the subduction process: their effect on global nutrient distributions
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
July 2007 - February 2010
Sensitivity of ocean carbon cycling to anthropogenic emissions
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
September 2008 - December 2010
Assessing the role of eddies in exchanging nutrients across the European Shelf
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
October 2012 - September 2017
North Atlantic Sea-Level Variability during the Last Half-Millennium
PROUDMAN OCEANOGRAPHIC LABORATORY (UK)
August 2010 - January 2011
The Altantic Meridional Transect (AMT) Programme
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
July 2002 - October 2006
Research Collaborations
Prof. Susan Lozier
External: Duke University
Visiting Professor at Duke University for spring semester, 2008. Working together on how ocean heat content is changing over the North Atlantic.
Professor Mick Follows
External: Massachusettes Institute of Technology, USA
Collaborated on writing a new research book on 'Ocean dynamics and the carbon cycle) for Cambridge University Press, now jointly working on carbon and ecosystem research questions.