Prof. Bryan M. Spears

Bryan works in the Freshwater Restoration and Sustainability Group, Water Resources Science Area. His work assesses the effects of environmental change on lakes, rivers, and coastal ecosystems and he develops new management approaches to accelerate restoration. Bryan leads research programmes including the NERC Long-Term Science Project BIOPOLE to assess changing nutrient delivery from land to sea at the Earth's poles. He is Director of the Global Environment Facility Towards Sustainable Phosphorus Management in Lake Catchments Project and provides guidance to the UKCEH Team on MERLIN, where multiple benefits of aquatic ecosystem restoration are demonstrated at European scale. In 2023, Bryan led the UK assessment of the environmental impacts of the Kakhovka Dam Breach, Ukraine, reporting to the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office and their partners.  

Bryan provides evidence to governments and their agencies and serves on numerous catchment management groups. He is co-chair of the International Society of Limnology Working Group on Lake Restoration and the United Nations Environment Programme coordinated World Water Quality Alliance (WWQA) workstream on Ecosystem Restoration. Bryan supports the UNEP coordinated Global Partnership on Nutrient Management and has served on review panels for large research and restoration programmes. In these Science Advocacy roles Bryan has led the Our Phosphorus Future Project and the WWQA White Paper on Sustainable Lake Management. 

Bryan was awarded the Individual Merit Promotion Level 3 by the UKRI through NERC. In 2022, he was awarded an honorary Professorship from the School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh where he maintains long-standing collaborative links.