My research interests focus on the morphodynamics of rivers at all scales from steepland streams to large rivers. I am engaged in long-term studies of sediment transport and stability in Fraser River. Sediment transport is also studied in an experimental program conducted in the stream dynamics laboratory at Simon Fraser University in association with Professor Jeremy Vendittti. In addition, I am interested in world fluvial sediment yield, fluvial landscape evolution over intermediate time scales (order 10,000 years), and in the history and methodology of geomorphology. I am a registered Professional Geoscientist in the Province of British Columbia.

Honours: Order of Canada; Fellow of The Royal Society of Canada; Fellow of the American Geophysical Union; Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

2023

Church, M. & Ryder, J.M. (2023). Jericho Park, Vancouver, British Columbia: Birds and Habitat Survey, 2020-2021. Report for the Jericho Stewardship Group: 54pp.

Curran, M., Steelquist, A.T., Larimer, J., Seagren, E., Li, T., Heathfield, D. Church, M. et al. (2023). Structural control of bedrock river alignment and morphology in the Fraser Canyon, British Columbia, Canada. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 48(15), 3381–3394. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.5702

Church, M. & Hassan, M. A. (2023). The Fluvial gran-size gap: experimental confirmation of hydraulic origin. Earth Surface and Landforms, 48(8), 1502-15011. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.5562

2021

Wlodarczyk, K., Hassan, M. & Church, M. (2021). Annual and decadal net morphological displacement of a small gravel-bed channel. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 48, 1630-1645. doi: 10.1002/esp.5572.

2020

Dudill, A., Venditti, J. G., Church, M. & Frey, P. (2020). Comparing the behaviour of spherical beads and natural grains in bedload mixtures. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 45(4), 831-840. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.4772

—. Are Results in Geomorphology Reproducible? Journal of Geophysical Research – Earth Surface, 125(8), e2020JF005553. doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JF005553

Church, M. & Jakob, M. (2020). What Is a Debris Flood? Water Resources Research, 56(8), e2020WR027144. doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2020WR027144

Venditti, J. G., Li, T., Deal, E., Dingle, E. & Church, M. (2020). Struggles with stream power: Connecting theory across scales. Geomorphology, 366. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2019.07.004

Church, M. (2020). The place of field studies in environmental science. In T. P. Burt and D. B. A. Thompson (Eds.), Curious about Nature: A Passion for Fieldwork Cambridge (pp. 47-65). Ecology, Biodiversity and Conservation. Cambridge University Press.

2019

Venditti, J. G., Nittrouer, J. A., Allison, M. A., Humphries, R. P. & Church, M. (2019). Supply-limited bedform patterns and scaling downstream of a gravel–sand transition. Sedimentology, 66(6), 2538-2556. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/sed.12604

Church, M. (2019). A puzzle and a promise. In K. Ashley (Ed), The Heart of the Fraser (pp. 46-50). Fernando Lessa Publishing.

2018

Hendershot, M. L., Venditti, J. G., Church, M. Bradley, R. Kostaschuk, R. A. & Allison, M. A. (2018). Crestline bifurcation and dynamics in fluvially-dominated, tidally-influenced flow. Sedimentology, 65(7), 2621-263. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/sed.12480

Mackenzie, L. G., Earon, B. C. & Church, M. (2018). Breaking from the average: Why large grains matter in gravel-bed streams’ Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 43(15), 3190-3196. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.4465

Rennie, C. D., Church, M. & Venditti, J.G. (2018). Rock Control of River Geometry: The Fraser Canyons. Journal of Geophysical Research – Earth Surface, 123(8), 1860-1878. doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2017JF004458

Dudill, A., Lafave De Micheaux, H., Frey, P. and Church, M. (2018). Introducing Finer Grains Into Bedload: The Transition to a New Equilibrium. Journal of Geophysical Research – Earth Surface, 123(10), 2602-2619. doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JF004847