Research
As PI, I have led over £2.3M of research projects since 2020, and supported projects worth over £3.9M as CoI. My group's research spans three broad research areas, all addressing fundamental global environmental challenges, using a range of techniques from ecology, biogeochemistry, and sustainability sciences, working a range of partners and funders, including UKRI, policy organisations, NGOs, and industry:
Plant-soil interactions underpin globally important ecosystem processes, from the production of crops, through to the regulation of biogeochemical cycles. I am interested in the role of plants in regulating such processes, and identifying opportunities for exploiting them to address key global challenges. Examples include exploiting root-soil interactions (through selection for specific root traits) to identify opportunities for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, and enhancing carbon sequestration in agriculture through the use of new deeper rooting crop genotypes.
Climate impacts are already affecting fundamental ecosystem processes, particularly in the tropics. Many uncertainties remain regarding potential feedback mechanisms, for example in terms of ecosystem productivity, and implications for global biogeochemical cycling. Impacts are likely to vary both spatially and temporally, and there is a need to develop new approaches to quantify both. There remain multiple opportunities for increasing climate resilience, which will provide multiple benefits, particularly for communities who rely on ecosystem service provision.
Regenerative farming spans a suite of soil management techniques (for example including organic management, agroforestry, intercropping and zero tillage, amongst others), all with potential to address critical sustainability challenges in agriculture, including benefits to soil health, and reductions in environmental externalities. However, multiple questions remain regarding the benefits versus trade-offs from adoption, the impacts from synergistic practices, and implications for supply chains. Various tools are needed in order to quantify these impacts, and to inform farmer choices.
Selected current projects
Environmental and ecological drivers of tropical peatland methane emissions
NERC (NE/X015238/1), £766.1k, PI
2023 - 2026
We are working to understanding the key drivers of methane dynamics from South American and Central African peatlands. We are integrating new measurements of methane fluxes with measurements of key environmental variables and ecosystem productivity to identify key drivers of emissions. Data will be used to modify the ECOSSE model, which will then be used to predict the impacts of future environmental changes on fluxes, and to produce a new methane emissions budget for regional peatlands.
Greenhouse gas flux mitigation through integrated crop livestock systems in the Pantanal, Brazil
BEIS Tactical Fund, £43k, PI
2023 - 2024
We are working with Embrapa (Brazil) and Rothamsted Research (UK) to quantify the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from the Pantanal, Brazil, the world's largest tropical wetland, and asses the potential of integrated crop livestock systems as a farming practice to improve the sustainability of farming practices.
Nitrogen efficient plants for climate-smart arable cropping systems
Innovate UK, £650k, CoI
2023 - 2027
We are working with a range of industry partners to assess the impacts of legumes in UK arable systems in terms of improved soil health and climate resilience.
The impacts of regenerative farming on soil carbon, structure, and biodiversity across spatio-temporal scales
BBSRC, £125k, PI
2023 - 2027
This PhD studentship is focussed on quantifying the whole system benefits and trade-offs from the adoption of synergistic regenerative farming practices. Most previous research has focussed primarily on practices in isolation, but multiple uncertainties remain regarding whether benefits are addititive or multiplicative in certain cases.
Central American peatland and vegetation mapping
NERC, Royal Society, Royal Geographical Society, £180k, PI/CoI
2021 - 2026
We are working with various partners across Central America and the USA to create a new generation of peat maps to inform future management and conservation efforts. Key partners include a range of local and national researchers and organisations, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the University of Nottingham, British Geological Survey, and Conservation International.
Regenerative agriculture for sustainable plantation agroecosystems
NERC, and various funders, in excess of £350k, PI
2022 - 2025
We are working with various partners globally (farmers, NGOs, researchers and businesses) to address global sustainability challenges from intensive management of plantation agroecosystems, including tea, coffee and cocoa production. Climate change is adversely affecting production impacting the livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers and farming communities. Regenerative agriculture offers one approach to increase resilience but there remain multiple barriers to adoption that must be overcome to accelerate resilience.
Developing soil health indicators for cocoa farms
Sue White Fund for Africa, and Cargill, PI
2023 - 2026
We are working to identify opportunities for understanding the role of regenerative agriculture in enhancing the sustainability and productivity of smallholder cocoa farms in West Africa, and metrics suitable for monitoring benefits and trade-offs across spatial scales
Nature based solutions for wastewater treatment
EPSRC and Water Utilities, £125k, Co-PI
2022 - 2025
This PhD studentship is focussed on assessing the contributions of different constructed treatment wetland components (macrophytes, substrate, amendments) in determining the scale of nitrous oxde and methane dynamics across different reedbed designs, with the aim of identifying optimal strategies for mitigating emissions