People

Dr Anita Shepherd

Dr Anita Shepherd
Dr Anita Shepherd
Dr Anita Shepherd

CBiol, RPBio

Research Fellow

About
Email Address
anita.shepherd@abdn.ac.uk
School/Department
School of Biological Sciences
ResearchGate
Pure
ORCiD

Biography

An Advanced Research Fellow who models bioenergy crops and agricultural systems. Currently working on a UKRI perennial bioenergy crops demonstrator project with miscanthus, src willow and eddy covariance fluxes to determine the carbon balance after landuse change. Academic partners include University of Aberystwyth, Rothamsted and CEH. 

I provide crop, energy and environmental predictions predictions and administer the development of the global MiscanFor model for bioenergy crop growth, environmental effects and energy production. I use ECOSSE and DayCent and other models to provide agricultural systems and environmental projections.

I have a wide experience in agri-modelling. Previously, I was an agri-environmental modeller in sustainable grassland and nutrient cycling working at Rothamsted Research for 9.5 years, and worked in Canadian agriculture for 8 years to model water resources and drought occurrence. I use agri-systems models to provide future scenarios under different management systems or climate changes. 

Commercial benefits of miscanthus

Commercial benefits of miscanthus - a study by Anita Shepherd, Astley Hastings, John Clifton-Brown and Terravesta, a video summary of results from the paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcbb.12690

Qualifications

  • PhD Agriculture & Environmental Science (Systems Modelling) 
    1996 - University of Newcastle Upon TYne 
  • MSc Remote Sensing 
    1990 - University of Dundee 
  • BA with 2.1 Hons Combined Studies (biology with geography) 
    1989 - Humberside College of Higher Educations 

Memberships and Affiliations

Internal Memberships

Member of SBS Ethics Board

External Memberships

Member of Global Change Biology Bioenergy editorial advisory board

Associate Fellowship of Higher Education Academy

Chartered Biologist and member with the Royal Society of Biology, UK

Registered Professional and member with the College of Applied Biology, Canada

Latest Publications

  • Identifying explanatory variables for willow biomass growth: Application of random forest to a global dataset.

    Castellano Albors, A., Shepherd, A., Shield, I., Macalpine, W. J., Lindegaard, K., Tubby, I., Hastings, A.
    Contributions to Conferences: Papers

  • A Global Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) Willow Dataset for the Bioeconomy: Implications for the Yield in the United Kingdom

    Castellano Albors, A., Shepherd, A., Shield, I., Macalpine, W. J., Lindegaard, K., Tubby, I., Hastings, A.
    Global Change Biology. Bioenergy, vol. 17, no. 9, e70069
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Assessing the Sustainability of Miscanthus and Willow as Global Bioenergy Crops: Current and Future Climate Conditions (Part 2)

    Abdalla, M., Hastings, A., Campbell, G., McCalmont, J., Shepherd, A., Smith, P.
    Agronomy, vol. 15, no. 6, 1491
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Assessing the Sustainability of Miscanthus and Willow as Global Bioenergy Crops: Current and Future Climate Conditions (Part 2)

    Abdalla, M., Hastings, A., Campbell, G., Mccalmont, J., Shepherd, A., Smith, P.
    Working Papers: Preprint Papers

  • Negative emissions: developing the potential of perennial crops for the bioeconomy.

    Castellano Albors, A., Hastings, A., Shield, I., Macalpine, W. J., Lindegaard, K., Tubby, I., Shepherd, A.
    3rd International Conference on Negative CO2 Emissions
    Contributions to Conferences: Posters

View My Publications

Prizes and Awards

Certificate for lead author of a top cited article for 2 years in GCB Bioenergy

Supergen Bioenergy Hub Research Fellowship

Internal Aberdeen industrial partner funding award

Research

Current Research

2021 - 2025: UKRI-funded PBC4GGR (Perennial Bioenergy Crops for Greenhouse Gas Reduction Demonstrator Project), modelling bringing together agronomy data from plot trials and field scale eddy covariance, to develop a model for crop growth, yield and carbon projections.

Past Research

For my fellowship, I partnered with the GRACE project consortium of European partners to model novel seed propagated hybrids of miscanthus from European field trials, and produced projections from trial results of the European potential in yield and energy of the hybrids.

Expanding the Miscanthus market in the UK: Growers in profile

This is a video summary of results from the paper https://doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.12997

by lead author Rebecca von Hellfeld who wrote up and published my survey of growers about the miscanthus industry from my Supergen Bioenergy fellowship, Project SUMMER  

Knowledge Exchange

Each year I am involved as a scientist and essay assessor with Techfest STEM Next essay competition for schools, academies and colleges of higher education.

I am an associate of UKERC (Energy Research Centre) and Supergen Bioenergy hub.

Collaborations

Main Aberdeen departmental collaboration is work with Professor Astley Hastings and Antonio Castellano Albors 

Collaborations with University of Giessen, also staff of Aberystwyth, CEH, Rothamsted Research

Collaborated to publish papers with University of Lethbridge, Canada, Colorado State University, University of Saskatchewan, University of Guelph and Rothamsted Research.

 

Supervision

Currently co-supervisor for a PhD in developing a bioenergy crop growth and energy model for SRC willow

Funding and Grants

2018-2019 - FAB-GGR: Feasibility of Afforestation and Biomass Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage for Greenhouse Gas Removal. Project NE/P019951/1 funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council.

2019 - University Innovation Fund: Industry Fellowship for a bioenergy crop proposal with industrial partner, bioenergy crop developer Terravesta.

2021-22 - Supergen Bioenergy hub fellowship

Publications

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Books and Reports

Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings

Contributions to Conferences

Contributions to Journals

Contributions to Specialist Publications

Working Papers

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