Research Overview

I am a Research Fellow at the Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Aberdeen. I have been involved in plant-soil biogeochemistry research for approximately 15 years working in a number of climate-change mitigation and sustainability projects both in agriculture and forestry. My career started as an experimentalist, studying biogeochemical and physical processes governing soil carbon dynamics, and since 2010 I have been a member of the environmental research group lead by Prof. Pete Smith. I have been involved in number of regional and international projects quantifying the climate change mitigation potentials of a number of greenhouse gas (GHG) removal strategies in land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) scenarios.  

Current Research

Dynamic monitoring, reporting and verification for implementing negative emission strategies in managed ecosystems (RETINA)

This project will demonstrate a novel solution for improved land carbon systems understanding by linking sensors, edge and High Performance Computing (HPC)-based data analysis and modelling and visualisation to meet farmer and policy maker information needs in support of net zero GHG emissions for Scotland (2045) and wider UK (2050). This will create a UK monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) system to capture changes in soil carbon and GHG emissions from agricultural systems.

Funding: NERC, NE/V003259/1

Assessing the role of agroecological farming in the UK in the transition to Net Zero.

This project aims to gather evidence on the benefits and trade-offs of agroecological farming systems in the UK to support the Climate Change Committee’s work on land use change for Net Zero strategy.

Funding: Climate Change Committee, March 2022.

Past Research

Understanding and Improving the Sustainability of agro-Ecological farming systems in the EU.

https://uniseco-project.eu/

UNISECO is a European research project aiming to develop innovative approaches to enhance the understanding of socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for further development and implementation of agro-ecological practices in EU farming systems.

In UNISECO I was the research leader in the Task on trade-off and synergy analysis of agro-ecological transition strategies (Deliverable D3.5 - https://uniseco-project.eu/resources#deliverables)

Intended Impacts

• improved methodological capacity to assess the sustainability of agro-ecological approaches

• enhanced integrated capacity and knowledge sharing to develop viable long term strategies for traditional and small-scale AEFS

• co-constructed novel and effective market mechanisms and policy instruments for delivering public goods through economically viable AEFS

• improved knowledge base of agro-ecological farming in the EU for use by policy-makers with at EU, national and regional levels, advisors, farmers, value chain actors and consumers

• inform the reform process of the CAP after 2020, revisions to environmental policies and policy efforts to support rural job creation

Funding: Horizon 2020, European UnionCall: - Sustainable Food Security – Resilient and resource-efficient value chainsTopic: SFS-29-2017: Socio-eco-economics – socio-economics in ecological approaches

Funding and Grants

Assessing the role of agroecological farming in the UK in the transition to Net Zero. Funding body: Climate Change Committee. Year 2022