Dr Niall McNamara

Research interests

My research experience and scientific skill revolves around soil carbon biogeochemistry and soil-atmosphere greenhouse gas exchanges.

My knowledge is derived from 11 years as a soil biogeochemist on a variety of CEH, BBSRC, DEFRA and NERC projects.

This research covers both natural (Swedish boreal forests, Peruvian altitudinal gradients, European peatlands) and managed UK agro-ecosystems (forest, grassland, bioenergy crops).

Data generated from my studies are derived from both ecosystem surveys (greenhouse gas budgets, soil carbon stocks) through to more mechanistic process orientated laboratory / plot-scale manipulative experiments (hydrology, drought, nutrients, warming).

Current projects

Carbo-Biocrop: Understanding the impact of bioenergy cropping systems on soil processes and GHG mitigation potential, NERC, 2010-2014, Co-Investigator.

Biological controls on soil respiration and its climatic response across a large tropical elevation gradient, NERC, 2010-2013, Co-Investigator.

Assessing and predicting the C sequestration value of bioenergy crops, CEH ECIF, 2008-2011, Principal Investigator.

Brief CV

Selected publications

See also the NERC Open Research Archive.

Ostle, Nicholas J., Smith, Pete, Fisher, Rosie, Ian Woodward, F., Fisher, Joshua B., Smith, Jo U., Galbraith, David, Levy, Peter; Meir, Patrick, McNamara, Niall P., Bardgett, Richard D. (2009). Integrating plant-soil interactions into global carbon cycle models. Journal of Ecology 97,  851-863.

Aira, M., McNamara, N.P., Piearce, T. and Dominguez, J. (2009). Microbial communities of Lumbricus terrestris (L.) middens: structure, activity and changes through time in relation to earthworm presence. Journal of Soils and Sediments 9, 54-61.

María Jesús Iglesias Briones, Nicholas J. Ostle, Niall P. McNamara and Jan Poskitt. (2009). Functional shifts of grassland soil communities in response to soil warming. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 41, 315-322.

Susan E. Ward, Richard D. Bardgett, Niall P. McNamara and Nick J. Ostle (2009). Plant functional group identity influences short-term peatland ecosystem carbon flux: evidence from a plant removal experiment. Functional Ecology. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2435.2008.01521.x

McNamara, N.P., Plant, T., Oakley, S., Ward, S., Wood, C. and Ostle, N. (2008). Gully hotspot contribution to landscape methane and carbon dioxide fluxes in a northern peatland. Science of the Total Environment 404, 354-360.

McNamara, N.P., Black, H.I.J., Piearce, T.G., Reay, D.S. and Ineson, P. (2008). The influence of afforestation and tree species on soil methane fluxes from shallow organic soils at the UK Gisburn Forest Experiment. Soil Use and Management 24, 1–7.

Yin Chen, Niall P. McNamara, Marc G. Dumont, Levente Bodrossy, Nancy Stralis-Pavese and J. Colin Murrell (2008). The impact of burning and Calluna removal on below-ground methanotroph diversity and activity in a peatland soil. Applied Soil Ecology 40, 291-298.

Y. Chen, M.G. Dumont, J.D. Neufeld, L. Bodrossy, N. Stralis-Pavese, N.P. McNamara, N. Ostle, M.J.I. Briones, J.C. Murrell (2008). Revealing the uncultivated majority: combining DNA stable isotope probing, multiple displacement amplification and metagenomic analyses of uncultivated Methylocystis in acidic peatlands. Environmental Microbiology 10, 2609-2622.

Yin Chen, Marc G. Dumont, Niall P. McNamara, Paul M. Chamberlain, Levente Bodrossy, Nancy Stralis-Pavese, J. Colin Murrell (2008). Diversity of the active methanotrophic community in acidic peatland as assessed by mRNA and SIP-PLFA analyses. Environmental Microbiology 10, 446–459

Ward, S.E., Bardgett, R.D., McNamara, N.P., Adamson, J.K. and Ostle, N.J. (2007). Long-term consequences of land use for peatland carbon dynamics. Ecosystems. doi: 10.1007/s10021-007-9080-5.