Professional summary

Dr Amy Thomas is a Soils and Ecosystem Services Modeller at UKCEH and her interests focus on soil carbon cycling, land use and agricultural management change and land degradation neutrality.

She has expertise in statistical modelling, spatial analysis, model development, model linkages and Ecosystem Services modelling. Her integrated modelling work on “ERAMMP” — Environment And Rural Affairs Monitoring And Modelling Programme, a UKCEH-led partner consortium under contract for the Welsh Government — and “EVAST” — Environmental Value Assessment Scenario Tool, that simulates the potential effects of policies for Defra — has included model integration and modelling impacts on Ecosystem Services and habitat connectivity. She supports co-ordination on both projects, and was acting PI on EVAST (2024 - 2025).

These Ecosystem Services included water quality — accounting for hydrological accumulation, GHG emissions —based on agricultural land management, and carbon stocks in soils and vegetation — following LULUCF inventory methods. Amy led coordination of “ERAMMP” quick response modelling activities and developed and implemented python toolboxes in GIS to predict and map potential land use change. She also applies statistical modelling approaches to data from national surveys such as the Countryside Survey to assess anthropogenic and natural drivers of trends.

Selected publications

Thomas A. et al. , (2020), Patterns and trends of topsoil carbon in the UK: complex interactions of land use change, climate and pollution. Science of the Total Environment, 729, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138330

Robinson D.A. et al. , (2022), Analytical modelling of soil porosity and bulk density across the soil organic matter and land-use continuum. Scientific Reports, 12, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-11099-7

Thomas A. et al. , (2021), Rapid adaptive modelling for policy support towards achieving sustainable development goals: Brexit and the livestock sector in Wales. Environmental Science & Policy, 125, 21-31, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2021.08.009

Evans Daniel L. et al. , (2021), Sustainable futures over the next decade are rooted in soil science. European Journal of Soil Science, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ejss.13145

Hooftman Danny A.P. et al. , (2022), Reducing uncertainty in ecosystem service modelling through weighted ensembles. Ecosystem Services, 53, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2021.101398

Thomas A. et al. , (2024), Topsoil porosity prediction across habitats at large scales using environmental variables. Science of The Total Environment, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.171158

Feeney Christopher J. et al. , (2024), Benchmarking soil organic carbon (SOC) concentration provides more robust soil health assessment than the SOC/clay ratio at European scale. Science of The Total Environment, 951, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.175642

Thomas Amy et al. , (2020), Fragmentation and thresholds in hydrological flow‐based ecosystem services. Ecological Applications, 30, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/eap.2046

Other Publications

Harrison, P.A., Beauchamp, K., Cooper, J., Dickie, I., Fitch, A., Gooday, R., Hollaway, M., Holman, I.P., Hunt, M., Jones, L., Mondain-Monval, T., Sandars, D., Siriwardena, G., Seaton, F., Smart, S., Thomas, A., West, B., Whittaker, F., Carnell, E., Matthews, R. W., Dunford, R.W. 2023. An adaptable integrated modelling platform to support rapidly evolving agricultural and environmental policy. Environmental Modelling & Software, 169, p.105821.

 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2023.105821

Thomas, A., Bentley, L., Feeney, C., Lofts, S., Robb, C., Rowe, E.C., Thomson, A., Warren-Thomas, E. and Emmett, B., 2023. Land degradation neutrality: Testing the indicator in a temperate agricultural landscape. Journal of Environmental Management, 346, p.118884

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.118884