Professional summary

Research Interests

I am a quantitative ecologist based in the Land Use group in Lancaster. My main focus is on using various data science and statistical methods to analyse the relationships between plant communities and soil properties from national field survey data. This includes analysis of plant response to soil pH and atmospheric deposition across the UK as part of the UK-SCAPE project as well as the soil microbial response to pasture farming systems as part of the SEEGSLIP project. I previously did my PhD in soil ecology at UKCEH Bangor and Bangor University where I looked at the relationships between soil structure, biodiversity and health. Most of this work was using data from the field survey within Glastir Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (GMEP) which surveyed sites across Wales for a wide variety of properties. I also looked at the impact of simulated climate change on microbial communities within the Clocaenog long-term experimental research site.

Qualifications

  • 2015 - 2020: PhD at Bangor University/UKCEH
  • 2011 - 2015: BA (Natural Sciences) University of Cambridge

Panels, committees and memberships

ECR representative within the CEEDS leadership team.

Web tools and apps

I have created a shiny app that shows how plant diversity and occurrence have changed over the 40 years of Countryside Survey: https://shiny-apps.ceh.ac.uk/common_plant_change/

Publications