Professional summary
Jenny's research career to date has focused on sustainable land management across a variety of ecosystems including wetlands, grasslands, and cropland. Her work has focused on understanding the implications of agricultural land uses and management on key ecosystem processes in the face of climate change, whilst also developing practical solutions that can support the transition towards more sustainable land management. She has now specialised on lowland peat to develop practical and economically viable opportunities to reduce emissions from these deeply unsustainable yet highly productive agricultural systems.
She is the PI for the Paludiculture Exploration Fund project “Overcoming financial barriers for Paludiculture with biochar integration” and is the demonstrator site lead for the UKRI GGR-Peat project. She has also recently led a WWF-Tesco project – “The future of vegetable production on lowland peat for climate, nature and people”.
Chomel, M., Lavallee, J. M., Alvarez-Segura, N., Baggs, E. M., Caruso, T., de Castro, F., Emmerson, M. C., Magilton, M., Rhymes, J. M., de Vries, F. T., Johnson, D., & Bardgett, R. D. (2022). Intensive grassland management disrupts below-ground multi-trophic resource transfer in response to drought. Nature Communications, 13(1), 6991. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34449-5
Rhymes, J. M., Stockdale, E. A., Napier, B., & Evans, C. (2022). Vegetable Production on Lowland Peat: Delivering food security, climate change mitigation and biodiversity. WWF - Bookelet Produced by UCKEH & NIAB. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.wwf.org.uk/sites/default/files/2022-11/Peat-Veg-Leaflet.pdf
Brown, R. W., Rhymes, J. M., & Jones, D. L. (2022). Saltwater intrusion induces shifts in soil microbial diversity and carbon use efficiency in a coastal grassland ecosystem. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 170, 108700. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2022.108700
Rhymes, J. M., Wynne-Jones, S., Prysor Williams, A., Harris, I. M., Rose, D., Chadwick, D. R., Jones, D. L., & Rhymes, J.M., Wynne-Jones, S., Williams, A.P., Harris, I., Rose, D., Chadwick, D.R. & Jones, D. L. (2021). Identifying barriers to routine soil testing within beef and sheep farming systems. Geoderma, 404, 115298. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2021.115298
Rhymes, J. M., Cordero, I., Chomel, M., Lavallee, J. M., Straathof, A. L., Ashworth, D., Langridge, H., Semchenko, M., de Vries, F. T., Johnson, D., & Bardgett, R. D. (2021). Are researchers following best storage practices for measuring soil biochemical properties? SOIL, 7(1), 95–106. https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-95-2021
Chomel, M., Lavallee, J. M., Alvarez‐Segura, N., de Castro, F., Rhymes, J. M., Caruso, T., de Vries, F. T., Baggs, E. M., Emmerson, M. C., & Bardgett, R. D. (2019). Drought decreases incorporation of recent plant photosynthate into soil food webs regardless of their trophic complexity. Global Change Biology, 25(10), 3549–3561.
Fry, E. L., De Long, J. R., Álvarez Garrido, L., Alvarez, N., Carrillo, Y., Castañeda‐Gómez, L., Chomel, M., Dondini, M., Drake, J. E., & Hasegawa, S. (2019). Using plant, microbe, and soil fauna traits to improve the predictive power of biogeochemical models. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 10(1), 146–157.
Rhymes, J., Wallace, H., Tang, S. Y., Jones, T., Fenner, N., & Jones, L. (2018). Substantial uptake of atmospheric and groundwater nitrogen by dune slacks under different water table regimes. Journal of Coastal Conservation, 22(4), 615–622. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11852-018-0595-z
Crotty, F. V, Fychan, R., Sanderson, R., Rhymes, J. R., Bourdin, F., Scullion, J., & Marley, C. L. (2016). Understanding the legacy effect of previous forage crop and tillage management on soil biology, after conversion to an arable crop rotation. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 103, 241–252.
Rhymes, J., Jones, L., Wallace, H., Jones, T. G., Dunn, C., & Fenner, N. (2016). Small changes in water levels and groundwater nutrients alter nitrogen and carbon processing in dune slack soils. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 99, 28–35.