Research
Climate Change Impacts on Grassland Ecosystems
Understanding the responses of grasslands to climate changes is crucial if we are to predict and mitigate impacts on the environmentally and economically significant services they provide: Grasslands occupy 36% of land area globally, support rare species, and provide multiple benefits, including forage for livestock, carbon storage, pollination services, and amenity uses.
I use the world's longest-running climate manipulation experiment at the Buxton Climate Change Impacts Lab to understand how anthropogenic climate change will alter grassland ecosystems, including their communities of plants, soil microbiota, ecosystem processes and ecological service provision.
Research grants
The impacts of climatic and microclimatic variation on calcareous grasslands: baseline monitoring to support the review of current conservation management practice
NATURAL ENGLAND (UK)
January 2023 - November 2023
Emorsgate Case Award Mr T Irving
EMORSGATE SEEDS (UK)
October 2017 - March 2022
Evolutionary resistance: Does adaptation stabilise plant community structure and function under climate change?
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
August 2018 - May 2022
The role of adaptation in determining resistance to climatic change in ecological communities
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
March 2011 - March 2014
Adaptation to micro-environmental heterogeneity and drought stress in the grass Festuca ovina
LUND UNIVERSITY (SWEDEN)
June 2016 - December 2018
Impacts of climate-driven evolution on plant-soil interactions and ecosystem functioning
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL
September 2017 - May 2021
Response of soil protozoa to 20 years of simulated climate change
BRITISH ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY (UK)
July 2015 - July 2016
Do geographically separated grassland plant populations share a common genetic response to selection by moisture stress?
BRITISH ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY (UK)
June 2012 - November 2013