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Biography

Previous Employment

Education

BSc Agriculture, University of Guelph (1992)

PhD Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham (1996)

Research Overview

I am a Soil Physicist working on solutions to food and environmental security, mainly focussed on the interactions between plants, microorganisms and the physical behaviour of soil. My work spans from understanding the fundamental processes driving changes in soil physical properties by biology, through to applied research examining soil degradation and the underlying causes.  

Recent projects have studied the capacity of different plant root traits to physically engineer soil, root exudate impacts on soil processes including nitrification inhibition, soil protection in Ethiopia by harnessing biodiversity and organic resources, and microplastic pollution of soils. This research is funded by a number of research councils.

Current Research

My current research has four main areas: (1) engineering of the soil physical environment by plant roots, (2) impact of soil physical conditions on microbial processes, pollutant transport and root growth, (3) biophysical resilience of soil to stresses and (4) management of soil physical conditions for crop productivity.  It is underpinned by a cross-disciplinary team of staff and collaborators that includes plant scientists, soil biologists, geotechnical engineers, chemists and hydrologists.  The research uses a range of approaches including micron scale non-invasive imaging up to larger scale critical zone observatories.

Research Group

Technician

Jaime Buckingham - Soil Physics Research Technician

Postdoctoral Scientists

Dr Luke Harrold - CropSustain, NovoNordisk/CIMMYT

Dr Hamed Movahedi - NERC/NSF Microplastics in Soil

Dr Nasrollah Sepehrnia - NERC/NSF Microplastics in Soil

Beth Evans - GCBC CROSSROADS-SSA, Cataloguing and Rating of Opportunities for Side-lined Species in Restoration of Agriculturally Degraded Soils in Sub-Saharan Africa

Past Research

Postdoctoral Alumni

Dr Clare Brown, BBSRC NUCLEUS

, RESAS Soil Resilience

Dr Maria Marin, BBSRC Rhizosphere by Design, NERC/NSF Signals in the Soil

, BBSRC Rhizosphere by Design

Dr Joe Oyesiku-Blakemore, NERC MIDST

, NERC RedSoilCZO

PhD Alumni (current students listed under 'Supervision' below)

Getahun Yakob, Interventions to combat land degradation in agricultural landscapes in southern Ethiopia to improve livelihoods: from exclosures to soil fertility management. 2020-2023. Co-supervised by Prof. Jo Smith, Prof. Euan Phimister (Business School) and Dr Wolde Bori (IWMI – Addis Ababa)

Martyn Roberts, The role of place and scale on effectiveness of temporary storage areas for surface runoff attenuation. 2020-2024. Principal Supervisors – Dr. Mark Wilkinson (JHI) and Dr Josie Geris (Geosciences)

Catriona Willoughby, Designing crop rotations that are fit for the future. 2019-2023. Principal Supervisor – Prof. Christine Watson (SRUC).

Luke Harrold, The interactions of plant, microbial and physico-chemical controls on carbon and nutrient cycling in the rhizosphere. 2019-2023. Co-supervised by Dr. Eric Paterson (JHI), Dr. Barry Thornton (JHI), Dr. Ashish Malik and Dr. Gareth Norton.

Md Dhin Islam, Effects of soil physical conditions and alternate wetting and drying on the performance of rice. 2019-2023. Co-supervised by Prof. Adam Price.

Licida Giuliani, Does the Casparian strip influence plant root biomechanics? 2014-2022 (part-time). Co-supervised by Prof. David Salt, Dr. Kenneth Loades (JHI) and Dr. Gordon McDougall (JHI)

Yang Gao, Modelling and measuring soil organic carbon under different tillage practices in agricultural soils of the UK. 2017-2020. Principal Supervisor – Prof. Pete Smith

Mohsin Raza, Development of green value chemicals from renewable sources and their physical properties. 2017-2020. Principal Supervisor -  Dr Waheed Afzal (School of Engineering)

Mike Ogden - Habitat engineering by ectomycorrhizal fungi. 2013-2019. Co-supervised by Prof. D. Johnson.

Taupik Rahman, Influence of soil physical structure on nutrient capture by plants. 2018-2019 (MSc by Research)

Ewan Oleghe - Physical priming of rhizosphere soil. Co-supervised by Prof. Liz Baggs. 2015-2018.

Anastasia Fountouli - Are pH driven shifts to soil physical structure caused by chemical or biological process? 2013-2017. Co-supervised by Prof. Graeme Paton, Prof. Christine Watson (SRUC) and Dr Robin Walker (SRUC).

Xin Shu - Sustainability of nutrient cycling processes associated with arable land management (U. Aberdeen and SRUC). 2014-2017. Principal Supervisor - Prof. Bryan Griffiths (SRUC)

Purnomo Sidi - The suitability of Eichomia cressipes as loss circultion material on oil and gas drilling industry. 2013-2017. Principal Supervisor - Dr. Waheed Afzal (School of Engineering). Funded by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Republic of Indonesia.

Marianne Kuntz – Does soil organic matter, matter? (U. Aberdeen and SRUC). 2013-2016. Principal Supervisor – Prof. Liz Baggs

Collaborations

Current Collaborators

Cornell University,  - CoPI on NERC/NSF Soil Microplastics project

, CropSustaiN project looking for biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) in wheat

, and Central Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute, and projects on land restoration, biodiveristy and income diversification in Ethiopia.

, and for PhD project supervision on root-soil interactions

Funding and Grants

Recent Grants

European Commission: ProPollSoil: Understanding and managing soil health impacts to protect soil-dependent pollinators. HORIZON-MISS-2025-05-SOIL-03. S. Leonhardt (TUM, PI). Large consortium. 2025-2029, £6679k - WP Lead, Co-I

NERC/NSF: Unravelling the formation and impact of the plastisphere in response to environmental stresses in microplastic contaminated soils. C.E. Martinez (Cornell, Co-PI), C. Gubry-Rangin (Aberdeen), Y. Tanino (Aberdeen). 2024-2028. £990k - PI

Novo Nordisk: CropSustaiN.Led by CIMMYT. V. Kommerell (CIMMYT, Mission Director), C. Gubry Rangin (Aberdeen PI), 2024-2028. £15M - CoI

DEFRA: Cataloguing and Rating of Opportunities for Side-lined Species in Restoration of Agriculturally Degraded Soils in Sub-Saharan Africa (CROSSROADS). DEFRA – Global Centre of Biodiversity for Climate. Jo Smith (Aberdeen, PI), consortium with Hawassa University, Central Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 2024-2027. £1270k - CoI

REDAA: Local-level land degradation assessment towards sustainable land management for improved livelihood in the Ethiopian Rift Valley. International Institute for Environment and Development and UK International Development. E. Phimister (Aberdeen, PI), consortium with Hawass University, Central Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute and IWMI. 2024-2027. £498k - CoI

NERC/NSF: SitS NSF-UKRI: Wireless In-Situ Soil Sensing Network for Future Sustainable Agriculture. NE/T011068/1. Natural Environment Research Council/National Science Foundation USA. D. Young (Utah, PI), E. Yeatmans (Imperial), G. Norton (Aberdeen) and other partners, 2019-2021, £1500k - Co-PI

ESRC: Reducing land degradation and carbon loss from Ethiopia's soils to strengthen livelihoods and resilience (RALENTIR). ES/T003073/1. Economic and Social Research Council. E. Phimister (Aberdeen, PI), J. Smith (Aberdeen),W. Mekuria (IWMU), T. Tefera (U. Hawassa), A. Byg (The James Hutton Institute, G. Edo (Southern Agricultural Research Institute, Hawassa), A. Fischer (SLU) and others, 2019-2022, £921k - CoI

NERC: MIDST-CZ: Maximising Impact by Decision Support Tools for sustainable soil and water through UK-China Critical Zone science. NE/S009167/1. Natural Environment Research Council/Newton Fund.  56 partners in the UK and China, 2019-2021, £1097k - PI

BBSRC: NUCLEUS: a virtual joint centre to deliver enhanced Nitrogen Use effiCiency via an integrated SoiL-plant systEms approach for the Uk & BraSil. BB/N013204/1. Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)/Newton Fund. with S. Mooney (Nottingham, PI), Bangor, Rothamsted and 7 Brazilian partners, 2016-2019, £2241k - CoI

ESRC: Improving Organic Resource use in rural Ethiopia (IPORE). ES/P002501/1. ESRC/NEXUS. with E. Phimister (Aberdeen, PI), J. Smith (Aberdeen), A. Fekadu (S. Nations, Ethiopia), W. Bori (IWMI, Ethiopia), T. Tefera (Hawassa, Ethiopia), G. Yakub (SARI, Ethiopia) and A. Fekadu (SARI, Ethiopia), 2016-2018, £166k - CoI

NERC: Building Resilience in Ethiopia's Awassa region to Drought (BREAD. NERC El Nino. NE/P004830/1. with J. Smith (Aberdeen, PI), E. Phimister (Aberdeen), A. Byg (JHI), M. Rivington (JHI), H. Black (JHI), T. Tefera (Hawassa, Ethiopia) and A. Fischer (JHI), 2016-2018, £297k - CoI

NERC: Red Soil CZ: From natural to anthropogenic evolution of Red Soil and its impact on ecosystem function in the Critical Zone.  NE/N007611/1. J. Smith (SBS Aberdeen) and J. Geris (Geosciences Aberdeen), and M. Hodson (York).  In collaboration with the Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2016-2019, £800k - PI

BBSRC: Rhizosphere by design: breeding to select root traits that physically manipulate soil. BB/L026058/1. T. Roose and I. Sinclair (Southampton), G. Bengough (Dundee) and T. George (JHI), 2014-18, £1363k - PI

EPSRC: Rooting for sustainable performance. EP/M019713G. Bengough (Dundee, PI), J. Knappett, D. Muir Wood, J. Smethurst (Southampton), T. Roose, I. Sinclar, W. Powrie. 2015-2019. £1578k - CoI

NERC: Multi-Vis: A high resolution large scale X-Ray CT Scanner to build a multi-scale environmental science focussed facility in northern UK. Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Strategic Environmental Science Capital Call, with Dubravka Pokrajac. 2015. £350k - PI

ESRC: Network of Organic Resource use in rural Africa (NORA). Nexus research partnership programme  Networking Grant. E. Phimister (PI), J. Smith, B. Balana (IWMI, Ghana), A. Fekadu (SARI, Ethiopia), A. Fischer (JHI), H. Homans, P. Smith, T. Tefera (U. Hawassa, Ethiopia). £20k - CoI

CREW (Scottish Government). Effect of soil structure and field drainage on water quality and flood risk.  Allan Lilly and Nikki Baggaley (JHI), Bruce Ball (SRUC) and Bill Crookes (SAC Consulting). £140k - PI

AHDB - Potato Council - Platforms to test and demonstrate sustainable soil management: integration of major UK field experiments, Potato Council, with B. McKenzie (PI), T. George (JHI), Mark Stalham and David Firman (CUF), 2012-2016, £210k, Co-I

AHDB - HGCA - Platforms to test and demonstrate sustainable soil management: integration of major UK field experiments, HGCA, with B. McKenzie, T. George, T. Valentine, and A. Newton (JHI) and Ron Stobart (NIAB), 2012-2016, £644k  – PI transferred to BM on move to U. Aberdeen

Teaching Responsibilities

Course Tutor - MSc Soil Science

EV3001/SS5008 - Global Soil Geography (Course Coordinator)

PL3309/SS5305 - Soils for Food Security (Course Co-Coordinator)

BI1509 - Ecology and Environmental Sciences (Laboratory Tutorials)

BI25P4 - Plants, People, and the Environment (Lecture)