School of Biosciences
 

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Nicholas Girkin

Assistant Professor in Environmental Science, Faculty of Science

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Biography

I am Assistant Professor in Environmental Science at the University of Nottingham. I am a plant and soil ecologist and biogeochemist, leading research address sustainability issues across a range of ecosystems (peatlands, forests, grasslands, and agriculture), management intensities, and climates.

After studying biology at the University of Durham, I completed my Master's in Ecology and Environmental Management at the University of York, and my PhD at the University of Nottingham. I conducted my post-doctoral research at Teagasc, working on the mitigation of agricultural nitrous oxide emissions. Following this, I was a Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham, where I led the first ever on-the-ground measurements of greenhouse gas fluxes from the Central African peatland complex. I was Lecturer (2020 - 2023) and Senior Lecturer in Plant Soil Systems at Cranfield University prior to joining the University of Nottingham in November 2023. I am a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Member of the British Ecological Society, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and an Associate Editor of Soil Use and Management. As PI, I have led over £2.3M of research projects since 2020, and supported projects worth over £3.9M as CoI.

Expertise Summary

My research interests and teaching span four key areas:

1. Plant-soil interactions: Plant-soil interactions underpin globally important ecosystem processes, from the production of crops, through to the regulation of biogeochemical cycles. I am interested in the role of plants in regulating such processes, and identifying opportunities for exploiting them to address key global challenges. For example, selective breeding in wheat and other crops has altered belowground traits, affecting how plants interact with soils. Manipulating these interactions may create new opportunities for low emission crop genotypes. Across ecosystems, plant regulatory processes are frequently not accounted for in relevant models, limiting our abilities to understand climate feedbacks on ecosystems. My group is currently working on a range of projects in peatland, forest, grassland and agricultural systems (temperate and tropical), to address these questions

2. Sustainable and regenerative farming: Regenerative farming spans a suite of soil management techniques (including organic management, agroforestry, intercropping and zero tillage, amongst others), all with potential to address critical sustainability challenges in agriculture, including benefits to soil health, and reductions in environmental externalities. However, multiple questions remain regarding the benefits versus trade-offs from adoption, the impacts from synergistic practices, and implications for supply chains. My group is currently working to develop various tools and approaches in order to quantify these impacts, and to inform farmer choices.

3. Climate impacts and resilience: Climate impacts are already affecting fundamental ecosystem processes, particularly in the tropics. Many uncertainties remain regarding potential feedback mechanisms, for example in terms of ecosystem productivity, and implications for global biogeochemical cycling. Impacts are likely to vary both spatially and temporally, and there is a need to develop new approaches to quantify both. There remain multiple opportunities for increasing climate resilience, for example through nature based solutions, which will provide multiple benefits, particularly for communities who rely on ecosystem service provision.

4. Nature-based solutions: Nature-based solutions describe a range of management interventions, aimed at better management, and the restoration of natural and modified ecosystems to address societal and environmental challenges. This can include interventions for enhancing carbon sequestration, mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, building soil health, and increasing climate and livelihood resilience. Examples of my research in this area include the use of reedbeds for low emission wastewater treatment, through to wetland restoration and afforestation, amongst other practices.

My group work across a range of spatial scales, from studying large scale-ecosystem processes to novel laboratory techniques to understand underlying pathways and mechanisms. We have recently expanded our capacity for measuring various components of soil health and chemistry, biology, and greenhouse gas emissions. I use a range of new and novel techniques including stable isotope labelling (13C and 15N) and novel organic matter characterisations (e.g. Rock-Eval pyrolysis and FTIR), integrated through modelling.

Research Summary

My group is active in a number of research areas funded by a combination of UKRI, government, industry, and NGOs/charities. Our main areas of research include:

  1. Plant-soil interactions, with a focus on controls over greenhouse gas emissions, soil carbon sequestration, soil health, and ecosystem productivity,
  2. Responsible farming, including regenerative farming interventions in temperate and tropical ecosystems
  3. Climate impacts and resilience, including impacts on fundamental ecosystem processes such as carbon sequestration, and how different interventions can enhance climate and livelihood resilience
  4. Nature-based solutions, with a focus on greenhouse gas flux mitigation, and opportunities for enhancing carbon storage and biodiversity.

Selected recent projects include:

  • Environmental and ecological drivers of tropical peatland methane emissions (NERC; NE/X015238/1, £766.1k, PI, 2023 - 2026)
  • Greenhouse gas flux mitigation through integrated crop livestock systems in the Pantanal, Brazil (BEIS Tactical Fund, £43k, PI, 2023 - 2024)
  • Nitrogen efficient plants for climate-smart arable cropping systems (Innovate UK, £650k, CoI, 2023 - 2027)
  • Net Zero Wheat Varieties (BBSRC and Sainsbury's, £135k, CoI, 2023 - 2027)
  • Climate and livelihood resilience of smallholder tea and coffee farming communities in Nigera (PTDF, £110k, PI)
  • Developing soil health indicators for cocoa farms (Sue White Fund for Africa, Cargill, £125k, PI, 2023 - 2025)
  • Net Zero Crop Varieties: Greenhouse gas flux mitigation in linseed (Premium Crops, £125k, PI, 2022 - 2025)
  • Regenerative agriculture for sustainable plantation ecosystems (NERC; NE/X001687/1, £100k, PI, 2022 - 2025)
  • Carbon storage and loss in the Great Fen (Wildlife Trusts, £45k, PI, 2021 - 2022)
  • Central American peatland and vegetation mapping (NERC, Royal Society, Royal Geographical Society, £180k, PI/CoI; 2021 - 2025
  • Nature based solutions for low emission wastewater treatment (EPSRC and Water Utilities, £125k, PI, 2021 - 2024)

School of Biosciences

University of Nottingham
Sutton Bonington Campus
Nr Loughborough
LE12 5RD, UK

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