Meet the people who make up STEM Faculty.
I am an ecohydrologist with a special interest in floodplain meadows. My research focuses on the relationship between vegetation communities and their soils, particularly their water regime and nutrient status. The question of how numerous species manage to co-exist in these systems is of particular interest. I have been widely involved in advising on water management for nature conservation and in all applied aspects of floodplain-meadow management. Collabortaive projects have looked to expand the research carried out in English meadows to species-rich assemblages of plants elsewhere in the world (particularly the fynbos region of South Africa's Cape, the Scottish machair and the Iberian mountains.)
My research for the past 20 years has focussed on characterising the water regime of meadow soils and relating the hydrological information to vegetation-community dynamics. The main finding has been that each species within the meadow system has a unique hydrological niche and this fact may allow many species to co-exist in close proximity. Field data have demonstrated that the physical structure of soil is absolutely central to defining the water regime and therefore protection of soil structure should be a high priority for nature-conservation managers.
My teaching is in the field of Environmental Science; in particular the interactions of plants, soil and water. I have taught at undergrad and Masters Level within Cranfield University and I have been involved in a number of the following module teams at the Open University: Environmental Science (S216/S206/S226), Environmental Science in the Field (SXR216/SXE288/SXF206), Ecology (S328), Ecosystems (S396), Biology of Survival (S295/S286), Environment: sharing a dynamic planet (DST216) and Environment: response to change (SDT306).
Since 2007, I have been the director of the Floodplain Meadows Partnership, which aims to pool resources and knowledge amongst all those involved in the conservation of this rare and threatened habitat type. Please refer our website www.floodplainmeadows.org for further information.
I currently chair the Joint Technical Advisory Committee for the Great Fen Project near Peterborough. I am also a Specialist Advisor for the National Trust and I sit on the Ecological Advisory Group for the Parks Trust in Milton Keynes.
