AgZero+, a project funded by NERC and BBSRC, follows on from the successful ASSIST programme and is bringing together a community of researchers at UKCEH, Rohamstead Research, The British Geological Survey, The National Centre for Earth Observatory and Plymouth Marine Laboratory with farmers to test innovative farming systems.
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Prof. Richard Pywell
Principal Investigator UKCEH
Richard is the science lead for biodiversity research at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. He is an agroecologist with 30 years’ experience of working with the farming industry to develop sustainable farming systems. Richard is the lead Principal Investigator for AgZero+ and leads the UKCEH team.
Dr. Jon Storkey
Principal Investigator Rothamsted
Jon is a plant ecologist at Rothamsted Research, working in the field of sustainable weed management and the design of cropping systems and landscapes to reconcile crop production with biodiversity and ecosystem services. He is managing Rothamsted Research’s contribution to AgZero+.
Dr. Claire Carvell
Programme manager
Claire is an ecologist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. She has 22 years’ research and project management experience on sustainable agriculture with a focus on insect pollinators, involving landscape-scale experiments, molecular genetics, citizen science and long-term monitoring. Claire leads the operational management of AgZero+.
Dr. Andrew Rees
Principal Investigator PML
Andy is a senior research scientist at Plymouth Marine Laboratory. He is managing PML’s contribution to AgZero+, working with colleagues who provide expertise in catchment to coast measurements of carbon, nutrients and dissolved greenhouse gases and coastal and estuarine air-sea fluxes of trace gases.
Dr. Andrew Tye
Principal Investigator BGS
Andrew is a research scientist at the British Geological Survey with 27 years’ experience in soil science and geochemistry. He will manage BGS’s contribution to AgZero+ and directly contribute to fieldwork, collating soil and groundwater sensor data.
Prof. Mat Disney
Principal Investigator NCEO at UCL
Mat is Professor of Remote Sensing at UCL Geography and will be coordinating the NCEO contribution to AgZero+, by developing new satellite-derived tools for crop monitoring and yield forecasting at national scales.
Prof. James Bullock
Deputy Principal Investigator UKCEH
James is an ecologist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology with more than 30 years’ research experience on spatial population ecology and dispersal, and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystem services in natural and agricultural landscapes. He is deputy PI on the UKCEH team for AgZero+.
Dr. John Redhead
Work Package co-lead: farmland data
John is a spatial ecologist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology with 15 years’ research experience. He is co-leading a team of remote sensors, spatial modellers, statisticians, ecotoxicologists and data scientists to deliver the national digital farmland observatory for AgZero+.
Dr. Gonzalo Irisarri
Work Package co-lead: farmland data
Gonzalo is a research scientist at Rothamsted Research. His research focuses on rangeland ecology and grazing using remote sensing. He is undertaking measures of grass productivity from the Rowden Experiment to validate the models of grass yield.
Dr. Lisa Norton
Work Package co-lead: horizon scanning
Lisa is a senior scientist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. She researches the management of farmland for biodiversity, and the trade-offs between production and other ecosystem services. For AgZero+, she is working with stakeholders to horizon scan innovations with the potential to achieve net zero+ farming.
Prof. Nicola Beaumont
Work Package co-lead: social science
Nicola leads the Sea and Society team at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory and is an internationally established expert in the assessment and valuation of biodiversity and ecosystem services. For AgZero+ she is leading research to understand the social and economic challenges to the uptake of net zero+ farming systems.
Prof. Niall McNamara
Work Package co-lead: farm network
Niall leads the Plant-Soil Interactions Group at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. He is overseeing the Living Farm Laboratories comprising a network of net zero+ farming systems. On these commercial farms AgZero+ is undertaking integrated monitoring of GHGs in combination with observations of multiple agronomic and environmental outcomes.
Dr. Sam Cook
Work Package co-lead: farm network
Sam is a behavioural ecologist at Rothamsted Research. She is leading a team of technicians and researchers to implement the farm-scale sampling protocols on AgZero+. The team will also support the development of image recognition monitoring tools, including field testing apps.
Dr. Vicky Bell
Work Package co-lead: modelling impacts
Vicky leads the Hydrological Processes and Extremes group at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. She is a modeller with a background in applied mathematics and is synthesising the data collected to define pathways for achieving net zero+ farming systems.
Dr. Alice Milne
Work Package co-lead: modelling impacts
Alice is a mathematician at Rothamsted Research and leads the epidemiological modelling group. For AgZero+, she is leading a team modelling the impacts of net zero+ farming systems on productivity and the wider environment.
Rod Scott
Work Package co-lead: data science and tools
Rod is a Software Engineer in the UKCEH Environmental Data Science Group. For AgZero+ he is managing the development of pipelines and workflows for sensor data capture and quality control, and the specification of a digital twin.
Prof. Simon Willcock
Work Package co-lead: data science and tools
Simon is Professor of Sustainability at Rothamsted Research. His main focus is on the interaction between people and nature. He will co-ordinate a team undertaking the citizen science component of the UK digital farmland observatory and landscape metrics for AgZero+.
Dr Lucy Ridding
Work Package co-lead: data science and tools
Lucy is a spatial ecologist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology with 11 years’ research experience in sustainable land use. For AgZero+, she is managing the development of data pipelines and stores, alongside farm monitoring and visualisation tools.
Dr. Tom August
Work Package co-lead: image recognition tools
Tom develops and trials new technologies to support the monitoring of the environment on farmland, by farmers.