Richard Bardgett

Overview

My research is broadly concerned with understanding the role of interactions between plant and soil communities in regulating the structure and function of terrestrial ecosystems, and their response to global change. A particular goal of my research is to develop a mechanistic and conceptual understanding of how: (1) plant species and their traits influence soil biodiversity and ecosystem processes, such as carbon and nutrient cycling; (2) soil biodiversity influences nutrient cycling and plant community dynamics across different temporal and spatial scales; and (3) these interactions are affected by, and can potentially mitigate, climate change. A major focus of my current research is applying these concepts to the development of sustainable management options for agriculture, biodiversity and the delivery of ecosystem services, especially carbon sequestration and efficient nutrient cycling. The Soil and Ecosystem Ecology Group at Manchester is supported by funds from NERC, BBSRC, the EU, and Defra, and we welcome enquiries from those interested in joining the group.

Biography

Richard Bardgett is British ecologist and Professor of Ecology at The University of Manchester. He graduated from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1987 with a degree in Soil and Land Resource Science, and then moved to Lancaster University, where he gained his PhD in 1991. He then held posts at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research and the Universities of Manchester and Lancaster, where he established the Soil and Ecosystem Ecology Group. Richard recently returned to The University of Manchester where he is now Professor of Ecology. 

Over the last twenty five years, Richard''s research has led to mechanistic and conceptual advances in the area of plant-soil interactions, with a particular focus on understanding impacts of plants on soil microbial communities and feedback consequences for plant growth and ecosystem processes, especially carbon and nitrogen cycling. His research takes him to many parts of the world, but most of his current work is focussed on grasslands. Richard has published over 260 scientific papers, inlcuding many highly cited works in leading journals, such as Nature and Science, and is routinely recognised (since 2009) by Thomas Reuters as as Highly Cited Researcher in ecology and environment sciences.  He has also authored and co-authored several books, including the award winning Biology of Soil (2005), Aboveground-Belowground Interactions (2010), and his recent book Earth Matters: How Soil Underpins Civilization (2016), all published by Oxford University Press.

Richard is a Senior Editor of Journal of Ecology and a long-standing member of the Editorial Boards of Ecology Letters _and _Ecosystems. He is a Visiting Professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland, Chair of BBSRC''s Committee E, and member of the Board of Directors of Rothamsted, BBSRC''s Research Advisory Panel, and the Netherlands Institute of Ecology Scientific Advisory Board. He was Vice President of the British Ecological Society (2011-2014) and is currently President Elect (2016-2017), and was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2006, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology in 2011, and a member of Academia Europaea in 2015.

Richard has a long-standing commitment to promoting awarness of soil biodiversuty research. To this end, he was a founder member of the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative (GSBI), established in 2011 to create a global platform for the translation of expert knowledge on soil biodiversity into policy, and he contributed to the UN''s Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils report The Status of the World''s Soil Resources (2015) and the UK Governments Soil Health Enquiry (2016) and Climate Change Risk Assessment (2017). He was also a coordinating lead author of the UK''s National Ecosystem Assessment (2011). 

External roles

2017              President Elect British Ecological Society 

2017-2019     Member Royal Society International Exchanges Committee 

2014-2016     Member Royal Society Biological Sciences Grants Panel

2014-present  Member Centre for Ecology and Hydrology Science Development Group 

2011-2014      Vice President British Ecological Society 

2013-present  Chair BBSRC Research Committee E

2013-present  Member BBSRC Research Advisory Panel 

2013-present  Reader L''Oreal-UNESCO Women in Science Fellowships

2012-2013      NERC Soil Security Programme Lead 

2010-present  Member BBSRC Strategic Lola Committee and Appointments Board 

2009-present  Director, Rothamsted Board of Directors

2007-present  Scientific Advisory Committee Netherlands Insititute for Ecology (NIOO) 

2006-present  Editor Journal of Ecology

2006-present  Editorial Board Ecology Letters and Ecosystems 

Awards

2015    Elected Member Academia Europaea

2015    Doctor Honoris Causa, Hasselt University, Belgium

2015    Thomas Rueters Highly Cited Research  

2011    Visiting Professor Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne

2011    Elected Fellow Royal Society Biology (FRSB)

2009    ISI Highly Cited Researcher

2009    Visiting Researcher, NERC Centre for Population Biology, Silwood Park.

2006    Elected Fellow Royal Society New Zealand

2006    March Ecology Book of the Year Award, BES

2003    Erskine Fellow, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

1998    OECD Fellowship, Landcare Research, New Zealand

1995    Recipient BBSRC Science Communication Award 

1992    George Stapleton Memorial Fellow, DSIRO, Upper Hutt, New Zeland

1986    Syndney Houre Collons Prize, University of Newcastle 

Current grants as lead investigator 

BBSRC GCRF (2017-2019) Restoring soil function and resilience to degraded grasslands. Total £644,647 (with co-I''s Nick Ostle and John Quinton, Lancaster)

NERC (2016-2019) Soil microbial community dynamics and biogeochemical cycles under global change: effects of climate and vegetation change in apline ecosystems. Total £799,965 (with co-I''s R. Griffiths, M. Bahn and M. Schloter) 

NERC (2015-2018) Controls on the stability of soil and their functioning under land use and climate change. Total £1.6 million (with co-I''s D Johnson, E Baggs, T Caruso, M Emmerson)

NERC (2016-2017) Controls on the stability of soil and their functioning capital equipment. Total £300k

NERC (2011-2016) Biodiversity and the provision of multiple ecosystem services in current and future lowland multifunctional landscapes. Total £554,000 (Soil component of NERC Wessex-BESS with James Bullock) 

NERC (2017-2019) Resilience and regime shifts in peatland microbial communities. Total £340,000. 

BBSRC (2011-2017) Linkages between plant functional diversity, soil biological communities and ecosystem services in agricultural grasslands. Total £1.45 million (with co-I''s E Baggs, D. Johnson, N Ostle). 

BBSRC (2014-2018) A plant-microbial framework for interrogating soil functioning. Total £41,868. 

BBSRC Optimizing grazing management for climate mitigation. Total £94,126.