Professor Iain Hartley

About me:

Iain Hartley's research focuses on carbon and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems, focusing on feedbacks to global change. He has worked in a wide range of ecosystems, from Arctic tundra to tropical rainforests, increasingly in the context of land-based climate change mitigation. Examples, his research interests include: 1) quantifying the potential for changes in soil management to promote atmopsheric carbon dioxide removal; 2) determining the effects of permafrost thaw on greenhouse gas emissions from high-latitude ecosystems; 3) investigating the extent to which tropical forest productivity is limited by nutrient availability and atmospheric CO2 concentrations; 4) quantifying the effects of global warming on soil and ecosystem carbon storage. Iain's research has been funded by Industry, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and UK Government. He sits on the scientific steering committee of the AmazonFACE project, which will be the first experiment to expose a mature rainforest canopy to elevated CO2, and previously served on the NERC Radiocarbon Facility steering committee.

Broad research specialisms:

Managing the terrestrial carbon cycle, carbon cycle feedbacks to global change, impacts of warming on soil carbon dynamics, links between carbon and nutrient cycling, permafrost carbon dynamics, elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations, methane fluxes.

Interests:

The main focus of my research is on improving understanding of how the terrestrial biosphere will respond to global change, as well as how these ecosystems can be managed for climate change mitigation.

I am primarily an experimental ecologist, using manipulations to quantify ecosystem responses to key drivers, but also make use of natural gradients and natural disturbances to test hypotheses related to global change. My research combines controlled laboratory experiments with field measurements in ecosystems as diverse as Arctic tundra and Amazon rainforest, as well as agricultural systems. I make extensive use of stable and radiocarbon isotopes to compliment measurements of fluxes (CO2, CH4, N2O) and stores of carbon in different ecosystems. My work is highly collaborative with ongoing projects involving hydrologists, plant physiologists, microbiologists, remote sensors, and soil scientists, as well as ecosystem and Earth system modellers.

Current projects include: 1) investigating how soils can be managed to promoted carbon sequestration or reduce greenhouse gas emissions; 2) determining the mechanisms that promote long-term stabilisation of carbon in managed soils; 3) quantifying the roles of rising atmospheric CO2 and nutrient availability in controlling the productivity of temperate and tropical forests; 4) investigating the potential effects of climate warming on tropical tree growth.

Specific research areas:

1. Methods for promoting soil carbon sequestration

2. Methane and nitrous oxide fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems

3. Effects of temperature on decomposition rates in soils
4. Elevated CO2 effects on plant productivity and ecosystem C storage
5. Plant-soil interactions and nutrient-cycle influences on carbon-cycle feedbacks
6. Permafrost carbon dynamics
7. The use of radiocarbon in carbon cycle research

Qualifications:

BSc Environmental Biology (University of St Andrews),
MRes Ecology and Environmental Biology (University of York),
PhD “The response of soil respiration to temperature” (University of York)