Green House Gases 

Prof. Vincent Gauci is a Birmingham Professorial Fellow in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences. He is interested in the biogeochemistry of carbon-dense terrestrial ecosystems such as forests, wetlands, peatlands, and forested wetlands and peatlands. In particular he is interested in how these ecosystems interact with the atmosphere through the exchange of greenhouse gases with a particular focus on trace greenhouse gases such as methane and N2O. Vincent Gauci’s new research project (MitiMEN) seeks to identify the response of methane and Nitrous Oxide (N2O) emissions to peatland re-wetting, through a combination of detailed scientific investigation of methane and N2O emission from trees, soils and drainage channels in a Sumatran plantation. This research will help inform future policy decisions such as whether to raise water levels below peat surface to reduce future fire vulnerability of the peat. 

Prof Sami Ullah’s research is mainly focused on the biogeochemistry of nitrogen and its linkages to carbon and phosphorus cycling under global change in soils under forest, peatland/wetland, grassland, and agricultural crops. Dr Sami Ullah is involved in a number of research projects which started in 2019/20 including ‘MarshFLux: Greenhouse gases & blue carbon under global change’ and research project ‘MangRoot Research: Getting to the roots of the carbon in mangrove forests: a case study in Vietnam’. 

Dr Josep Barba Ferrer's research is mainly focused on understanding the plant-and-soil interactions, emphasizing the below-ground component. He has studied soil respiration (both autotrophic and heterotrophic fluxes) and their dependency on environmental conditions and plant photosynthetic activity. He has also worked on the role of soil microbial communities on litter decomposition. Josep has recently accepted a position as a Severo Ochoa postdoctoral researcher at CREAF but would like to retain links to BIFoR. 

Recent Publications 

Deshmukh, C.S., Julias D.,  Desai, A., Page, S. Agus, F., Astiani, D., Sabiham, S., Ari, N.P., ... Gauci, V., and Evans, C. (2021).  Conservation slows down emission increase from a tropical peatland in Indonesia Nature Geosciences 10.1038/s41561-021-00785-2 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-021-00785-2    

Evans, C. D., Peacock, M., Baird, A. J., Artz, R. R. E., Burden, A., Callaghan, N., ...Gauci V.  . . . Morrison, R. (2021). Overriding water table control on managed peatland greenhouse gas emissions. Nature https://doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03523-1  

Peacock, M., Audet, J., Bastviken, D., Futter, M.N., Gauci, V., Grinham, A., Harrison, J.A., Kent, M.S., Kosten, S., Lovelock, C.E., Veraart, A.J., Evans, C.D. (2021). Global importance of methane emissions from drainage ditches and canals Environmental Research Letters. Lett. 16 044010 https://doi:10.1088/1748-9326/abeb36     

Deshmukh, CS, et al (2020).  Impact of forest plantation on methane emissions from tropical peatland. Global Change Biology, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 2477-2495. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15019

Fayose, T., Thomas, E. Radu, T., Dillingham, P, Ullah, S. and Radu, A., (2020). Concurrent measurement of nitrate and ammonium in water and soil samples using ion-selective electrodes: tackling sensitivity and precision issue. Analytical Science Advances, Earlyview Online   https://doi.org/10.1002/ansa.202000124

Ma, J., Ullah, S., Niu, A., Liao, Z., Qin, Q., Xu, S., & Lin, C. (2020). Heavy metal pollution increases CHand decreases CO2 emissions due to soil microbial changes in a mangrove wetland: Microcosm experiment and field examination. Chemosphere, 128735. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.128735

Sjögersten, S, Siegenthaler, A, Lopez, OR, Aplin, P, Turner, B & Gauci, V (2020) Methane emissions from tree stems in neotropical peatlands. New Phytologist, vol. 225, no. 2, pp. 769-781. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.16178

Welch, B., Gauci, V. and Sayer, E.J., (2019) Tree stem bases are sources of CHand N2O in a tropical forest on upland soil during the dry to wet season transition. Global Change Biology, 25(1), pp.361-372 https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14498

Pärn, J, et al (2018) Nitrogen-rich organic soils under warm well-drained conditions are global nitrous oxide emission hotspots, Nature Communications, 9 p1135. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03540-1