Dr Sophie Comer-Warner PhD

• 2019 – PhD University of Birmingham
• 2013 – MSc University of Southampton
• 2010 – MChem University of Sheffield

2023 – Assistant Professor in Aquatic Biogeochemistry and BRIDGE Fellow in freshwater emerging contaminants, University of Birmingham and University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

2020-2023 – Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Individual Fellowship, University of Birmingham and McGill University

2019 – Institute of Global Innovation Fellowship, University of Birmingham, Vietnam National University Hanoi, Can Tho University

2018-2019 – PhD Research secondment, United States Geological Survey

2014-2018 – PhD, University of Birmingham and British Geological Survey (Supervisors: Prof. Stefan Krause and Prof. Daren Gooddy)

Sophie is interested in the transport, processing and fate of carbon, nitrogen and plastic pollution with a particular focus on greenhouse gas dynamics. A major research focus is understanding how aquatic biogeochemistry will be affected by future global change with consequences for meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, improving ecosystem health and protecting/improving ecosystem services for the future.

If you are interested in exploring opportunities to work with me at Birmingham as a graduate student, postdoc or if you are looking for a research visit or sabbatical, please get in touch.

Sophie is a biogeochemist working across aquatic landscapes, linking a continuum of ecosystems from streams and rivers to coastal wetlands and estuaries. Sophie specialises in carbon and nitrogen cycling and micro- and nanoplastic (MnP) pollution and is interested in the transport, processing and fate of carbon, nitrogen and plastic pollution with a particular focus on greenhouse gas dynamics. Carbon, nitrogen and plastic cycles are closely linked and may influence each other, for example, by providing substrate, affecting greenhouse gas fluxes and increasing microbial activity.

Sophie’s motivation is to understand the major drivers of carbon, nitrogen and MnP dynamics in these systems as they relate to and continue to be affected by global change e.g. land-use, climate, increased pollution. Understanding how aquatic biogeochemistry will be affected by future global change has important consequences for meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, improving ecosystem health and protecting/improving ecosystem services for the future.

Sophie’s research approach mixes in-situ measurements with manipulation experiments at micro- or mesocosm-scale so that drivers may be better understood through their investigation under controlled laboratory conditions and provide more understanding to what is observed in-situ at ecosystem scale. Through this work Sophie has used isotopic tracers to investigate whether the fate of nitrogen from denitrification in coastal wetlands is primarily as N₂O or N₂, including how this ratio changes under future global change, to determine whether greenhouse gas or harmless N₂ is produced and investigated drivers of greenhouse gas fluxes from rivers and coastal wetlands. 

Sophie is currently working on projects in the UK, US, China and Brazil.