Professional summary
Dr Amy Thomas is a Soils and Ecosystem Services Modeller at UKCEH and her interests focus on soil carbon cycling, land use and agricultural management change and land degradation neutrality.
She has expertise in statistical modelling, spatial analysis, model development, model linkages and Ecosystem Services modelling. Her integrated modelling work on “ERAMMP” — Environment And Rural Affairs Monitoring And Modelling Programme, a UKCEH-led partner consortium under contract for the Welsh Government — and “EVAST” — Environmental Value Assessment Scenario Tool, that simulates the potential effects of policies for Defra — has included model integration and modelling impacts on Ecosystem Services and habitat connectivity.
These Ecosystem Services included water quality — accounting for hydrological accumulation, GHG emissions —based on agricultural land management, and carbon stocks in soils and vegetation — following LULUCF inventory methods. Amy led coordination of “ERAMMP” quick response modelling activities and developed and implemented python toolboxes in GIS to predict and map potential land use change. She also applies statistical modelling approaches to data from national surveys such as the Countryside Survey to assess anthropogenic and natural drivers of trends.