Professional summary

Aidan is a soil ecologist working in the Plant-Soil Interactions group at Lancaster. He obtained a PhD in Plant Science from the University of Aberdeen in 2008, focusing on the impacts of woodland regeneration on upland soil biodiversity and functions. He then moved to Ireland to undertake a post-doctoral position with Prof. Olaf Schmidt at University College Dublin, managing a national soil biodiversity survey and land management experiments. Since 2009, when he joined UKCEH, he has contributed to a diverse range of regional, national and European research projects. 

Aidan specialises in soil biodiversity including nematodes, microarthropods and earthworms, and its biophysical properties and functions, with a focus on how land management modulates these. His research encompasses both managed and semi-natural temperate habitats aiming to shape more sustainable and resilient multi-functional landscapes. He is interested in the development and use of sensor methods to measure above and belowground systems at scale using spectroscopy, image analysis, eco-acoustics, and in data synthesis and integration to make the most of our collective efforts. He believes arts-based approaches can help for better knowledge exchange and science communication with people. 

Aidan is currently working on the following projects: AI4SoilHealth, task lead for task 4.5 in WP4: In-situ soil health monitoring tools; Biomass Connect — Biomass Innovation and Information Platform, WP2 lead; UKCEH Soil Bank, is an Associate Editor for European Journal of Soil Science and a member of para-lab collective.

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Selected publications

Feeney Christopher J. et al. , (2023), Development of soil health benchmarks for managed and semi-natural landscapes. Science of the Total Environment, 886, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969723025949

Phillips Helen R.P. et al. , (2019), Global distribution of earthworm diversity. Science, 366, 480-485, http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aax4851

Caruso Tancredi et al. , (2019), Oribatid mites show how climate and latitudinal gradients in organic matter can drive large-scale biodiversity patterns of soil communities. Journal of Biogeography, https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.13501

Seaton Fiona M. et al. , (2020), Soil health cluster analysis based on national monitoring of soil indicators. European Journal of Soil Science, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ejss.12958

Norton L.R. et al. , (2018), Identifying effective approaches for monitoring national natural capital for policy use. Ecosystem Services, 30, 98-106, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2018.01.017

Chandler K.R. et al. , (2018), Influence of tree species and forest land use on soil hydraulic conductivity and implications for surface runoff generation. Geoderma, 310, 120-127, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2017.08.011

Jarvis S.G. et al. , (2019), Model-based hypervolumes for complex ecological data. Ecology, https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2676

de Vries Franciska T. et al. , (2018), Soil bacterial networks are less stable under drought than fungal networks. Nature Communications, 9, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05516-7

Keith Aidan M. et al. , (2016), Soil stewardship as a nexus between Ecosystem Services and One Health. 17, 40-42, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2015.11.008

Rutgers Michiel et al. , (2015), Mapping earthworm communities in Europe. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2015.08.015