Professional summary

Since 2011 alex has developed extensive expertise in land surface science observations, in particular the measurement, processing, and analysis of greenhouse gas fluxes across a range of environments.

alex's science explores peatland and mineral soil fluxes in ecosystems including: agricultural, grassland, bog, forest and saltmarsh. Techniques alex specialises in include eddy covariance utilising infra-red gas anaylsers, cavity ring-down spectroscopes and quantum cascade lasers. alex has additional expertise in working with both static and automated chamber systems.

Since joining UKCEH alex has maintained, co-designed, and expanded the national network of flux stations and contributed to the production of numerous high-value and policy-relevant publications and datasets. alex designs and undertakes bespoke field campaigns for new projects and leads specialist capacity building for flux scientists and field engineers.

Selected publications

Evans Chris D. et al. , (2024), Biomethane produced from maize grown on peat emits more CO2 than natural gas. Nature Climate Change, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-02111-1

Lloyd I.L. et al. , (2024), Maize grown for bioenergy on peat emits twice as much carbon as when grown on mineral soil. GCB Bioenergy, 16, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.13169

Evans C.D. et al. , (2021), Overriding water table control on managed peatland greenhouse gas emissions. Nature, 593, 548-552, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03523-1

Worrall Fred et al. , (2018), The entropy budgets of UK peatlands – are some peatlands near equilibrium?. Geophysical Research Abstracts, 20, https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2018/EGU2018-4440.pdf

Cooper Hollie M. et al. , (2021), COSMOS-UK: national soil moisture and hydrometeorology data for environmental science research. Earth System Science Data, 13, 1737-1757, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-1737-2021

Cumming Alexander et al. , Eddy Covariance measurements of carbon dioxide, energy and water flux at an intensively cultivated lowland deep peat soil, East Anglia, UK, 2012 to 2020.

Cooper Hollie et al. , Meteorology, soil physics, and eddy covariance measurements of carbon dioxide, energy, and water exchange from a distributed network of sites across England and Wales, 2018-2023.

Morrison Ross et al. , Eddy covariance measurements of carbon dioxide, energy and water fluxes at a cropland and a grassland on lowland peat soils, East Anglia, UK, 2016-2019.

Other Publications

Andrew S. Carr, Arnoud Boom, Brian M. Chase, Michael E. Meadows, Zoë E. Roberts, Matthew N. Britton, Alex M.J. Cumming, Biome-scale characterisation and differentiation of semi-arid and arid zone soil organic matter compositions using pyrolysis–GC/MS analysis, Geoderma, Volumes 200–201, 2013, Pages 189-201, ISSN 0016-7061, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2013.02.012.