Professional summary

David is a Principal research scientist at UKCEH specialising in soil science and monitoring. He is responsible for UKCEH soil observatories and elements of national soil monitoring in the UK. In addition, his research interests focus on soil physics including soil hydrology, structure and erosion. Moreover, he investigates soil physical function and its interplay with biology, within the wider context of soil monitoring and ecosystem service assessment in response to climate and land use change drivers.

His team runs rigorous research using the latest modelling and measurement approaches including advanced sensors, smartphone technology and genomics for biological assessment. He has served the community in a number of roles including as a co-lead author for the 2015 United Nations Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils, first World Soil Resources Report. Most recently, he served on the foresight panel for the EU Mission Board on Soil Health and Food.

Web tools and apps

UK Soil Observatory: www.ukso.org

UKCEH Countryside Survey Soil Health Webtool SOil funDamentals (SOD): https://connect-apps.ceh.ac.uk/soilhealth/

 

Selected publications

Robinson D.A. et al. , (2022), Analytical modelling of soil porosity and bulk density across the soil organic matter and land-use continuum. Scientific Reports, 12, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-11099-7

Seaton Fiona M. et al. , (2022), Fifty years of reduction in sulphur deposition drives recovery in soil pH and plant communities. Journal of Ecology, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.14039

Borrelli Pasquale et al. , (2020), Land use and climate change impacts on global soil erosion by water (2015-2070). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117, 21994-22001, http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2001403117

Alewell Christine et al. , (2020), Global phosphorus shortage will be aggravated by soil erosion. Nature Communications, 11, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18326-7

George Paul B.L. et al. , (2019), Divergent national-scale trends of microbial and animal biodiversity revealed across diverse temperate soil ecosystems. Nature Communications, 10, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09031-1

Borelli Pasquale et al. , (2017), An assessment of the global impact of 21st century land use change on soil erosion. Nature Communications, 8, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02142-7

Ramirez Kelly S. et al. , (2018), Detecting macroecological patterns in bacterial communities across independent studies of global soils. Nature Microbiology, 3, 189-196, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41564-017-0062-x

Robinson David A. et al. , (2019), Global environmental changes impact soil hydraulic functions through biophysical feedbacks. Global Change Biology, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14626

Reinsch Sabine et al. , (2017), Shrubland primary production and soil respiration diverge along European climate gradient. Scientific Reports, 7, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep43952

Robinson David A. et al. , (2016), Experimental evidence for drought induced alternative stable states of soil moisture . 6, https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep20018