John is passionate about soil, the brown gold that underpins our very survival on the planet, but which most people take for granted.

He has spent the last 30 years working on understanding and predicting the soil erosion processes that degrade soil functions, soil monitoring, how we can protect soils better and how soils can be managed to mitigate flooding and  the pollution of surface waters. He is a member of LEC's Sustaiable Soils Research Group.

Published research

His published work includes over 100 refereed journal papers (see link above), including one of the most cited papers on soil erosion describing the European Soil Erosion model (EUROSEM). More recent highly cites papers examine the global linkages between soil erosion and the cycling of nutrients and carbon, the effects of vegetation on soil physical properties,  new methods for monitoring and tracing soil erosion and a new body of work exploring the lifespan of soils.

Liking to maintain an applied element to his research, John recently had his interest piqued by the shocking statistic that the UK sends significantly more soil to landfill (27 million tonnes per annum) from construction sites than is eroded from agricultural land. He brought together  a team of academics, planners, developers, consultants, NGOs, master planners and landscape architects to form the soil taskforce  to try and do something about the situation.  The tasforce has published a series of influencial reports which are available from the website.

He has also been working on solutions to soil and water protection. These include an investigation into the impact of soil management on soil and nutrient losses and the use of wetlands to trap sediment before it reaches surface waters.   

John has received funding for his work from:

• the National Environmental Research Council (NERC),
• the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
• the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA)
• the European Community

Current research

John’s current research projects include 

• the NERC /NSF funded Signals in the soil project focussing on understanding trajectories of soil change through new sensors, communication systems and machine learning
• the ReDeal project working on the restoration of degraded grasslands in Africa
• The H2020 funded Tudi project focused on improving soil and water management in Europe and China
• The SOPLAS project investigating the fate and behaviour of micro and macro plastics in soil
• UKRI Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centre For Mineral-based Construction Materials

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The PhD students he supervises work on a range of topics related to soil functioning, diffuse pollution, soil formation and soil degradation and you can meet the research group here

Roles

John led the sucessful Research Evaluation Framework 2021 submission for LEC. He has acted as a research evaluator and review panel member,  both nationally and internationally and has just stood down as Executive Editor of the European Geosciences Union’s open access journal SOIL after 10 years of service.

John is also the Chair of the Eden Rivers Trust, a nature conservation charity, committed to:  connecting people with the river; improving natural processes; and protecting the biodiversity of the River Eden in Cumbria.

Teaching

John's teaching includes:

• an undergraduate course in Soil Science as part of the LEC BSc degree schemes in Earth and Environmental Science and Geography
• Lecturing on soils to Master’s level teaching on Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security
• contributing to a Massive Open Online Online course in  Food Security

Outside interests

When he is not working on Soil Science John likes to deploy soil through the medium of paint (most of the earth pigments are derived from soil!).  His paintings draw inspiration from the natural environment, and particularly the woods and mountains close to Lancaster.

Related content

See John’s video on Soil Security

Here John speak about soil protection on construction sites at the Building on Soils Sustainably report launch.

Listen to John's give his  Global Perspectives on Soil Change 

PhD students conduct research in my areas of research interest and prospective students should contact me to discuss their ideas.

John is a Professor of Soil Science at Lancaster University, specialising in soil erosion, soil sustainability and the transport of contaminants in overland flow and holds degrees from Reading and Cranfield University. He has authored over 130 papers and has published sopme of the most highly cited papers on soil erosion He was executive editor of the EGU- Copernicus journal SOIL (2014-2024) and  Research Director (2014-2017) and Research Evaluation Framwork lead (2019-present) for the Lancaster Environment Centre. He has acted as an evaluator for Defra and the EC and has published over 120 refereed journal papers. Outside of academia he is Chair of the Eden Rivers Trust.

Abraham, N. 1999. Hydrological Process Modelling of Tropical Lateritic Hillslopes. Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. PhD.

Brazier, R.E. 2000. An investigation into a GIS based approach for modelling hillslope soil erosion in England and Wales. Lancaster University. PhD.

Ampontuah, E.O. 2004. Model input resolution effects on the prediction of sediment and nutrient transport from agricultural fields. Reading University. PhD.

Meuller, E. 2004. Modelling geochemical flows in a desert environment. Kings College London. PhD.

Martin, G. 2006. Modelling hillslope-channel coupling and sediment delivery in semi-arid areas. University of Bristol. PhD.

Rothwell, J. 2006. Fluvial export of heavy metals from contaminated and eroding peatlands, southern Pennines, UK. University of Manchester. PhD.

Jonczyk, J. 2007. Processes leading to nutrient pollution at the field and sub-catchment scale. University of Newcastle. PhD.

Fox, J.E. 2008. Bioengineering technology of quick grass establishment for erosion control on railway batters. University of Queensland. MSc.

Mantovani, D. 2010. Critical evaluation of Compost Erosion Control Blankets (CECBs) against conventional Best Management Practices. Cranfield University MSc.

Zheng, T. 2011. Mathematical modelling of soil erosion by rainfall and shallow overland flow. Loughborough University. PhD.

Cambell, J. 2013. Assessing phosphorus mitigation strategies in agricultural catchments. University of Ulster. PhD.

Puttock, A. 2013. Vegetation change and water, sediment and carbon dynamics in semi-arid environments. Exeter University. PhD.

Lewis, T. Soil erosion and seedbank redistribution. University of Dundee. 2014

Tyrell, S. Use of treatment plains for waste water treatment. Cranfield University. 2015 and 2016. PhD.

Pu, H. Soil Erosion modelling. ETH Zurich. PhD.

Coates, V. Quantifying the impact of rural land management on soil hydrology and catchment response. 2018. PhD.

Kitchener, B. Reinterpreting turbidity: new methodologies for suspended-sedmiment research. Sheffield University. 2019. PhD.

Maelle Fresne. Colloidal phosphorus transfer processes in the soil-groundwater-surface water continuum. University of Ulster 2021. PhD.

Reyna Brown, J. Organic Carbon in Agricultural and  Agroforestry soils. University of Cordoba 2021. PhD.

Lees, C Controlling soil erosion in a changing climate: evaluating suitable plant species in grassed waterway design. Cranfield University, 2022. PhD.

Barichievy, K.R. Evaluating soil and terrain variables in a production environment: implications for agricultural land assessment. Stellenbosch University, 2022. PhD.

Fang, Z. Influences of different sizes and contents of microplastics on soil microaggregation. MPhil. York University, 2022.

Ottl, L.K. 2023Tillage erosion - An important driver of yield variability and carbon dynamics in a hummocky arable landscape in Northeast Germany. University of Augsburg.

Bahddou, S. 2024. Technical and Practical Innovations to Reduce Soil and Water Losses by Improving Soil Physical Properties. Cranfield University

Shaw, Z. 2024. Bioremediation of trifluralin via macroplastics in freshwater ecosystems comparable to soil ecosystems (MRes). Bangor University.

Stark, H. 1994. Wetland risk assessment. Cranfield University. PhD (Supervisor)

Audu, I. 1999. Development and application of a runoff model for water harvesting in North East Nigeria. Cranfield University. PhD (Joint supervisor).

Archer, N.A.L. 2000.  Water use in two-phase mosaic vegetation. Cranfield University. PhD (Supervisor).

Miller, N. 2005. Mobilisation of phosphorus from soil surfaces. Cranfield University. PhD (Supervisor for first two years before coming to Lancaster).

Yussoff, W.A. 2008. Effect of zeolites on Soil Characteristics, leaching and surface pollutant loses from soils. PhD (Supervisor).

Buckingham, S. 2008. Carbon release from catchments. PhD. (Joint supervisor with Hamilton-Taylor and Tipping CEH).

Ball, A. 2008. Carbon export from degraded and intact blanket peat in the North Pennines, UK’. MPhil. (Joint supervisor with Ostle CEH).

Kruegar, T. 2009. Uncertainties in modelling agricultural phosphorus transfers (Joint supervisor with Freer, Bristol).

Pryce, O. 2011. Development of sediment and phosphorus tracers . PhD.(Supervisor).

Shanahan, P. 2013. Assessment of heavy farm traffic soil compaction using non-invasive and non-destructive techniques (Joint supervision with Binley and James)

Konadu, D. 2013. Evidence-based environmental policy development: the case of soil carbon sequestration in UK (Joint supervisor with Jarvis)

Habibian, R. 2014 Use of soil amendments to improve buffer performance. (Lead Supervisor  with Surridge)

Fiebing, A. 2015Water use in greenhouses. (Joint supervisor  with Dodd)

Gould, I.2015. The Influence of Plant Diversity on Soil Physical Properties in Grasslands.PhD. (Supervisor)

Freer, A. 2016. Pollution swapping in field wetlands. (Lead supervisor with Surridge)

Green, V. 2016. Improving the design of treatment wetlands. (Co supervisor with Surridge)

Lima, P. 2016. Use of soil magnetic characteristics for erosion estimation. (Supervisor)

Muhamad, K. 2016 Effects of soil amendments on soil characteristics. (Supervisor 60%)

Polykett, J. 2016. Use of fluorescent tracers for environmental monitoring. (Supervisor 50%)

Adams, J.2017 The large scale understanding of natural organic matter : processes and application. PhD.. (Supervisor 100%)

Hardy, R. 2017 Out of the darkness and into the light : the quest for fluorescence-based soil tracers. (Supervisor 50%)

Candido, B. 2019. Use of ground and air-based photogrammetry for soil erosion assessment. PhD. (Supervisor 50%)

Burak, E. 2019 The influence of root traits on soil reinforcement and erosion mitigation. (Supervisor 50%)

Batista, P. 2021. On the evaluation of erosion models (External supervisor 50%).

Stenfert Kroese, J. 2020. Citizen science to improve water provisioning and landscape management in the 'water towers' of East Africa (Supervisor 50%)

Evans, D. 2020. New insights into the rates of soil formation and their contribution to soil lifespans. PhD. (Supervisor 80%)

Brett, A. 2021 Using a plant functional trait approach to increase buffer zone efficiency and reduce diffuse agricultural pollution. PhD. (Supervisor 50%)

Wallace, E. 2021 Quantifying and modelling spatio-temporal flood-mitigation, drought-resilience, and water-quality benefits provided by grassland interventions in the Eden Catchment (North-West England, UK). PhD (Supervisor 20%).

O’Rioden, R. 2022. Urbanisation and soil sealing: the effects on ecosystem services and soil carbon (Supervisor 30%)

Biles, E. 2022. Understanding catchment phosphorus pressures using an innovative monitoring system. PhD.(Supervisor 50%)

Ripley, H. 2023 Maximising the effectiveness of soil erosion reducing cover crops through plant trait analysis (Supervisor 50%)

Durcan, R .2023. Investigating soil carbon dynamics along land use change gradients in subtropical and tropical grazing lands (Supervisor 50%)

John currently convenes a course in Soil Science, and contributes to courses in Sustainable Soil Management, Environmental Field Skills and Environmental Issues for the 21st century