Thomas Parker

Thomas (Tom) is an ecologist specialising in the study of carbon cycling in upland and far northern ecosytems. Much of this research centres on roots and the 'rhizosphere'- the volume of soil directly influenced by root activity- and how root and rhizosphere processes control the capacity of an ecosystem to store carbon. Tom's expertise is in understanding ecological processes, how they connect within an ecosystem and how they are influenced by climate and vegetation change. Tom works in the Biodiversity and Ecosystems Group with a focus on the ecosystem responses to land management and green house gas fluxes from peatlands.

Tom’s work in the Arctic – with an international network of Arctic ecologists – has shown that treeline advance, both northward and to higher altitudes, leads to increased soil activity, counterintuitively causing losses of carbon from the system despite growth in biomass aboveground.

Similarly, he has contributed to research that shows that tree-planting on UK moorlands does not result in net ecosystem carbon sequestration on decadal timescales, despite likely biodiversity gains. This research is helping to inform where trees should be planted and where there may be limited, or negative changes in carbon-capture potential.