Professor David J Beerling FRS FLSW
School of Biosciences
Sorby Professor of Natural Sciences
Research Centre Manager: Victoria Giordano-Bibby
Email: v.giordano-bibby@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Assistant: Debbie Hill
Email: d.hill@sheffield.ac.uk
- Profile
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- 2022 Honorary Doctorate, University of Cardiff
- 2022 Elected Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales
- 2021-present PI, UK via Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) Greenhouse Gas Removal Demonstrator, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield
- 2016-present Director, Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation (LC3M), School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield
- 2014 Elected Fellow of the Royal Society
- 2009–2014 Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award holder
- 2002 Appointed to a Personal Chair, University of Sheffield
- 2008–2009 Edward P. Bass Distinguished Visiting Environmental Scholar (Yale University)
- 2001–2003 Philip Leverhulme Prize holder
- 1994–2002 Royal Society University Research Fellow, University of Sheffield
- 1990–1993 Postdoctoral research associate (×2, NERC, EU)
- 1990 PhD (botany), University of Wales, College of Cardiff
- 1987 Honours Botany, University of Wales, College of Cardiff
- Research interests
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I am the founder and Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation, a premier international Centre for carbon dioxide removal, funded through a Leverhulme Research Centre award in 2015 (£10 million) from the Leverhulme Trust. We focus on the biogeochemical improvement of agricultural lands with natural and artificial silicates. A notable early achievement has been our establishment of a network of long-term field sites across three continents assessing carbon capture with diverse agricultural ecosystems and possible co-benefits for soil health and yields, alongside engagement with the public, NGOs and stakeholders.
Image credit Jordan Goebig-ISEE
- Publications
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Journal articles
- Substantial carbon drawdown potential from enhanced rock weathering in the United Kingdom. Nature Geoscience. View this article in WRRO
- Legume–microbiome interactions unlock mineral nutrients in regrowing tropical forests. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(11). View this article in WRRO
- Technologies to deliver food and climate security through agriculture. Nature Plants, 7(3), 250-255.
- Potential for large-scale CO2 removal via enhanced rock weathering with croplands. Nature, 583(7815), 242-248. View this article in WRRO
- Enhanced global primary production by biogenic aerosol via diffuse radiation fertilization. Nature Geoscience, 11(9), 640-644. View this article in WRRO
- N2-fixing tropical legume evolution: a contributor to enhanced weathering through the Cenozoic?. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 284(1860). View this article in WRRO
- A multi-species synthesis of physiological mechanisms in drought-induced tree mortality. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 1, 1285-1291. View this article in WRRO
- Gas valves, forests and global change: a commentary on Jarvis (1976) ‘The interpretation of the variations in leaf water potential and stomatal conductance found in canopies in the field’. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 370(1666), 20140311-20140311. View this article in WRRO
- Past extreme warming events linked to massive carbon release from thawing permafrost.. Nature, 484(7392), 87-91.
- Enhanced chemistry-climate feedbacks in past greenhouse worlds.. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 108(24), 9770-9775.
- Late Holocene methane rise caused by orbitally controlled increase in tropical sources.. Nature, 470(7332), 82-85.
- The role of terrestrial plants in limiting atmospheric CO(2) decline over the past 24 million years.. Nature, 460(7251), 85-88.
- Maximum leaf conductance driven by CO2 effects on stomatal size and density over geologic time.. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 106(25), 10343-10347.
- Atmospheric carbon dioxide linked with Mesozoic and early Cenozoic climate change. NAT GEOSCI, 1(1), 43-48. View this article in WRRO
- Making sense of palaeoclimate sensitivity. Nature (London), 491, 683-691.
- Substantial carbon drawdown potential from enhanced rock weathering in the United Kingdom. Nature Geoscience. View this article in WRRO
- Research group
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Graduate Students
- Eunice Oppon (2016-2020) Enhanced rock weathering supply chain life cycle sustainability.
email: epoppon12@sheffield.ac.uk - Mike Kelland (NERC, 2015-2021) How to cool the planet and save coral reefs by 2100: Experimental investigations of enhanced weathering as a geoengineering CO2 removal strategy.
email: mekelland1@sheffield.ac.uk - Amy Lewis (ACCE DTP, 2018-2022) Enhancing the soil carbon sink: towards defining and quantifying new stabilising mechanisms.
email: allewis2@sheffield.ac.uk - Daniel Evans (2020-2024) Reductions in nitrous oxide fluxes from agricultural lands following basalt amendment for carbon sequestration: integrating experiments and modelling.
email: DEvans8@sheffield.ac.uk - Derek Bell (2020-2024) Activators of microbial enzymes for enhanced C capture and decreased pathogen populations in arable soils.
email: DSBell1@sheffield.ac.uk
Research Staff
- Dr Dimitar Epihov (Leverhulme Trust Research Centre Award) Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation - LC3M
email: d.z.epihov@sheffield.ac.uk - Dr Euripides Kantzas (Leverhulme Trust Research Centre Award) Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation - LC3M
email: e.kantzas@sheffield.ac.uk - Dr Lyla Taylor (Leverhulme Trust Research Centre Award) Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation - LC3M
email: l.l.taylor@sheffield.ac.uk - Dr Maria Val Martin (Leverhulme Trust Research Centre Award) Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation - LC3M
email: m.valmartin@sheffield.ac.uk - Dr Mark Lomas (Leverhulme Trust Research Centre Award) Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation - LC3M
email: m.r.lomas@sheffield.ac.uk - Dr Peter Wade (Leverhulme Trust Research Centre Award) Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation - LC3M
email: p.w.wade@sheffield.ac.uk
Technical Support
- Dr Karen Bailey (Leverhulme Trust Research Centre Award) Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation - LC3M
email: k.bailey@sheffield.ac.uk
- Eunice Oppon (2016-2020) Enhanced rock weathering supply chain life cycle sustainability.
- Teaching activities
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My research interests are generally reflected in my undergraduate graduate teaching through the following level 3 and level 4 modules:
- Co-ordinator and lecturer on Level 3 Module APS313 Global Change
- Co-ordinator and lecturer on Level 4 Module APS407 Research and Study Skills in Biology
Level 3 and 4 undergraduate Research Projects in my lab have investigated plants responses to past, present and future atmospheric CO2 concentrations and CO2 effects on functional aspects of early land plant partnerships with mycorrhizal fungi.
- Professional activities and memberships
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- 2019–present Council Member, Royal Society, London
- 2018-present Editor-in-Chief, Biology Letters (Royal Society)
- 2017–2019 Chair, Sectional Committee 5 (Earth and Environment), Royal Society, London
- 2016–2018 Member, Sectional Committee 5 (Earth and Environment), Royal Society, London
- 2017-2018 Member, Greenhouse Gas Removal Technologies Work Group, Royal Society-Royal Academy of Engineering
- 2017 Member, Steering Committee, Royal Society and National Academy of Sciences Sackler Forum
- 2016-2018 Royal Society Newton International Fellowship Board (Reappointed)
- 2013-2015 Royal Society Newton International Fellowship Board (Biological Sciences)
- 2011-2012 Series Consultant, BBC2 Television, How to Grow a Planet.
- 2009-2012 Board of Advisors, Annals of Botany Plants (Oxford University Press)
- 2007-2011 Scientific Steering Committee, NERC/WUN Weathering Science Consortium
- 2008-2010 ARC-NZ Network for Vegetation Function, Working Group 50: Stomata and Climate Change
- 2000-2003 NERC, Atmospheric Sciences Peer Review Committee
- 2014 Editorial Board, Royal Society Open Science
- 2013 Federation of European Societies of Plant Biology (FESPB) Scientific Programme Committee
- 2012 Advisory Group, Society of Experimental Biology
- 2011 Origins of C4 grasslands Working Group, National Evolutionary Synthesis Centre (Durham, NC)
- 2011 Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Working Group: Climate Sensitivity
- 2010 NASA/GISS (New York) Working Group: Climate sensitivity in the Anthropocene