Patrick Büker

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patrick.bueker@sei-international.org

Twitter: @P_Bueker_SEI

Telephone: +44 1904 432890

Title: Senior Research Associate

Expertise: plants and atmosphere

Centre: York

Patrick is a plant ecologist who undertakes research in developed and developing countries on topics related to interactions between the atmosphere, biosphere and pedosphere, with a focus on assessing interrelated effects of various air pollutants (e.g. O3, SO2, NOx, HF, heavy metals etc.) and changes of the Earth's climate on forest and crop growth.

Within the developing country context, this work is directly related to research on food security in South Asia and southern Africa, and also involves analyses of socio-economic effects of reduced yields due to air pollution in a changing climate. Patrick is also an expert in bio-monitoring methods and has conducted or advised bio-monitoring campaigns on various continents.

Patrick holds a PhD in ecophysiological modelling from the University of Trier, Germany. He joined SEI York in November 2003 and works as a Senior Research Associate mainly within SEI's Managing Environmental Systems theme. Previously, he worked as a research associate for the University of Trier and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), Bangor.

Patrick has developed or co-developed various air pollution deposition models (empirical, (semi-)mechanistic and ANN-based) for application to agricultural, forest and (semi-)natural ecosystems. Of these, the Deposition of Ozone for Stomatal Exchange (DO3SE) model (http://www.sei-international.org/do3se) has been instrumental in establishing a climate-dependant O3 flux approach in Europe that was formally adopted by the UNECE/LRTAP Convention for the assessment of threats posed by O3 to European vegetation. As such, this tool has contributed to developing policies that mitigate pollutant emissions across the European region.

Patrick is currently working on the preparation and promotion of the flux approach for its local and regional application in South Asia and southern Africa, which will eventually enable the quantification of the impacts of a changing chemical and physical atmosphere on large- as well as small-scale farming in these regions, thereby contributing to the food security debate. He has also been involved in linking the DO3SE model to crop and forest growth models to enable a holistic view on the current and future effects of air pollutants and climate change on carbon cycling processes.

Patrick has functioned as an advisor for the assessment of impacts of air pollutants and climate change on crops grown in South Asia and southern Africa within the RAPIDC (Regional Air Pollution in Developing Countries) programme and is co-chair of the Air Pollution Crop Effect Network (APCEN) (www.sei-international.org/apcen).

He has acted as a SEI staff representative on the SEI Board and SEI Science Advisory Council since 2008.