Andreas Heinemeyer

Andreas Heinemeyer is a Senior Research Fellow (Associate Professor) at SEI York. Andreas is an ecosystem ecologist with a particular focus on linking plant and soil carbon dynamics to land management and climate change. He has special expertise in carbon stock and flux measurements, including using stable isotopes in carbon tracer studies, and modelling of soil/peat carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG) dynamics.

Andreas’ major activity is measuring carbon and GHG fluxes in the field to derive an ecosystem’s carbon and GHG balance and separating soil respiration into its component fluxes (i.e. root, bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi) to reveal their individual environmental responses/drivers, and improve modelling terrestrial ecosystem carbon and GHG dynamics, especially in forests and peatlands (he developed the MILLENNIA peatland model).

His previous role (2002-11) within the CTCD/NCEO was to co-ordinate the ground based carbon flux measurements and to explore the potential of using earth observation (EO) data for an improved understanding of terrestrial carbon dynamics. Within a subsequent NERC grant (UKPopnet, 2008-09) he used eddy covariance flux measurements to derive the annual carbon balance for a peatland site and compared different scales and techniques of carbon flux measurement. A grant from DEFRA, the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, (BD5105) started a long-term project on assessing vegetation management impacts in UK upland heather-dominated peatlands in relation to biodiversity, water quality and carbon dynamics (carbon dioxide and methane). This work includes seasonal chamber carbon and GHG flux measurements, water sampling, vegetation surveys, insect counts and applications of the MILLENNIA peatland model.

Career

Andreas is a trained botanist and soil scientist. He is currently leading a long-term and previously DEFRA-funded (BD5104) project on peatland management and ecosystem services in the UK.

Andreas joined SEI York in 2002 as a postdoctoral researcher within the Centre for Terrestrial Carbon Dynamics (CTCD). In 2008 he joined the National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO), a follow-up of the CTCD and is now leading SEI York’s peatland and ecosystem services research group.

Andreas holds a PhD in Biology on carbon dynamics in the mycorrhizal symbioses from the University of York. He previously worked as a part-time lecturer at the Centre for Life Long Learning at the University of York and is a frequent speaker at conferences, outreach events, and contributes to films on UK upland management aspects.

Previous teaching

• Centre for Life Long Learning: “Ecology and Systems’ thinking” as part of the accredited course “Urban Horticulture”.
• Department of Environment and Geography: Global carbon dynamics – linking atmosphere, plant and soil as within the climate change module.