Dr Paul Burgess
Senior Lecturer in Crop Ecology and Management
Location: Building 42, Cranfield campus
E: p.burgess@cranfield.ac.uk
T: +44 (0)1234 750111 x2729
Environmental Science and Technology
Current activities
Dr Paul Burgess is the Course Tutor for the Land Management courses.
Paul’s recent research has focussed on the bio-economic analysis of crop-environment interactions. This includes a European Commission study entitled “Land as an Environmental Resource”. Another recent project was a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) project “Energyscapes and Ecosystem Services” focussed on the interaction between renewable energy, food production, carbon sequestration and habitat provision. Research has also focussed on ecology and economics of silvoarable agroforestry in Europe as well as the effects of silvoarable agroforestry with poplar on farm profitability and biodiversity.
This included the development of PlotSAFE 2006 (a worksheet-based model of crop and tree yields in arable, forestry and agroforestry systems), and development of the FarmSAFE 2006 (a worksheet-based model to compare the profitability of arable, forestry and agroforestry systems at a farm- and a landscape-scale). Alongside this he has also been actively involved in the use of agro-ecological and other spatial data to inform prioritisation of organic farming research in Europe, responses of tea to climate change, the water use of farm-woodland and short-rotation coppice, and the role of community woodlands in sustainable development.
Clients
- Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)
- Department for International Development (DFID)
- European Commission
- FAL, Switzerland
- Food and Agriculture Organisation
- Heineken UK
- James Finlay Ltd
- NERC
- Tea Research Association, Tocklai, India
- Tea Research Institute of Tanzania.
Background
After completing a BSc in Agriculture (Reading University) and a MSc in Land and Water Management (Cranfield University), Dr Paul Burgess undertook his PhD research (Cranfield University) on tea agronomy whilst employed by ODA in Tanzania. After working for a consortium of private companies, Paul joined Cranfield University as a lecturer in 1995. His research interests include plantation crop agronomy, agroforestry, and woodland management.
