Professor Jim Harris
Chair In Environmental Technology
Location: Building 37, Cranfield campus
E: j.a.harris@cranfield.ac.uk
T: +44 (0)1234 758067
Environmental Science and Technology
Current activities
Professor Jim Harris is Course Director for the Ecological Conservation option of the Land Management Programme.
- The establishment of an integrated model of ecosystem function, which includes biological, physical and chemical parameters, and will include the possibility of an evolutionary dimension
- The interaction between the microbial community and soil structure
- The production of simplified ‘ecosystem health’ indices, as applied to restoration and land use, based on a comprehensive analysis of microbial community biomarkers, enabling the production of a “restorability index” for terrestrial ecosystems; impacts of xenobiotics, such as nanoparticles
- Relationships between biodiversity, connectivity and thermodynamic efficiency of ecosystems
- Continued exploration of the feedback mechanisms between soil, plants and the atmosphere, and their roles in the evolution of the planetary ecosystem; and,
- Methodology development for soil microbiology, and laboratory ecosystem simulations
- Jim is keenly interested in the exploration and application of “ecosystem services” as a concept, and it’s potential application in land use planning and a target for ecological restoration programmes
- Ecosystem services arise from “Natural Capital” i.e. the totality of the world’s ecosystems – the biotic and abiotic components and the interactions between them
- Degradation of this Natural Capital leads to compromised functions which human society and individual well-being is dependant upon – e.g. flood mitigation, carbon cycling, food and fibre production and cognitive functions.
Jim is working with colleagues in the Natural Sciences Department at Cranfield University to map these functions in order that they can be used in planning development – and re-instating natural capacity by ecological restoration.
Clients
- Natural Environment Research Council
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
- Defra
- East of England Regional Authority
- Cleanaway Limited
- Cleanaway Havering Riverside Trust
- SunRISE
- SITA Environmental Trust
- Environment Agency
- Natural England
Background
Professor Jim Harris, BSc, PhD, Cbiol, C.Env, originally trained as a plant physiologist/biochemist for his undergraduate studies. Following this Jim investigated the effects of topsoil storage on microbial communities on opencast mining areas for his Doctoral studies at North East London Polytechnic. This work was extended to encompass many aspects of land degradation and restoration, particularly with respect to the use of the microbial community to assess ecosystem health and recovery, and in the assessment and treatment of wastes such as landfill leachate, and soil forming materials, during his career from Post-doc to Professor at the University of East London, before taking up his post at Cranfield University
Jim is Board Member At Large for the Society for Ecological Restoration International, Editorial Board Member of the Journal Restoration Ecology, Chair of the SERI Science and Policy Working Group, a member of the NERC Peer Review College, and a Fellow of the Institute of Biology, the Geological Society of London, and the Institute of Agricultural Engineers. He serves on Council of the British Society of Soil Science, and the Environment and Land Use Committee of the Institute of Biology. He is Research Manager for the Natural Resources Department.
