Professor Guy Kirk

Professor of Soil Systems and Acting Director of NSRI
Location: Building 37, Cranfield University
E: g.kirk@cranfield.ac.uk
T: +44 (0)1234 758068
Natural Resources

Current activities

Professor Guy Kirk is a soil scientist with interests in biogeochemistry, mathematical modelling, and environmental change. He is Professor of Soil Systems at Cranfield and Head of the Soil Systems Group. The Group researches physical, chemical and biological processes in soils; how to quantify soil properties and functions; and how to model soil systems at scales from the microbial to the continental. Current projects include:

Towards a general method to 'scale up' process models in the arable landsacpe. Collaboration with Bioinformatics & Biomathematics Division, Rothamsted Research. Funded by BBSRC
Modelling integrative behaviour of soil-plant systems: plant uptake of strongly-sorbed solutes. Collaboration with Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, and Depts of Agric & For. Science and Biological Sciences, University of Wales Bangor. Funded by BBSRC
An improved empirical model of soil carbon dynamics in temperate ecosystems. Funded by NERC
Geochemical and microbial controls on the transport, speciation and bioavailability of depleted uranium in soil. Collaboration with Dept of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol. Funded by NERC
Isotope discrimination in plants and soils. Collaboration with Dept of Earth Science & Engineering, Imperial College London. Funded by ICL
Calcium carbonate fomation in soils. Collaboration with British Geological Survey. Funded by NERC/BGS

Clients

Natural Environment Research Council
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Environment Agency
British Geological Survey

Background

Professor Guy Kirk joined Cranfield in February 2003. Before that he spent 13 years at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, initially as Soil Chemist and later as Head of the Soil and Water Sciences Division. Prior to IRRI he did doctoral and post-doctoral research in the Soil Science Laboratory, University of Oxford, and between IRRI and Cranfield he was on sabbatical in the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge. He is a member of the NERC Peer Review College, Associate Editor of European Journal of Soil Science, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Selected publications

Lark R.M., Bellamy P.B. & Kirk, G.J.D. (2006) Baseline values and change in the soil, and implications for monitoring. Eur. J. Soil Sci.57, 916–921
Darrah P.R., Jones D.L., Kirk G.J.D. & Roose, T. (2006) Modelling the rhizosphere: a review of methods for ‘upscaling’ to the whole-plant scale. Eur. J. Soil Sci. 57, 13–25
Bellamy P.H., Loveland P.J., Bradley R.I., Lark R.M. & Kirk G.J.D. (2005) Carbon losses from all soils across England and Wales 1978–2003. Nature 437, 245–248
Kirk G.J.D. & Kronzucker H.J. (2005) The potential for nitrification and nitrate uptake in the rhizosphere of wetland plants: a modelling study. Ann. Bot. 96, 639–646
Weiss D.J., Mason T.F.D., Zhao, F.J., Kirk, G.J.D., Coles, B.J. & Horstwood, M.S.A. (2005) Isotopic discrimination of zinc in higher plants. New Phytol. 165,703–710
Sheehy J.E., Mitchell P.L., Kirk G.J.D. & Ferrer, A.B. (2005) Can smarter fertilizers be designed? Matching nitrogen supply to crop requirements at high yields using a simple model. Field Crops Res. 94, 54–66
Kirk G.J.D. (2004) The Biogeochemistry of Submerged Soils. Wiley, Chichester