Contact Dr Jacqueline Hannam
- Tel: +44 (0) 1234 754586
- Email: j.a.hannam@cranfield.ac.uk
- Twitter: @Dirt_Science
- ORCID
- Google Scholar
Areas of expertise
- Digital Agriculture
- Monitoring and Environmental Informatics
- Natural capital
- Soil
- Soil Resources
- Sustainable Land Systems
Background
Jack is a soil scientist specialising in soil data, digital soil mapping and
soil health. Her research focuses on digital soil mapping, applications of conservation agriculture to improve soil health, developing decision support tools for planning
soil and landscape decisions and the application of application of national and local scale soil data
for policy and business applications.
She leads the LandIS team at Cranfield University, who are responsible for the national soil data for England and Wales. Jack joined Cranfield University in 2004 as a Research Officer in Soil Systems. Before joining Cranfield she worked at ETH Zurich and the University of Liverpool on international projects related to environmental magnetism.
She is a council member of the British Society of Soil Science (BSSS) and vice chair of the International Union of Soil Science (IUSS) Division 1: Soil in Space and Time. She is an Associate Editor for the journals Soil Use and Management and SOIL. She is a passionate science communicator and has been interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Sky News and BBC World. She founded Soapbox Science in Milton Keynes in 2015, a public outreach platform promoting women in science.
She teaches soil systems on the Agrifood and Water MSc programmes at Cranfield and supervises MSc and PhD students. She has developed and delivered advanced training courses in soil systems for NERC early career researchers and bespoke short courses for environmental science professionals.
Research opportunity
I am interested in supervising PhD students in the following areas:
soil data and mapping; sensor technologies, digital soil mapping and modelling; conservation agriculture and soil health; participatory approaches to soil heath with diverse stakeholders; urban soil systems.
Current students:
Timo Breure (2017-2021) A loss function approach for optimal sensor configuration for soil sensing (co-supervisor with Rothamsted Research)
George Sawyer (2020-2024) (University of Reading) Do cover crops increase the resilience and sustainability of the agri-food systems? (BBSRC FoodBioSystems studentship - co-supervisor)
David Clarke (2020-2024) Site-season effects on crop productivity to support sustainable intensification (NERC CENTA2 studentship with NIAB and BGS)
Completed students:
Dr Tom Storr (2019) The effect of cover crops of soil quality indicators in a cereal and salad rotation (sponsored by Gs Growers)
Dr Grant Campbell (2019) GB wide digital soil mapping (with The James Hutton Institute)
Current activities
UKRI COVID-19: Food security before and after the pandemic (ESRC with James Hutton Institute (lead) and Chatham House 2020-2021 Co-I)
Improving mapping of Welsh Peatlands (Welsh Government 2020-2021 PI)
Danube SOTER: Regional scale harmonised soil data for the Danube Basin (Joint Research Centre with ISRIC and 14 country participants 2018-2020 PI)
Capability, Suitability and Climate Programme for Wales: Predictive Agricultural Land Classification (ALC) for Wales (Welsh Government with ADAS and Environment Systems 2018-2020 Co-I)
LandIS: Using machine learning to improve national soil data (Defra, 2019-2021 Co-I)
Clients
NERCESRC
Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission
Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)
Forestry Commission
Welsh Government
Dstl
Gs Growers
Publications
Articles In Journals
- Breure TS, Milne AE, Webster R, Haefele SM, Hannam JA, Moreno-Rojas S & Corstanje R (2020) Predicting the growth of lettuce from soil infrared reflectance spectra: the potential for crop management, Precision Agriculture, Available online 10 August 2020.
- Storr T, Simmons RW & Hannam JA (2020) Using frost sensitive cover crops for timely nitrogen mineralization and soil moisture management, Soil Use and Management, Available online 04 July 2020. Dataset/s: 10.17862/cranfield.rd.7660817
- Gabarron-Galeote MA, Hannam JA, Mayr T & Jarvis PJ (2019) BEETSOIL: a decision support tool for forecasting the impact of soil conditions on sugar beet harvest, Soil and Tillage Research, 191 (August) 131-141. Dataset/s: 10.17862/cranfield.rd.8025401
- Storr T, Simmons RW & Hannam JA (2019) A UK survey of the use and management of cover crops, Annals of Applied Biology, 174 (2) 179-189. Dataset/s: 10.17862/cranfield.rd.7314278
- Hallett SH, Sakrabani R, Keay CA & Hannam JA (2017) Developments in land information systems: examples demonstrating land resource management capabilities and options, Soil Use and Management, 33 (4) 514-529.
- Hannam J (2017) S.O.S. - Save our soil today to meet the food challenges of tomorrow, Environmental Scientist, 26 (1) 25-31.
- Preetz H, Igel J, Hannam JA & Stadler S (2017) Relationship between magnetic properties and reddening of tropical soils as indicators of weathering, Geoderma, 303 (October) 143-149.
- Taalab K, Corstanje R, Zawadzka J, Mayr T, Whelan MJ, Hannam JA & Creamer R (2015) On the application of Bayesian Networks in Digital Soil Mapping, Geoderma, 259-260 (December) 134-148.
- Simo I, Schulte RPO, Corstanje R, Hannam J & and Creamer RE (2015) Validating digital soil maps using soil taxonomic distance: A case study of Ireland., Geoderma Regional, 5 188-197.
- Keay CA, Jones RJA, Hannam J & Barrie I (2014) The implications of a changing climate on agricultural land classification in England and Wales, Journal of Agricultural Science, 152 (1) 23-37.
- Cavazzi S, Corstanje R, Mayr T, Hannam J & Fealy R (2013) Are fine resolution digital elevation models always the best choice in digital soil mapping?, Geoderma, 195-196 111-121.
- Hollis JM, Hannam J & Bellamy PH (2011) Empirically-derived pedotransfer functions for predicting bulk density in European soils, European Journal of Soil Science, 63 (1) 96-109.
- Boyle JF, Dearing JA, Blundell A & Hannam JA (2010) Testing competing hypotheses for soil magnetic susceptibility using a new chemical kinetic model, Geology, 38 (12) 1059-1062.
- Blundell A, Hannam JA, Dearing JA & Boyle JF (2009) Detecting atmospheric pollution in surface soils using magnetic measurements: A reappraisal using an England and Wales database, Environmental Pollution, 157 (10) 2878-2890.
- Blundell A, Dearing JA, Boyle JF & Hannam JA (2009) Controlling factors for the spatial variability of soil magnetic properties across England and Wales, Earth-Science Reviews, 95 (3-4) 158-188.
- Blundell A, Dearing J A, Boyle J F & Hannam J A (2009) Controlling factors for the spatial variability of soil magnetic susceptibility across England and Wales, Earth-Science Reviews, 95 (3-4) 158-188.
- Hannam JA & Dearing JA (2008) Mapping soil magnetic properties in Bosnia and Herzegovina for landmine clearance operations, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 274 (3-4) 285-294.
- Spassov S, Egli R, Heller F, Nourgaliev DK & Hannam JA (2004) Magnetic quantification of urban pollution sources in atmospheric particulate matter., Geophysical Journal International, 159 (2) 555-564.
- Harvey AM, Foster GC, Hannam JA & Mather A E (2003) The Tabernas alluvial fan and lake system, southeast Spain: Application of mineral magnetic and pedogenic iron oxide analyses towards clarifying the Quaternary sediment sequences, Geomorphology, 50 (1-3) 151-171.
- Dearing JA, Hannam JA, Anderson AE & Wellington EMH (2001) Magnetic, geochemical and DNA properties of highly magnetic soils in England., Geophysical Journal International, 144 (1) 183-196.
Conference Papers
- Storr T, Simmons RW & Hannam JA (2018) Soil water and available nitrogen during cover crop growth. In: Soil Improvement: Impact of Management Practices on Soil Function and Quality, 2018, Cambridge, 16 October 2018.
- Storr T, Simmons R & Hannam J (2017) The use of cover crops in the UK: a survey. In: Sustainable Intensification, 2017, Harpenden, 28-30 November 2017.
- Storr T, Simmons RW & Hannam JA (2017) Do cover crops give short term benefits for soil health?. In: Sustainable Intensification, 2017, Harpenden, 28-30 November 2017.
- Hannam JA, Van Dam RL & Harmon RS (2009) A synthesis of current knowledge and future directions for soil magnetism research. In: SPIE Defense and Security Symposium, Orlando, Florida, 13 April 2009.
- Hannam JA & Dearing JA (2006) Modeling soil magnetic susceptibility and frequency dependent susceptibility to aid landmine clearance. In: SPIE Defense and Security Symposium, Florida, USA, 17 April 2006.
Books
- Simo I, Constanje R, Fealy R, Hallett SH, Hannam J, Holden N, Jahns G, Jones B, Massey P, Mayr T, McDonald E, Reidy B, Schulte R, Sills P, Spaargaren O, Zawadka J & Creamer RE (2014) Mapping Soils in Ireland. In: GlobalSoilMap: Basis of the global spatial soil information system, CRC Press.
- Keay CA & Hannam JA (2013) Soil Data from the United Kingdom (England and Wales). In: European HYdropedological Data Inventory (EU-HYDI). Weynands M, Montanarella L, Toth G (ed.), Luxembourg: European Union, p. 111-115, ed. JRC 81129.
- Hannam JA, Hollis JM & Jones RJA (2007) SPADE2: The soil profile analytical database for Europe. In: Status and prospect of soil information in south-eastern Europe: soil databases, projects and applications, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.