Dr Jacqueline Hannam

Senior Research Fellow in Pedology

Centre for Environment and Agricultural Informatics

Contact Dr Jacqueline Hannam

Tel: +44 (0) 1234 754586
Email: j.a.hannam@cranfield.ac.uk
Twitter: @Dirt_Science
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqueline-hannam-41070835?trk=hp-identity-name

Areas of expertise

Background

Jack is a soil scientist specialising in soil data, digital soil mapping and soil health. 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.

Her research focuses on:

Digital soil mapping: using machine learning and sensing technology to predict and map soil properties and functions
On farm applications of conservation agriculture to improve soil health
Developing decision support tools for planning soil and landscape decisions
Applications of national (country) and local (field/farm) level soil data for policy and business applications

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 represents Cranfield University in the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Global Soil Partnership. Jack is a member of the scientific committee reviewing evidence for national GHG inventories for the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sector. She is an Associate Editor for the journal Soil Use and Management. 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)

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

1) Danube SOTER: Regional scale harmonised soil data for the Danube Basin (Joint Research Centre with ISRIC and 14 country participants 2018-2020 PI)

2) 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)

3) LandIS: Using machine learning to improve national soil data (Defra, 2019-2021 Co-I)

4) Effect of using cover crops on soil health (Gs Growers 2016-2019 PhD studentship)

5) Costs of Scottish Soil Erosion: Scottish Government with The James Hutton Institute (2018-2019, Co-I)

6) BEETSOIL: Decision support tool to forecast the impact of real-time soil conditions on sugar beet harvest (KTP with Innovate UK and British Sugar 2015-2018 PI)

Clients

NERC
Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission
Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)
Forestry Commission
Welsh Government
Dstl
Gs Growers
Cobham Antenna Systems

Articles In Journals

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
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.
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.
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, 259-260 134-148.
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 RW & Hannam JA (2017) Do cover crops give short term benefits for soil health?. In: Sustainable Intensification, 2017, Harpenden, 28-30 November 2017.
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.
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.