Natural Asset Management

Nick joined BioSS as the Principal statistician for Ecology and Environmental Science in April 2019, shifting field from bioinformatics. In this position Nick leads the team of BioSS statisticians embedded at the James Hutton Institute site in Aberdeen, focussing on modelling environmental research data. The team collaborate on projects spanning the full range of environmental science, including climate change, water pollution, landscape decision making, environmental eDNA forensics and biodiversity census data.

Laure Kuhfuss is a researcher in agricultural and environmental economics working in the Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences (SEGS) research group at the James Hutton Institute. She has a background in agronomy and environmental economics. Her research investigates farmers’ adoption of sustainable behaviours, the evaluation and design of agri-environmental policies and the valuation of ecosystem services.

Nick is currently am Head of the Animal & Veterinary Sciences (AVS) Group within SRUC’s Research Division. In that role he is responsible for research activities in genetics, animal welfare, disease systems and avian sciences. There are around 100 staff in AVS, most based in the Roslin Institute Building; our Avian Sciences team is based on the Auchincruive Campus near Ayr.

Helen is a research assistance in Environmental and Biochemical sciences at the James Hutton Institute. She is an experienced technical assistant with both field and laboratory based skills. She is responsible for mentoring and coordinating technical staff, their skills and the available resources to support research scientists and their associated projects with the catchment management group.

Susan is a catchment scientist and practitioner. She specialises in understanding anthropogenic impacts on water and habitat quality in order to support the sustainable management of river systems. Susan coordinates a programme of water-energy research in support of the sustainable planning, development and management of Scotland's hydropower resources.

Nikki is an environmental scientist at the James Hutton Institute. Nikki's current research is focused on soil hydrology and its linkage to water quality, quantity and Green House Gas emissions. She is involved in modelling soil erosion at national and catchment scales using Pan European Soil Risk Assessment model, PESERA. She is interested in developing links between soil hydrology and the transport of chemicals and particulate matter both in fragile upland environments and lowland agricultural systems.

Alistair is an environmental economist with research interests in the evaluation of agricultural and environmental policy, particularly through the application of cost benefit analysis and non-market valuation. Recent work has included the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) Quantitative Assessment and inputs into ‘TEEB for Business’ chapter 2; refining and updating the environmental accounts for agriculture; and the development of marginal abatement cost curves for agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.

Klaus is a researcher in Ecosystem Economics at SRUC, focusing on valuation of natural resources and ecosystem goods and services. His particular research interests include methodological developments in choice experiments and in benefit transfer, the incorporation of risk, uncertainty and ambiguity into valuation methods and contract design for public good provision.

David is a GIS consultant at the James Hutton Institute, His background is in the analysis, creation and management of geographical data and he has worked on the mapping programmes of many countries. He has extensive experience in the use and customisation of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and in photogrammetry and remote sensing.

Marc is senior scientist in Environmental and Biochemical Sciences at the James Hutton Institute.  He Work Package Co-ordinator for water resources and flood risk management. Hi background as a catchment biogeochemist gives him a vast understadning across different disciplines, including hydrology, chemistry and ecosystems.