Profile

Research interests: Richard Bardgett CBE is soil ecologist whose research explores how and why interactions between plants, their roots, and soil microbial communities regulate biogeochemical cycles and their response to climate change. He has bridged plant and soil ecology to gain a predictive understanding of how plant functional traits shape soil microbial communities and biogeochemical cycles from local to global scales, and how vegetation shifts in response to climate change impact biogeochemical cycles.

A major focus of his recent research is ecological resilience, and understanding how below-ground communities and the biogeochemical cycles they regulate respond to and recover from climate extremes. This work, funded by ERC and NERC, is also exploring how vegetation change and land management moderate below-ground community responses to climate extremes and consequences for biogeochemical cycles. Richard's work in this area has led to foundational insights and practical implementation of below-ground ecological concepts for climate mitigation and the restoration of degraded ecosystems.

Background: Richard was brought up in Cumbria, northern England, and graduated from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1987 with a degree in Soil and Land Resource Science. He completed his PhD in 1991 at the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology and Lancaster University studying grazer impacts on soil biota. Following a short spell at the Nature Conservancy Council, he worked for the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, followed by academic positions at the universities of Lancaster (1999-2013) and Manchester (2013-2025). He returned to Lancaster University in 2025 to establish the new Centre for Sustainable Soils in the Lancaster Environment Centre.

He served as President of the British Ecological Society (2017-2019) and was elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2006 and a Member Academia Europaea in 2015 for his pioneering contributions to soil ecology. Richard is routinely recognised by Clarivate as one of the most highly cited ecologists in the world, and currently serves as Executive Editor of Journal of Ecology - the world’s first-established ecological journal. In 2023, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by King Charles III for services to soil ecology and climate change science.

Richard has a strong commitment to increasing awareness of the need to protect soils and their biodiversity. He currently serves on Defra’s Scientific Advisory Council (SAC) and in 2019 was appointed “Thinker in Residence” for the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium to advise policy decisions on “Soils as Natural Capital”, including recommendations on soil protection to comply with policy on climate mitigation and biodiversity conservation. He was a co-founder, and current co-Director, of the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative (GSBI), established in 2011 to promote translation of soil biodiversity knowledge into policy.

External roles

• Chair BBSRC Biodiversity Expert Working Group (2023-present)
• Leverhulme Prize Panel, Earth Sciences (2024)
• Science Advisory Board, DFG Biodiversity Exploratories (2024-)
• Chair UKRI/Defra Innovation Environmental Monitoring Panel (2023)
• Chair ERC Advanced Grant Panel (LS8) (2023-2024)
• Defra's Science Advisory Council (SAC) (2021-present)
• Defra Landscape Recovery Scheme Panel (2022-2023)
• Executive Editor Journal of Ecology (2020-present)
• Academia Europaea Nomination Panel (2019-present)
• President British Ecological Society (2017-2019)
• Royal Flemish Adademy of Belgium, Thinker Residence (2019-2021)
• Royal Society Newton International Fellowships Panel (2019-present)
• Royal Society International Exchanges Committee (2017-2024)
• Royal Society Biological Sciences Grants Panel (2014-2024)
• Leverhulme Trust Research Leadership Awards Panel (2014)
• CEH Science Development Group. Member (2014-2018)
• Reader L'Oreal Women in Science Fellowships (2013-present)
• Vice President British Ecological Society (2011-2014)
• Chair BBSRC Research Committee E (2013-2018)
• Chair BBSRC Training Awards Committee (2012-2013)
• BBSRC Research Advisory Committee (2013-2018)
• Chair BBSRC Committee B (2010-2012)
• Chair BBSRC Agri-Food Committee (2008-2009)
• Member BBSRC Research Advisory Panel (2013-2018)
• NERC Soil Security Programme Lead (2012-2013)
• BBSRC sLola Committee and Appointments Board (2010-2016)
• Director, Rothamsted Board of Directors (2009-2019)
• Advisory Committee Netherlands Insititute for Ecology (2007-2019)
• Senior Editor Journal of Ecology (2006-2020
• Editorial Board Ecology Letters and Ecosystems (2006-present)

Current and recently completed grants

ERC Advanced Grant (2021-2026) Diversity, stability and functioning of the soil microbiome (SoilResist). Total Euro 2.49 million

NERC Pushing the Frontiers (2025-2028) Shrub-driven transformation of the alpine soil carbon cycle. Total £999,900 (Lead PI)

NERC (2020-2024) Cross-season legacy effects of climaet extremes on apline soil microbial communities. Total £667,743 (Pi with Co-I's Rob Griffiths, CEH, Michael Bahn, Innsbruck, and Michael Schloter, Munich)

NERC (2020-2023) Detecting degradation and restoration through a novel coupled sensor and machine learning framework. Total £998,911 ($487,108 to UoM; Co-I with PI's John Quinton, Lanacster and Jason Neff, Colorado).

NERC (2017-2020) SoIl microbial communities and biogeochemical CYcles in alpine ecosystems. Total £799,965 (PI with Co-I's Rob Griffiths, CEH, Michael Bahn, Innsbruck, and Michael Schloter, Munich)

BBSRC GCRF (2019-2021) Restoring African degraded landscapes with plant biodiversiuty and livestock management. Total £1,392,314 (£310,298 to UoM; Co-I with PI Mariana Rufino, Lancaster University)

BBSRC GCRF (2017-2019) Restoring soil function and resilience to degraded grasslands. Total £644,647 (PI with co-I's Nick Ostle and John Quinton, Lancaster)

NERC (2015-2018) Controls on the stability of soil and their functioning under land use and climate change. Total £1.6 million (PI with co-I's D Johnson, E Baggs, T Caruso, M Emmerson)

NERC (2016-2017) Controls on the stability of soil and their functioning capital equipment. Total £300k

NERC (2011-2016) Biodiversity and the provision of multiple ecosystem services in current and future lowland multifunctional landscapes. Total £554,000 (Soil component of NERC Wessex-BESS with James Bullock)

NERC (2017-2019) Resilience and regime shifts in peatland microbial communities. Total £340,000.

BBSRC (2011-2017) Linkages between plant functional diversity, soil biological communities and ecosystem services in agricultural grasslands. Total £1.45 million (PI with co-I's E Baggs, D. Johnson, N Ostle).

BBSRC (2014-2018) A plant-microbial framework for interrogating soil functioning. Total £41,868.