Sam Keenor

Sam Keenor

Profile

I completed my Master’s project (MNatSci 1st class hons) in 2019 at UEA – and followed this by working at the university as an intern to adapt my dissertation into a published paper that is planned to be released early next year. My main research interest lies within soil science and agriculture – adapting current methods and investigating new and more novel methods to help boost the health of soils and the ecosystem services they supply along with the role soils can play in climate change mitigation. Since graduation I have worked on several research projects at UEA and in industry developing my skills and trying my best to make a difference.

Recently I have been working on a project called PANEZA – paper crumble for net zero agriculture, a piece that is attempting to demonstrate the value that soil amendments have on soil health and properties and how they can be used to help reach UK net zero targets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVIQ3zG23Yg&feature=youtu.be

Sam Keenor

Agri-environments and Water

University of East Anglia, School of Environmental Sciences

PhD title: Carbon Capture for Soil Ecosystem Service Enhancement

My research project: ‘Carbon Capture for Soil Ecosystem Service Enhancement’, is a joint CASE project working with UEA and GreenWorld Sales and allows me to continue working in a field I am extremely interested in and to adapt and develop further the research I have already undertaken.

Soils are the 3rd largest sink of carbon on earth and contain roughly 3 times more carbon than is currently in the atmosphere, and underpin many ecosystem services such as; water filtration and storage, flood mitigation, a stable food growing medium and home to a diverse mix of species. However, in the last 150 years more than 50% of global soil stocks have been damaged and many millions of tonnes of carbon emitted from these degraded soils, this limits the variety and efficiency of soil ecosystem processes and has extremely detrimental effects on the wider ecosystem.

By investigating and re-evaluating the way we farm and use our soils, we can help to recarbonise soils and mitigate or fix many of these issues. Using soil amendments, such as composts, manure and paper crumble provide a perfect way of increasing the carbon in soils directly and provide many subsequent benefits to the soil.

This research will be used to help advise farmers and policy makers about how best to manage and protect our soil stocks and will help guide UK agriculture towards its goal of Net Zero emissions by 2040.

Grants

  • EIRA Proof of concept grant
  • EIRA Research and development grant

Conferences

  • AgriTech E REAP conference 2019
  • AgriTech E Young Innovators Forum 2020
  • LandAPP future of land management 2020
  • Living Soils Syposium 2020

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8620-8133