Luke Andrews
Field Technician

Profile

Biography

I am an ecologist and palaeoecologist, interested in carbon cycling by terrestrial ecosystems in the context of climate change and increasing anthropogenic pressure. I was awarded a PhD from the University of York Department of Environment and Geography in 2023. I currently work as a field technician in the E&G department, where I provide technical support for project students and undergraduate fieldwork as well as undergraduate fieldtrips and in the lab. I am also associated with a study investigating the long-term effects of wildfires upon peatlands in the Northern Hemisphere, lead by researchers at Adam Mickiewicz University Poznan and the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.

Career

Research

Overview

My PhD project ‘Peatlands and climate change: linking the past with the future’ seeks to identify the reason for disparity between contemporary experimental and palaeoecological studies of the effects of climate change upon the peatland carbon cycle. I will do this by linking both approaches to establish a common understanding between both disciplines. This project is funded by the Leverhulme Trust and is supervised by Dr Richard Payne, with co-supervisiors from The Center For Ecology and Hydrology, Edge Hill University and Manchester Metropolitan University.

Publications

Selected publications

Andrews, L.O., Payne, R.J. and Swindles, G.T., 2021. Testate amoebae as non-pollen palynomorphs in pollen slides: usefulness and application in palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 511(1), pp.151-158.  http://mr.crossref.org/iPage?doi=10.1144%2FSP511-2020-34

Andrews, L.O., Rowson, J.G., Caporn, S.J., Dise, N.B., Barton, E., Garrett, E., Gehrels, W.R., Gehrels, M., Kay, M. and Payne, R.J., 2022. Plant community responses to experimental climate manipulation in a Welsh ombrotrophic peatland and their palaeoenvironmental context. Global Change Biology, 28(4), pp.1596-1617. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.16003