AERU

AGRICULTURE & ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH UNIT
 

Dr. Doug Warner BSc MSc PhD
Senior Research fellow

Email: d.j.warner@herts.ac.uk
Tel.: +44 (0)1707 286075

Doug joined the Agriculture and the Environment Research Unit (AERU) as a Research Fellow in July 2001. His main areas of interest are bio-diversity and farmland conservation, integrated crop management and organic farming, the bio-control potential of naturally occurring beneficial insects, precision agriculture, livestock / grassland and the impact of novel farming strategies on climate change mitigation.

He has practical experience in eco-toxicological assessments of the impact of pesticides on non-target organisms, ecological monitoring, applied conservation habitat management and insect taxonomy. His main areas of expertise include:

  • Life-cycle Analysis (LCA).
  • Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
  • Detailed management scenario construction for agricultural and horticultural systems, and semi-natural habitats.
  • Energy balance and greenhouse gas emissions inventories, carbon sequestration.
  • Application of mathematical models in the development of decision support software.
  • Nutrient balancing and the use of models to predict nitrogen outputs.
  • Socio-economic assessments (for example net and gross margins, labour, visual impact) and application within sustainability studies.
  • Informing of policy on current / proposed rural development strategies (for example Environmental Stewardship).

Qualifications

Doug has a BSc in Environmental Biology from the University of Sunderland, an MSc in Crop Protection from the Scottish Agricultural College (University of Aberdeen), and a PhD from the University of Hertfordshire in collaboration with IACR-Rothamsted titled "The Potential of Carabidae in the Control of Insect Pests of Winter Oilseed Rape". His Doctorate studied naturally occurring beneficial insects as pest control agents in winter oilseed rape and the implications for Integrated Pest Management systems.

Previous employment

Doug has worked previously as a group leader with the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, a warden with English Nature and as an insect taxonomist at IACR-Rothamsted.

Selected projects

  • Impact Of Proposed NVZ Action Programme On Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 2007 - 2008).
  • Research into the current and potential climate change mitigation impacts of environmental stewardship (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 2006 - 2007).
  • Energy Optimisation in European Greenhouses - GREENERGY (European Union Framework VI, 2005 - 2008).
  • The Environmental Impact of Horticultural Practices in the EA's Southern Region (Environment Agency, 2006).
  • Sustainability of the UK Strawberry Crop (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 2003 - 2005).
  • Genetic Diversity in Agriculture: Temporal Flux, Sustainable Productivity and Food Security 'GEDIFLUX' (European Union Framework V, 2004).
  • An Investigation of Varietal Characteristics Required for Sustainable Agriculture (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 2003).
  • Management Strategies for European Rape Pests (MASTER) (European Union Framework V, 2002 - 2005).
  • Environment and Energy Impact Assessment for Sugar Beet Production Systems (British Beet Research Organisation, 2001 - 2003).

Recent publications

  • Warner, D.J., Allen-Williams, L.J., Warrington, S., Ferguson, A.W. and Williams, I.H. (2008). Implications for conservation biocontrol of spatio-temporal relationships between carabid beetles and coleopterous pests in winter oilseed rape. Agricultural and Forest Entomology. In press.
  • Lewis K.A., Tzilivakis J, Green, A., Warner, D.J. and Coles A.J. (2008) Farm Assurance Schemes – Can they improve farming standards? British Food Journal 110(11), 1088-1105.
  • Defra project BD2302 Research into the current and potential climate change mitigation impacts of environmental stewardship. Final Report (2008).
  • Körner, O., Warner, D, Tzilivakis, J., Eveleens, B., Heuvelink, E. (2007). Decision support for optimising energy consumption in European greenhouses. GREENSYS 2007, organised by the International Society for Horticultural Science, Naples, Italy, 4 - 5th October 2007.
  • Tzilivakis, J., Jaggard, K., Lewis, K. A., May, M. and Warner, D. J. (2005) An assessment of the energy inputs and greenhouse gas emissions in sugar beet (Beta vulgaris) production in the UK. Agricultural Systems 85, 101-119. [Abstract].
  • Tzilivakis, J., Jaggard, K., Lewis, K.A., May, M. and Warner, D.J. (2005) Environmental impact and economic assessment for UK sugar beet production systems. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 107, 341-358. [Abstract].
  • Defra project HH3606NSF Sustainability of the UK Strawberry Crop. Final Report (2005).
  • Ferguson, A.W., Campbell, J.M., Warner, D.J., Watts, N.P., Schmidt, J.E.U. and Williams, I.H. (2004). Phenology and spatial distributions of Dasineura brassicae and its parasitoids in a crop of winter oilseed rape: implications for integrated pest management. IOBC wprs Working Group 'Integrated protection in oilseed crops', 30-31 March 2004, Rothamsted Research, UK.
  • Jaggard, K., Tzilivakis, J., Warner, D. J. and Lewis, K. A. (2004) Beet and the environment. British Sugar Beet Review 72(2), 34-37.
  • Warner, D.J., Allen-Williams, L.J., Warrington, S., Ferguson A.W. and Williams, I.H. (2003). Mapping, characterisation, and comparison of the spatio-temporal distributions of cabbage stem flea beetle (Psylliodes chrysocephala), carabids, and Collembola in a crop of winter oilseed rape (Brassica napus). Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 109(3), 225-234.

Dr. Doug Warner's extended publications list.
University of Hertfordshire

© University of Hertfordshire, 2009.