Dr. Doug Warner BSc MSc PhD PISEP FHEA
Associate Professor Research

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 agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and their mitigation, carbon sequestration, integrated farm management and ecologically based methods of pest control, precision agriculture and farmland bio-diversity and conservation.

Since 2001 he has been involved in several national and European projects undertaking carbon footprinting, life-cycle analysis, and environmental impact and sustainability assessments. Recent activities include the modelling of spatially explicit greenhouse gas emissions in European agricultural systems, and their application for assessing the impact of European Rural Development Programmes on greenhouse gas mitigation and the development of carbon footprinting tools. Other experience includes the evaluation of the impact of insecticides on non-target organisms, herbicide dispersal on hard surfaces in urban environments, ecological monitoring, applied conservation habitat management and insect taxonomy.

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. Doug is also a Practitioner member of the Institute of Sustainability and Environmental Professionals (PISEP) (formerly the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment - IEMA), and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA).

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

Measuring the extent to which greenhouse gas emission savings achieved by Environmental Stewardship are displaced on-farm
OSCAR - Optimal Strategies for Climate change Action in Rural areas
A land carbon management plan for the Wallington estate
Climate change mitigation potential of farms in the EU: IMPACCT
Sustainable urban weed management
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., Davies, M., Hipps, N., Tzilivakis, J., Lewis, K.A. and Fountain, M. (2026) Integrated weed management reduces the environmental impact of urban amenity weed control. Weed Science. In press.
Nichols, R.N., Begg, G.S., Cantú-Salazar, L., Holland, J.M., Martin, Y., Tzilivakis, J., Vray, S., Warner, D.J., Zuta, A., McHugh, N.M. (2026). A standardised protocol for measuring farmland biodiversity outcomes across European Farmer Cluster landscapes. PLoS One, 21(3): e0345691. [DOI].
Warner, D. & Tzilivakis, J. (2024). Novel DST for Agrobiodiversity Management: Deliverable D5.3 report for the Framework project: Farmers clusters for realising agrobiodiversity management across ecosystems (SFS-01-2018-2019-2020). DOI.
Tzilivakis, J., Warner, D., Grebot, B. & Limmer, C. (2024). Technical assistance for preliminary work on Livestock Operating Rules for the Industrial Emissions Directive: Best Available Techniques: Task 1 Report. European Commission, Brussels.
Tzilivakis, J., Warner, D., Grebot, B. & Limmer, C. (2024). Technical assistance for preliminary work on Livestock Operating Rules for the Industrial Emissions Directive: Best Available Techniques: Task 4 Report. European Commission, Brussels.
Tzilivakis, J., Taylor, J.L., Green, A., Warner, D.J & Lewis, K.A. (2024). A methodological review of UK food ecolabels. Final report. Prepared for the Consortium for Labelling for the Environment, Animal welfare, and Regenerative farming (CLEAR) by the Agriculture and Environment Research Unit (AERU), University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. [Download].

Dr. Doug Warner's extended publications list.

Other

See also Climate Change and Sustainability; and Dr Doug Warner's Powering Progress video.