I’m an environmental scientist with interests spanning geography, ecology and remote sensing. The overarching aim of my research is to improve our understanding of how landscapes function and are managed for broader societal benefit.
I lead a research group in Terrestrial Ecosystem Science and Services (TESS) at the University of Exeter. Since October 2021, I also lead the Oppenheimer Programme in African Landscape Systems (OPALS) at Exeter, a six-year programme of foundational and applied research that aims to support sustainable human-landscape interactions across Africa.
For decades, observational scale gaps have existed as a key limiting factor in scientific understanding of important ecosystems, from high latitudes to drylands. I use multi-scale remote sensing approaches, ranging from centimetre-scale photogrammetric surveys through to global-scale satellite observations to transcend this challenge, quantifying how vegetation carbon dynamics are changing and use this insight to critically challenge our models of these ecosystems.
I am particularly interested in how the carbon stocks and fluxes of terrestrial ecosystems respond to rapidly changing environmental conditions, including climatic warming, increased CO2 concentrations, changing precipitation patterns and altered fire regimes.
I am an advocate for open science approaches to enable reproducible research. I enjoy teaching and communicating science, and encourage interactional and collaborative approaches. I have extensive fieldwork experience in remote settings, and am a proficient drone pilot with many flights in remote and challenging environments. For more information on my research themes and scientific collaborations, see my Research tab. When I’m not working, I love exploring our amazing natural world, climbing new mountains and paddling down new rivers.
Andrew Cunliffe 