Professor John Quinton

Professor

Research Overview

John is passionate about soil, the brown gold that underpins our very survival on the planet, but which most people take for granted.

He has spent the last 30 years working on understanding and predicting the soil erosion processes that degrade soil functions, soil monitoring, how we can protect soils better and how soils can be managed to mitigate flooding and the pollution of surface waters. He is a member of LEC's Sustaiable Soils Research Group.

Published research

His published work includes over 100 refereed journal papers (see link above), including one of the describing the European Soil Erosion model (). More recent highly cites examine the global linkages between and carbon, the , new methods for and soil erosion and a new body of work exploring the .

Liking to maintain an applied element to his research, John recently had his interest piqued by the shocking statistic that the UK sends significantly more soil to landfill (27 million tonnes per annum) from construction sites than is eroded from agricultural land. He brought together a team of academics, planners, developers, consultants, NGOs, master planners and landscape architects to form the to try and do something about the situation. The tasforce has published a series of influencial reports which are available from the .

He has also been working on to soil and water protection. These include an investigation into the impact of and before it reaches surface waters.

John has received funding for his work from:

  • the National Environmental Research Council (NERC),
  • the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
  • the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA)
  • the European Community

Current research

John’s current research projects include

  • the NERC /NSF funded Signals in the soil project focussing on understanding trajectories of soil change through new sensors, communication systems and machine learning
  • the project working on the restoration of degraded grasslands in Africa
  • The H2020 funded Tudi project focused on improving soil and water management in Europe and China
  • The SOPLAS project investigating the fate and behaviour of micro and macro plastics in soil
  • UKRI Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centre For Mineral-based Construction Materials

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The PhD students he supervises work on a range of topics related to soil functioning, diffuse pollution, soil formation and soil degradation and you can meet the research group here

Roles

John led the sucessful Research Evaluation Framework 2021 submission for LEC. He has acted as a research evaluator and review panel member, both nationally and internationally and has just stood down as Executive Editor of the European Geosciences Union’s open access journal after 10 years of service.

John is also the Chair of the , a nature conservation charity, committed to: connecting people with the river; improving natural processes; and protecting the biodiversity of the River Eden in Cumbria.

Teaching

John's teaching includes:

  • an undergraduate course in Soil Science as part of the in Earth and Environmental Science and Geography
  • Lecturing on soils to Master’s level teaching on
  • contributing to a

Outside interests

When he is not working on Soil Science John likes to deploy soil through the medium of paint (most of the earth pigments are derived from soil!). His paintings draw inspiration from the natural environment, and particularly the woods and mountains close to Lancaster.

Related content

See John’s video on

Here John s sites at the Building on Soils Sustainably report launch.

Listen to John's give his

Selected Publications


Evans, D., Quinton, J., Tye, A., Rodes, A., Davies, J., Mudd, S., Quine, T. 3/09/2019 In: SOIL. 5, 2, p. 253-263. 11 p.
Journal article


Quinton, J.N., Govers, G., Van Oost, K., Bardgett, R.D. 05/2010 In: Nature Geoscience. 3, 5, p. 311-314. 4 p.
Journal article


Batista, P.V., Davies, J., Silva, M.L., Quinton, J.N. 1/10/2019 In: Earth-Science Reviews. 197, 17 p.
Journal article


Gould, I., Quinton, J.N., Weigelt, A., De Deyn, G.B., Bardgett, R. 09/2016 In: Ecology Letters. 19, 9, 10 p.
Letter


Ockenden, M., Deasy, C., Quinton, J., Surridge, B., Stoate, C. 15/03/2014 In: Journal of Environmental Management. 135, p. 54-62. 19 p.
Journal article


Deasy, C., Titman, A., Quinton, J. 01/2014 In: Journal of Environmental Management. 132, p. 304-312. 9 p.
Journal article


Hardy, R., Quinton, J.N., James, M.R., Fiener, P., Pates, J.M. 1/04/2019 In: Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. 44, 5, p. 1091-1099. 10 p.
Journal article


01/10/2023 → 31/03/2027
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19/04/2023 → 18/07/2025
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19/04/2023 → 18/07/2025
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15/01/2023 → 14/07/2024
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21/12/2022 → 24/03/2023
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01/04/2022 → 31/03/2023
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11/10/2021 → 31/03/2024
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01/08/2021 → 31/03/2022
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01/08/2021 → 31/03/2022
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01/07/2021 → 30/06/2025
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01/01/2021 → 31/03/2025
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01/01/2021 → 31/12/2024
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31/01/2020 → 16/09/2024
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01/10/2018 → 30/09/2022
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01/09/2018 → 31/08/2022
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01/11/2017 → 31/03/2023
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01/06/2013 → 31/05/2016
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12/11/2012 → 11/11/2015
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01/10/2012 → …
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01/06/2012 → 30/09/2017
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01/05/2012 → 30/06/2016
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01/04/2008 → 30/09/2013
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01/01/1900 → …
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01/01/1900 → …
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Participation in workshop, seminar, course


Participation in workshop, seminar, course


Participation in workshop, seminar, course


Participation in workshop, seminar, course


Participation in workshop, seminar, course


Participation in conference -Mixed Audience


Editorial activity


Member of Advisory Panel


Membership of committee


Editorial activity


Membership of committee


Editorial activity

Cristina McBride-Serrano

Cristina McBride-Serrano

PhD student

Centre of Excellence in Environmental Data Science

Quynh Nhu Phan Le

Quynh Nhu Phan Le

PhD student

Hannah Walling

Hannah Walling

PhD student, Associate Lecturer

  • Centre of Excellence in Environmental Data Science
  • Improving global stewardship
  • Innovation for a better environment
  • Soil Plant and Land Systems
  • Sustainable Catchments
  • Understanding a changing planet