Geography, Geology and the Environment

I did an M.Sc. in Environmental Science from the University of Peshawar, Pakistan and was awarded a gold medal for obtaining first position in the class in order of merit in 1996. Following graduation, I worked for WWF-Pakistan as a Conservation Officer from 1996 to1999). I proceeded to Louisiana State University for an MS degree in Wetland Science and Management under the Fulbright scholarship of the US State Department (1999-2001). I did my Ph.D. in Wetland Biogeochemistry and Coastal Ecology at the School of Coasts and Environment, Louisiana State University. I spent a year (2005-2006) at Rutgers University, USA evaluating the impacts of chronic nutrient run-off on water and air quality.

From 2006-2008, I worked on quantifying greenhouse gas fluxes from soils in Canada under a postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Geography, McGill University. This research was undertaken in the Biogeochemistry Research Group at McGill led by Professors Tim Moore and Nigel Roulet. I also worked as a part-time teaching Faculty in the Department of Geography at Concordia University, Montreal.

From Jan. 2009 to Jan. 2011, I worked as Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Sustainable Water Management (led by Prof. L. Heathwaite), Lancaster University, UK. I conducted research on the implications of groundwater-surface water connectivity for nitrogen transformation in river beds sediments in Cumbria, UK.

In Feb. 2011, I joined Keele University as a Lecturer in Environmental Science and now establishing research in the fields of terrestrial and wetland soil biogeochemistry in addition to teaching. I am also a member of the EPSAM Environment and Sustainability Research Cluster at Keele University.

I am broadly interested in the biogeochemistry of nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) across a range of environments. This includes wetland, forest and cultivated soils and hyporheic sediments for water quality improvement, air and soil quality protection, C sequestration, ecosystem restoration and sustainable management of natural resources. I mainly investigate landscape scale patterns and controls (anthropogenic and natural) on biogeochemical pools and fluxes between pedosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere; however, I also undertake bench top experiments to advance mechanistic understanding of key biogeochemical processes and fluxes. This knowledge provides a framework for identifying applied techniques for maintaining ecological resilience, ecosystem restoration and sustainable utilization of natural resources under various management, landuse and climate change scenarios. My broader research interests cut across the following three themes in biogeochemistry research:

1.      Greenhouse Gas Fluxes and Global Climate Change

Terrestrial forest and wetland soils in watersheds as well as cultivated soils are significant sinks of atmospheric carbon and play a substantial role in greenhouse gas exchanges with the atmosphere. Local to global scale changes in land use types and management, excessive fertilizer use in agriculture and human-induced changes in the climate have shifted the interactive controls of various biotic and abiotic controls of primary productivity and decomposition of organic C and N in soils and fluxes of methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide with the atmosphere. A detailed understanding of both landscape scale and plot scale controls of C sequestration and greenhouse gas fluxes from soils in sub-tropical, temperate and boreal climates makes part of my research to be able to reduce human impacts on key biogeochemical pools and fluxes in soils with air and water.

2.      Restoration Ecology

A tremendous loss of natural wetlands in watersheds mainly due to cultivation and urbanization has in turn led to a significant loss in wetland ecosystem functions and services. There is particular interest to restore wetlands in watersheds in a way that could render key functions of wetlands and services such as carbon sequestration and attenuation of pollutant run-off from cultivation and urban environments beside provision of habitat to wildlife, flood control and groundwater recharge. My research explores and identifies restoration techniques that could achieve multiple functional attributes of wetlands.

3.      Water quality at Landscape Scale

Agricultural intensification, excessive fertilizer use, rising food demands and urbanization are often associated with nutrient/pollutant loss into surface and groundwater. Loss of nutrients such as mineral and dissolved organic N and phosphorus (P) from croplands and urban land uses cascading through soils, groundwater, rivers, lakes and estuaries result in degradation of water quality such as eutrophication and hypoxia. Given the significance of maintaining food productivity for human consumption, my research identifies soil management practices that reduce loss of nutrients, improve nutrient use efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas N₂O emissions from croplands coupled with sustainable agriculture and urbanization.

Regional Ecosystem Experiences

Throughout my postgraduate and post-doctoral research work, I have been very fortunate to have gained experience working in diverse wetland and terrestrial ecosystems. Some of the major eco-regions where I have worked and/or working includes bottomland hardwood forests and cultivated lands in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial valley, coastal marshes in southern Louisiana, temperate, alpine and sub-tropical ecozones of northern Pakistan, temperate riverine forests and wetlands in New Jersey, white pine forests in southern Ontario, deciduous forests and swamps around Montreal, black spruce forests and wetlands in Chibougamau, central Quebec , boreal forests [black spruce, jackpine, aspen, alder and boreal peatlands] in James Bay region, northern Quebec, Canada, and groundwater fed rivers  and wetlands in northern England.

Greenhouse gas sampling, deciduous forests-Montreal.	Clear-cut boreal forestry impacts on N and C cycling	Greenhouse gas sampling, Montreal, Canada
Greenhouse gas sampling, riverine pore water, UK	Surveying the role of BMPs in pollutant removal-USA.	Agric. soil sampling in Beasley watershed, Mississippi.

Spring Semester

• CHE-10044 : Introductory Environmental Chemistry
• ESC-10042 : Environmental Science Skills (Module Leader)
• ESC-20032 : Environmental Analytical Methods (Module Leader)
• ESC-30020 : Water Resources

Summer Semester

• ESC-20053 : Biogeochemistry and Global Change (Module Leader, Nanjing X Uni. Program)

Autumn Semester

• ESC-20049/50 : Hydrology and Oceanography
• ESC-20038 : Integrated Environmental Field Studies
• PIR 30097 : Environment and Sustainability Case Study

Dissertation and Thesis

Supervisor and co-supervisor role for undergraduate and postgraduate dissertation/thesis in Applied Environmental Sciences, Environment and Sustainability, Physical Geography, and Environmental Sustainability and Green Technology Programs of Keele University.

Research Projects and Recent Funding

October 2012-2015. Analysis and simulation of the Long-Term/Large-Scale interactions of C, N and P in UK land, freshwater and atmosphere, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council for investigation of the role of land use type and landscape position on denitrification rates in the Conwy and Ribble-Wyre River catchments, UK (£396,942 @100% FEC awarded to Keele) as part of £2.5 million consortium grant involving 8 national institutes.  Field and laboratory research work is currently underway and the project is coordinated by Dr Fotis Sgouridis, Postdoctoral  Research Associate in N Biogeochemistry at Keele University.

August 2011. Keele University capital equipment fund for the purchase of an Agilent Gas Chromatograph with specialized greenhouse gas (N₂O, CH₄ and CO₂) analysis system (£28,297).

Keele University (2011-2014): Understanding the dynamics of greenhouse gases in the pore water of riverine sediments.  This research work is part of a current PhD student at Keele University (John Weatherill) working on the coupled dynamic biogeochemistry-geophysics of hyporheic zone.

Keele University and McGill University, Canada. Large scale synthesis and estimation of N₂O and CH₄ fluxes from the Canadian forest soils. Synthesis underway based on data generated as part of CFCAS, BIOCAP Canada and HydroQuebec Canada funding.

Academic Visitor (2013): Ms. Shurong Duan from Nanjing Xiaozhuang University, China, investigating and comparing enzyme activities (denitrifier and nitrifiers, particularly) in soils collected from grasslands, moorlands and forests in the UK.

Prospective National and International Postgraduate Students

I am on the look for good quality national and international postgraduate students. You are encouraged to contact me if you are interested in working in the broader areas of environmental biogeochemistry, hydrochemistry and water quality, greenhouse gas fluxes, carbon sequestration and wetland restoration.  Sources of funding could also be discussed including possibility of Acorn funding of Keele University (~50% tuition waiver on a 1:1 matching basis). Prospective PhD students should also follow this link  for general information on applying for PhD research degree at Keele University.