Prof. David Hopkins

Professor David Hopkins is Head of the School of Life Sciences at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.

Professor Hopkins is a soil biologist with interests in soil ecology, nutrient cycling and the biochemistry and biochemistry of decomposition processes in soil.

Most recently, David's research has focused on terrestrial ecology and soils in Polar Regions, especially the ice-free regions of Antarctica, and on decomposition processes in temperate agricultural soils.

He has enjoyed long-standing collaborations with the Universities of Canterbury and Waikato in New Zealand and Antarctica New Zealand to develop and help understand the diversity, distribution and functioning of soil microbial communities in the ice-free areas of continental Antarctica (the dry valleys), and with the British Antarctic Survey for related work in the maritime Antarctic.

The work on agricultural soils developed from David's PhD studies and has included studies on the effects of management on soil carbon storage over decades, investigations of the biogeochemical transformations during plant litter breakdown, and assessing the effects of genetic modifications to lignin biosynthesis on decay of plant materials in soil.

Selected peer-reviewed papers

Hill, P.W., Farrar, J., Roberts, P., Farrell, M., Grant, H., Newsham, K.K., Hopkins, D.W., Bardgett, R.D., & Jones, D.L. (2011) Vascular plant success in a warming Antarctic may be due to efficient nitrogen acquisition. Nature Climate Change 1, 50-53.

Powlson, D.S., Gregory, P.J., Whalley, W.R., Quinton, J.N., Hopkins, D.W., Whitmore, A.P., Hirsch, P.R. & Goulding, K.W.T. (2011) Soil management in relation to sustainable agriculture and ecosystem services. Food Policy 36, S72-S87.

Hopkins, D.W., Waite, I.S. & O’Donnell, A.G. (2011) Microbial biomass, organic matter decay and nitrogen in soils from long-term experimental grassland plots (Palace Leas meadow hay plots, UK). European Journal of Soil Science 62, 95-104

Benhua Sun, Hallett, P.D., Caul, S., Daniell, T.J. & Hopkins, D.W. (2011) Distribution of soil carbon and microbial biomass in arable soils under different tillage regimes. Plant and Soil 338, 17-25.

Feng, X., Simpson, A.J., Gregorich, E.G., Elberling, B., Hopkins, D.W., Sparrow, A.D., Novis, P.M., Greenfield, L.G. & Simpson, M.J. (2010) Chemical characterization of microbial-dominated soil organic matter in the Garwood Valley, Antarctica. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 74, 6485-6498.

Thorsen, M.K., Hopkins, D.W., Woodward, S. & McKenzie, B.M. (2010) Resilience of microorganisms and aggregation of a sandy calcareous soil to amendment with organic and synthetic fertilizer. Soil Use and Management 26, 149-157.

Hartley, I.P., Hopkins, D.W., Garnett, M.H., Sommerkorn, M. & Wookey, P.A. (2010) The response of organic matter mineralisation to substrate and nutrient additions in subarctic soils. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 42, 92-100.

Garnett, M.H., Hartley, I.P., Hopkins, D.W., Sommerkorn, M. & Wookey, P.A. (2009) A passive sampling method for radiocarbon analysis of soil respiration using molecular sieve. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 41, 1450-1456.

Tilston, E.L., Szili-kovács, T., Hopkins, D.W. (2009) Contributions of labile and resistant organic materials to the immobilization of inorganic soil nitrogen when used in the restoration of abandoned agricultural fields. Soil Use and Management 25, 168-174.

Hopkins, D.W., Waite, I.S., McNicol, J.W., Poulton, P.R., Macdonald, A.J. & O’Donnell, A.G. (2009) Soil organic carbon contents in long-term experimental grassland plots in the UK (Palace Leas and Park Grass) have not changed consistently in recent decades. Global Change Biology 15, 1739-1754.

Hopkins, D.W., Sparrow, A.D., Gregorich, E.G., Elberling, B., Novis, P., Fraser, F., Scrimgeour, C., Dennis, P.G. Meier-Augenstein, W. and Greenfield, L.G. (2009) Isotopic evidence for the provenance and turnover of organic carbon by soil microorganisms in the Antarctic dry valleys. Environmental Microbiology 11, 597-608.

Wookey, P.A., Aerts, R., Bardgett, R.D., Baptist, F., Bråthen, K.A., Cornelissen, J.H.C., Gough, L., Hartley, I.P., Hopkins, D.W., Lavorel, S. & Shaver, G.R. (2009) Ecosystem feedbacks and cascade processes: understanding their role in the responses of arctic and alpine ecosystems to environmental change. Global Change Biology 15, 1153-1172.

Hartley, I.P., Hopkins, D.W., Garnett, M.H., Sommerkorn, M. & Wookey, P.A. (2008) Soil microbial respiration in arctic soil does not acclimate to temperature. Ecology Letters 11, 1092-1100.

Hopkins, D.W., Sparrow, A.D., Shillam, L.L., English, L.C., Dennis, P.G., Novis, P.M, Elberling, B., Gregorich, E.G. & Greenfield, L.G. (2008) Enzymatic activities in Antarctic dry valley soil: Responses to C and N supplementation. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 40, 2130-2136.

Novis, P.M., Whitehead, D.C., Gregorich, E.G., Hunt, J.E., Sparrow, A.D., Hopkins, D.W., Elberling, B. & Greenfield, L.G. (2007) Annual carbon fixation in terrestrial populations of Nostoc commune (Cyanobacteria) from an Antarctic dry valley is driven by temperature regime Global Change Biology 13, 1224-1237.

Hopkins, D.W., Webster, E.A., Boerjan, W., Pilate, G. & Halpin, C. (2007) Genetically-modified lignin belowground. Nature Biotechnology 25, 168-169.

Hopkins, D.W., Sparrow, A.D., Novis, P.M., Gregorich, E.G., Elberling, B. & Greenfield, L.G. (2006) Controls on the distribution of productivity and organic resources in Antarctic dry valley soils. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B – Biological Sciences 273, 2687-2695.

Hopkins, D.W., Sparrow, A.D., Elberling, B. Gregorich, E.G., Novis, P., Greenfield, L.G. & Tilston, E.L. (2006) Carbon, nitrogen and temperature controls on microbial activity in soils from an Antarctic dry valley. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 38, 3130-3140.

Gregorich E.G., Hopkins D.W., Elberling B., Novis P., Greenfield L.G., Sparrow A.D. & Rochette, P. (2006) Biogenic gas emission along a lake shore in an Antarctic dry valley. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 38, 3120-3129.

Elberling, B., Gregorich, E.G., Hopkins, D.W., Sparrow, A.D., Novis, P. & Greenfield, L.G. (2006) Distribution and dynamics of soil organic matter in an Antarctic dry valley. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 38, 3095-3034.

Hénault, C., English, L.C., Halpin, C., Andreux, F. & Hopkins, D.W. (2006) Microbial community structure in soils with decomposing residues from plants with genetic modifications to lignin biosynthesis. FEMS Microbiology Letters 263, 68-75.

Gregorich, E.G., Rochette, P., Hopkins, D.W., McKim, U.F. & St-Georges, P. (2006) Tillage-induced environmental conditions and substrate limitation determine biogenic gas production. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 38, 2614-2628.

Hopkins, D.W., Webster, E.A., Tilston, E.L. & Halpin, C. (2006) Influence of available substrates on the decomposition in soil of plant materials with genetic modifications to lignin biosynthesis. European Journal of Soil Science 57, 495-503.

Malosso, E., Waite, I.S., English, L.C., Hopkins, D.W. & O’Donnell, A.G. (2006) Fungal diversity in Antarctic soils determined using a combination of culture isolation, molecular fingerprinting and cloning techniques. Polar Biology 29, 552-561.

 

 

Professor Hopkins came to Heriot-Watt University as the Head of the School of Life Sciences in March 2011, having been Director of Science at the Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI) at Dundee (now part of the James Hutton Institute) for nearly 5 years. David was also Professor of Environmental Biogeochemistry at the University of Stirling (Scotland) on a part-time basis whilst working at SCRI.

Before his move to SCRI, David had been based full-time at the University of Stirling since 1999, where he was Head of the School of Biological and Environmental Sciences between 2002 and 2006. Previously, he held academic and research positions in the Universities of Newcastle upon Tyne (England) and Dundee (Scotland); he was a Royal Society of Edinburgh Research Fellow (2002), an Erskine Visiting Fellow at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand (1998), and a OECD Postdoctoral fellow with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Ottawa (2003).

David has spent significant a period working in Antarctica during the austral summers since 2001/2 (ten summer field seasons and counting) with the Antarctica New Zealand or with British Antarctic Survey and the Royal Navy.

David currently serves or has recently served on the editorial boards of Soil Biology & Biochemistry, Plant & Soil, Biology & Fertility of Soils, and the European Journal of Soils Science, and he was the President of the British Society of Soil Science for 2007 and 2008. David is currently a member of the UK National Committee on Antarctic Research which represents and promotes UK interests in Antarctic science in international forums, and the UK Advisory Committee on Releases in to the Environment which advises the UK Government on scientific matters related to releases of genetically modified organisms in the environment.

Books edited

Bloem, J., Hopkins, D.W. and Benedetti, A. (editors) (2006) Handbook of Methods for Assessing Soil Health. European Union COST Action 831 Biotechnology in Soil. CAB International, Wallingford, UK.

Bardgett, R.D., Usher, M.B. and Hopkins, D.W. (editors) (2005) Biodiversity and Function in Soils. British Ecological Society Ecological Reviews. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.