Aimeric Blaud
aimeric blaud

Dr Aimeric Blaud

Lecturer

 0131 455 3383

  A.Blaud@napier.ac.uk

  

Biography

Research Interest
I am a lecturer in environmental microbiologist focusing on soil microbiology. I am interested in the roles of soil microorganisms (bacteria, archaea and fungi) in biogeochemical cycles (e.g. carbon, nitrogen cycles), and their spatial and temporal distribution in soils. In particular, I am interested in the environmental drivers that regulate microbial functions and their responses to anthropogenic activity (e.g. fertilisation, land use change) and global change. Since joining ENU, I extended my research interest to other areas such as: the development of biocontrol to potatoes cyst nematodes; the quantification of microplastic and associated microbiome in organic waste-derived material (e.g. sludge, compost) and soil; the prevalence of antibiotic resistance in the environment (microplastic, soil, water); microbiome of food products (e.g. whisky fermentation, spinach); methane cycle and associated microorganisms in streams and peatland. My research relies extensively on DNA-based methods such as high-throughput sequencing coupled with bioinformatic to open the black box that microbial diversity represents in the environment.


Teaching
I am the module leader for Applied Environmental Microbiology in the UK and in Sri Lanka (3rd year). In this module, I am teaching environmental microbiology, terrestrial/aquatic microbiology, and molecular microbiology. I am module leader for the Honours project in Sri Lanka. I am the programme leader of the BSc (Hons) Microbiology & Biotechnology programme in Sri Lanka. I am also involved in the teaching of several modules, from 1st to 5th yr.


Biography
Lecturer in Environmental Microbiology: Edinburgh Napier (Sept 2018 - now)

Postdoctoral researcher: Rothamsted Research Institute (2015 – 2018)
“understanding and enhancing soil ecosystem services and resilience in UK grass and croplands”

Postdoctoral researcher: The University of Sheffield (2013 – 2014)
“Distribution, diversity and functions of microbial communities in soil aggregates in contrasting land uses”

Ph.D: The University of Sheffield (2008 – 2012)
“Responses of microbial communities to atmospheric nitrogen deposition within different soil horizons in High Arctic tundra”

School

Research Groups

Themes

Research Areas

Esteem

Conference Organising Activity

  • Oral presentation (FEMS Young Scientist Meeting Grant awarded) The 4th International Conference on Polar and Alpine Microbiology, Ljubljana (Slovenia)

 

Editorial Activity

  • Editorial Board Member of Geoderma

 

Fellowships and Awards

  • Fellowship of Higher Education Academy

 

Grant Reviewer

  • National Research Funding Competition for Chile

 

Invited Speaker

  • Scotland India Antimicrobial Resistance in the Environment Network
  • Edinburgh Plant Science ECR
  • Plant-Soil Conference, Lancaster (UK)
  • Invited seminar speaker: UMR Eco&Sol, Montpellier (France)

 

Membership of Professional Body

  • British Ecological Society
  • Society for Applied Microbiology
  • Microbiology Society
  • International Society for Microbial Ecology (ISME)

 

Reviewing

  • Communications Earth & Environment
  • Geoderma Regional
  • Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition
  • Soil Science Society of America Journal
  • Nature Communications
  • PeerJ
  • Ecological Indicator
  • Ecological Indicators
  • European Journal of Soil Biology
  • Biology and Fertility of Soils
  • Science of The Total Environment
  • Applied Soil Ecology
  • Pedosphere
  • Biogeosciences
  • Geoderma
  • Acta Ecologica Sinica
  • Global Change Biology Bioenergy
  • Soil Biology and Biochemistry
  • Scientific Reports
  • FEMS Microbiologyy Ecology
  • European Journal of Soil Sciences

 

Visiting Positions

  • Visiting Scientist: Rothamsed Research institute

 

Filter by

Date


22 results

Quantification and characterisation of microplastics in organic waste-derived soil amendments in Scotland (dataset)

Data
Rimmaudo, A., Cundill, A., Singleton, I., Morrison, D., & Blaud, A. (2024)
Quantification and characterisation of microplastics in organic waste-derived soil amendments in Scotland (dataset). [Data]. https://doi.org/10.17869/enu.2024.3828260

Greenhouse gas production, diffusion and consumption in a soil profile under maize and wheat production

Journal Article
Button, E. S., Marshall, M., Sánchez-Rodríguez, A. R., Blaud, A., Abadie, M., Chadwick, D. R., & Jones, D. L. (2023)
Greenhouse gas production, diffusion and consumption in a soil profile under maize and wheat production. Geoderma, 430, Article 116310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2022.116310
Agricultural soil emissions are a balance between sinks and sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs). The fluxes of GHGs from soils are complex and spatially and temporally heteroge...

Quantification of Ammonia Oxidizing Bacterial Abundances in Environmental Samples by Quantitative-PCR

Book Chapter
Blaud, A., Maïder, A., & Clark, I. M. (2021)
Quantification of Ammonia Oxidizing Bacterial Abundances in Environmental Samples by Quantitative-PCR. In L. C. Carvalhais, & P. G. Dennis (Eds.), The Plant Microbiome: Methods and Protocols (135-146). New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1040-4_12
Quantitative-PCR (qPCR) enables the quantification of specific DNA targets, such as functional or phylogenetic marker genes associated with environmental samples. During each ...

Edaphic factors and plants influence denitrification in soils from a long-term arable experiment

Journal Article
Clark, I. M., Fu, Q., Abadie, M., Dixon, E. R., Blaud, A., & Hirsch, P. R. (2020)
Edaphic factors and plants influence denitrification in soils from a long-term arable experiment. Scientific Reports, 10, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-72679-z
Factors influencing production of greenhouse gases nitrous oxide (N2O) and nitrogen (N2) in arable soils include high nitrate, moisture and plants; we investigate how differen...

Monitoring soil microbial communities using molecular tools: DNA extraction methods may offset long-term management effects

Journal Article
Changey, F., Blaud, A., Pando, A., Herrmann, A. M., & Lerch, T. Z. (2021)
Monitoring soil microbial communities using molecular tools: DNA extraction methods may offset long-term management effects. European Journal of Soil Science, 72(2), 1026-1041. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.13026
Despite recent technological advances in molecular ecology, DNA extraction from soil remains a crucial step when quantifying and characterizing soil microbial communities. Pot...

Pore system characteristics of soil aggregates and their relevance to aggregate stability

Journal Article
Menon, M., Mawodza, T., Rabbani, A., Blaud, A., Lair, G. J., Babaei, M., …Banwart, S. (2020)
Pore system characteristics of soil aggregates and their relevance to aggregate stability. Geoderma, 366, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2020.114259
Aggregates are the structural units of soils, and the physical stability is considered to be a keystone parameter of soil quality. However, little is known about the evolution...

Effects of urease and nitrification inhibitors on soil N, nitrifier abundance and activity in a sandy loam soil

Journal Article
Fu, Q., Abadie, M., Blaud, A., Carswell, A., Misselbrook, T. H., Clark, I. M., & Hirsch, P. R. (2020)
Effects of urease and nitrification inhibitors on soil N, nitrifier abundance and activity in a sandy loam soil. Biology and Fertility of Soils, 56(2), 185-194. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-019-01411-5
Inhibitors of urease and ammonia monooxygenase can limit the rate of conversion of urea to ammonia and ammonia to nitrate, respectively, potentially improving N fertilizer use...

The pH optimum of soil exoenzymes adapt to long term changes in soil pH

Journal Article
Puissant, J., Jones, B., Goodall, T., Mang, D., Blaud, A., Gweon, H. S., …Griffiths, R. (2019)
The pH optimum of soil exoenzymes adapt to long term changes in soil pH. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 138, 107601. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2019.107601
Soil exoenzymes released by microorganisms break down organic matter and are crucial in regulating C, N and P cycling. Soil pH is known to influence enzyme activity, and is al...

Land use driven change in soil pH affects microbial carbon cycling processes

Journal Article
Malik, A. A., Puissant, J., Buckeridge, K. M., Goodall, T., Jehmlich, N., Chowdhury, S., …Griffiths, R. I. (2018)
Land use driven change in soil pH affects microbial carbon cycling processes. Nature Communications, 9(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05980-1
Soil microorganisms act as gatekeepers for soil–atmosphere carbon exchange by balancing the accumulation and release of soil organic matter. However, poor understanding of the...

Analysing the effect of dietary prebiotics and probiotics on gut bacterial richness and diversity of Asian snakehead fingerlings using T-RFLP method

Journal Article
Munir, M. B., Marsh, T. L., Blaud, A., Hashim, R., Janti Anak Joshua, W., & Mohd Nor, S. A. (2018)
Analysing the effect of dietary prebiotics and probiotics on gut bacterial richness and diversity of Asian snakehead fingerlings using T-RFLP method. Aquaculture Research, 49(10), 3350-3361. doi:10.1111/are.13799
This study was designed to evaluate the effects of three prebiotics (β‐glucan, galacto‐oligosaccharide [GOS], mannan‐oligosaccharide [MOS]) and two probiotics (Saccharomyces c...

Pre-Napier Funded Projects

  • Co-I on White Rose project lead by Dr Manoj Menon (£11K)
  • FEMS Young Scientist Meeting Grant (400€)

Current Post Grad projects

Previous Post Grad projects