Aimeric Blaud
aimeric blaud

Dr Aimeric Blaud

Lecturer

 0131 455 3383

  A.Blaud@napier.ac.uk

  

Biography

Research Interest
I am a soil microbiologist interested in the roles of soil microorganisms (bacteria, archaea and fungi) in biogeochemical cycles, such as nitrogen and phosphorus 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 (fertilisation, land use change) and global change. My work focus on arable land (grassland, cropland) in Europe but also in the Southern Hemisphere, and on “pristine” land, such as the Arctic tundra. I have experience of field and lab experiments on bacteria, archaea and fungi, as well as microorganisms involved in the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles. I am familiar with a range of molecular methods (DNA extraction, high throughput sequencing, quantitative-PCR, fingerprinting methods), soil properties analysis, bioinformatics and multivariate statistical analysis (R software). I recently worked on the relationship between the plant and microbial diversity in the Park Grass long-term experiment at Rothamsted Research Institute. I also work extensively on the microorganisms involved in the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, and how organic and inorganic fertilisation and soil pH alteration affect the balance of the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles in UK grassland and cropland.

Biography
Lecturer in Applied Microbiology: Edinburgh Napier (Sept 2019 - )
Postdoctoral researcher: Rothamsted Research Institute (2015 – 2019)
Postdoctoral researcher: The University of Sheffield (2013 – 2014)
Ph.D: The University of Sheffield (2008 – 2012)

Teaching:
I am the module leader for Environmental Microbiology in the UK (MIC09102) and in Sri Lanka (MIC09802), 3rd year students. In this module, I am teaching environmental microbiology, terrestrial/aquatic microbiology, and molecular microbiology.

I am involved in the teaching of several modules, delivering lectures, tutorial and practical:
- Lecture on microbial ecology for 1st yr students (Introductory Microbiology; MIC07100)
- Tutorial on statistical software R for 1st yr students (Scientific Enquiry; ENV07101)
- Tutorial, practical and mentoring of Honours project working on “antibiotics unearthed” (Scientific Research Project; ENV10100)
- Supervision of MSc students (Research Project; BMS11102)

School

Research Groups

Themes

Research Areas

Esteem

Editorial Activity

  • Editorial Board Member of Geoderma

 

Membership of Professional Body

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

 

Reviewing

  • Nature Communications
  • Reviewer: PeerJ
  • Reveiwer: Ecological Indicator
  • Reviewer: Ecological Indicators
  • Reviewer: European Journal of Soil Biology
  • Reviewer: Biology and Fertility of Soils
  • Reviewer: Science of The Total Environment
  • Reviewer: Applied Soil Ecology
  • Reviewer: Pedosphere
  • Reviewer: Biogeosciences
  • Reviewer: Geoderma
  • Reviewer: Acta Ecologica Sinica
  • Reviewer: Global Change Biology Bioenergy
  • Reviewer: Soil Biology and Biochemistry
  • Reviewer: Scientific Reports
  • Reviewer: FEMS Microbiologyy Ecology
  • Reviewer: European Journal of Soil Sciences

 

Visiting Positions

  • Visiting Scientist: Rothamsed Research institute

 

Filter by

Date


21 results

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...

Spatial zoning of microbial functions and plant-soil nitrogen dynamics across a riparian area in an extensively grazed livestock system

Journal Article
de Sosa, L. L., Glanville, H. C., Marshall, M. R., Williams, A. P., Abadie, M., Clark, I. M., …Jones, D. L. (2018)
Spatial zoning of microbial functions and plant-soil nitrogen dynamics across a riparian area in an extensively grazed livestock system. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 120, 153-164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2018.02.004
Anthropogenic activities have significantly altered global biogeochemical nitrogen (N) cycling leading to major environmental problems such as freshwater eutrophication, biodi...

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