Rothamsted Centre for Bioenergy and Climate Change

 » To develop and promulgate new management practices which reduce the UK carbon and nitrogen footprint by enhancing the long-term storage of carbon in managed land while simultaneously reducing the emissions of the other greenhouse gases: N₂O or CH₄.

 » To predict impacts of climate change on existing crop pests, diseases and weeds and determine risks posed by new invading species.

 » To optimise the sustainable yield of perennial biomass crops in the context of the constraints of temperature, water, nutrients, light and biotic interactions.

 » To optimise biomass composition for improved conversion into bioenergy and liquid transport fuels.

 » To develop and apply novel methodologies that integrate understanding of the processes operating at cell, organism, community and ecosystem levels as a means of predicting and mitigating the impacts of climate change on agro-ecosystems.

 » To understand the processes that moderate the microbial oxidation of methane in agricultural soils.

 » To develop carbon-neutral renewable energy solutions by increasing sustainable yield and feedstock quality of perennial biomass crops through improved understanding of bioenergy-relevant plant processes and the identification and selection of genotypes with improved resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses.

 » To understand how functional groups of organisms and processes below and above ground are affected by changing inputs and how they respond to climate change.

 » To understand, predict and model the environmental and socio-economic impacts of changed land use associated with widespread adoption of energy crops.