James Morison, BSc, PhD

 

Head of Environmental Change Group, Environmental and Human Sciences Division

Email: james.morison@forestry.gsi.gov.uk

Tel: +44 (0)1420 22255
Tel direct: +44 (0)1420 526175
Fax: +44 (0)1420 23563

Address:
Forest Research
Alice Holt Lodge
Farnham
Surrey GU10 4LH
UK

James joined Forest Research in January 2008. He has a research background in plant biology and particularly plant responses to, and interactions with, the environment. He came from a Readership at the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Essex (1995-2007) after lecturing in Agricultural Meteorology at the University of Reading (1985-1994). He did post-doctoral research in CSIRO in Canberra on the effect of high CO2 on plant growth (1981-1985). His BSc was in Ecology from Lancaster University (1977), and his PhD was from the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Edinburgh (1981).

Current role

Programme Leader and Head of Environmental Change Group, Environmental and Human Sciences Division

Current programmes

The Environmental Change Group works on four related programmes:

• Climate change impacts
• Climate change mitigation
• Environmental Change Network
• Intensive long term monitoring of forest ecosystems

Affiliations and achievements

• Member of Royal Meteorological Society
• Member of Society for Experimental Biology
• Member of British Ecological Society
• Member of American Society for Plant Biology
• Member of Association of Applied Biologists
• Member of NERC Peer Review College
• Member of the Advisory Board of the Journal of Experimental Botany.

Research areas

• Role of forests in climate change
• Impact of climatic, atmospheric and other environmental changes on forest growth
• Plant environmental physiology, including plant response to stress, particularly water and temperature
• Water use by trees and plant control of water loss and gas uptake
• Leaf and forest canopy function, including imaging techniques for assessment of forest response to stress
• Forest meteorology and microclimate, including fluxes of gases and energy between atmosphere and forest
• Forest and land use sustainability.

Main recent publications

Morison, J.I.L., Baker, N.R., Mullineaux, P.M. & Davies W.J. (2008).  Improving water use in crop production. Commissioned Review for Special Issue on Sustainability in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Series B. 363(1491): 639-658.

Morison, J.I.L., Lawson, T., & Cornic, G. (2007). Lateral CO₂ diffusion inside dicotyledonous leaves can be substantial: quantification in different light intensities. Plant Physiology 145: 680-690.

Morison, J.I.L. & Lawson, T. (2007). Does lateral CO₂ diffusion in leaves matter ? Commissioned Review for Special Issue on Photosynthesis of Plant, Cell & Environment, 30: 1072-1085.

Morison, J.I.L & Morecroft, M.D. (2006). (editors) Plant Growth and Climate Change. Multichapter volume in the Biological Sciences Series, Blackwell Publishing, 213pp.

Viner, D., Morison, J.I.L. & Wallace, C. (2006). Recent and future climate change and their implications for plant growth. Chapter 1 in Morison J.I.L. & Morecroft M.D. (editors) Plant Growth and Climate Change, Blackwell Publishing. 213pp.

Stokes, V.J., Morecroft, M.D. & Morison, J.I.L. (2006). Boundary layer conductance for contrasting leaf shapes in a deciduous broadleaved canopy. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 139: 40-54.

Morison, J.I.L., Gallouët, E.,  Lawson, T., Cornic, G., Herbin, R.  & Baker, N.R. (2005) Lateral diffusion of CO₂ in leaves is not sufficient to support photosynthesis. Plant Physiology 139: 254-266.

Morison, J.I.L., Hine R., & Pretty, J.N. (2005). Survey and analysis of labour on organic farms and smallholdings in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Intl. J. of Agricultural Sustainability 3: 24-43.

Lawson, T. & Morison, J.I.L. (2004). Stomatal function and physiology. Chapter 12 in The Evolution of Plant Physiology, eds A.R. Hemsley & I. Poole, Linnean Society Symposium Series no. 21, pp. 217-242, Elsevier.

Morecroft, M.D., Stokes, V.J. & Morison, J.I.L. (2003). Seasonal changes in the photosynthetic capacity of canopy oak (Quercus robur) leaves: the impact of slow development on annual carbon uptake. Intl. J. of Biometeorology 47: 221-226.

Lawson, T. Oxborough, K., Morison, J.I.L., & Baker, N.R. (2002). Responses of photosynthetic electron transport in stomatal guard cells and mesophyll cells in intact leaves to light, CO₂ and humidity. Plant Physiology 128: 52-62.

Lodge, R.J., Dijkstra, P., Drake, B.G. &  Morison, J.I.L. (2001). Stomatal acclimation to increased CO₂ concentration in a Florida scrub oak species Quercus myrtifolia Willd. Plant, Cell & Environment 24: 77-88.

Morison, J.I.L., Piedade, M.T.F, Müller, E., Long, S.P., Junk, W.J. & Jones, M.B. (2000). Very high productivity of the C4 aquatic grass Echinochloa polystachya in the Amazonian floodplain confirmed by net ecosystem CO₂ flux measurements. Oecologia 125: 400-411.

Beale, C.V., Morison, J.I.L. & Long, S.P. (1999). Water use efficiency of the C₄ biomass crops Miscanthus x giganteus  and Spartina cynosuroides in the temperate climate of England. Agricultural & Forest Meteorology, 96:103-115.

Zhang, H, Morison, J.I.L. & Simmonds, L.P. (1999). Transpiration and water relations of poplar trees growing close to the water table. Tree Physiology, 19:563-573.

Morison, J.I.L. & Lawlor, D.W. (1999). Interactions between increased CO₂ and temperature on plant growth. Commissioned Review for Special Issue, Plant, Cell & Environment, 22: 659-682.

Zhang, H., Simmonds, L.P., Morison, J.I.L. & Payne, D. (1997). Estimation of transpiration by single trees: comparison of sap flow measurements with a combination equation. Agricultural & Forest Meteorology 87:155-169.