Emma works as a Carbon Balance Modelling Scientist within the Mensuration, Growth and Yield team. She conducts forest carbon modelling and Life Cycle Assessment to investigate the impacts of forest management practices, climate change, pests and diseases, and land use change.

Currently, Emma is working on various projects, including multiple work packages within the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero – Forest Research Memorandum of Understanding (DESNZ-FR MoU), which provides evidence to policymakers around ongoing and emerging topics within forestry and climate change mitigation. Additionally, she provides support to the carbon modelling aspect of the Defra EVAST project, which aims to simulate how Defra policies in England might impact ecosystem service stocks, flows, and values. She also contributes to modelling the greenhouse gas emissions and removals of forested land for the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI) Projections.

Previously at Forest Research, Emma worked on the Defra Forestry Research and Development (FR&D) ReForeSt project, which aimed to investigate the impacts of woodland management on forest structure, biodiversity, and carbon. Her role in this project was to use the CARBINE forest carbon accounting model to model the carbon impacts of restoring management to currently unmanaged woodlands. She also worked on the Defra Nature for Climate Fund (NCF) project “Comparing the carbon budgets of different land use options”. Emma’s work included developing Life Cycle Assessments for different types of forestry and using Ecological Site Classification (ESC) and CARBINE to model carbon storage within forests. She also supported the FR&D Expanding Agroforestry project, conducting data analysis and visualisation to quantify carbon storage within hedgerows and silvoarable agroforestry systems.