Environmental and Biochemical Sciences
Environmental and Biochemical Sciences (EBS) is a department of over 80 scientists and spans a range of disciplines encompassing entirely laboratory-based work to ecosystem-scale research across landscapes and rivers. The breadth and diversity of our work includes the metabolomics of food crops, their chemical makeup and control of this through plant breeding.
Our work on soils covers not only their distribution and classification but also function, composition and physical properties, in both natural and managed systems. This department is responsible for the National Soil Inventory of Scotland. The management of river catchments and biogeochemistry of water courses completes our research focus and we have strong links to the Scottish Government Centre of Expertise for Waters, CREW.
EBS has a large collection of analytical instrumentation. These are used to support our research and generate external income through our commercial subsidiary, James Hutton Limited. We work in an integrated way with the other science groups, using advanced modelling, bio- and enviro- informatics, soil and environmental databases, long-term monitoring datasets, geographic information systems and social-economic assessments. Our work uses research platforms and long- and short-term field sites across Scotland and the UK. Through collaboration our work and expertise are extended to a range of sites and systems across the globe, emphasising that, although based in Scotland, much of the work we do has much wider applications.
Our science
EBS work covers much of the terrestrial environment and involves soils, water and crop production. Our research deals with the fundamental composition of soils (geological, chemical and physical) and seeks to better understand soils as a natural resource, enabling its protection as well as its utilisation for crop production. The management of water resources is fundamental to our work and takes into consideration mountain catchments, rivers and the coastline.
