Profile
Biography
Steph is a PhD student with the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) and The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) at the University of York. She has research experience in plant ecology and physiology, across both academia and industry. Steph is interested in food security, international development, and building resilience of food systems in response to global change.
She spent the first two years of her PhD at CEH Bangor planning and managing large-scale air pollution experiments, and is now applying her experimental data in ecophysiological modelling at SEI York.
Career
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2013-present
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PhD student
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Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) and SEI York
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Jan - April 2015
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Postgraduate Research Fellow
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Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST)
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2009-2013
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BSc Ecology
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University of Sheffield
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July – Sept 2012
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Research Assistant
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University of Gent
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2011-2012
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Industrial Trainee
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Syngenta
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Research
Overview
Description of PhD:
Title: Modelling the impact of ozone pollution on food security in Europe and South Asia
Supervisors: Prof. Gina Mills and Dr. Lisa Emberson
Funding: Natural Environment Research Council
Description of Thesis:
My PhD project investigates how tropospheric ozone - a common air pollutant and toxin - can influence the physiology of crop plants, and lead to severe reductions in yield. The research focusses on crop varieties grown in Europe and South Asia, and investigates how the air pollution risk to food security might differ between these two world regions. Data collection for the PhD project has involved carrying out large-scale air pollution exposure experiments at the CEH Bangor Solardome facility, and a measurement campaign at Banaras Hindu University, India. I am currently in the process of applying my experimental data in the calibration and development of a stomatal conductance model, with the aim of trying to improve existing tools for predicting air pollution impacts to crops.
Publications
Selected publications
Osborne, S.A., Mills, G., Hayes, F., Ainsworth, E.A., Büker, P. and Emberson, L (2016). Has the sensitivity of soybean cultivars to ozone pollution increased with time? An analysis of published dose-response data. Global Change Biology, 22(9):3097-111.
Osborne, S.A. and Wentworth, J. (2015). Novel Food Production POSTnote.
