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CAWR Newsletter
January 2025
Our monthly newsletters are an easy way to keep up-to-date with new developments at our research centre. From successful project bids to upcoming events, our newsletter informs you on how we are 'driving innovative transdisciplinary research on equitable, sustainable and resilient food and water systems.'
The views and opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the contributors at the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Coventry University.
Listening to the Land Gathering at the Oxford Real Farming Conference: “outer work is useful; inner work is essential”
Land Food and Spirit session at the ORFC (credit: Hugh Warwick)
On 8th January Julia Wright participated in a pre-event to the Oxford Real Farming Conference: Listening to the Land. Organised by the Real Farming Trust (RFT), Conscious Food Systems Alliance (CoFSA) and Animate Earth, the question was posed: How can the agroecological movement nurture a more reciprocal relationship with the natural world? Key issues arising included the importance of "inner work", how to deal with grief and loss, the collective consciousness and memory in all beings, the need to bring everyone together rather than polarisation, the trauma culture of the British Isles, and the relationship between the quality of food and consciousness. This day set the scene for a series of related sessions on Listening to the Land throughout the ORFC.
A packed room awaits the session celebrating the life and achievements of Michel Pimbert
CAWR Founding Director Recognised at Oxford Real Farming Conference
This year's ORFC held a session which recognised the work and achievements of CAWR founding director Michel Pimbert.
The event, entitled 'Conviviality and Disobedience' saw Michel's colleagues - including some from CAWR - and project partners from all around the world gather to discuss key themes which Michel's work has explored and to reflect on the impact he has had on them, demonstrating his influence not only on many individuals, but also on the wider development of the global agro-ecological movement.
Barbara introducing her work in the Coventry area
CAWR’s Polyculture Research Presented at Oxford Real Farming Conference
CAWR led a session on the value of polycultures for biodiversity at the ORFC. Led by Barbara Smith and chaired by Ulrich Schmutz, this lively session brought together speakers whose research is focussed on small market gardens.
Daisy Martinez, a PhD student from Edinburgh University (co-supervised by Barbara) gave a beautifully illustrated talk showing how small-scale market gardens benefit bats and moths. Barbara introduced her research investigating the benefits of polyculture to the wider environment.
The CAWR team and others working on peat phase-out at ORFC
Progress towards peat-free horticulture
CAWR researchers working to phase out peat from horticulture presented their research at the Oxford Real Farming Conference. The session discussed the production of peat-free blocks at a variety of scales, including growers participating in an Innovative Farmers Field Lab and a representative from the growing media industry. Find out more about our project here, Including our latest short film.
Omotola at her viva along with her supervisory team, examiners and the viva chair
Omotola Folorunsho’s Successful Viva and Publication in Science of the Total Environment
Omotola Folorunsho has successfully passed her viva with minor corrections. The title of her thesis is “The Occurrence and Fate of Emerging Contaminants (ECs) and Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in Surface Waters.”
This achievement is complemented by the exciting news that the third chapter of her thesis was accepted for publication in Science of the Total Environment. Omotola has already produced three high-quality publications in Royal Society of Chemistry's Analytical Methods, Chemosphere, and Science of Total Environment with another one pending submission.
Omotola's PhD was supervised by director of studies, Ivan Kourtchev, and co-supervisor Anna Bogush. They would like to thank Omotola for her hard work and her handling of the questions asked by the examiners (Prof. Chiara Giorio, University of Cambridge, and Prof. Sue Charlesworth, CAWR) during the viva.
Liz Trenchard with staff members Emma Jones and Sonny Walton of More Trees BANES community tree nursery at their Dry Arch Growers site in Bath
Growing Connections Case Study Visit to Community Tree Nursery Networks in Bath
Liz Trenchard and Sam Green researching community tree nurseries for the Growing Connections project, visited More Trees BANES community tree nursery. It’s a Bath-based network of community tree nurseries on 17 varied sites in the city. The volunteer and staff group welcomed us for volunteering together on the day and discussions included hub-and-spoke models of community tree nurseries, funding, recordkeeping, and tree seed collection, germination and planning.
New Project on Invasive Species Started
Members of the project team at January's kick-off meeting in Italy
The Horizon Europe project OneSTOP (OneBiosecurity Systems and Technology for People, Places and Pathways) started in January with a kick-off meeting bringing together the 19 partners at the European Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy.
The CAWR team (Katharina Dehnen-Schmutz, Alex Franklin and Sian Green) will lead the creation of a network of living labs for invasive species management across Europe to test novel technologies (AI camera recognition, eDNA) and citizen science for species detection as well as contributing to the analysis of public and stakeholder perceptions of invasive species and their management.
Victoria Adams and Dr Raghavendra Prasad her RHS Supervisor
Peat-Free Talks in Edinburgh
Victoria Adams attended the second workshop for ‘Supporting transition to peat-free horticulture in Scotland’ hosted by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. The initiative is supported by climateXchange and SRUC. Featuring technical talks by researchers and networking with industry stakeholders with additional interactive sessions.
Juliano taking measurements
Exploring Plant Resilience
PhD researcher Juliano Muniz da Silva dos Santos has been harvesting samples from his pot trial in the glasshouse at Ryton Organic Gardens. He will now be analysing soil microbiological activity and the nutrient content of leaf tissue to explore how resilient the rye plants have been to water stress, in relation to soil health.
The project, “Plant Resilience under Abiotic Stresses and Soil Health Bioindicators” is part of a dual award with Santa Catarina State University in Brazil and examines how biodynamic and homeopathic preparations along with Bokashi biofertiliser promote plant vitality.
Publications
Folorunsho O, Bogush A, Kourtchev I. (2025) Occurrence of emerging and persistent organic pollutants in the rivers Cam, Ouse and Thames, UK. Sci Total Environ. 14;962:178436. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.178436.
Bautista Quispe, J. I., Campos, L. C., Trejos, B., & Bogush, A. (2024). Exploring rural school students’ perceptions, willingness, motivations, and concerns regarding greywater treatment and reuse in southern Peru. Sustainable Environment, 11 (1). doi.org/10.1080/27658511.2024.2440960
REDDY, MASSEI, JARDANI, DIEPPOIS et al. (2024) Training deep learning models with a multi-station approach and static aquifer attributes for groundwater level simulation: what’s the best way to leverage regionalised information? HESS. In-press, preprint available at https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-794
DIOP, TRAMBLAY, BODIAN, EKOLU, ROUCHE, DIEPPOIS (2024) Flood frequency analysis in West Africa. Journal of Flood Risk Management. In-press.
BAULON, FOSSA, MASSEI, FLIPO, GALLOIS, FOURNIER, DIEPPOIS, et al. (2024) Sensitivity of groundwater levels to low-frequency climate variability in a large watershed. Sci. Total Environ. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.177636
MIRGOL, DIEPPOIS, et al. (2024) Future changes in agrometeorological extremes in the southern Mediterranean region: when and where will they affect croplands and wheatlands? Agric. For. Meteorol. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2024.110232
YANG, FOK, DIEPPOIS, et al. (2024) Examining relations between sea-level anomalies in the Nino3.4 region and terrestrial hydroclimatic conditions in China. J. Hydrol. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2024.131942
Yitbarek, TW, Wilson, JRU, Dehnen-Schmutz, K (2025): An assessment of tree planting schemes in Ethiopia: schemes that adhere to guidelines on good governance are more effective. Journal of Environmental Management. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.123475
Milgroom, J., Brem-Wilson, J. (2024) Opinion: How informal policies of care shape agroecological food systems. Rooted Magazine: Issue 1 on Policies for Agroecology. Open access
Kiss, C., Binder, L. (2024) Public procurement powering agroecological transformation in Europe. Rooted Magazine: Issue 1 on Policies for Agroecology. Open access
Faedo, L., Matias, C., Verdi, R., Wright, J., Rayns, F., Kretzschmar, A., & Boff, P. (2024). The use of mineral dynamised high dilutions for natural plant biostimulation; effects on plant growth, crop production, fruit quality, pest and disease incidence in agroecological strawberry cultivation. Biological Agriculture & Horticulture, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/01448765.2024.2396894
Novoa, A., Vimercati, G., Brundu, G., Richardson, D. M.,..Dehnen-Schmutz, K. … Weldesemaet, Y.T…. & Wilson, J. R. (2024). Stakeholders' views on the global guidelines for the sustainable use of non‐native trees. People and Nature 6: 1640-1654. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10670
Monerie, P.-A., Dieppois, B., Pohl, B., & Crétat, J. (2024). Internally driven variability of the Angola low is the main source of uncertainty for the future changes in southern African precipitation. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 129, e2024JD041255. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JD041255
Pandamkulangara Kizhakkethil, J., Shi, Z., Bogush, A., & Kourtchev, I. (2024). Aerosolisation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) during aeration of contaminated aqueous solutions. Atmospheric Environment, 120716. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2024.120716
Chiara Tornaghi, Michiel Dehaene (2024), AGROECOLOGICAL URBANISM: What is it, why we need it, and the role of UN-Habitat. Policy Briefing, Coventry, pp. 1-6, Open access
Chiara Tornaghi (2024), “Raising the ambition of urban agriculture in public space: nurturing urban agroecology and more-than-human health”, Chapter 13 in Beata Sirowy, Deni Ruggeri (eds), Urban Agriculture in Public Space: Planning and Designing for Human Flourishing in Northern European Cities and Beyond, SpringerNature, ISBN: 978-3-031-41549-4. Gold open access here
Raúl Terrile* , Nahuel Martinez, Nicolás Paz, Francisco Brunotto, Mariano Costa, Natalia Budai, Cristina Ruiz,Macarena Rizzi, Marta Invernizzi, Telma Scarpeci, Rubén D Piacentini, Kevin Winter and Chiara Tornaghi (2024), “Urban food waste for soil amendment? Analysis and characterisation of compost for use as inputs in agroecological horticultural production systems in the city of Rosario, Argentina”, in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems - Agroecology and Ecosystem Services, vol. 8, first published 5th April 2024, open access here
Aphramor, L. (2024) Queering as Process: Disrupting Scientific Imperialism for Health Justice Using Kitchen Table Pedagogy. Journal of Critical Dietetics, 7:2. https://doi.org/10.32920/jcd.v7i2.1964
