Martin Evans

Martin Evans is Professor of Geomorphology at the University of Manchester. He studied at Oxford and the University of British Columbia and has worked at the universities of Durham and latterly Manchester for over 25 years researching the erosion and restoration of peatlands. His work investigates the physical and biogeochemical processes that underpin the functioning of degraded and restored systems and more recently has focussed on the ways in which peatland restoration can be optimised to deliver a range of ecosystem services. This has included UK research council projects on the microbial basis of peatland resilience and on optimisation of restoration to deliver flood mitigation to downstream communities. Currently he is leading the Manchester component of a £4.5m demonstrator project assessing the optimisation of upland peat restoration to maximise carbon sequestration.

Martin is a fellow of the British Society for Geomorphology of the Royal Geographical Society and is the author of over 100 publications on peatland erosion, restoration, function and ecosystem services. He works closely with a range of policy and practitioner partners on peatland research including the IUCN peatland programme, Moors for the Future, Yorkshire Peat Partnership, The Environment Agency, Natural England and the National Trust. This close connection with restoration practice and policy has allowed work at the scale necessary to implement optimised peatland restoration in ways that deliver tangible societal benefits. These connections mean that there is a clear path to widespread adoption of the approaches we aim to explore in the Bezos Earth Fund project if it is supported. Martin is also an editor of Geography Review magazine which is a periodical aimed at high school students studying geography in their final two years. This provides an opportunity for wider public engagement around the proposed sphagnum-methane project as the carbon cycle is a key part of their studies.

October 2024