Staff Profile:Dr Jake Bishop

Name:

Dr Jake Bishop

Job Title:

Lecturer in Crop Science and Production

Responsibilities:

Areas of Interest:

I study how food production by crop plants is affected by stressful weather conditions such as heatwaves and droughts, and what we can do to mitigate negative impacts. I specialise in faba bean (Vicia faba) but also work with wheat, oilseed rape and apple. Crop plants are part of a wider ecosystem, so I also investigate how the weather can change interactions between crops and beneficial organisms such as insect pollinators, natural enemies of pests, and Rhizobia bacteria. My research group uses a variety of approaches, from analysing historical records of weather and crop yields, to exposing crop plants or model ecosystems to simulated climate change in controlled environments. Our aim is to develop a better understanding of threats to food production and help food producers to adapt as unfavourable weather conditions become more common in the changing climate. Moving from my specialism of food production, to people having a stable supply of healthy food, is a complicated step and my research is only part of the puzzle, so I collaborate across a wide network of researchers including numerical modellers and economists.

Responsibilities:

• Module convenor for AP3A90 and APMA90 Climate Change and Food Systems, AP1A02 Introduction to Agricultural and Food systems, lecturer on several other modules
• Chair of Committee for Diversity and Inclusion, School of Agriculture, Policy & Development
• Supervision of undergraduate and postgraduate research projects
• Academic tutor to undergraduate students

Research group:

PhD Students

• Caroline Harkness. Optimising agriculture for a changing climate: which farming practises confer reliability of food production and farm income? Supervised with: Francisco Areal (UoR), Mikhail Semenov and Ian Shield (Rothamsted-Research). Funders: Rothamsted Reading Alliance.
• Stuart Edwards. Pests, plants and parasitoids: how does climate variability affect tri-trophic interactions in apple orchards? Supervised with: Richard Walters and Robbie Girling (UoR), Glen Powell (East Malling Research). Funders: BBSRC CTP in Fruit Crop Research.
• Richard Gantlett. High biomass crop rotation and its impact on soil health, weed burden and crop production. Supervised with: Martin Lukac and Hannah Jones (UoR). Part funded by Huntley and Palmers Scholarship Fund.

Alumni

• Paolo Capece (visiting researcher).
• Madeleine Pow, Jonathan Fry, Adreena Lau, Charles Geary (research placement students).

Current opportunities:

Contact me to discuss applying with me for a fellowship or PhD studentship funding or if you have your own funding.

Current projects:

• FACYNation: optimising wheat cultivar selection in a changing climate. Collaborating with Edward Pope (Met Office), Lisa Emberson (University of York), Seb Oliver and Raphael Shirley (University of Sussex). The effective assessment of new crop cultivars is an essential part of ensuring food security in a changing climate. We are developing a simulation tool that will learn a yield model for existing and new UK wheat cultivars and map that model across the UK to predict performance (and spatio-temporal variability) for current and future environments using UKCP18 climate projections. Funded by STFC SFN+, 2019.
• Developing a network to improve productivity and nutritional value of Kenyan grain amaranth. Collaborating with Myriam Grundy (Reading), Willis Owino (Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya) and Fanuel Kawaka (Technical University of Mombasa). We are working to (i) collect preliminary data on genetic and environmental factors affecting grain amaranth production and nutritional value, and (ii) develop a wider researcher network across the food system. Funded by GCRF, 2018-2019.

Recent projects:

• AgriCLASS: Agricultural Climate Advisory Services. Engaging with agricultural stakeholders in Italy and France to develop user requirements for a medium range climate information service relating to olives, grapevines and forestry.
• MACSUR: Modelling European Agriculture with Climate Change for Food Security. Impact assessment of extreme events on European food security. I maintain connections within the MACSUR knowledge hub and I am a co-author on a recent Research Gap Report.

Professional activities:

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Member of Association of Applied Biologists specialist group for Cropping and the Environment
• Reviewer for ISI journals and funding councils

Research groups / Centres:

Publications:

Y

Jump to: 2018 | 2017 | 2016

Number of items: 5.

2018

• Garratt, M. P. D., Bishop, J., Degani, E., Potts, S. G., Shaw, R. F., Shi, A. and Roy, S. (2018) Insect pollination as an agronomic input: strategies for oilseed rape production. Journal of Applied Ecology, 55 (6). pp. 2834-2842. ISSN 0021-8901 doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13153

2017

• Bishop, J., Jones, H. E., O'Sullivan, D. M. and Potts, S. G. (2017) Elevated temperature drives a shift from selfing to outcrossing in the insect pollinated legume, faba bean (Vicia faba). Journal of Experimental Botany, 68 (8). pp. 2055-2063. ISSN 0022-0957 doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erw430

2016

• Bishop, J., Potts, S. G. and Jones, H. E. (2016) Susceptibility of faba bean (Vicia faba L.) to heat stress during floral development and anthesis. Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science, 202 (6). pp. 508-517. ISSN 1439-037X doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/jac.12172
• Settele, J., Bishop, J. and Potts, S. G. (2016) Climate change impacts on pollination. Nature Plants, 2 (7). 16092. ISSN 2055-0278 doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2016.92
• Bishop, J., Jones, H. E., Lukac, M. and Potts, S. G. (2016) Insect pollination reduces yield loss following heat stress in faba bean (Vicia faba L.). Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 220. pp. 89-96. ISSN 0167-8809 doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2015.12.007

This list was generated on Thu Sep 19 00:34:55 2019 UTC.

Qualifications:

BSc; PhD