Alona Armstrong

Alona is currently a Natural Environment Research Council Industrial Innovation Fellow and a Senior Lecturer in Energy & Environmental Sciences. She is the Plant, Soil and Land Systems research group within Lancaster Environment Centre and a core member of Energy Lancaster, leading the Energy & Environment Theme.

Alona’s research focuses on the implications of the low carbon energy transition on the local environment, including ecosystem function, properties and service provision. She uses a range of desk, field, laboratory and modelling approaches to resolve understanding, taking a positive approach – we need to decarbonise energy supplies and there will be more land take for renewable energy infrastructure but how can we do this whilst maximising environmental co-benefits?

Working collaboratively with stakeholders from across sectors, she looks to use the understanding developed to inform policy and practice, with the underpinning aim of promoting the delivery of environmental benefits, beyond that of low carbon energy, from the energy transition. Previous to her energy research, she focused on the response of peatland carbon cycling to land management perturbations.