Mark Bradford

Mark Bradford's picture
Scientific Leadership Team
Natural climate solutions on managed lands: forests, pastures, grasslands and corplands
health, biology, ecology, and carbon storage potential of forest, grassland and agricultural soils

Mark A. Bradford is Professor of Soils and Ecosystem Ecology at the Yale School of the Environment and The Yale Forest School. His group’s research investigates how soil microbes and their interactions with plants govern carbon cycle responses to global change and ecosystem management. Their current work spans questions that address uncertainties in Earth system feedbacks to quantifying soil and forest health. He is particularly interested in how organisms and their interactions affect decomposition processes and soil carbon. He is author of over 190 academic papers and is an ISI highly-cited author in the field of Environment and Ecology.

Bradford connects to policy and practice through collaborations with NGOs and other agencies to produce and synthesize evidence that helps inform the management of soils to restore and protect soil carbon and hence soil and food security; and to inform the management of forests for native species and greenhouse gas mitigation. He teaches soil science and ecosystem science, with application to developing and managing ecosystem budgets. He holds a BSc and PhD in Biological Sciences from Exeter University (UK), did his graduate work at the then UK government Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, postdoctoral research at Imperial College, London and Duke University, and joined the faculty at the University of Georgia, Athens in 2005. He moved to Yale in 2009.

Where are you from: 
England - born in the southwest and raised in the northwest
Hobbies: 
Cycling, coaching soccer, hiking