Mathematical Modelling for Peat's Sake

About this event

Peat bogs are a crucial carbon sink, storing twice as much carbon as the world’s forests. As such, preventing the degradation of peat bogs and securing their protection will be critical to prevent a climate and biodiversity catastrophe. To complement fieldwork and experiments in helping to predict and understand these key ecosystems, mathematical modelling can play a vital role. Many aspects of ongoing mathematical modelling of peat focus on the complex biochemical processes occurring within peat, but much work remains to be done to combine these aspects with the mechanics of erosion and growth.

In light of these challenges, this MiR@W day workshop seeks to bring together researchers from Life Sciences and Maths at Warwick along with researchers from beyond the University to share expertise on the modelling of peat and generate new collaborations.

Organisers: Thomasina Ball and Tom Hudson

Date: Tuesday 9 June 2026

Venue: B3.03, Zeeman building, University of Warwick

Registration form: click here.

Who should attend? Those interested in learning more about the mathematical modelling of the properties of peat. The aim of the workshop is to generate new collaborations on this topic and explore both what is known and what is unknown about this topic. We are very open to early career researchers attending (including PhD students and post-docs working in related areas).

Programme

11:30am	Welcome
11:40am	Creep and the Material Nature of Peat - David Large, Faculty of Engineering, Nottingham
12:10pm	Lunch (in Maths common room)
1:00pm	Microbial insights into peatland biogeochemistry - Ryan Mushinski, School of Life Sciences, Warwick
1:20pm	Tropical Peatland in a Changing Landscape - Sarah Cook, School of Life Sciences, Warwick and Hannah Kingsland, University of Leicester
1:40pm	From Peat to Equations: Towards a Continuum Theory for Hydrated Reactive Deformable Porous Media - Matteo Icardi, School of Mathematics, Nottingham
2:00pm	Coffee Break
2:30pm	Applied mathematical modelling of plastic deformation in solids - Ed Brambley, Warwick Mathematics Institute
2:50pm	Peat as a hierarchical poroelastic medium - Joe Webber, Warwick Mathematics Institute
3:10pm	Discussion session
4.00pm	Close