Born and educated in the Netherlands, Cecile came to New Zealand and AgResearch in 1995 and now leads the nitrous oxide (N₂O) research team which focuses on developing mitigation strategies for reducing N₂O emissions from pastoral soils. As a Principal Investigator at the New Zealand Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (NZAGRC), she also leads the N₂O research programme conducted through the NZAGRC.

Cecile is also the Programme Leader for the P21 Research Programme – Environment, a cross-organisation R&D programme focused on the development of farmer-friendly tools and technologies for reducing losses of nitrogen, phosphorus, sediment and faecal indicator organisms to our surface water bodies. In this role, she is working closely with the pastoral industry, in particular DairyNZ, Fonterra and Beef+Lamb NZ, and the collaborating research organisations.

Cecile was the New Zealand representative on an international panel to review the N₂O inventory methodology of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a role for which she was honoured with a copy of the 2007 Nobel Peace prize that was awarded jointly to Al Gore and the IPCC. She is working closely with MAFPolicy in coordinating and conducting national research programmes on N₂O emissions from soil to improve New Zealand’s N₂O inventory methodology. She currently leads several N₂O research programme including one of the four national field trials investigating the effect of nitrification inhibitors on pasture response and N₂O emissions.

Recent publications

de Klein, C.A.M. and Monaghan, R.M. (2011). The effect of farm and catchment management on nitrogen transformations and N₂O losses of pastoral systems – can we off-set the effects of future intensification? Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 3:396-406.

van der Weerden, T.J., Luo, J., de Klein, C.A.M., Hoogendoorn, C.J., Littlejohn, R.P. and Rys G.S. (2011). Disaggregating nitrous oxide emission factors for ruminant urine and dung deposited onto pastoral soils. Agriculture, Ecosystem and Environment 141: 426-436.

de Klein, C.A.M., Cameron, K.C., Di, H.J., Rys, G., Monaghan, R.M. and Sherlock, R.R. (2011). Repeated annual use of the nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide (DCD) does not alter its effectiveness in reducing N₂O emissions from cow urine. Animal Feed Science and Technology 166-167: 480-491.

de Klein, C.A.M., Monaghan, R.M., Ledgard, S.F. and Shepherd, M. (2010). Evaluating the effectiveness of measures to mitigate the environmental impacts of nitrogen lost from pastoral dairy farming. Invited keynote paper. Proceedings of the 4th Australasian Dairy Science Symposium. Pp 14-28.

de Klein, C.A.M., Eckard, R.J. and van der Weerden, T.J. (2010). Nitrous oxide emissions from the N cycle in livestock agriculture: estimation and mitigation. In: Nitrous Oxide and Climate Change (Ed. K.A. Smith) Earthscan Publications. Pp 107-142.​