ENAC Seminar Series by Dr S. Bonetti
Event details
| Date | 13.11.2020 |
| Hour | 15:15 › 16:00 |
| Speaker | Dr Sara Bonetti |
| Location |
Zoom
Online
|
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
15:15 – 16:00 – Dr Sara Bonetti
Research fellow at University College London, UK
From roots to landscapes: soil processes across scales
Soil provides critical regulatory and ecosystem services, from water filtration and storage to climate regulation and food production. Inventorying and characterizing soil functions is essential for sustainable land management and for calibrating intensive land use for food security. Yet, ability to describe soil as a living system remains limited due to the complex interactions of biotic and abiotic processes acting over a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. Here, efforts and opportunities in the representation of small‐scale soil and hydrological processes for regional and global applications are first considered. Under certain soil and climatic conditions, small scale soil structure features prominently alter the hydrologic response emerging at larger scales. The concept of soil as a dynamic system, whose temporal evolution shapes the spatial arrangement of soil physical, biological, and chemical properties, is then illustrated. I will focus on the contrasting features of natural and intensively managed landscapes to discuss the impact of anthropogenic disturbances on erosional processes and their legacy effects on biogeochemical cycles. Novel quantitative, data-informed and holistic approaches to soil system science must integrate the physical, social, and economic dimensions of soils at scales ranging from pedons to continents to ensure long-term sustainability of soil resources.
Short bio:
Sara Bonetti received a BSc degree in 2009 and a MSc degree in 2011 in Civil Engineering, both at the University of Padova (Italy). From 2012 to 2014 she was a research assistant at the University of Padova (Italy) and at the Nicholas School of the Environment (Duke University, USA), where she worked on soil-plant-atmosphere modelling. In 2018, Sara obtained her PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Duke University, under the supervision of Prof. Amilcare Porporato. The focus of her doctoral dissertation was the analysis and modelling of landscape evolution and soil erosion. During her doctoral studies, Sara spent one year as a visiting graduate student at Princeton University (USA). From August 2018 to July 2020, she was a postdoctoral associate at the Soil and Terrestrial Environmental Physics group at ETH Zurich (Switzerland). She joined the Institute for Sustainable Resources at University College London in February 2020 where she primarily works on the SHEFS (Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems) project, contributing to the quantification of the environmental impacts of food production with a specific focus on water and soil resources.
Research fellow at University College London, UK
From roots to landscapes: soil processes across scales
Soil provides critical regulatory and ecosystem services, from water filtration and storage to climate regulation and food production. Inventorying and characterizing soil functions is essential for sustainable land management and for calibrating intensive land use for food security. Yet, ability to describe soil as a living system remains limited due to the complex interactions of biotic and abiotic processes acting over a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. Here, efforts and opportunities in the representation of small‐scale soil and hydrological processes for regional and global applications are first considered. Under certain soil and climatic conditions, small scale soil structure features prominently alter the hydrologic response emerging at larger scales. The concept of soil as a dynamic system, whose temporal evolution shapes the spatial arrangement of soil physical, biological, and chemical properties, is then illustrated. I will focus on the contrasting features of natural and intensively managed landscapes to discuss the impact of anthropogenic disturbances on erosional processes and their legacy effects on biogeochemical cycles. Novel quantitative, data-informed and holistic approaches to soil system science must integrate the physical, social, and economic dimensions of soils at scales ranging from pedons to continents to ensure long-term sustainability of soil resources.
Short bio:
Sara Bonetti received a BSc degree in 2009 and a MSc degree in 2011 in Civil Engineering, both at the University of Padova (Italy). From 2012 to 2014 she was a research assistant at the University of Padova (Italy) and at the Nicholas School of the Environment (Duke University, USA), where she worked on soil-plant-atmosphere modelling. In 2018, Sara obtained her PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Duke University, under the supervision of Prof. Amilcare Porporato. The focus of her doctoral dissertation was the analysis and modelling of landscape evolution and soil erosion. During her doctoral studies, Sara spent one year as a visiting graduate student at Princeton University (USA). From August 2018 to July 2020, she was a postdoctoral associate at the Soil and Terrestrial Environmental Physics group at ETH Zurich (Switzerland). She joined the Institute for Sustainable Resources at University College London in February 2020 where she primarily works on the SHEFS (Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems) project, contributing to the quantification of the environmental impacts of food production with a specific focus on water and soil resources.
Practical information
- General public
- Invitation required
- This event is internal
Organizer
- ENAC
Contact
- Cristina Perez