Mechanistic controls of post-deforestation

soil carbon persistence under changing climate and land-use

Deforested Amazon landscape showing cattle pasture replacing tropical forest, Brazil

The Science

The mechanisms that decide whether carbon stays in tropical soil

Understanding tropical soil carbon in a changing climate

Our research addresses the “mechanistic gap” in current carbon and land-use models. Tropical soils behave differently from temperate soils. We focus on four critical aspects of fire and land-use impacts on tropical soil organic carbon.

Four critical aspects

Mineralogical protection & texture

We assess how soil mineralogy governs a soil’s capacity to protect carbon from decomposition.

A changing climate

Rising temperatures and shifting rainfall will alter carbon cycling. We study soil-carbon × climate interactions across the Amazon Basin.

The fire legacy: pyrogenic carbon

Slash-and-burn deforestation leaves behind charcoal (PyC). We are the first to assess its long-term contribution to regional carbon budgets — testing whether this recalcitrant carbon offsets some losses from burning.

From mechanisms to models

We enhance the JULES land-surface model with multi-pool PyC fractions and agricultural management data (no-till, silvopasture) to sharpen global carbon projections.