The Science
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.
Header image credit: Amazônia Real / Bruno Kelly, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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