Fabrizio Albanito

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• PhD. MRSB.
• Senior Soil Health and Carbon Specialist at UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

The potential for climate change mitigation by bioenergy crops and terrestrial carbon sinks has been the object of intensive research in the past decade. There has been much debate about whether energy crops used to offset fossil fuel use, or carbon sequestration in forests, would provide the best climate mitigation benefit. Most current food cropl...

There has been much debate about the uncertainties associated with the estimation of direct and indirect agricultural nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions in developing countries and in particular from tropical regions. In this study, we report an up-to-date review of the information published in peer-review journals on direct N2O emissions from agricultu...

New contingency policy plans are expected to be published by the United Kingdom government to set out urgent actions, such as carbon capture and storage, greenhouse gas removal, and the use of sustainable bioenergy to meet the greenhouse gas reduction targets of the 4th and 5th carbon budgets. In this study, we identify two plausible bioenergy prod...

The development of onshore wind energy impacts the land where it is constructed, together with competition for natural resources between the energy and land sector. The loss of terrestrial carbon stocks and ecosystem services from land use change to wind farms can be interpreted as the opportunity cost that landowners give up by choosing to constru...

There is a growing realisation that the complexity of model ensemble studies depends not only on the models used, but also on the experience and approach used by modellers to calibrate and validate results, which remain a source of uncertainty. Here, we applied a multi-criteria decision-making method to investigate the rationale applied by modeller...

Successful transitions to agroecology require shared understanding of the sustainability implications of transitions for food systems. To gain such understanding, a transdisciplinary approach is increasingly called for by funders, end users of research and scientists. Transdisciplinary processes were used in the UNISECO project to develop strategic...

This report provides methodological briefs that provide short, step-by-step, guidance and lessons learnt on applying key methods used in the H2020 UNISECO project. The briefs are available in electronic form and can be accessed via the Agro-ecological Knowledge Hub as a part of information content for the different target audiences (https://uniseco...

The overall objective of this report is to summarise the analysis of barriers and drivers hindering or facilitating the implementation of agro-ecological practices, and the strategies identified that address the barriers and drivers of agro-ecological transitions in the context of the 15 UNISECO case studies. The co-construction of the transition s...

This data article provides a high-resolution raw data on Nitrous Oxide (N2O) emission and its mitigation potential from global maize and wheat fields. The analytical results, discussion and conclusion thereof is presented in the related manuscript “Model Comparison and Quantification of Nitrous Oxide Emission and Mitigation Potential from Maize and...

In 15 case studies representing different European farming systems and stages along the agro-ecological transition, related barriers have been analysed and strategies co-constructed with the Multi-Actor Platforms over the course of the UNISECO project. The strategies are the result of different assessments (such as sustainability assessment or soci...

Maize and wheat are major cereals that contribute two-thirds of the food energy intake globally. The two crops consume about 35% of the nitrogen (N) fertilizer used in agriculture and thereby contribute to fertilizer-induced nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. Thus, estimation of spatially disaggregated N2O emissions from maize and wheat fields on a glo...

The alignment of the environmental, economic and social sustainability of farms is necessary for enhancing the provision of public goods in farming. This study combines the use of three tools for the assessment of farm sustainability. It provides first insights into the sustainability performance of farms at different stages of agro-ecological tran...

Agro-ecological approaches are fundamental for sustainable food production in the future, and the overarching objective of UNISECO is to co-develop improved and practice-validated strategies and incentives for the promotion of improved agro-ecological approaches. The key dilemma is how to produce public goods whilst maintaining viable production of...

Climate change will have dire consequences and collaborative efforts are required to quickly develop and assess mitigation solutions. Agriculture is the primary source of the powerful greenhouse gas (GHG) nitrous oxide (N2O) and an important source of GHG emissions. Due to sampling limitations, N2O measurements have traditionally been sparse; appro...

We present a new systems model that encompasses both environmental and socioeconomic outcomes to simulate impacts of organic resource use on livelihoods of smallholder farmers in low to middle income countries. It includes impacts on soils, which in many countries are degrading with long term loss of organic matter. Many farmers have easy access to...

To reach the reduced carbon emission targets proposed by the Paris agreement, one of the widely proposed decarbonizing strategies, referred to as negative emissions technologies (NETs), is the production and combustion of bioenergy crops in conjunction with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). However, concerns have been increasingly raised that rel...

Nitrous oxide emission factors (N2O-EF, percentage of N2O-N emissions arising from applied fertilizer N) for cropland emission inventories can vary with agricultural management, soil properties and climate conditions. Establishing a regionally-specific EF usually requires the measurement of a whole year of N2O emissions, whereas most studies measur...

The use of limited organic resources to build resilience to drought in semi-arid regions was investigated using systems modelling. The study focussed on Halaba in Ethiopia, drawing on biophysical and socioeconomic data obtained from a survey of farms before, during and after the 2015/16 El Niño event. Using a simplified weather dataset to remove no...

The use of limited organic resources to build resilience to drought in semi-arid regions was investigated using systems modelling. The study focussed on Halaba in Ethiopia, drawing on biophysical and socio-economic data obtained from a survey of farms before, during and after the 2015/16 El Niño event. Using a simplified weather dataset to remove n...

Reliable quantification of nitrous oxide emission is a key to assessing efficiency of use and environmental impacts of N fertilizers in crop production. In this study, N2O emission and yield were quantified with a database of 853 field measurements in 104 reported studies and a regression model was fitted to the associated environmental attributes...

Cropland expansion threatens biodiversity by driving habitat loss and impacts carbon storage through loss of biomass and soil carbon (C). There is a growing concern land use change (LUC) to cropland will result in a loss of ecosystem function and various ecosystem services essential for human health and wellbeing. This paper examines projections of...

Models are approximations of real systems. Although, in theory, there is no limit to the refinement and detail of a mathematical model, with greater refinement allowing more detailed representation of the physical system, there is a practical limit in terms of the model outputs, which is, in part, defined by the intended end use. This chapter descr...

meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2012/EGU2012-1482.pdf

The contribution of old soil C (SOM) to total soil respiration (RS) in forest has been a crucial topic in global change research, but remains uncertain. Isotopic methods, such as natural variations in carbon isotope composition (δ13C) of soil respiration, are more frequently being applied, and show promise in separating heterotrophic and autotrophi...

Heterotrophic and autotrophic components of soil respiration react differently to projected changes in environmental conditions. In addition, individual heterotrophic components, such as litter and soil organic matter in underlying mineral soil layers might contribute differently to the respiration flux.Therefore, partitioning of surface soil CO2 f...

Systems approaches have great potential for application in predictive ecology. In this paper, we present a range of examples, where systems approaches are being developed and applied at a range of scales in the field of global change and biogeochemical cycling. Systems approaches range from Bayesian calibration techniques at plot scale, through dat...

A novel process-based soil model (MOSES - Modelling Soil Ecosystem Services) is described and tested using field data. The model is designed to provide information about a soil profile at approximately 1-cm depth resolution, on a 1 min timestep. Conceptualisation of the model has targeted a set of soil ecosystem service-related functions, including...

Summary To better understand the factors controlling carbon dioxide (CO2) production and transport in soil, we developed a new method to continuously monitor soil CO2 concentration at multiple depths, by using diffusion chambers. The soil diffusion chambers are constructed from a high-density polyethylene cylindrical frame enclosed by a micro-polyv...

In recent years soil CO2 emissions has been the subject of intense investigation because (i) its potential role in amplifying global warming; and (ii) gaseous compounds formed in the soil environment are, in general, good indicator of soil biology and biochemistry. Accurate techniques used to monitor soil CO2 profile concentrations offers the oppor...

Perennial species with the C(4) pathway hold promise for biomass-based energy sources. We have explored the extent that CO(2) uptake of such species may be limited by light in a temperate climate. One energetic cost of the C(4) pathway is the leakiness () of bundle sheath tissues, whereby a variable proportion of the CO(2), concentrated in bundle s...

Perennial species with the C-4 pathway hold promise for biomass-based energy sources. We have explored the extent that CO2 uptake of such species may be limited by light in a temperate climate. One energetic cost of the C-4 pathway is the leakiness (phi) of bundle sheath tissues, whereby a variable proportion of the CO2, concentrated in bundle shea...

It is widely accepted that anthropogenically driven climate change is having a significant impact on the natural environment of Ireland and this will accelerate in the future. The changes have been attributed to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, of which carbon dioxide (CO2) is the main contributor. There is now incre...