Sebastián Horacio Villarino

• PhD
• National Scientific and Technical Research Council

Anaerobic digestion can produce renewable natural gas and is a viable alternative to conventional sources. When anaerobic digesters are coupled with agricultural systems, the resulting anaerobic digestate solids (ADS) after biogas production can be applied to fields as a fertilizer and an organic soil amendment. Therefore, ADS can potentially incre...

Native forests host important pools of soil organic carbon (SOC). This is a key element not only for ecosystem functioning, but also for the global carbon cycle. Globally, and particularly in Argentina, native forests are being rapidly replaced by other land uses, raising questions about the impact of these transformations on SOC and its environmen...

The nationally determined contribution (NDC) presented by Argentina within the framework of the Paris Agreement is aligned with the decisions made in the context of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on the reduction of emissions derived from deforestation and forest degradation, as well as forest carbon conservation...

For millennia, agriculture has been shaping landscapes on Earth. Technological change has increased agricultural productivity dramatically, especially in the past six decades, but also resulted in trade-offs such as land and soil degradation, emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs), and spreading of toxic substances. In this article we review the impac...

The restoration of soil organic matter (SOM, as measured by soil organic carbon (SOC)) within the world’s agricultural soils is imperative to sustaining crop production and restoring other ecosystem services. We compiled long-term studies on the effect of management practices on SOC from Iowa, USA—an agricultural region with relatively high-quality...

Soil organic matter (SOM) mineralization and nitrogen (N) release are key biogeochemical processes for which the relative contribution of particulate (POM) and mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM) fractions is poorly understood. MAOM is generally considered to be a more stable fraction that contains most of the soil organic N, whereas POM is mo...

Cow-calf production is the main practice within marginal agricultural lands of the world, like the Flooding Pampa of Argentina, where it promotes the transformation of native tall-tussock grasslands Paspalum quadrifarium into native short-grass grasslands or sown pastures. The effect of these land use changes on water dynamics are not well understo...

In Argentina, current food and land-use systems are drivers of greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, nutrient outflows, chemical pollution and water stress, while they fail to produce sustainable livelihoods for farmers and herders. Argentina must transition toward more sustainable food and land-use systems to achieve the sustainable develop...

The Gran Chaco (Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil) has turned into a global deforestation hotspot as a consequence of the agricultural expansion. These land use changes can lead to large socio-ecological conflicts. To reduce adverse effects, common regional planning is needed, which requires diagnostic and prospective information on the terri...

Soil organic carbon formation remains poorly understood despite its importance for human livelihoods. Uncertainties remain for the relative contributions of aboveground, root, and rhizodeposition inputs to particulate (POC) and mineral-associated (MAOC) organic carbon fractions. Combining a novel framework with isotope tracer studies, we quantified...

List> • Current intensification trends in the Rio de la Plata need urgent re-direction. •Integrated crop-livestock systems reconcile food production with ecosystem services. •Case studies validate recoupling as a sustainable way to ecological intensification. The Rio de la Plata region comprises central Argentina, Uruguay, and southern Brazil....

Where agriculture expands into tropical and subtropical forests, social–ecological impacts are typically strong. However, where and how frontier development impacts on ecosystem functioning and services is often unclear, including which services trade‐off against agricultural production. This constitutes a major barrier towards planning for more su...

This letter is in press, together with a response by Viglizzo et al. to our comments relating to their original paper. The 3 of them are better interpreted as a set.

Desde 2017 funciona la Unidad Demostrativa Agroecológica Balcarce (UDAB) en el marco de la Unidad Integrada Balcarce (UIB). Posee un triple carácter: demostrativo, de investigación y de formación de recursos humanos. A lo largo de los tres años del sistema se han implementado en sus 42 ha sistemas de producción en transición agroecológica incluyend...

The basis and essence of life on earth depends on soil health, and its main indicator is the soil organic carbon (SOC) content. Hence, SOC stock is a key component for the supply of many ecosystem services (SOC-mediated ES), such as erosion protection, nutrient cycling, water regulation, and climate regulation. Land use changes from natural ecosyst...

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is the main terrestrial carbon (C) reservoir. Land use change has depleted SOC stocks and released large amounts of C dioxide (CO2). Thus, the development of reliable tools for SOC stock monitoring at large scale is fundamental to face climate change. Argentinean Semiarid Chaco (ASC) is a deforestation hotspot, but CO2 emi...

Grasslands have been modified and replaced worldwide and have affected water regulation ecosystem services. In order to support public policies attending to the consequences of different grassland modifications and replacements, general patterns and models about their consequences on water regulation are needed. We quantitatively meta-analyzed the...

Land use change affects soil organic carbon (SOC) and generates CO2 emissions. Moreover, SOC depletion entails degradation of soil functions that support ecosystem services. Large areas covered by dry forests have been cleared in the Semiarid Chaco Region of Argentina for cropping expansion. However, deforestation impacts on the SOC stock and its d...

Soil organic carbon (SOC) plays a vital role in determining soil quality and health, but also SOC decrease contributes significantly to the increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration. Countries need to quantify their SOC stocks and flows in order to assess their greenhouse gas emissions. To facilitate this, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Cha...

The potential of landscapes to supply multiple benefits to society beyond commodities production has received increasing research and policy attention. Linking the concept of multifunctionality with the ecosystem services (ES) approach offers a promising avenue for producing scientific evidence to inform landscape planning, e.g., about the relative...

La colza (Brassica napus, B. campestris) en siembra directa (SD) representa una alternativa en los sistemas de rotación actuales. Armadillidium vulgare es una de las plagas principales de los cultivos en SD. El objetivo de este trabajo fue evaluar cebos de acción combinada como estrategia alternativa de control de dicha especie. Se realizaron ensay...