Permanent researcher at Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Agriculture and Environment Research Center, CREA-AA Roma, Italy. Iām an agronomist with a PhD in Agricultural Science.
My research is focused on sustainable agriculture, including practices as diversification, no tillage, cover crops, and compost application and how they affect soil quality and soil organic matter sequestration in Mediterranean regions; application and adaptation of ecosystem models (RothC and WinEPIC) to assess the effect of agricultural soil management and climate change on soil C dynamic; use of indicators and multiscale assessment to evaluate sustainability of agricultural practices; design and evaluation of diversified cropping systems from field to market, including value chain. Author of more than 80 publication, 34 of which are listed in Scopus.
In the Bio4Food project my role mainly regards the assessment of the effect of extracts and composts on biological and chemical soil properties. The effects on the biological component of the soil will be assessed by measuring the difference between initial and final status of four soil enzymes, namely dehydrogenase, beta-glucosidase, alkaline and acid phosphatase as indicators of microbial activity, C and P cycles respectively. Effects on nitrification and denitrification potential will be measured with Barometric process separation. In this way we will be able to detect either positive or negative effects on C, N and P cycle.