Dr Fabrizio Albanito

Research Overview

I am a Research Fellow at the Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Aberdeen. Originally, the emphasis of my research was quantifying and understanding the terrestrial carbon cycle and its links to climate drives and human activities. I received my PhD in Environmental Science from Trinity College Dublin where I studied the emissions of soil CO₂ under bioenergy crop plantations. In 2010 I moved to the University of Aberdeen (UK) where I continued my experimental research activity studying the soil carbon balance in forests ecosystems, which led to the development a new technique based on the use of stable carbon isotopes to partition the contribution of below-ground CO₂ sources.

Since 2012 my main research interests lie in environmental spatial modelling using quantitative methods (such as empirical analysis and statistical modelling) to develop climate change mitigation scenarios in natural and agricultural systems. More recently, my focus has been to investigate the development of low carbon pathway scenarios such the use of biomass in Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS), and best climate migration practices in agricultural systems.

Current Research

Understanding and Improving the Sustainability of agro-Ecological farming systems in the EU.

https://uniseco-project.eu/

UNISECO is a European research project aiming to develop innovative approaches to enhance the understanding of socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for further development and implementation of agro-ecological practices in EU farming systems.

Intended Impacts

• improved methodological capacity to assess the sustainability of agro-ecological approaches

• enhanced integrated capacity and knowledge sharing to develop viable long term strategies for traditional and small-scale AEFS

• co-constructed novel and effective market mechanisms and policy instruments for delivering public goods through economically viable AEFS

• improved knowledge base of agro-ecological farming in the EU for use by policy-makers with at EU, national and regional levels, advisors, farmers, value chain actors and consumers

• inform the reform process of the CAP after 2020, revisions to environmental policies and policy efforts to support rural job creation

Funding: Horizon 2020, European Union
Call: - Sustainable Food Security – Resilient and resource-efficient value chains
Topic: SFS-29-2017: Socio-eco-economics – socio-economics in ecological approaches