Guillermo leads the Sustainable Land Ecosystems Research Group
As a research group, the foci encompass carbon, nitrogen and water cycling and dynamics in land ecosystems. For example, we examine sources, transformation, utilization, behavior, fate, and fluxes of carbon and nitrogen in land ecosystems (often also called agroecosystems) with particular focus on the relative responses, controlling factors, and feedbacks of greenhouse gas exchange and soil carbon sequestration to common and improved management options. Furthermore, field to landscape strategies for sustainable management, greenhouse gas mitigation, climate change adaptation, enhanced resilience of soil and whole ecosystems, improved nutrient and water use-efficiencies, and increased ecosystem services in agricultural systems are also subject of investigation. We aim to deepen, underpin, and extend the existing scientific knowledge on these relevant research areas in order to gain insights, to discover and establish principles, and ultimately to provide solutions for current challenging problems faced by the local, regional and global societies including environmental quality, natural resources conservation, and food and energy securities. Moreover, this collective work contributes to inform process modelling efforts, life cycle assessments, and provide the foundation for the development of policy towards carbon-negative and carbon-neutral systems.
The Research Group is currently integrated by two PhD students, five MSc students, two undergraduate students, two research assistants and one postdoctoral fellow. The alumni include five graduates, fourteen undergraduates, eight assistants and one visiting professor. The background of the laboratory members includes Canada, Korea, Singapore, China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, Ghana, Germany, United Kingdom, United States, Peru, and Mexico. We continue enriching this diversity in our membership as we are open to applicants from all nations and backgrounds.