Alessandro Samuel-Rosa
Life Sciences
Alessandro Samuel-Rosa, whose family was uprooted from the agricultural heartland of Rio Grande do Sul when they had to sell their land, has forged a career in academia that owes much to public institutions and government support. His scientific pursuits focus on earth sciences, particularly deforestation and its detrimental effects on soil organic carbon (SOC) levels.
A Federal University of Santa Maria graduate, Alessandro holds a bachelor’s degree in agronomy and a master’s degree in soil science. He continued his academic journey by earning a PhD in agronomy from the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro. Beyond his fascination with exact and earth sciences, Alessandro is committed to scientific research. Since 2013, he has actively contributed to the Brazilian Society of Soil Science and the International Union of Soil Sciences. A passionate open science advocate, he has led SoilData, Brazil’s largest soil data repository, since 2018.
Currently, Alessandro shares his knowledge as a lecturer at the Federal Technological University of Paraná. He is married to Taciara, a fellow lecturer at the same institution but on a different campus. He has a weekly commute of 230 km to stay connected over winding dirt roads.
Projects
After more than five centuries of land exploitation, Brazil has lost more than one-third of its natural vegetation. Changes in land use and land cover (LULC) are destabilizing soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Current estimates put Brazil’s SOC stocks at 37 petagrams (Pg) in the top 30 cm of soil. However, the total amount of SOC lost since 1500 is unknown. We hypothesize that Brazil has lost at least one-third of its SOC since 1500, particularly in the Atlantic Forest. This biome, characterized by environmental conditions ideal for organic soil formation, has experienced extensive deforestation and land-use change. We will integrate current and historical land-use data, artificial intelligence, and expert knowledge to test this hypothesis to reconstruct historical SOC stocks. This information has important implications for greenhouse gas accounting, climate policy, and the carbon credit market.
