I am a Senior Scientist in permanent position at Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Research Center for Agriculture and Environment (CREA-AA, Rome, Italy).
Graduated in Chemistry and PhD in Soil Science and Climatology.
My research is focused on:
i) circular economy for fertilizers’ production; ii) crop diversification (crop rotations, intercropping, strip cropping, introduction of agroecological service crop,); iii) belowground functional diversity in cropping systems (soil microbial community composition, beneficial symbiosis); iv) nutrient cycling and SOM storage; v) phosphonic acid contamination of organic products. Author of more than 170 papers, 46 of which are listed in Scopus.
In the Bio4Food project, my activity will be focused on the evaluation of plant nutritional status at crop harvest, in terms of macro, meso and micronutrients. Heavy metals/metalloids contents in marketable products will be also measured to verify if plant biostimulants application can improve not only their quality, but also their healthiness. Particularly, crop biofortification will be assessed as P, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn, Cu density in the edible part of harvested crops in-pot and in-field trials, considering the human daily intake values. Crop nutrient use efficiency (NUE % = crop nutrient uptake/nutrient inputs from fertilization) will be evaluated by comparing the NUEX = (Xuptaken/Xfert+plant extract)% to the NUEX = (Xuptaken/Xfert)%. Plant nutrient content will be measured by incineration of vegetable tissues and following analysis by ICP-OES.