Tatiana Francischinelli Rittl
Tatiana is a Brazilian environmental manager. She obtained her BSc in Environment Management in 2008 from the University of São Paulo (Brazil), and her MSc in Soil and Nutrition Plant in 2011 also from the University of São Paulo (Brazil). She has participated as collaborative researcher in the following research projects: “Spatio-temporal variations in hydro-physical properties soil under different management systems in settlement Luiz Macedo” (University of São Paulo, 2009-2010), and “Quantification of the Micromorphology of Brazilian soils” (University of Guelph, Canada, 2010). Tatiana has obtained her PhD. from Wageningen University, within the Terra Preta Program, on July 2015.
Short description of PhD. thesis
This thesis addresses the influence of biochar discourses on the political practices in Brazil and the impact of biochar on soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks, thus contributing to the current debate on the potential of biochar to mitigate climate change. Biochar is the solid material obtained from the carbonization of biomass. Literature often suggests that biochar is recalcitrant material with a residence time in soil of thousands of years, which would make it a suitable candidate to sequester C. My findings show that there is no evidence that biochar is a reliable way for C sequestration in sandy soils under savannah environments. Biochar decomposition is highly variable, depending on charring conditions, soil and climate. These conclusions have a direct consequence for the development of policies on biochar, because we cannot ensure that biochar will sequester the same quantity of C for the same period at different geographical regions.
Recent publications
Bezerra, J., Turnhout, E., Vasquez, I. M., Rittl, T. F., Arts, B., & Kuyper, T. W. (2016). The promises of the Amazonian soil: shifts in discourses of Terra Preta and biochar. Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 1-13.
Rittl, T. F., Arts, B., and Kuyper, T. W. (2015). Biochar: an emerging policy arrangement in Brazil? Environmental Science & Policy 51: 45-55.
Rittl, T. F., Novotny, E. H., Balieiro, F. C., Hoffland, E., Alves, B. J. R., and Kuyper, T. W. (2015). Negative priming of native soil organic carbon mineralization by oilseed biochars of contrasting quality. European Journal of Soil Science 66: 714-721.
Sagrilo, E., Rittl, T. F., Hoffland, E., Alves, B. J. R., Mehl, H. U., and Kuyper, T. W. (2015). Rapid decomposition of traditionally produced biochar in an Oxisol under savannah in Northeastern Brazil. Geoderma Regional 6: 1-6.
Cerqueira, W. V., Rittl, T. F., Novotny, E. H., and Pereira Netto, A. D. (2015). High throughput pyrogenic carbon (biochar) characterisation and quantification by liquid chromatography. Analytical Methods 7: 8190-8196.