Postdoctoral researcher since 2022
Soil and Water Conservation Research Group at CEBAS-CSIC
Institute of Sociology and Peasant Studies at University of Cordoba
Background
- MSc in Organic Agriculture, specialization in Agroecology at Wageningen University (The Netherlands) and Federal University of Viçosa (Brazil)
- MSc and BSc in Environmental Science at University of Valencia (Spain)
- Leonardo da Vinci fellowship at The Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW)
Former positions
- Researcher in the Soil and Water Conservation Research Group at CEBAS-CSIC (2016)
- Researcher trainee in The Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) (2013)
Research Interests
- The benefits of sustainable land management and agroecology based practices on providing soil ecosystem services
- Agroforestry, syntropyc agriculture and complex multristata system design to restore the functionality of large scale agroecosystems
- Participatory action research and capacity building
- Ecofeminism and rural gender studies
Selected publications
Tittonell, P., El Mujtar, V., Felix, G., Kebede, Y., Laborda, L., Soto, R.L., & De Vente, J. (2022). Regenerative agriculture—agroecology without politics?. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 6.
Buckwell, A., Nadeu, E., & Williams, A. Contributing author. Soto, R.L. (2022). Sustainable Agricultural Soil Management: What’sstopping it? How can it be enabled? RISE Foundation, Brussels.
Soto, R. L., de Vente, J., & Padilla, M. C. (2021). Learning from farmers’ experiences with participatory monitoring and evaluation of regenerative agriculture based on visual soil assessment. Journal of Rural Studies, 88, 192-204.
Soto, R.L., Padilla, M.C., Rivera Méndez, M., Pinto-Correia, T., Boix-Fayos, C., De Vente, J. (2021). Participatory monitoring and evaluation to enable social learning, adoption, and out-scaling of regenerative agriculture. Ecology and Society 26(4):29.
Soto, R. L., Martinez-Mena, M., Padilla, M. C., & de Vente, J. (2021). Restoring soil quality of woody agroecosystems in Mediterranean drylands through regenerative agriculture. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 306, 107191.
Soto, R. L., Padilla, M. C., & de Vente, J. (2020). Participatory selection of soil quality indicators for monitoring the impacts of regenerative agriculture on ecosystem services. Ecosystem Services, 45, 101157.
Morriën, E., Hannula, S.E., Snoek, L.B., Helmsing, N.R., Zweers, H., de Hollander, M., Luján Soto, R., (…) van der Putten, W.M., 2017. Soil networks become more connected and take up more carbon as nature restoration progresses. Nature Communications, 8: 14349.
Soto, R.L. (2016). Avances del capitalismo hacia la Soberanía Alimentaria. Online Course: Sembrando Conciencias, Construyendo Soberanía Alimentaria. Engineers Without Borders, Valencia (Spain).
Projects
- Assessing the effectiveness of large scale landscape restoration and climate change adaptation of socio‐ecosystems using Nature Based Solutions (RESTORE‐NBS). Funded by: CSIC – Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (202040E030)
- Nature Based Solutions to mitigate the devastating impacts from extreme weather and climate change (XTREME). Funded by: Agencia Estatal de Investigación (PID2019-109381RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033).
- El potencial de Depósitos sedimentarios como sumideros de Carbono: factores y mecanismos que favorecen su preservación en cuencas de drenaje. Implicaciones para su gestión (DECADE). Funded by: Fundación Séneca (Regional Government of Murcia) (20917/PI/18)
