Luigi in March 2018 graduated with a Master's degree in Science and Technology for the Environment and the Territory with a thesis in Geobotany at the University of Campania 'Luigi Vanvitelli' in Caserta. Subsequently, in 2020 he started a Ph.D. course at Keele University and then continued his research studies at the Department of Geography and Environment at Loughborough University where he is currently employed as a Doctoral Researcher.
Luigi's key research interests are:
Soil science and ecology, Fire ecology, Invasive alien species, Geoinformatics, Botany
Rising from the ashes: understanding the biological resilience and social significance of wildfires
Supervisors: Helen Glanville and Darren Smith
Soils are breathing and life-sustaining entities; however, global soils are facing increasing pressure from anthropogenic activities and climate-change induced events such as wildfires. Nowadays, wildfires are becoming more frequent in the UK, with 2022 already having double the number of blazes of the whole of 2021. UK soils are not well adapted to fire and there is uncertainty surrounding their resilience to such events. Nevertheless, even in environments historically adapted to wildfire occurrence, the fires have considerably increased. In Italy (IT) in 2021 the total area burned was greater than that burned in 2017.
This research will aim to investigate the resilience of soils and the social significance of wildfires in the UK rural landscape and to assess the sensitivity of soils to the increasing frequency and severity of fires in the IT natural areas.