Focus area:

Aida’s main research interest is on the use of trees to restore degraded lands through soil rehabilitation, with focus on dryland sub-Saharan Africa. She is particularly interested in how changes in tree cover and land use in drylands affect the water cycle, and how trees can improve water availability in such water limited environments. The title of her PhD project is “Trees, carbon and groundwater: trade-off or synergy for water resources in the semiarid tropics”. The main objective of the project is to reveal the conditions under which increased tree cover leads to both higher carbon storage and better adaptive capacity to climate change, particularly through enhanced groundwater recharge, in the semiarid tropics. The field-work of the project is conducted in a Vitellaria paradoxa (shea tree) agroforestry parkland in central Burkina Faso. Agroforestry parklands, in which crops are grown under scattered mature trees, constitute the most widespread farming system in semiarid West Africa, covering vast areas of land and supporting millions of people in this region.

Background:

MSc in Soil Science, SLU (2010); MSc in Forestry, Universitat de Lleida (2009)

Keywords: