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Raquel Luján Soto

Raquel Luján Soto
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About

My research focuses on understanding the contributions of sustainable agroecosystem management to livelihood resilience, biodiversity and ecosystem services. I develop inter- and transdisciplinary research using participatory methods and multistakeholder processes to enhance social learning, capacity building and support agroecological transitions. My scientific work has contributed to increased understanding of 1) the challenges and opportunities of integrative participatory approaches in management of socio-ecological systems to deliver ecosystem services and, 2) the potential of sustainable management approaches to restore degraded agroecosystems in different bioregions. From the technical-productive dimension of agri-food systems, I am very interested in ecosystem restoration methods and mechanisms for climate change mitigation and adaptation. From the social-cultural and political dimension, I am very interested in analysing socio-ecological systems to identify barriers and opportunities to prompt food sovereignty. This holistic and transdisciplinary focus builds on my scientific background, experience and training. In 2012 I graduated in Environmental Sciences from the University of Valencia (Spain). That same year I obtained a Leonardo da Vinci grant from the European Commission to work in the terrestrial ecology department at the Netherlands Institute of
Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) (the Netherlands). At NIOO I focused on the measurement of interactions between soil functional biodiversity in different states of ecosystem restoration. My scientific work contributed to reveal the influence of ecosystem restoration processes on the soil food web functioning mechanisms for making agroecosystems more efficient to nutrient cycling and carbon uptake. In 2014, I enrolled in the Master of Organic
Agriculture at Wageningen Univeristy (WUR) (The Netherlands) and I specialized in the field of integrated soil management for ecosystem restoration. focusing on coffee agroforestry systems. In 2017, I was granted a scholarship from the la Caixa Foundation to develop my doctoral thesis
entitled "Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation in Regenerative Agriculture: from local knowledge and impacts to large-scale adoption". I developed this transdisciplinary research between CEBAS-CSIC and the University of Cordoba.  I received my PhD degree with Cum Laude qualification and international mention in the Natural Resources and Sustainable Management
program. In 2024 I was granted a Juan de la Cierva posdoctoral grant at INGENIO (CSIC-UPV) to work on agroecology transitions in Europe. Since 2026 I work as a postdoc research for the European Agroecology Partnership.

Projects

Ayudas juan de la cierva 2022

2024 - 2025

Reconnecting with soil health and management through a four-sense art-science initiative (SOIL4SENSES)

2026 - 2027

Publications

Soil networks become more connected and take up more carbon as nature restoration progresses — Morriën, Elly; Hannula, S. Emilia; Snoek, L. Basten; Helmsing, Nico R.; Zweers, Hans; de Hollander, Mattias; Soto, Raquel Luján; Bouffaud, Marie-Lara; Buée, Marc; Dimmers, Wim; Duyts, Henk; Geisen, Stefan; Girlanda, Mariangela; Griffiths, Rob I.; Jørgensen, Helene-Bracht; Jensen, John; Plassart, Pierre; Redecker, Dirk; Schmelz, Rűdiger M; Schmidt, Olaf; Thomson, Bruce C.; Tisserant, Emilie; Uroz, Stephane; Winding, Anne; Bailey, Mark J.; Bonkowski, Michael; Faber, Jack H.; Martin, Francis; Lemanceau, Philippe; de Boer, Wietse; van Veen, Johannes A.; van der Putten, Wim H.


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- 10.1038/ncomms14349

Participatory selection of soil quality indicators for monitoring the impacts of regenerative agriculture on ecosystem services — Luján Soto, Raquel; Cuéllar Padilla, Mamen; de Vente, Joris


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- 10.1016/j.ecoser.2020.101157

Restoring soil quality of woody agroecosystems in Mediterranean drylands through regenerative agriculture — Luján Soto, Raquel; Martínez-Mena, María; Cuéllar Padilla, Mamen; de Vente, Joris


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- 10.1016/j.agee.2020.107191

Learning from farmers’ experiences with participatory monitoring and evaluation of regenerative agriculture based on visual soil assessment — Luján Soto, Raquel; de Vente, Joris; Cuéllar Padilla, Mamen


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- 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2021.10.017

Participatory monitoring and evaluation to enable social learning, adoption, and out-scaling of regenerative agriculture — Luján Soto, Raquel; Cuéllar Padilla, Mamen; Rivera Méndez, María; Pinto-Correia, Teresa; Boix-Fayos, Carolina; de Vente, Joris


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- 10.5751/es-12796-260429

Organic fertilization influences nematode diversity and maturity index in coffee tree plantations using an agroforestry system — Vieira Júnior, JOL; Pereira, RC; Soto, RL; Cardoso, IM; Mondino, EA; Berbara, RLL; Sá Mendonça, E


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- 10.21307/jofnem-2021-054

Regenerative agriculture—agroecology without politics? — Tittonell, Pablo; El Mujtar, Veronica; Felix, Georges; Kebede, Yodit; Laborda, Luciana; Luján Soto, Raquel; de Vente, Joris


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- 10.3389/fsufs.2022.844261

The Impact of Regenerative Agriculture on Provisioning Ecosystem Services: An Example in Southeast Spain — Van Oudenhove, Mistral; Martínez-Mena, María; Almagro, María; Díaz-Pereira, Elvira; Carrillo, Efraín; de Vente, Joris; Fernández-Soler, Cristina; Luján-Soto, Raquel; Boix-Fayos, Carolina


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- 10.3390/iocag2023-17336

Cover crops improve the long‐term stabilization of soil organic carbon and total nitrogen through physico‐chemical protection in rainfed semiarid Mediterranean woody crop systems — Fernández‐Soler, Cristina; Garcia‐Franco, Noelia; Almagro, María; Díaz‐Pereira, Elvira; Luján, Raquel; García, Eloísa; Martínez‐Mena, María


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- 10.1111/sum.13066

Expert perceptions regarding the effectiveness and feasibility of nature‐based solutions for climate change adaptation in a large Mediterranean Basin — Raquel Luján Soto, Carolina Boix-Fayos, Joris de Vente


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- https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.70117