Christine Alewell

Christine Alewell | JRNLClub

Research Statement

AI generated · Oct 21, 2026

Christine Alewell's indexed work centers on large-scale assessment of soil loss by water erosion, most visibly through a European-scale modeling framework she led as senior author that has become a standard reference for continental erosion mapping. Her first-author contributions extend this to the link between soil erosion and global phosphorus shortage, arguing that erosion-driven nutrient loss carries food-security consequences, and to a critical appraisal of the USLE's chances, challenges and limitations for erosion modeling. Related senior-author studies quantify rainfall erosivity and soil erodibility across Europe, including a high-resolution erodibility dataset built on LUCAS, and apply fallout radionuclides as sediment tracers in catchment sediment budgets; earlier work addressed sulfur biogeochemistry and the ice-nucleation properties of soil dust. Beyond these lead roles, she contributed as a middle author to global projections of 21st-century land-use change impacts on soil erosion and to land use and climate change impacts on global erosion through 2070, both of which situate her European work in a worldwide context. Her collaboration with Cristiano Ballabio on the LUCAS-based erodibility dataset reflects the geostatistical, mapping-oriented strand of this portfolio. No software, datasets, grants or patents are indexed beyond her publications. Taken together, the named works trace a progression from catchment-scale tracer and biogeochemical studies toward continental and global erosion assessment, with nutrient and climate dimensions increasingly folded into the analysis.

Most Cited Works

An assessment of the global impact of 21st century land use change on soil erosion

Pasquale Borrelli, David A Robinson, Larissa R Fleischer, Emanuele Lugato, Cristiano Ballabio, Christine Alewell, Katrin Meusburger, Sirio Modugno, Brigitta Schütt, Vito Ferro, Vincenzo Bagarello, Kristof Van Oost, Luca Montanarella, Panos Panagos

Nature Communications2017

2,790Citations

Land use and climate change impacts on global soil erosion by water (2015-2070)

Pasquale Borrelli, David A Robinson

Research Areas

Soil erosion and sediment transportSoil Carbon and Nitrogen DynamicsSoil and Water Nutrient DynamicsSoil Geostatistics and MappingAtmospheric chemistry and aerosols

Affiliations & Education

Employment

1977–2026
University of Basel(CH)
Departement of Environmental Sciences

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Christine Alewell

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