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Jonathan Sanderman Ph.D.

  • Senior Scientist
Joanthan Sanderman
Expertise Contact
Phone: 508-444-1505 Email: ResearchGate Google Scholar CV

Dr. Jonathan Sanderman’s work focuses on the role that soils can play in climate mitigation and sustainable food production. He strives to understand the processes that add, remove, and transform carbon in soils, ranging from coastal marshes to tropical forests and working farmlands. Throughout his career, he has uncovered under-recognized complexity in soil carbon reservoirs. Dr. Sanderman’s research encompasses both place-based, experimental work and large-scale computer modeling.

Dr. Jon Sanderman holding handful of soil

Left: Collecting soil water in the Caspar Creek experimental watershed, northern California,

Right: Learning about community based natural farming in Andhra Pradesh, India.

In 2017, Dr. Sanderman led efforts to produce the first estimate of the global soil carbon debt created by thousands of years of agriculture. Currently, much of Dr. Sanderman’s attention is focused on developing high-quality, cost-effective methods for measuring soil carbon to support carbon markets in the agricultural sector. He works with a diverse group of partners and collaborators in industry, academia, and environmental advocacy.

When he’s not immersed in soil, Dr. Sanderman can be found enjoying the ocean or mountains with his family.

On a global scale, soils store 3-5 times as much carbon as trees. But it’s not just the amount. The form carbon is in is really important, and soil carbon is one of the most complex.

Projects

Big sky over lush valley

Carbon Monitoring in Rangelands
Restoring rangelands for climate adaptation and mitigation

Soil.Spectroscopy
Bringing together soil scientists, spectroscopists, informaticians, data scientists, and software engineers to overcome bottlenecks preventing wider and more efficient use of soil spectroscopy.
cross-section of soil layers

Soils Revealed
An open-access, interactive platform tracking soil carbon change that has predicted the potential amount of carbon our soils could hold.
Katama wetlands, Martha's Vineyard

Climate Smart MV
Supporting climate-smart land management and risk reduction strategies.
A man holds dry, clumpy soil in his hands

Taking stock of soil carbon
Reducing uncertainties to build confidence that soil carbon can deliver climate benefits
A forested swamp where the ground is mossy

Land as a natural climate solution
Estimating the global potential for increasing carbon storage on land.

Stories

man standing on ranch near Bozeman Montana, photo by Jonathan Sanderman
  • Update

Giving carbon a home on the range
  • Update

Major grant launches new project to advance global soil science
soil samples waiting for analysis, photo by Chris Linder
  • Update

Introducing the Open Soil Spectral Library

Selected Publications

The role of soil carbon in natural climate solutions

Bossio, D. A., et al. (2020). Nature Sustainability.

Read

Ramped thermal analysis for isolating biologically meaningful soil organic matter fractions with distinct residence times

Sanderman, J. A. and A. S. Grandy (2020). Soil.

Read

Global-change controls on soil-carbon accumulation and loss in coastal vegetated ecosystems

Spivak, A. C., et al. (2020). Nature Geoscience.

Read
more on ResearchGate

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