Asmeret Asefaw Berhe

Soil Biogeochemistry Lab ­­@ UC Merced – Merced, CA USA

Asmeret Asefaw Berhe is a soil and global-change scientist and educator passionate about all things related to the science and beauty of soils.

Berhe was born and raised in Asmara, Eritrea in northeast Africa bordering the Red Sea. She received her Bachelors of Science in Soil and Water Conservation at the University of Asmara in Eritrea. There, she was one of three women in a 55-person class in the soil science department. She later attended Michigan State University for her Masters in Political Ecology with an emphasis on the effects of land degradation, working to understand how landmines cause land degradation. She then performed her doctoral work at University of California, Berkeley, where she received her PhD in Biogeochemistry.

Berhe’s graduate work sought to understand how erosion affected the exchange of carbon between the land and the air. She found that erosion can actually cause soil to store more carbon. Berhe’s research interests center on the effect of changing environmental conditions—specifically fire, erosion, and climate change—on important soil processes. Her group is working to understand how perturbations in the environment affect how essential elements like carbon and nitrogen cycle through the soil system. One of her group’s projects is to understand how drought and wildfire affect soil’s ability to store carbon, taking her out to Yosemite National Park and the Sierra Nevada for fieldwork.

She currently serves as an advisory board member of 500 Women Scientists, a grassroots organization working to make science open, inclusive, and accessible, and is on the leadership board of the Earth Science Women’s Network.

In 2019 she delivered a TED talk on the role of soil in maintenance of the earth’s climate, in particular relating soil use, degradation, and management with fluxes of greenhouse gases from the terrestrial ecosystem to the atmosphere.

“Soil represents the difference between life and lifelessness in the earth system, and it can also help us combat climate change — if we can only stop treating it like dirt.”

Publications: Comic

Website: Soil Biogeochemistry

Video 1) TED Talk
Video 2) Climate Talks