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Marcello Di Bonito

Associate Professor

School of Animal Rural & Environmental Sciences

Staff Group(s)
Environment

Role

Dr Marcello Di Bonito is an Associate Professor of Environmental and Soil Sciences in the School of Animal, Rural & Environmental Sciences at NTU, where he carries out his teaching and research activities.

Dr Di Bonito is an active, multidisciplinary researcher with expertise in soil conservation and sustainable soil management, and in the relationships between natural resources, ecosystem functions, and their quantitative understanding and modelling. His work makes extensive use of geographical information systems (GIS) and remote sensing. His current research focuses on ecological restoration, with a specific emphasis on the role of soils in ecosystem recovery and the application of remote sensing technologies and spatial analysis to restoration science.

He is module leader for:

  • Pollution and Remediation
  • Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

He also contributes to teaching on the following modules:

  • Principles and Practice in Geography
  • Dissertation

Dr Di Bonito supervises undergraduate and postgraduate dissertation research projects in environmental science, physical geography, and ecology, with a strong emphasis on soil and water processes, their interactions, and spatial analysis using GIS and mapping techniques.

Follow him on LinkedIn and @mdibonito.bsky.social

Career overview

Dr Marcello Di Bonito trained as an Earth scientist at the University of Naples, Italy, specialising in pedology, environmental geochemistry, GIS and spatial analysis, with study and research periods at the University of Granada (Spain) and the British Geological Survey (UK). He completed his PhD in England through a joint project between the University of Nottingham and the British Geological Survey.

Following his PhD, he worked at the NERC Isotope Geoscience Laboratory and the Environment Agency, gaining experience in analytical techniques and environmental regulation across waste management, water quality, agriculture and pollution control. He later held a postdoctoral position at the University of Nottingham on an EU-funded project in sustainability impact assessment.

Dr Di Bonito joined Nottingham Trent University in 2009, where he undertakes research in the UK and internationally. Since 2021, he has also been affiliated with the University of Bologna as Associate Professor in Environmental Soil Science and Conservation. His research is strongly multidisciplinary, focusing on soils and GIS to assess environmental change, vulnerability and sustainability.

He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and a Member of the Institute of Soil Scientists (M.I. Soil Sci.) with the British Society of Soil Science (BSSS).

Research areas

Dr Di Bonito is a multidisciplinary researcher specialising in soil conservation and ecosystem restoration, using GIS and remote sensing to understand and model the role of soils in ecosystem functioning and recovery.

View Dr Di Bonito’s research outputs via ORCID

His research interests include:

  • Environmental biogeochemistry
  • GIS applications (including modelling, probability and uncertainty)
  • Soil health, conservation and sustainable management
  • Soil ecology and Ecological Restoration
  • Rhizosphere and sustainable agriculture practices
  • Water quality, conservation and sustainable
  • Contaminated land and remediation
  • Ecosystem functions and services
  • Inter-related aspects and impacts on the environment and society
  • Sustainability Science

Current PhD students and project titles:

  • Alex Rainford-Roberts: ‘Dirty movies’: Towards an interdisciplinary understanding of cinema, soil, and sustainability.
  • Asmae Boumezgane: Are rhizosphere farming practices the key to a sustainable future? (in collaboration with the University of Bologna).
  • Natalie Cole: Starting with Soil: Investigating Compostable Materials from Local Food and Agricultural Waste for Sustainable Furniture and Products (funded by Midland4Cities – M4C).
  • Lukalysia Mwangi: eDNA and ecoacoustic for assessing soil health on degraded land (in collaboration with CIFOR-ICRAF).
  • DEploying Ecosystemic solutions to imProve soil Health and uncOveRing subsoil functIons in the critical ZONe – DeepHorizon (EU Horizon).
  • New chance for Polluted Lands: Recovery of agricultural soil function by non-food farming and adapted soil management at degraded sites (PoLaRecCE - Interreg Central Europe).
  • Boosting Carbon farming in central Europe - Carbon farming CE (Interreg Central Europe).

Past PhD students and project titles:

  • David King: Development of field method for mercury speciation analysis of environmental matrices from artisanal gold mining sites in Kenya (PhD project, Director of Studies, in collaboration with the British Geological Survey).
  • Dalton Baltazar: Socio-cultural valuation of urban parks: Lessons from the Philippines (PhD project, Director of Studies).
  • ‘Holistic evaluation of sewage pollution at Akureyri, Iceland‘. UK-Iceland Arctic Science Partnership Scheme, Principal Investigator.
  • ‘Particulate Contributions to Air Quality in Akureyri’. UK-Iceland Arctic Science Partnership Scheme, Co-Investigator.
  • Soil Health Evaluation in Ecological Restoration in Savannah Environments (SHEER) - Principal Investigator, International collaboration funded by the University of Bologna, Global South.
  • Udeme Dickson: Coupling Phyto- and Myco-remediation techniques to manage crude oil contaminated soils in the Niger Delta, Nigeria (PhD project, Director of Studies).
  • Matar Thiombane: Environmental research on geochemistry of Metals and Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) as a tool of exposure evaluation and chemical risk assessment (PhD project, Oo-supervisor, in collaboration with the University of Napoli, Italy).
  • Niamh Mahon: Sustainable intensification in agriculture: an action research (PhD project, Co-supervisor).
  • Sara Concas: Chemistry, mineralogy, mobility and bioavailability of heavy metals in soil, plants (Pistacia lentiscus L.) and soil solutions in the Rio San Giorgio catchment (Iglesias, Gonnesa, South Sardinia, Italy) to develop soil remediation strategies (PhD project, Co-supervisor, in collaboration with the University of Cagliari, Italy).
  • Semi Qamese: Catchment modelling of climate change impacts on hydrology and water quality, Ba watershed, Fiji (PhD project, Co-supervisor, in collaboration with the University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji).
  • An investigation into the changing geographies of beer within the county of Nottinghamshire with reference to retail and consumption (SPUR project – 2015).
  • Hazard assessment in the restless Campi Flegrei Caldera (Italy) through field and laboratory investigations (SPUR project in collaboration with INGV - June 2012)

Opportunities to carry out postgraduate research towards an MPhil / PhD exist and further information may be obtained from the NTU Doctoral School.

External activity

Dr Di Bonito is:

Publications

Recent publications

Ma, H., Li, X., Sun, Y., Cui, J., Li, Y., Feng, B., Falsone, G., & Di Bonito, M.
2026.Optimising nitrogen nutrition index (NNI) for maize cultivation with
controlled-release fertiliser treatments guided by UAV remote sensing technology. Precision Agriculture, 27(2), 30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11119-026-10329-6

Dickson, U. J., Giadom, F., Mortimer, R. J. G., Di Bonito, M., & Ray, N. Inferences
from TPHs removal kinetics during phyto- and myco-remediation of a soil heavily
contaminated with crude oil. 2026. Next Research, 6, 101427.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nexres.2026.101427

Terwayet Bayouli, I., Root, R. A., Terwayet Bayouli, H., Meers, E., Di Bonito, M.,
Zhou, J., & Chorover, J. 2025. Mycorrhized Lygeum spartum is effective for the
eco-restoration and phytoremediation of metal-contaminated soils in arid
landscapes. Environmental Research, 286(Part 1), 122752.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2025.122752

Dickson, U. J., Giadom, F., Mortimer, R. J. G., Ray, N., & Di Bonito, M.
Comparative evaluation of TPHs standards in the analysis of
petroleum-contaminated and remediated soil. 2025. Pollution Study, 6(1), 3259.
https://doi.org/10.54517/ps3259

King, D., Watts, M., Hamilton, E., Mortimer, R. J. G., Coffey, M., Osano, O., & Di
Bonito, M. 2024. Mercury speciation in environmental samples associated with
artisanal small-scale gold mines using a novel solid-phase extraction approach to
sample collection and preservation. Environmental Geochemistry and Health,
46(11), 481. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-024-02187-w

King, D. C. P., Watts, M. J., Hamilton, E. M., Mortimer, R. J. G., Coffey, M., Osano,
O., Ondayo, M. A., & Di Bonito, M. 2024. Field method for preservation of total
mercury in waters, including those associated with artisanal-scale gold mining.
Analytical Methods, 16(17), 2669–2677. https://doi.org/10.1039/d3ay02216a

See all of Marcello Di Bonito's publications...

Press expertise

  • Soil health and conservation
  • Water quality and sustainable management
  • Ecosystem services
  • Sustainability and nature based solutions
  • Environmental degradation and pollution

Course(s) I teach on

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

Natural resources can often be affected by human activities. My research aims to find solutions and improve living conditions and ecosystems in areas often degraded or under threat of degradation.

3 - Good Health and Well-Being Badge 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation Badge 15 - Life On Land Badge 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production Badge