
Benjamin Burkhard- Prof Dr
- Professor (Full) at Leibniz Universität Hannover
Benjamin Burkhard
- Prof Dr
- Professor (Full) at Leibniz Universität Hannover
About
250
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Introduction
Current institution
Additional affiliations
January 2014 - present
June 2001 - September 2016
Education
October 1993 - December 2000
Publications
Publications (250)
Soil and its biotic and abiotic components have a huge impact on human well-being, but, on the other hand, they are often neglected in scientific studies or by policy and society in comparison to other ecosystem components. In this study, we provide an overview of the direct and indirect positive and negative influences of soil and soil biodiversit...
In this study, we compared the established MaxEnt and a more novel deep learning approach for modeling the distribution of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in north Iceland. We examined the mechanisms, structures, and optimization techniques of both approaches, highlighting their differences and similarities. Monthly distribution models for...
Snow cover has an important role in permafrost processes and dynamics, creating cooling and warming systems, impacting the aggradation and degradation of frozen soil. Despite theoretical, experimental, and remote sensing-based research, comprehensive understanding of small-scaled snow distribution at palsas remains limited. This study compares two...
The habitat suitability for pollinators is an important factor for biodiversity and crop-based ecosystem services. Most flowering plants, including wild plants, rely on pollination ecosystem services for fructification and reproduction. Suitable nesting sites and accessible floral food resources are crucial to the abundance of pollinator insects. T...
Soil and soil biodiversity are often a neglected component in assessments of ecosystems and their services. One of the reasons is the increasing complexity of scientific investigation of biotic and abiotic interactions and mechanisms from soil biodiversity and soil components via ecosystem structures, processes, and functions that finally provide s...
Soils, just like all other ecosystem compartments, change over time and, consequently, conditions for soil‐inhabiting organisms are also changing, affecting their composition and diversity. Soil biodiversity is a critical component of ecosystems that supports many essential ecosystem functions and services, such as nutrient cycling, carbon sequestr...
Coastal and marine ecosystems supply multiple Ecosystem Services (ES). Nevertheless, these ecosystems are among the most impacted by human activities, harming the ES sustainable supply. Since ES are a spatial phenomenon, mapping can contribute to understand ES supply. For this, we use quantitative spatio-temporal frameworks to map and assess the su...
Aiming at understanding the role of plural values in decision-making, the IPBES Values Assessment defined nature valuation broadly as including biophysical, economic and socio-cultural assessments, including ecosystem service assessment. IPBES reviews of scientific literature revealed a lack of documentation of uptake by stakeholders across method...
Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) are highly context-specific and inherently linked to local identity, which challenges their assessment. Participatory methods have proven to capture the multiple values and aspects of CES for local communities. This paper presents an attempt to understand the different dimensions of CES in the Saint-Philippe munici...
Context
Habitat suitability for pollinator species is an important indicator for pollination ecosystem service potential, i.e. for biodiversity and crop provision. Modelling habitat suitability using an expert- and process-based models such as ESTIMAP-pollination is a common and accepted approach to spatially analyse pollination service potential a...
The application of ecosystem service (ES) knowledge to planning processes and decision-making can lead to more effective climate change adaptation. Despite the increased attention given to the ES concept, its degree of integration and use in spatial planning processes are still below the expectations of those who are promoting this concept. Barrier...
Detecting changes in soil micro-relief in farmland helps to understand degradation processes like sheet erosion. Using the high-resolution technique of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), we generated point clouds of three 2 × 3 m plots on a weekly basis from May to mid-June in 2022 on cultivated farmland in Germany. Three well-known applications for...
Semi-natural linear landscape elements, such as hedgerows, are vital structures within agricultural landscapes that have an impact on ecosystem processes and support biodiversity. However, they are typically omitted from green infrastructure planning, which could lead to significant undervaluing of landscapes and their multifunctionality in terms o...
Marine ecosystems are highly dynamic and complex and contribute immensely to human well-being. Spatiotemporal overlaps of marine uses and human activities are constantly pressuring ecosystems, and that in turn impacts the supply quantity and quality of various ecosystem services (ES). This study is the first attempt to use the ES matrix to link mar...
Urban areas are mostly highly sealed spaces, which often leads to large proportions of surface runoff. At the same time, heavy rainfall events are projected to increase in frequency and intensity with anthropogenic climate change. Consequently, higher risks and damages from pluvial flooding are expected. The analysis of Flood Regulating Ecosystem S...
Palsas and peat plateaus are expected to disappear from many regions, including Finnish Lapland. However, detailed long-term monitoring data of the degradation process on palsas are scarce. Here, we present the results of the aerial photography time series analysis (1959–2021), annual real-time kinematic (RTK) GNSS and active layer monitoring (2007...
Modelling and mapping water-related ecosystem services (ES) are getting more important in the scientific community and decision making contexts. Especially straightforward, easy to operate ES model suites that are based on Land Use / Land Cover (LULC) data have gained popularity in the scientific realm, including but not limited to the InVEST Model...
Systematic literature syntheses are a key element in the scientific realm, considering the steadily growing amount of available knowledge. Involving stakeholders in the research process brings a wide range of advantages, like broadening the perspectives on the problem in question, increasing the relevance of results for policy- and decision-making,...
Natural pest control has the potential to reduce pesticide use. Therefore, it has an essential role to play in the transition towards a more sustainable agriculture. For the prediction of natural pest control, it is essential to understand the distribution of the species providing this ecosystem service. The presence of pests and natural enemies de...
The marine and coastal ecosystems of the Baltic Sea are exposed to an intensification and diversification of anthropogenic activities and related environmental pressures. Human interest in marine resources and space often overlap with environmental protection objectives, causing conflicts. Research can assist capacity building to enable knowledge-b...
The Ecosystem Services (ES) concept has been acknowledged by scientists, policy-makers and practitioners to have the potential to support sustainable policy- and land-use decision-making. Therefore, a growing number of research activities are investigating the integration potential of the ES concept into real-world policy- and decision-making proce...
Palsas and peat plateaus are expected to disappear from many regions, including Finnish Lapland. However, detailed long-term monitoring data of the degradation process on palsas are scarce. Here, we present the results of the aerial photography time series analysis (1960–2021) and annual RTK-GNSS and active layer monitoring (2007–2021) at two palsa...
Research on methods and applications on the integration of ecosystem services flow accounts into economic reporting systems has increased in the last decades. Along with Natural Capital Accounting (NCA), Ecosystem Accounting (EA) has been increasingly considered and has been integrated into research, policy and decision-making. Following the System...
Increasing urbanisation in combination with a rise in the frequency and intensity of heavy rain events increase the risk of urban flooding. Flood Regulating Ecosystem Services (FRES) address the capacity of ecosystems to reduce the flood hazard and lower damage. FRES can be estimated by quantification of supply (provision of a service by an ecosyst...
Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES) has been widely applied on the European Union (EU) mainland, whereas the EU Overseas entities still bear potential for implementation. This paper presents novel applications of the MAES procedure in the EU Outermost Regions and Overseas Countries and Territories ("EU Overseas"). Eight c...
We proposed the concept and characteristics of Nature-based Ecological Engineering (NbEE) in this manuscript. According to the research framework of “monitoring and evaluation - coupling mechanism - model simulation - prediction and optimization”, the ecosystem cascade relationships of “Pattern – Process – Service – Well-being” are used to build th...
Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) has evolved rapidly in recent years through substantial efforts of both international organizations and the scientific community. Water regulation ecosystem services (ES) are key elements of regulating services in ecosystem accounting, with most relevant studies strongly relying on models for ES quantification up to...
The Maroni River in the Guiana Shield marks the border between French Guiana and Suriname. In the Maroni River Basin, as in many transboundary river basins of the world, socio-political borders criss-cross through natural ecosystems and hence intersect through ecological boundaries. As neighbouring countries share ecosystems, they also share inhere...
The monitoring of ecosystem dynamics utilises time and resources from scientists and land-use managers, especially in wetland ecosystems in islands that have been affected significantly by both the current state of oceans and human-made activities. Deep-learning models for natural and anthropogenic ecosystem type classification, based on remote sen...
Agriculture has been identified as one of the main drivers of environmental degradation in the European Union (EU). It can have negative impacts on air, water, soil and biodiversity. The condition of agroecosystems is affected by soil degradation, especially by soil erosion, which reduces agroecosystems’ capacity to provide essential ecosystem serv...
People require multiple ecosystem services (ES) to meet their basic needs and improve or
maintain their quality of life. In order to meet these needs, natural resources are exploited,
threatening biodiversity and increasing the pressure on the Earth's ecosystems.
Spatial-structural approaches are used to explain and visualise the spatial relationsh...
Background
While the unique marine and coastal environment of the Baltic Sea provides numerous ecosystem services, its ecosystems are under pressure due to the intensification and diversification of anthropogenic uses. This present work constitutes a systematic map of the evidence of the impacts of ecosystem services and disservices on human health...
Das Buch Ökosystemleistungen in Stadt und Region richtet sich an Laien, die sich für das Thema der Ökosystemleistungen interessieren. Im Rahmen der landmetamorphosis-Reihe stellt es einige Ergebnisse des ÖSKKIP-Forschungsprojektes allgemeinverständlich dar und zeigt auch die ausgezeichneten Fotos des Wettbewerbes.
Das Buch kann online bezogen werd...
Modelling ecosystem services (ES) has become a new standard for the quantification and assessment of various ES. Multiple ES model applications are available that spatially estimate ES supply on the basis of land-use/land-cover (LULC) input data. This paper assesses how different input LULC datasets affect the modelling and mapping of ES supply for...
Ökosystemleistungen (ÖSL) sind von hoher Bedeutung für die Gesellschaft, da sie die Grundlage für das menschliche und wirtschaftliche Wohlergehen bilden.
Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler vom Institut für Physische Geographie & Landschaftsökologie, vom Institut für Umweltplanung
sowie vom Institut für Geobotanik beschreiben das Konzept der Ö...
Anthropogenic and natural ecosystems in coastal dunes provide considerable benefits to human well-being. However, to date, we still lack a good understanding of how ecosystem services (ES) supply varies from young dunes (e.g., embryo and fore dunes) to mature dunes (e.g., brown and red dunes). This study proposed a novel modelling methodology by in...
Provisioning ecosystem services play a vital role in sustaining human well-being. Agro-ecosystems contribute a significant share of these services, besides food and fodder and also fuel and fibre as well as regulating and cultural ecosystem services. Until now, the indication of provisioning ecosystem services of agro-ecosystems has been based almo...
The ecosystem service (ES) approach usually addresses soil erosion as the regulating service control of erosion rates or soil retention. In addition to the assessment of this regulating ES, mitigated impacts on soil-related ES by preventing soil erosion can be assessed. This study presents a scenario-based approach for the assessment of the impact...
Current environmental resource management policies acknowledge the need to manage and conserve biodiversity. Sustaining good ecosystem conditions and ecosystem services (ES) is imperative at and across multiple spatial scales. The ES concept is a valuable tool to communicate the benefits that nature provides to people. In the Guiana Shield, neighbo...
Wild bees play a major role in the cultivation of crops for human use, in the reproduction of many wild plants and are a key component of biodiversity. Mainly due to human activities, wild bees, like other insects, face a rapid decline in Europe. Understanding species distribution can help to design efficient conservation measures. Species distribu...
The concept of ecosystem service (ES) identifies benefits that people obtain from ecosystems with contributions to human well-being. One important ES under external pressure is “flood regulation” that describes an ecosystem’s capacity to reduce flood hazards. Several related studies estimate current flood regulation ES. However, regional climate pr...
Evidence-based decision making and policy development rely on the syntheses of available scientific knowledge and the identification of respective knowledge gaps. This article presents a participatory systematic map, which constitutes a relatively new methodological approach in the field of ecosystem services (ES) research. The map identifies, coll...
Invasive blueberry species endanger the sensitive environment of wetlands and protection laws call for management measures. Therefore, methods are needed to identify blueberry bushes, locate them, and characterise their distribution and properties with a minimum of disturbance. UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and image analysis have become importan...
Ecosystems provide multiple services that are necessary to maintain human life. Agroecosystems are very productive suppliers of biomass-related provisioning ecosystem services, e.g. food, fibre, and energy. At the same time, they are highly dependent on good ecosystem condition and regulating ecosystem services such as soil fertility, water supply...
Spatially explicit assessments of ecosystem services (ES) potentials are a key component in supporting a sustainable land use management. The ES matrix method is a commonly used approach as it allows for a comparably fast, comprehensible and accessible ES assessment. As it is often based on land use/land cover data (LULC) with no spatial variabilit...
The most important function of the coastal setback is to minimize damage due to coastal erosion, climate change response, and sea-level rise. There are many directions and methods of researching and assessing coastal changes and coastal erosion. This study presents the results of the shoreline changes in the area from Son Tra (Da Nang City) to Cua...
The most important function of the coastal setback is to minimize damage due to coastal erosion, climate change response, and sea-level rise. There are many directions and methods of researching and assessing coastal changes and coastal erosion. This study presents the results of the shoreline changes in the area from Son Tra (Da Nang City) to Cua...
Nutrient regulation is an important ecosystem regulating service in watersheds. However, systematic investigations of the spatial associations between the potential, flow, and demand of the nutrient regulation service are still lacking. Therefore, we performed a case study comparing the total phosphorus (TP) retention in the Dianchi Lake (DL) water...
Although Vietnam has become the third biggest rice exporter in the world, famine is yet challenging managers in many provinces, especially in the Northern mountainous areas of Vietnam. In contrast with financial profits, formal rice supply chains have recently not provided enough food for all people in these provinces. The ecosystem service approac...
This paper analyses and compares a set of case studies on ecosystem services (ES) mapping and assessment with the purpose of formulating lessons learned and recommendations. Fourteen case studies were selected during the EU Horizon 2020 “Coordination and Support Action” ESMERALDA to represent different policy- and decision-making processes througho...
Ecosystems provide multiple services that are necessary to maintain human life and activities. Agroecosystems are very productive suppliers of biomass-related provisioning ecosystem services, e.g. food, fibre and energy. At the same time, they are highly dependent on respective ecosystem condition and regulating ecosystem services such as soil fert...
This report summarizes the findings of a first ecosystem services assessment on territorial scale for the Outermost Region French Guiana, including a matrix assessment, ecosystem services maps and ecosystem services bundles.
With the Ecosystem Service (ES) concept's popularisation, the need for robust and practical methodologies for ES assessments has increased. The ES matrix approach, linking ecosystem types or other geospatial units with ES in easy-to-apply lookup tables, was first developed ten years ago and, since then, has been broadly used. Whereas detailed metho...
This report presents the current state of the art of ecosystem services research in the EU Overseas, with focus on Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES), in line with the EU Biodiversity Strategy Taget 2, Action 5.
Data collection took place through a scientific literature review (published in Sieber et al., 2018) and a co...
Bericht über die Durchführung und Ergebnisse der zweiten Workshopreihe in den Pilot-Stadtregionen Rostock und München
Precipitation is a crucial driver for many environmental processes and weather radars are capable of providing precipitation information with high spatial and temporal resolution. However, radar-based quantitative precipitation estimates (QPE) are also subject to various potential uncertainties. This study explored the development, uncertainties an...
Precipitation is a crucial driver for many environmental processes and weather radars are capable of providing precipitation information with high spatial and temporal resolution. However, radar-based quantitative precipitation estimates (QPE) are also subject to various potential uncertainties. This study explores the development, uncertainties an...
The famous terraced rice ecosystem in the mountainous areas as Sapa of northern Vietnam has expanded with unstable productivity over generations. However, the question arises of how natural and human conditions on terraces can boost the quality of rice provisioning ecosystem service supply with rice yields as an indicator. The study used a semi-str...
In this study, the nutrient regulation ecosystem service (ES) demand was quantified and mapped in an agriculturally-dominated landscape in the federal German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The demand was assessed in a case study area on an individual field scale. As an indicator for the nutrient regulation ecosystem service demand, nitrogen budge...
Bericht über die Durchführung und Ergebnisse der ersten ÖSKKIP-Workshopreihe in den Pilot-Stadtregionen Rostock und München
Conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, ecosystems and their services are key principles behind the establishment of "Biosphere Reserves". Mapping of ecosystem services is one of the activities that is expected to increase the knowledge of sustainable land use planning. The Biosphere Reserves, established by the UNESCO Man and Biosphere P...
Full text: https://rdcu.be/bVy8H | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0412-1 |
doi: 10.1038/s41893-019-0412-1 | Regional and global assessments periodically update what we know, and highlight what remains to be known, about the linkages between people and nature that both define and depend upon the state of the environment. To guide resear...
Agroecosystems play a significant role in the support of various human needs by supplying foremost different provisioning, but also cultural and regulating ecosystem services (ES). The purpose of this research is to analyse the condition of agroecosystems and their capacity to supply ES. It is presumed that an ecosystem in good condition ensures th...
Quantitative precipitation estimates (QPE) derived from weather radars provide spatially and temporally highly resolved rainfall data. However, they are also subject to systematic and random bias and various potential uncertainties and therefore require thorough quality checks before usage. The dataset described in this paper is a collection of pre...
Agroecosystems account for almost half of the land use in the European Union (EU). In Germany specifically, more than half of the surface area is used for agriculture. Well-managed agricultural land can provide multiple ecosystem services, essential for the maintenance of quality of life and conservation of biodiversity. However, changes in the con...
The rainfall data inter-comparison dataset is a collection of precipitation statistics calculated from the hourly nationwide German radar climatology (RADKLIM) and radar online adjustment (RADOLAN) composites provided by the German Weather Service (Deutscher Wetterdienst, DWD), which were combined with rainfall statistics derived from rain gauge da...
Mapping and Assessment Ecosystem Services Special Issue: Editorial
This study aims to assess the potential supply of the ecosystem service (ES) nutrient regulation on two spatial scales, the federal German state of Schleswig-Holstein (regional) and the Bornhöved Lakes District (local), exemplarily for the nutrient nitrogen. The methodology was developed using the ES matrix approach, which can be applied to evaluat...
Processed data BBN—Bornhöved Lakes District.
(CSV)
Processed data BBN—Schleswig-Holstein.
(CSV)
Environmental stressors and population growth have significantly affected terraced rice ecosystems, such as in
the Sapa district in northern Vietnam. The question arises how natural and socio-economic components determine
the amount of rice yields. This study combines a hybrid neural-fuzzy inference system (HyFIS) with GISbased
methods to generate...
Open access at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Martin_Schaedler/publication/330772906_Rice_Ecosystem_Services_in_South-East_Asia_The_LEGATO_Project_Its_Approaches_and_Main_Results_with_a_Focus_on_Biocontrol_Services/links/5c5befc445851582c3d45b99/Rice-Ecosystem-Services-in-South-East-Asia-The-LEGATO-Project-Its-Approaches-and-Main-Results-with...
Ecosystem condition is the overall quality of an ecosystem unit, in terms of its biological, physical and chemical characteristics underpinning its capacity to generate ecosystem services. Changes in ecosystem condition affect the delivery of services and therefore human well-being. Despite increasing research in this field, the relations between b...
Recent scientific developments are advancing to link land use and land cover (LULC) change with ecosystem service (ES) potentials. Such links within peri-urban ecosystems are scanty due to methodological and expertise challenge, and data limitation. The study applies the ‘ES matrix approach’ to spatially display potentials for regulating ES in main...
Recent scientific developments are advancing to link land use and land cover (LULC) change
with ecosystem service (ES) potentials. Such links within peri-urban ecosystems are scanty
due to methodological and expertise challenge, and data limitation. The study applies the ‘ES
matrix approach’ to spatially display potentials for regulating ES in main...
The European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 Coordination and Support Action ESMERALDA aimed at developing guidance and a flexible methodology for Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES) to support the EU member states in the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy’s Target 2 Action 5. ESMERALDA’s key tasks included network cr...
Mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services (MAES) is a key EU initiative to synthesise vital environmental information and facilitate balanced policy decisions. As MAES integrates across many scientific and policy domains, the development of a common language and shared concepts is essential. Here we present a comprehensive MAES Glossa...
Land use change due to the development of agriculture and community-based tourism has resulted in an increase in natural hazards (e.g. erosion and landslides) that affect sustainability in the Sapa mountainous area in northern Vietnam. Natural hazard regulating ecosystem services have protected the local people from the destruction of their village...
In a cross-disciplinary project (LEGATO) combining inter- and transdisciplinary methods, we quantify the dependency of rice-dominated socio-ecological systems on ecosystem functions (ESF) and the ecosystem services (ESS) the integrated system provides. In the collaboration of a large team including geo- and bioscientists, economists, political and...
Rice production and related ecosystem services provision are strongly dependent on environmental characteristics and socio-economic factors. There are still various knowledge gaps among decision makers for the development of sustainable agriculture strategies and to improve food security. Farmers can often not clearly understand issues related to r...