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Introduction
My research focuses on spatial modeling to assess and conserve multiple ecosystem services (ES), method development to capture spatial heterogeneity of different components of ES, different forms of ES valuation. Furthermore I am interested in theoretical-conceptual development of ES and the science-policy interface relating to ES. I am lead author in the Europe and Central Asia assessment of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
Current institution
Additional affiliations
January 2018 - present
January 2014 - February 2015
Position
- Research Associate
Description
- Supervision of M.Sc. theses & Student essay writing supervision in the “Seminar Interdisciplinarity in Scientific Research and Education”
April 2010 - February 2011
Position
- Research Associate
Description
- Conceptualised and taught course “Nachhaltigkeit: ökologische Perspektiven (Sustainability: ecological perspectives)”
Education
March 2011 - June 2015
October 2004 - April 2010
September 2001 - September 2004
Berufsakademie Sachsen Staatliche Studienakademie Leipzig
Field of study
- Business Administration
Publications
Publications (80)
We describe and reflect on seven recurring critiques of the concept of ecosystem services and respective counter-arguments. First, the concept is criticized for being anthropocentric while others argue that it goes beyond instrumental values. Second, some argue that the concept promotes an exploitative human-nature relationship, while others state...
Context
The variation in spatial distribution between ecosystem services can be high. Hence, there is a need to spatially identify important sites for conservation planning. The term ‘ecosystem service hotspot’ has often been used for this purpose, but definitions of this term are ambiguous.
Objectives
We review and classify methods to spatially de...
Ecosystem services and sustainability have become prominent concepts in international policy and research agendas. However, a common conceptual ground between these concepts is currently underdeveloped. In particular, a vision is missing on how to align ecosystem services with overarching sustainability goals. Originally, the ecosystem service conc...
A major challenge today and into the future is to maintain or enhance beneficial contributions of nature to a good quality of life for all people. This is among the key motivations of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), a joint global effort by governments, academia, and civil society to ass...
Conservation efforts are increasingly supported by ecosystem service assessments. These assessments depend on complex multidisciplinary methods, and rely on a number of assumptions which reduce complexity. If assumptions are ambiguous or inadequate, misconceptions and misinterpretations may arise when interpreting results of assessments. An interdi...
Mainstreaming of ecosystem service approaches has been proposed as one path toward sustainable development. Meanwhile, critics of ecosystem services question if the approach can account for the multiple values of ecosystems to diverse groups of people, or for aspects of inter- and intra-generational justice. In particular, an ecosystem service appr...
Food systems are primary drivers of human and environmental health, but the understanding of their diverse and dynamic co-transformation remains limited. We use a data-driven approach to disentangle different development pathways of national food systems (i.e. ‘transformation archetypes’) based on historical, intertwined trends of food system struc...
The potential supply of ecosystem services is often assessed using land cover data. Assessment of actual use of ecosystem services by beneficiaries remains less covered and is often assumed to be congruent with potential supply. However, we believe that to contribute to the sustainable management of multifunctional landscapes, more insights are nee...
Global frameworks to guide consistent monitoring of changes in human–nature interactions across space and time are needed to better understand how healthy ecosystems support societies and to inform policy design. Monitoring Essential Ecosystem Service Variables (EESVs) can provide a comprehensive picture of how links between nature and people are c...
Stabilizing agricultural production is fundamental to food security. At the national level, increasing the effective diversity of cultivated crops has been found to increase temporal production stability, i.e., the year-to-year stability of total caloric production of all crops combined. Here, we specifically investigated these effects at the regio...
Biosphere reserves (BR) balance biodiversity protection and sustainable use through different management restrictions in three zones: core areas, buffer zones, and transition areas. Information about the links between zoning and ecosystem services (ES) is lacking, particularly in terms of the relative roles of natural contributions (ecosystem prope...
Ecosystem services flow interregionally between sending and receiving regions and their consumption can have impacts on ecosystems in distant regions. Global trade of wild species comprises a multitude of ecosystem services. We identify ecosystem service flows provided by traded species and delineate main sending and receiving regions through speci...
Crop production is a crucial ecosystem service that requires a combination of natural and anthropogenic contributions to high and stable yields, which is a coproduction process. We analysed this coproduction based on nationally aggregated data for 15 major crops for 67 countries and the European Union with data for four time steps (2000, 2006, 2010...
Introduction The complex links and feedbacks between ecosystems and people are now sharply in focus. Our growing understandings of the complex relations between ecosystems and people, the social and ecological drivers of changes in nature, and the different dimensions of a good quality of life, from local to global scales, have made these interdepe...
Non-technical summary
Resilience is a cross-disciplinary concept that is relevant for understanding the sustainability of the social and environmental conditions in which we live. Most research normatively focuses on building or strengthening resilience, despite growing recognition of the importance of breaking the resilience of, and thus transform...
The end of the first working program of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) provided an opportunity to draw lessons from its work. This perspective paper captures insights from ecosystem services (ES) researchers and practitioners, largely drawing from the European context (referred to herein...
Despite a growing number of national-scale ecosystem service (ES) assessments, few studies consider the impacts of ES use and consumption beyond national or regional boundaries. Interregional ES flows-ecosystem services "imported" from and "exported" to other countries-are rarely analyzed and their importance for global sustainability is little kno...
Relational values are values of desirable relationships between people and nature and among people (through nature). We report on the approach to capture relational values of nature’s contributions to people in the regional assessment for Europe and Central Asia of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services...
Different types of mobility are known as longstanding strategies used by humans to deal with environmental pressure. Immobility is relevant in this context as population groups may be at considerable risk but lacking the capacity or willingness to move. Despite significant advances in this research field, grasping especially the subjective dimensio...
In this paper, we investigate the cogency of the “sustainability or collapse” narrative, that is, the notion that the current global civilization risks ecological overshoot-induced collapse. Combining different strands of literature, we put forward three arguments: First, for many empirical cases of past societies that purportedly “collapsed”, alte...
Ecosystem service assessments rarely consider flows between distant regions. Hence, telecoupling effects such as conservation burdens in distant ecosystems are ignored. We identified service-providing species for two cultural ecosystem services (existence and bequest, and birdwatching) and two receiving, i.e. benefitting, regions (Germany, the Neth...
Biodiversity is suffering dramatic declines across the globe, threatening the ability of ecosystems to provide the services on which humanity depends. Mainstreaming biodiversity into the plans, strategies and policies of different economic sectors is key to reversing these declines. The importance of this mainstreaming is recognized by the Conventi...
Being open to multiple interpretations allows the ecosystem services concept to operate as a boundary object, facilitating communication and cooperation between different user groups. Yet there is a risk the resultant pluralism limits the capacity of ecosystem services assessments to directly inform decision and policy making, and that the concept...
Efforts are increasing to integrate the sustainable provision of ecosystem services into land management decision-making. These efforts, however, are challenged by (1) the variety of methods to map and quantify ecosystem services, and (2) the scarcity of knowledge on how environmental policies and management decisions affect relationships among eco...
The Atlas of Ecosystem Services has collected knowledge on drivers, trade-offs, and synergies of ecosystem services and biodiversity, as well as societal responses. It presents case studies from various fields to demonstrate concepts of sustainable land management and governance. In this final chapter, we identify important open questions to sketch...
Human well-being is significantly affected by the contributions provided by ecosystems, or ecosystem services. In this well-illustrated atlas, world-class experts identify and discuss key driving forces, trade-offs, and synergies of ecosystem services. Through interdisciplinary case studies varying across ecosystems and scales, this atlas narrows t...
This part of The Atlas of Ecosystem Services focuses on the types of societal responses to addressing drivers and risks to ecosystems, as well as on societal demand and dependence on ecosystem services (Fig. 47.1). Society is affected by changes in ecosystem services provision that occur because of drivers affecting ecosystems and because of trade-...
Which ecosystem services are addressed? General introduction to the ecosystem service concept.
Our framework (Fig. 1.1) depicts different components of a dynamic in which ecosystem services are provided and managed [1]. The impact of on ecosystems can lead to a loss of ecological processes and properties, which are the basis for the provision of ecosystem services to society.
Chapter 2 of the Regional Assessment Report of IPBES Europe and Central Asia
Decision makers are increasingly interested in information from ecosystem services (ES) assessments. Scientists have for long recognised the importance of selecting appropriate indicators. Yet, while the amount and variety of indicators developed by scientists seems to increase continuously, the extent to which the indicators truly inform decision...
As part of a set of ongoing changes to the Journal, in this Editorial we would like to announce its new name: Ecosystems and People. In 2010, the term ‘Ecosystem Services’ was added to the International Journal of Biodiversity Science & Management, which had existed since 2005. This was done to position it as a natural sciences journal that also fo...
This Editorial of the International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management (IJBESM) marks the end of this Journal’s publications under Rudolf de Groot. He has been instrumental in bringing the concept of ecosystem services to the fore, through seminal publications, books, lectures, through founding and chairing the Ecosyst...
We share many of the views of de Groot et al. on the relevance of ecosystem services (ES) and the constructive role they have played in highlighting the importance of nature to people. Here we aim to further clarify how the concept of Nature’s Contribution to People (NCP) contributes to science and policy
Conserving and managing global natural capital requires an understanding of the complexity of flows of ecosystem services across geographic boundaries. Failing to understand and to incorporate these flows into national and international ecosystem assessments leads to incomplete and potentially skewed conclusions, impairing society’s ability to iden...
Citizen science approaches provide opportunities to support ecosystem service assessments. To evaluate the recent trends, challenges and opportunities of utilizing citizen science in ecosystem service studies we conducted a systematic literature and project review. We reviewed the range of ecosystem services and formats of participation in citizen...
National parks in Europe provide many cultural ecosystem services (CES) e.g. opportunities for recreation, the experience of “wild nature” and the perception of landscapes of high aesthetic value. However, the scientific assessment of CES is still poorly developed, especially when compared to provisioning and regulating services. Within the ECOPOTE...
Many decision-makers are looking to science to clarify how nature supports human well-being. Scientists' responses have typically focused on empirical models of the provision of ecosystem services (ES) and resulting decision-support tools. Although such tools have captured some of the complexities of ES, they can be difficult to adapt to new situat...
Spatial prioritization could help target conservation actions directed to maintain both biodiversity and ecosystem services. We delineate hotspots and coldspots of two biodiversity conservation features and five regulating and cultural services by incorporating an indicator of ‘threat’, i.e. timber harvest profitability for forest areas in Telemark...
Managing ecosystems to provide ecosystem services in the face of global change is a pressing challenge for policy and science. Predicting how alternative management actions and changing future conditions will alter services is complicated by interactions among components in ecological and socioeconomic systems. Failure to understand those interacti...
There is growing interest in ecosystem disservices, i.e. the negative effects of ecosystems on humans. The focus on disservices has been controversial because of the lack of clarity on how to disentangle ecosystem services and disservices related to human wellbeing. A perspective that considers both services and disservices is needed to inform obje...
Ecological restoration has become an important conservation strategy to safeguard biodiversity and ecosystems services. To restore 15% of degraded ecosystems as stipulated by the CBD Aichi target 15, we developed a prioritization framework to identify potential priority sites for restoration in a megadiverse country. Based on a restoration planning...
We present options for a National Ecosystem Assessment in Germany (NEA-DE) that could inform decision-makers on the state and trends of ecosystems and ecosystem services. Characterizing a NEA-DE, we argue that its cross-sectoral, integrative approach would have the advantages of increased scientific understanding, addressing specific policy questio...
The International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management (IJBESM) will be moved to full open access from 26 September 2016 onwards. This means that the research it publishes will be available for anyone to read, anywhere, at any time, providing they have an internet connection. We have elected to make this change in consul...
National ecosystem assessments form an essential knowledge base for safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystem services. We analyze eight European (sub-)national ecosystem assessments () and compare their objectives, political context, methods, and operationalization. We observed remarkable differences in breadth of the assessment, methods employed, v...
In this Editorial to Issue 12–3 (2016) of International Journal of Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services & Management (IJBESM), we introduce this Issue’s articles, which can be of relevance to a wide range of stakeholders, such as local and (inter)national decision-makers, large international firms, farmers, fishery managers and protected area managers....
Silvertown ('Have Ecosystem Services been oversold?') provides an outspoken critique on the concept of ecosystem services (ES), feeding a longstanding debate about how to express and conserve the value of nature for humans. The paper raises valid concerns about ES monetization, its failure to ‘capture the multifaceted sense in which people value na...
In this Editorial to Issue 11-4 (2015) of IJBESM, we elaborate on the slightly broadened and modified scope of the Journal and provide a short introduction to the articles of this Issue.
The slightly broadened scope of IJBESM puts more emphasis on the management and policy relevance of findings published in the Journal. Papers should address biodi...
PhD Thesis at Wageningen University
In this editorial to the second Issue of Volume 11 (2015), we provide insight into the Journal’s statistics of 2014 and provide a short overview of the papers that make up the Issue.
Inclusion of spatially explicit information on ecosystem services in conservation planning is a fairly new practice. This study analyses how the incorporation of ecosystem services as conservation features can affect conservation of forest biodiversity and how different opportunity cost constraints can change spatial priorities for conservation. We...
The aim of this study was to analyse the relation of horizontal and vertical canopy structure to tree functional diversity of a highly diverse subtropical broad-leaved slope forest, stratified for different successional stages. This is of particular interest because many key ecosystem processes and functions are related to the arrangement of forest...
Competition for canopy space is a process of major importance in forest dynamics. Although virgin and old-growth European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) forests in Europe have been studied for many years, there are to date no studies of individual-tree crown plasticity and the way this is influenced by local neighborhood interactions in these forests....
Competition for canopy space is a process of major importance in forest dynamics. Although virgin and old-growth European
beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) forests in Europe have been studied for many years, there are to date no studies of individual-tree crown plasticity
and the way this is influenced by local neighborhood interactions in these forests....
Bush encroachment is one of the most extensive changes in land cover in semi-arid rangelands and an urgent problem for cattle farming, rapidly reducing the productivity of the rangeland. Despite the severity of these consequences, a complete and accurate assessment of bush encroached areas is still missing at large. This study aims at assessing bus...
Bush encroachment is one of the most extensive changes in land cover in Namibia and an urgent problem for cattle farming, rapidly reducing the productivity of the rangeland. Despite the severity of these consequences, a complete and accurate assessment of bush encroached areas is still missing at large. This study aims at assessing bush encroachmen...
Questions
Questions (3)
Laurans et al. (2013) have found that there is little documentation on the actual use of monetary valuation of ecosystem services in practice (policy, planning).
Do you know of documented cases where valuation made a difference, in the sense that it convinced policy makers and planners to conserve an area?
For a study on site selection in forest we applied an algorithm which finds near optimal cost-efficient, connected sites for conservation (Marxan with Zones). One could think of ways to include stakeholders at certain stages, maybe at the beginning, maybe after the results are there, to consult stakeholders and to include these results as constraints in a consecutive run of a software, model etc. Are there any good examples/references that document such a combination of top-down/bottom-up?
Mapping and spatial modelling are important methods in the field of ecosystem services. I am struggling with a conceptual difference between the two terms “mapping” and “spatial modelling”. They are interchangeably used in the literature, that is my impression at least.
Here are my thoughts about it:
Every map is a representation of reality, thus a model in the broadest sense. Sometimes mapping is distinguished from modelling by stating that mapping is a simple representation of reality, while modelling is trying to cover more complexity in reality. However, a look-up table where you assign one ES value to a certain land cover unit is not really “mapping”, is it? It is a simplifying model. On the other hand, think of a digital elevation model which is used for producing maps. All maps are based on models, but not all models lead to maps (only spatial models can be used for producing maps?) – would this hold?
I have not found a clear definition in the literature, but does anyone have an idea, suggestion, or hint to literature that you want to share?
