Environment

Explore our dynamic environment

Welcome to the fascinating world of environmental dynamics! Our planet is in a constant state of flux, shaped by the interplay between natural systems and human activities. Human-nature interactions ripple across ecosystems, leaving an impact that reverberates from local to global scales. The exploitation of resources and rapid economic growth also serve as driving forces behind climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss, and a decline in ecosystem resilience.

Discover the environment theme

Our Environment theme serves as a bridge between natural processes and human activities, unravelling the intricate ways in which they shape climate, environment, and ecosystems across time and space. Delving into a diverse array of topics, our research explores the historical evolution and functions of our changing environment, shedding light on the effects of human activities. This knowledge is crucial for making informed decisions related to management, conservation, and policies geared toward cultivating a sustainable future.

Global research impact

Embark on a global journey with us to explore both marine and terrestrial environments. Our dedicated research groups delve into the complexities of environmental dynamics under global change, many with special emphasis on the unique Baltic Sea region. Click on the links below to dive deeper into our work and join us in our mission to understand, protect, and sustain our dynamic planet.

Researchers

Elinor Andrén, Thomas Andrén, Martin Dahl, Patrik Dinnetz, Karin Ebert, Michael Gilek External link., Mats Grahn, Martin Gullström, Monica Hammer, Josefine Larsson, Kari Lehtilä, Mona Petersson, Tove Porseryd, Anushree Sanyal, Sara Sjöling

Doctoral students

Mohanad Abdelgadir, Thea Bisander External link., Sara Braun External link., Sara Forsberg External link., Hanna Lindell External link., Therese Janzén, External link. Elena Palenova, Christian Sommer External link., Patrick Spets, External link. Olena Vinogradova, External link. Kseniia Zakharova. External link.

Projects

Research projects conducted within the theme are listed here (additional examples are available on the researchers’ profile pages):

• Climate change mitigation capacity of the Baltic coastal seascape: identification of hotspot environments for coastal blue carbon sequestration and guidance for sustainable management of the Baltic coastal landscapes under global change (CLIM-SCAPE) External link.
  
• Health hazard in the Baltic sea: the effect of fluorinated substances on Baltic sea organisms External link.
• Human - environment interactions and the epidemiological periurban landscape of tick - borne diseases
• Response and recovery of benthic biodiversity and ecosystem functions to chemical pollution and eutrophication External link.
• REVIVE - Genomic signatures of anthropogenic stress on revived diatoms from natural archives External link.
• SEASIDE - A multidisciplinary study of maritime environmental history
• Unravelling the relative influence of climate and land-use change on nitrogen retention in Baltic Sea coastal sediments over the last 300 years External link.

Sustainability Challenges and Pathways

The overarching theme of Sustainability Challenges and Pathways is divided into three overlapping and interrelated focus areas:

• Governance and management
• Development, justice and power
• Transdisciplinarity and transformation.

Governance and management

Research in this focus area includes governance structures, planning and practices in marine and terrestrial regions, and managing habitats and ecosystems. This encompasses governance and management-related research into diverse socio-nature interactions about climate, forests, localised ecosystem services and urban environments. It seeks to contribute not only to our understanding of governance structures but also to respond to contemporary challenges through exploring sustainability-related ideas and practices

Development, justice and power

There is growing recognition of the importance of justice in sustainability and development, but how power relations generate inequitable conditions and undermine prospects for sustainability is a complex and context-dependent issue. As a response, this focus area comprises wide-ranging inter- and transdisciplinary research approach to human-nature-society interactions, including critical analytical approaches that engage with sustainability challenges, questions and opportunities for change. Research into democracy, conflict, state-society relations, governance processes, economic and identity-related inequalities, power relations, social inclusion, land and water use, and rural and urban livelihoods are the subjects of this focus area. In scrutinising sustainability challenges and possibilities, we emphasise the importance of societal and environmental justice, equity, identity and rights-based approaches, as well as knowledge about power relations, societal movements and analyses of cultural, epistemic, and ontological divides.

Transdisciplinarity and transformation

To meet sustainability challenges, now and in the future, transdisciplinary and transformative research is needed to develop sustainability pathways that are underpinned by scientific understanding. They should be embedded in resource-user and practitioner understandings and enabled through institutionalised action. This research seeks to generate critical insights into the obstacles and possibilities for increasing global and intergenerational equity, while respecting and conserving biodiversity and the ecosystem services on which diverse socio-cultures depend for their wellbeing. Adopting a transdisciplinary and transformative research approach to exploring and examining sustainability pathways, necessitates dialogue between society (communities, societal movements and NGOs), companies, governmental institutions and academia, in and across different contexts.

Researchers

Maria Bergman External link., Madeleine Bonow External link., Gloria L Gallardo Fernández External link., Michael Gilek External link., Monica Hammer, External link. Björn Hassler External link., Tomas Kjellqvist External link., Johanna Johansson, External link. Rickard Lalander External link., Kari Lehtilä, External link. Romina Rodela External link., Filip Roumeliotis External link., Fred Saunders External link., Nandita Singh External link., Sara Sjöling External link., Ralph Tafon External link., Ekaterina Tarasova External link.

Doctoral students

Helen Barbosa External link., Virginia Brenner Music External link., Bartira Fortes, External link. Oldouz Nejadibabadaei External link., Nikolina Oreskovic External link., Shivangi Shreya External link., Tatiana Sokolova External link., Charles Westerberg External link., Kseniia Zakharova External link., Erika Öhlund

Projects

Here are a few examples of research projects conducted within the research theme (further examples are found on the researchers’ profile pages):

• Developing and testing a COVID-19 focused Learning Intervention with a focus on crisis, recovery and transformation in communities across disadvantaged urban areas External link.
• Fostering Innovation in Rwanda
• Hydro-territorial Rights and Rural Sustainability in the Global South External link.
• Indigenous Community-Based Eco-Tourism and Socio-environmental Justice in the Global South External link.
• Just energy transitions for whom? Exploring the concept of recognition-based justice in the case of the coal phase-out in Poland External link.
• JUSTLAND - Just and Sustainable Return of Land to Communities (in Mozambique)
• LAND-PATHS: The landscapes of the future - barriers and drivers for transformation paths External link.
• OCEANS PACT - Ocean Sustainability Pathways for Achieving Conflict Transformation External link.
• On the road to a bio-based economy - Governance pathways and policy design for sustainable forest use (GOVFORBIO) External link.
• Engage4Wet –Stakeholder Engagement and Sustainable Restoration of Wetlands for Water Security External link.
• Route to Paris - research on the climate benefits of forests
• Sustainable solutions within shifting societal paradigms and a changing climate - Informed decisions based on science and stakeholder priorities (SPARC) Planning with youth External link.
• Towards a reformed forest policy External link.
• Urban community gardens as social innovation in turbulent times across diverse European contexts (GARDIN)
• Wetlands as nature-based solution in the Global South: Implications of gendered traditional ecological knowledge for water-related sustainable development External link.