Welcome
We cannot solve the sustainability challenges that threaten our environment without considering the society living in it. Therefore, we conceptualize agricultural landscapes as social-ecological systems, an arena of interplay between nature and society, which have co-evolved and shaped each other.
The overarching aim of our group - which is affiliated with the University of Kassel and the University of Göttingen - is to improve the sustainability of agriculture and other forms of land management through the enhanced understanding of their linkages to biodiversity, ecosystem services, and landscape change.
Research approach
We address current environmental issues of global relevance by means of case studies carried out on a landscape scale.
Our research is rooted in the emerging fields of social-ecological systems, land change science and landscape sustainability science. It exhibits four general characteristics, which together define its interdisciplinary and societal-relevant scope:
- We address current environmental topics of global relevance via a set of case studies performed at landscape scale. Study areas are strategically selected to span major environmental and land-use history gradients. This allows both a cross-site comparison and the consideration of regional land management regimes.
- Our research is collaborative and interdisciplinary and bridges natural and social science approaches to ecosystem services, landscapes, and land management.
- We focus on interactions between multiple ecosystem services: Provisioning (e.g. crop production), regulating (e.g. carbon sequestration, erosion control), and cultural services (e.g. recreation, cultural heritage values). This scope is inclusive and enables analysis of various trade-offs and synergies between land development needs, agricultural and forestry production, biodiversity, and the provision of less tangible ecosystem services.
- Our research comprises basic and applied research and is relevant to various policy arenas around land use, landscapes and ecosystem services.
Universities of Kassel & Göttingen
Our department is jointly supported by the University of Kassel and the Georg-August-University of Göttingen.
Click here to visit our website at the University of Göttingen.
Our international partners
Our group works with networks, institutes and groups that are world leaders in sustainability science: Stockholm Resilience Centre, Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science, Institute for Environmental Studies of the Free University of Amsterdam, University of Grenoble (CNRS), University of Cape Town, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Europe and others.
Dehesa landscape in Merida, Extremadura
Silvopastoral agroforestry landscape with livestock and olives in Morocco
Agroforestry landscape in Western Rwanda
Terraced landscape in Montanchez, Extremadura
Traditional fruit-tree orchard meadows in Witzenhausen
Agroforestry landscape of Myanmar's central dry zone
Terraced agroforestry systems in the High Atlas of Morocco
Flower strips in the district of Northeim
Extensively managed farmland in Extremadura