Researchers
List with all researchers within SAPES (pdf, 154 kB, new window)
Prof. Henrik Smith, Lund University
Personal webpage (portal.research.lu.se)
My research focusses on how arable land-use and landscape complexity affect biodiversity and ecosystem services in agricultural ecosystems. Within SAPES, I am particularly interested in synergies and trade-offs in the management of multiple ecosystem services and effects of interventions at different landscape scales. By combining empirical field studies and existing data-sets, the research group gathers and validates evidence for success of interventions and develops decision tools as guidance to improve e.g. agri-environment schemes.
Prof. Katarina Hedlund, Lund University
Personal webpage (portal.research.lu.se)
My research in SAPES can currently comprise anything from diversity of soil microorganisms to above- and below ground interactions that involves studies of soil biodiversity and ecosystem services on large scale levels. The concept of ecosystem services and how we can value them use their value in promoting sustainable use of soils and agricultural biodiversity is a key focus of our current research.
Prof. Riccardo Bommarco, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
I perform research on how land use, landscape structure, and conservation efforts affect the distribution and abundance of plant and insect biodiversity, focusing on organisms that provide us with ecosystem services. For this I explore the ecology of predators (such as spiders, parasitoids, ground beetles and lady bird beetles) that biologically control agricultural pest insects, and of flower visiting insects (such as bumble bees, solitary bees, hover flies, and butterflies) that pollinate crop and wild plants. I am interested in developing management schemes that efficiently combine crop production based on management of ecosystem services, with biodiversity conservation in the agricultural landscape.
Dr. Mark Brady, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Personal webpage (agrifood.se)
My research in SAPES is focused on developing ecological-economic models to value ecosystem services in agriculture and evaluate how alternative governance regimes are likely to affect farmers’ land use decisions and in turn, flows of ecosystem services in the future. In particular I will investigate the economic merits of integrating biodiversity conservation with production as a strategy for improving the sustainability of agriculture.
Prof. Barbara Ekbom, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
My research concerns integrated pest management. The ecological approach includes population dynamics, herbivore/natural enemy interactions, and plant/insect interactions. Applications I work with are: Biological control in agricultural and horticultural crops, landscape planning for pest control, Cultural methods such as intercropping and trap cropping, studies on insecticide resistance in insect populations, use of molecular methods to track predation by natural enemies.
Prof. Jan Bengtsson, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
My research is focused on community ecology in spatially subdivided habitats, and on the linkages between population and ecosystem ecology. More recently, I have used soil organisms to study how food web structure influences ecosystem processes, both in theory and in an applied context. This has led to an interest in the importance of biodiversity for ecosystem functioning, and management of landscapes for biodiversity conservation.
Dr. Thomas Hahn, Stockholm Resilience Centre
Personal webpage (stockholmresilience.org)
Within Sapes my research team uses questionnaires, interviews and social network analysis to assess farmers’ attitudes and decision-making and how this can be considered in policy. Policy can be more effective if we move from a focus on uptake of preconceived schemes to a collaborative approach that builds on farmers’ knowledge and attitudes. Governance involves several actors and should be adaptive to both social and ecosystem dynamics. Network analyses identify key persons and processes to be supported.
Dr. Regina Lindborg, Stockholm University
My research within Sapes is focused around biodiversity conservation, with special emphasis on plants in grasslands and small remnant habitats, and how to combine agricultural production and conservation in rural landscapes. More specifically I study species, taxonomic and functional composition in farms along a landscape heterogeneity gradient using a trait-based approach.