Biodiversity in urban ecosystems
Anna Sofie Persson
We study urban and rural ecosystems to understand how biodiversity is shaped by changes in land use and climate. We focus on urban and agricultural systems and mainly study pollinating insects and the ecosystem services they provide, combining traditional field sampling and experiments with citizen science campaigns and historical samples from biological museum specimens.
We use analyses of species’ ecological and morphological traits, such as size, dispersal capacity, habitat specificity and activity period, to gain insights into why species respond differently to land use and climate change. The aim is to contribute to a scientific and evidence-based foundation for the planning of (ecologically) sustainable landscapes and cities where biodiversity of plants and pollinators, as well as important ecosystem services, are maintained. The main project is currently ‘Saved by the city’ (Formas, 2020-2023).
In collaborative projects we study how people interact with biodiversity in their gardens (Operation: Saved the bees) and school grounds (Natural Nations), and how the concept ‘Green Infrastructure’ is understood and used by conservation authorities (The making of green infrastructure as a policy tool for biodiversity conservation).
Related projects
- Building cities to accomodate people, biodiversity and ecosystem services in Lund University’s research portal
- Saved by the city
- Natural Nations
- Operation: Save the bees in Naturskydföreningen's website
- Synergy/Matrix in Lund University’s research portal
- Urban Nature
- The making of green infrastructure as a policy tool for biodiversity conservation in Lund University's research portal
- Pollinators and seasonal variation in floral resources in Lund University's research portal
- BECC AG: Evolutionary feedbacks in plant-pollinator communities novel avenues for studying structure and function in Lund University's research portal
- BECC AG: Bringing environmental DNA methods to BECC
Principal investigator
- E-post: anna [dot] persson [at] cec [dot] lu [dot] se
- Telefon: +46 46 222 38 21
- Mobil: +46 73 069 28 80
Involved researchers
- Maria von Post (partly financed by Natural Nations, The making of GI)
- Johan Kjellberg Jensen (partly financed by Naural Nations)
- Liam Kendall (partly financed through commisioned work within Operation: Save the bees)
- Helena Hanson (partly financed through commisioned work within Operation: Save the bees)
- Veronica Hederström (collaboration: Operation: Save the bees)
- Romain Carrié (collaboration through Synergy/Matrix, and museum data (project yet unfinanced, VR application 2022))