Environmental science – research for a sustainable future
Climate problems and land use change, biodiversity and ecosystem services, urban sustainability issues and the harmful spread of environmental toxins are some of the pressing challenges facing our researchers in the field of environmental science.
Biodiversity and ecosystem services
How can humans better protect species, ecosystems and the associated ecosystem services? Based on this question, a number of our researchers are developing knowledge bases for ecological restoration, biodiversity compensation and sustainable finance.
Thanks to close links with disciplines such as agronomy and agricultural and environmental economics, our environmental science research can evaluate proposals for solutions that are relevant to management, governance and legislation. This applies, for example, to protecting new natural areas, promoting biodiversity, or integrating natural ecosystem processes into agriculture and forestry. This research focuses on agricultural land and forests as well as urban environments and coastal ecosystems.
Changes in climate and land use
Another area of research focuses on how changes in climate and land use negatively affect ecosystems. These include the loss of natural habitats and the increased frequency and intensity of wildfires, droughts and heatwaves. In this case, our researchers study key processes in ecosystems, from the microscopic to the global scale. They use everything from microscopy at the MAX IV Laboratory to remote sensing via satellites and field measurements of greenhouse gases, for example. We also work with climate and vegetation models.
Investigating the response of ecosystems to disturbances is crucial in this context. The studies encompass ecosystems all over the world. Our researchers also study and model the consequences of policy decisions made within broader bioeconomic systems linked specifically to land use and ecosystems, such as forest industries and food systems.
Climate-adaptive and sustainable cities
We also conduct research on climate adaptation and sustainability in urban environments. The growing number of people living in cities, combined with the effects of climate change, is creating increased pressure on the built environment and its inhabitants. Consequently, there is a need to develop urban environments in the face of challenges such as extreme weather events or land use conflicts.
Our researchers are therefore exploring green space management approaches and how nature-based solutions can be used in urban and semi-urban environments. Here we work with spatial planning and policy analysis combined with ecological methods to assess the impact of different practices on both ecosystem services and human wellbeing.
Spread of environmental toxins and the law
Environmental toxins are another area we are involved in. Our researchers identify the release and dispersion of chemical substances into the community and nature, and also investigate their biological effects on humans and other organisms. Priority is given to identifying the impact from waste products, pesticides/herbicides, heavy metals, soot/aerosols, nutrient leaching, eutrophication in aquatic environments, microplastics and nanoplastics, and non-degradable chemicals such as PCBs and PFAS.
Our research on environmental toxins also includes legal aspects: governance and regulation of chemical use, liability for environmental offences and the use of scientific evidence in decision-making. The breadth of research is based on close collaboration between biologists, epidemiologists, chemists, physicists, engineers, social scientists and political scientists.
Decision-making, risk assessment and computational science
Our researchers also contribute, within their respective fields of research, to compiling knowledge for advisory and regulatory bodies in Sweden and internationally. We develop and apply methods for evidence-based decision-making, as well as methods for risk and impact assessments, including when working with the UN’s science-policy bodies, such as the IPCC and IPBES, and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Our researchers also look at how different forms of evidence are used in decision-making processes from the individual to the societal level.
We also have a research theme in computational science for health and the environment. Here, our researchers work in an interdisciplinary way on topics such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, big data management and statistical methods to help develop practices and find solutions to scientific problems in areas such as medicine, biology and climate.
