The world is facing a biodiversity crisis characterized by substantial loss of habitats and populations. As a major consequence species are getting extinct globally as well as in Denmark at an unprecedented rate. Moreover, an increasing exploitation of resources, climate changes as well as increased in flow of invasive species enhance the negative development in the future. Therefore, there is a strong need for an ambitious effort in nature protection and restoration, which requires an in depth understanding of the fundamental biological interrelations among species and their ecosystems as well as the drivers behind the emerging problems.
At the Department of Biology, we answer questions such as: How do we achieve a balance between needs of nature and the needs of civilization? How can we integrate nature protection and restoration in landscape management and in the development of society in general? We study the causes of the loss of biodiversity at genetic, species and ecosystem levels, and develop management strategies and surveillance methods to restore populations of plants and animals as well as entire ecosystems.
Henrik Balslev worked in Latin America and Thailand on pant systematics, ethnobotany, and plant ecology in projects funded by the Danish Research Council, Danida, EU, and Carlsberg Foundation. His project on harvest of wild palms in the Amazon basin involved 24 months field work along the Amazon river. Recent work in Thailand is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation (2 mio €; 2015-2024). He has trained numerous researchers from the third world, parallel to supervising Danish MSc and PhD students.
With my background in Biology, PhD in Global Development, and postdoc in Human Geography, l am trying to combine the best of different field to specialize in Environmental Justice and sustainability.
I am eager to explore creative and engaging approaches via inter- and transdisciplinary research collaborations and innovative students, from landscape design experiments and photography-based studies to body-mapping of nature relations, and Citizen Science.
Currently, l am steering a research project in South Africa with partners from University of Pretoria and private and public partner. We focus on collaborative, locally-anchored Green Infrastructure and Nature-based Solutions as a strategy to address great challenges surrounding biodiversity, inequity, water and waste in green spaces of deprived urban areas. The project includes co-development and onsite testing of landscape designs and ecological restoration with and in local communities.
In parallel, I am part of the SustainScapes research center and the Biodiverse Cities partnership, where I supervise a PhD project, in which we will assess user perceptions through co-created landscape visualizations (maps, models and physical installations) in Vilhelmsborg, Aarhus, in close collaboration with Aarhus Municipality.
Tightly connected to my research, I coordinate and teach a course in Global Change Biology. I see teaching as a privilege and passion, and an opportunity to integrate mutual learning with student-driven studies (see Pasgaard 2017).
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Jens-Christian Svenning is a macroecologist and biogeographer, with strong interest in plants, animals and people across the world. Alongside basic curiosity about nature, Jens-Christian Svenning is highly motivated to contribute to help overcome the climate and biodiversity crises and promote sustainable societal development. His research includes foci on fundamental drivers of biodiversity, climate change impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems, and human-nature interactions from the past to the future, with interest in fundamental issues such as disequilibrium dynamics and top-down trophic effects. Key applied research foci include predictive modelling, the application of informatics and space-borne and other remote sensing technology to ecological and sustainability research, human dependence on and benefits from nature, and rewilding as a promising approach to ecosystem restoration. Jens-Christian Svenning is committed to ensuring the societal benefits of his research and knowledge, working closely with a range of public and private actors on concrete real-world conservation, restoration, and sustainability projects and challenges, as well as doing large amounts of outreach.
