To solve the biodiversity crisis, it is crucial to stop the loss of nature and restore destroyed ecosystems. To achieve this, we need knowledge about the ecological societal, and economic conditions and processes associated with land use changes and loss of biodiversity, as well as the consequences of this. These are complex questions that require trans-disciplinary collaboration, and that the project "Nature-based solutions for land use transitions towards more sustainable societies" is doing research on. 

Speakers

Project manager 
Ivar Herfindal is researcher at the Gjærevoll centre for biodiversity foresight analyses at NTNU, and project manager of the SusLandUse project within the sustainability research initiative at NTNU. In his research, he is particularly interested in the huge variation that we observed in the biodiversity between areas even close to each other, and over time. The main aim is to understand what causes this variation, and how individuals, species and biodiversity, are affected by natural and human-caused environmental changes, such climate and land use change. To investigate this, a system for monitoring several species groups in different nature types and over several years, is established. This is named "Ecosystem Trøndelag". 

Natchiyar Balasubramanian did her bachelor's in zoology in India and master's in ecosystem services in Germany. In her PhD she tries to identify tools for companies and municipalities to measure and mitigate their impacts on biodiversity. It is fundamental to understand the changing requirements for reporting on biodiversity and sustainability at EU level so they can be applied in Norwegian industrial sectors. The project also collaborates with Trondheim municipality to implement the concept of “area neutrality” and what it means for biodiversity and nature conservation. Natchiyar is doing her PhD at the Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management

Tonje Aarre Sommarset works at the Department of Geography, where she also did her master's in human geography. Her research is broadly centered around human-nature relations and land use management. In her PhD project, she analyses the status of the non-native Sitka spruce tree in Norwegian nature management. Specifically, she researches how conflicting interests and perceptions of Sitka spruce have influenced national policy on forestry and biodiversity management, as knowledge about the implementation of different stakeholder’s values and interest are essential to understand how and why land use changes take place.

Beatrice Trascau is a Romanian ecologist and biogeographer at the NTNU University Museum. She has completed her bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of York, UK. In her PhD project she investigates the patterns of land-use changes that has occurred across Norway through time, and how these have shaped the biodiversity we see today. She is particularly interested in understanding the differences in impact that different land-use changes have on biodiversity, and whether these differ between groups of species such as plants, birds, insects and mammals. 

Francois Philippe Lazarus took his higher education in France, with a bachelor’s degree in biology, and a master’s degree in Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution. During his education, he has participated in research projects in Finland and Norway, including Svalbard. His PhD project focuses on the spatial characteristics that help maintain biodiversity across typical nature types of Trøndelag. This requires the use of large datasets on species presence and abundance and can help understand the fundamental question of why species are where they are, and why they are absent where they are not. The final aim is to improve our understanding of how biodiversity will respond to land use changes and loss of nature.

More about nature-based solutions on NTNU Sustainabilitys pages