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Principal Investigators (PIs)

BECC consists of scientists at different stages of their career. A particular role is played by BECC’s Principal Investigators (PIs) who, as representatives and leaders within the research groups encompassed by BECC in Lund and Gothenburg, contribute to the development of BECC.

A Principal Investigator (PI) in BECC is a permanently employed researcher at LU or UGOT (as researcher, associate senior lecturer, lecturer, or Professor). A BECC-PI demonstrates scientific leadership through pursuing an independent research program closely related to BECC’s research strategy, and significantly contributes to the strategic development of BECC as a research environment. 

A list of current Principal Investigators can be found at the end of this page.

BECC research delimitation

BECC develops research that targets sustainable management of ecosystem services in a world undergoing rapid change and loss of biodiversity. BECC researchers study how direct and indirect human impacts on the climate and ecosystems influence biodiversity and ecosystem functioning from local to global scales, and how knowledge about these dynamics may inform mitigation and adaptation decisions in the face of such changes.

BECC focuses on three Grand Challenges that must be tackled to assess the combined consequences of anthropogenic emissions, climate and land-use change on biodiversity and ecosystem services and provide a basis for informed societal responses, with a focus on critical changes in forest, agricultural, urban and arctic ecosystems, including interactions between terrestrial and aquatic systems. The knowledge generated by BECC serves the integration of biodiversity and ecosystem services into policy development, decision-making and praxis, from local to global level.

Learn more from BECC strategies and plans

Nominate new PIs

To become a PI, a researcher must be nominated by a current BECC PI to the BECC Board. Nominations are made twice a year (deadline 1 April and 1 November) followed by a selection process by the BECC board. A PI may nominate maximum 2 researchers per year.

PI nomination template

Terms of PI membership

A PI in BECC is a permanently employed researcher at LU or UGOT (as researcher, associate senior lecturer, lecturer, or Professor). A BECC-PI demonstrates scientific leadership, for example through pursuing an independent research program closely related to BECC’s 
research strategy, and significantly contributes to the strategic development of BECC as a research environment. 

Nomination and application

To become a PI, a researcher must be nominated by a current BECC PI to the BECC Board. Nominations are made once a year (deadline 1 December) followed by a selection process by the BECC board. A PI may nominate maximum 2 researchers per year. 

Benefits

  • Invited to contribute to the development of BECCs  strategic documents. 
  • Invited to use BECC support functions (for example related to outreach), given available capacity. 
  • Can apply for all BECC’s funding mechanisms: Incubator grant, Actions, workshops, guest researchers etc.
  • Invited to participate in BECC activities.
  • Can use BECC as affiliation in applications, publications, and presentations.

Requirements

  • Participates in BECC activities, including PI meetings.
  • Contributes by reporting activities (for example publications, conference participations, outreach activities etc) in line with BECC’s research delimitation, regardless of funder. 
  • Contributes to the development of BECC by proposing research, and by engaging in communication and dissemination of BECC-related findings. 
  • Highlights BECC affiliation (and funding when applicable), for example in relevant applications, talks, reports and scientific publications. 

Membership renewal

BECC PI-membership is renewed every three years by the Board.

A membership can be discontinued due to inactivity, change of research direction, move outside LU/UGOT, or retirement. The Board can choose to change status from BECC PI to BECC researcher or BECC friend or a final termination of association

Current PI:s

List updated 17 February 2022

Lund University

All names in the list below link to their respective web pages on Lund University's research portal.

  • Anna Persson – urban biodiversity, human nature relations, landscape ecology, citizen science, ecosystem service
  • Deniz Koca – system analysis, circular bioeconomy, modelling of complex dynamic systems, stakeholder facilitation
  • Hakim Abdi – remote sensing, geospatial ecology, biodiversity, drylands, forests.
  • Helena Hanson – green space governance, sustainable urban development, environmental sciences, climate change adaptation
  • Jessica Knapp – biodiversity and ecosystem functions, agricultural landscapes, pollination services
  • Johanna Alkan Olsson – natural resource management, stakeholder collaboration, processes of social change, environmental policy, regulatory scales
  • Liam Kendall – pollinator biodiversity, crop pollination services, conservation, sustainable food production
  • Maria Hansson – ecotoxicology
  • Mark Brady – applied economics, agriculture, agent-based modelling, ecological economics, multidisciplinary
  • Natascha Kljun – climate research, meteorology and atmospheric sciences, biospehere-atmosphere
  • Océane Bartholomée – pollinator ecology, predictive modeling, evolutionary biology, agricultural landscapes, behavioural observations
  • Per Persson – geochemistry, x-ray absorption spectroscopy, synchotron techniques, water-mineral interfaces, environmental chemistry
  • Richard Walters – biodiversity in animals
  • Romain Carrié – conservation of biodiversity, landscape scale, benefits of organic farming, pollination
  • Ullrika Sahlin – risk assessment, uncertainty, economic-ecological modelling, Bayesian analysis, environmental decision making
  • Wilhelm May – climate variability and change, climate extremes, land surface climate interactions, climate impact, synthesis
  • William Sidemo Holm - nature conservation, policy instruments, land management, organic farming
  • Yann Clough – landscape ecology, ecosystem services, agricultural policy, agroecology, land use intensity and scenarios

  • Johan Lindström – mathematic analysis, spatial statistics, simulation based inference, uncertainty analysis, Gaussian Markov Random Fields

  • Anders Tunlid – microbial ecology, decomposition, ectomycorrhizal and saprotrophic fungi, cycling of nutrients and carbon, biogeochemical processes
  • Anna Runemark – speciation, biodiversity, biogeography, evolutionary genomics, evolutionary biology
  • Bengt Hansson – population genetics, conservation genetics, genetic conflict, sex chromosome evolution, speciation, hybridisation, range expansion
  • Björn Klatt – conservation biology, pollination biology, pesticides, ecological intensification, yield quality and quantity
  • Caroline Isaksson – urbanisation, birds, oxidative stress, nutrition, pollution
  • Christer Brönmark – predator-prey interactions, wetlands, landscape of fear, aquatic ecology, limnology
  • Dag Ahrén – bioinformatics, systems biology, (meta)genomics, fungal host interactions, next generation sequencing
  • Dimitrios Floudas –  microbes, carbon cycling, decomposition, genomics, spectroscopy
  • Edith Hammer – soil chips to measure soil functions and biodiversity, soil fertility, soil carbon storage, mycorrhiza, synchrotron/spectroscopy analysis
  • Emma Kritzberg – aquatic biogeochemistry, land-use, browning, linking terrestrial, limnic and marine systems, bacterial community
  • Erik Svensson – evolutionary biology, phenotypic evolution, evolutionary dynamics, color signaling, evolution of phenotypic plasticity
  • Francois Maillard – decomposition, microbial community, diversity
  • Hanbang Zou –  mechanical engineering, microfluids, soil structure, deep learning techniques
  • Henrik Smith – conservation biology, ecosystem services, behavioural ecology, agricultural intensification, agri-environment schemes
  • Honor C. Prentice – botany, biological systematics, local adaptation, landscape history, plant community assembly
  • Håkan Wallander – soil science, microbiology, mycorrhizal fungi, phosphorus, nitrogen
  • Jadranka Rota - molecular phylogenetics, systematics, historical biogeography, evolutionary biology, Lepidoptera
  • Johannes Rousk – ecology of microorganisms, microbial communities, soil systems, biogeochemistry, microbial decomposition
  • Katarina Hedlund – soil science, above- and below ground interactions, microorganism, ecosystem services, sustainable use of soils and agricultural biodiversity
  • Kristin Aleklett Kadish - soil ecology, mycorrhizal fungi, microfluidics, fungi
  • Lars Pettersson – biodiversity monitoring, citizen science, butterflies and moths, conservation biology, land management
  • Lars-Anders Hansson – ecosystem ecology, aquatic ecology, cyanobacteria, food webs, limnology
  • Lettice Hicks –  plant-soil-microbial interactions, carbon and nutrient cycling (C, N, P), global change ecology, soil fertility and carbon storage, linking microbial community structure and functions
  • Magne Friberg – evolutionary biology, evolution of plant signals, plant-insect interaction, life-history biology, molecular and chemical ecology
  • Maj Rundlöf – farmland biodiversity interactions, landscape ecotoxicology and effects on bees, pollination, landscape scale experimental setup, network of farmers and national/international connections (EU authorities)
  • Mats Hansson – plant architecture, time to flowering, chlorophyll and wax biosynthesis, molecular techniques, biochemical methods
  • Martin Stjernman – field biology, conservation biology, agricultural land-use, biodiversity, predictive models
  • Mikael Pontarp – evolutionary biology, biogeographical processes, ecosystem structure and dynamics, eco-evolutionary simulation models, ecosystem services
  • Milda Pucetaite –  carbon cycling in soil, microscale soil fungal interaction, synchrotron radiation, vibrational spectroscopy
  • Niklas Wahlberg – biological systematics, evolutionary biology, phylogenetics, diversification, Lepidoptera
  • Nils Cronberg – biological systematics, genetics, bryophytes, reproductive biology, evolutionary biology
  • Ola Olsson – conservation biology, heterogenous environments, modelling and empirical methods, landscape characteristics, biodiversity, ecosystem services
  • Olle Anderbrant – chemical ecology, insects, evolution, pest control, chemical signals
  • Pablo Urrutia Cordero - agro-ecosystems, limnology, zooplankton
  • Pål Axel Olsson – biodiversity, mycorrhiza, nature conservation, plant-soil interaction, botany
  • Stefan Andersson – genetic and experimental research, evolution of wild plants, natural selection, ecotypic variation, inbreeding
  • Åke Lindström – birds, monitoring, conservation biology, migration, energetics
  • Øystein Opedal – plant interaction, high-alpine communities, changing climate, Dalechampia

  • Anne-Birgitte Nielsen – palaeoecology, pollen/vegetation relationships for dominant species, land use history, long term landscape change, millennial scale climate change
  • Charlotte Sparrenbom – groundwater, pollution, site conceptual models, remediation, sustainability 
  • Dan Hammarlund – natural climate fluctuations, lake sediments, paleoecology, quaternary, ecosystem responses
  • Daniel Conley – biogeochemical cycles of nutrients, Silica, linkages between land and aquatic ecosystems, paleoecological techniques
  • Helena Filipsson – oceanography, hydrology, water resources, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology, marine sciences
  • Jesper Sjolte – climate reconstruction, climate modelling, weather patterns, climate extremes, external forcing
  • Johannes Edvardsson – tree-ring analysis and data, long-term climate dynamics, peatland development, tree colonization, palaeohydrology
  • Karl Ljung – geosciences, multidisciplinary, past climate and environmental changes, microfossils, geochemical methods
  • Raimund Muscheler – solar activity, sun-climate linkages, cosmogenic radionuclides, paleoclimate
  • Sven Lukas – glaciers, environmental change, climate change, sediments, mountains

  • Albert Brangarí –  microbial ecology, mechanistic modelling, carbon cycling, carbon sequestration land use
  • Anders Ahlström – global cycles of C and water, interplay with climate and society, climate sensitivity, soil carbon dynamics, vegetation dynamics
  • Anders Lindroth – greenhouse gas exchange, land-atmosphere, permafrost, eddy covariance flux measurements
  • Anna Maria Jönsson v climate change adaptation, forestry and agriculture, phenology, ecosystem modeling, trees and insects
  • Anneli Poska – pollen, palaeo ecology, radiation dating, climate reconstruction, biostratigraphy
  • Annemarie Eckes-Sephard – vegetation dynamics, computer modelling, LPJ Guess
  • Benjamin Smith – ecosystem models, terrestrial ecosystem functioning, interactions with climate, population and community processes, climate research
  • Cecilia Akselsson – forest ecosystems, biogeochemical cycles, synergies and conflicts, ecosystem services, sustainable forestry
  • Jonas Ardö – carbon cycle, earth observation, Africa, remote sensing, flux and eddy covariance measurements
  • Jonathan Seaquist – network analysis, ecosystem production, net primary production, vegetation, interaction of climate and people on vegetation
  • Jutta Holst – carbon and methane exchange/fluxes, ICOS, earth and related environmental science
  • Karin Hall – ecological remote sensing, farmland, grassland, landscape history, plant species richness
  • Lars Eklundh – remote sensing, time series analysis, land resources, vegetation, ecosystem functioning, monitoring, phenology
  • Lena Ström – CH4 flux, greenhouse gas balance, vegetation structure, Arctic, wetland
  • Lina Eklundland system dynamics, migration, drought, and conflict in the Middle East, satellite images
  • Maj-Lena Linderson – biogeophysics, plant-atmosphere exchange processes, micrometeorology, climatology, ICOS
  • Margareta Johansson – permafrost and vegetation interaction, Arctic, active layer, permafrost temperature
  • Marko Scholze – data assimilation, global carbon cycle, inverse modelling, climate research, meteorology and atmospheric science
  • Martin Berggren – biogeochemical cycles, aquatic systems, dissolved organic carbon, water resources, oceanography
  • Minchao Wu - global carbon cycle, vegetation dynamics, ecosystem and climate modelling
  • Patrik Vestin - biosphere-Atmosphere exchange processes, greenhouse gas flux measurements; managements effects on GHG exchange in forests, wetlands and in agriculture
  • Paul Miller – earth system modelling (incl c and N cycles), LPJ-GUESS (incl LULCC and permafrost), C-N-P interactions incl wetlands, climate change, vegetation dynamic
  • Petter Pilesjö – GIS, spatial models, hydrological modelling, topographical modelling, coastal planning
  • Stefan Olin – land use, LPJ-GUESS, land-management, soil-organic matter (SOM)
  • Thomas Holst – BVOC, biogeochemical climate feedbacks, aerosols, simulation, climate change
  • Thomas Pugh - forest ecology, land management, carbon cycle, environmental change
  • Torbern Tagesson – primary production, dryland degradation, Sahel, vegetation changes, environmental variability
  • Vaughan Phillips - clouds, precipitation, bio-aerosols, ice crystals, pseudomonas syringae
  • Veiko Lehsten – ecosystem modelling, migration modelling, paleo fire analyses, late blight modelling, climate research
  • Wenxin Zhang - earth system modelling, vegetation-climate feedback, belowground greenhouse gas transport, ecological remote sensing, plant root modelling
  • Zheng Duan – satellite remote sensing, eco-hydrological modelling, land cover change, earth observations

  • Fariborz Zelli – global environmental governance, international institutions, political theory and philosophy, institutional fragmentation, global trade
  • Jakob Skovgaard – international environmental politics, EU climate policy, climate governance, mitigation policy instruments, climate finance
  • Johannes Stripple – urban politics of decarbonisation, forests, climate governance, carbon policy and market, imagination
  • Nils Droste – quantitative methods, biodiversity, public finance, land use/ land use change, casual inference on policy effects
  • Thomas Hickmannmulti-level governance, global sustainability politics, climate policy
  • Åsa Knaggård – science-politics relations, environmental policy, public policy, managing scientific uncertainty, cooperation over sectoral and disciplinary boundaries

  • Emily Boyd – sustainability, resilience, climate change, loss and damage
  • Kimberly Nicholas – sustainable land use, farming systems, sustainable development goals trade offs, food security, climate adaptation
  • Mine Islar – environmental governance, political ecology, IPBES, renewable energy
  • Torsten Krause – environmental governance, forestry, conservation science, sustainable development

  • Henrik Thorén – science in policymaking, interdisciplinarity, uncertainty, sustainability science

University of Gothenburg

All names in the list below link to their respective pages on the website of University of Gothenburg. 

  • Alexandre Antonelli – evolutionary biology, biodiversity, biogeography, climate change
  • Anne Bjorkman – Arctic, alpine tundra ecosystems, biome-wide patterns, plant function and phenological traits
  • Annemieke Gärdenäs – biogeophysics, Biogeochemistry, Process-oriented dynamic modelling, Forestry, Agriculture
  • Christine Bacon – evolutionary biology, biological systematics, phylogenetics, biogeography, biodiversity
  • Daniel Slunge – ticks, stakeholder interaction, hazardous chemicals, public health, pesticides
  • Göran Wallin – agricultural sciences, plant ecology, soil science, photosynthetic capacity, resource use efficency
  • Håkan Pleijel – interaction between vegetation and atmosphere, ground level-ozone, CO2 effects on crops, traffic air pollutants, urban greenery
  • Johan Uddling Fredin – interactions plant-environment, ecophysiology, climate change, CO2 effects on crops, trees and urban air quality
  • Lasse Tarvainen - plant ecophysiology, thermal acclimation, drought stress, nutrients, resource use efficiency
  • Sören Faurby – evolutionary biology, species richness, species diversity, phylogenetics, museum specimens
  • Ulf Molau – terrestrial ecology, tundra, experimental warming, temperature sensitivity, subarctic
  • Åslög Dahl – allergology, airborne pollen, pollen prognosis, biological weather, climate change effects on pollen
  • Mats Björkman – biosphere-atmosphere interactions, cryosphere-atmosphere interactions, changes in soil and microbial composition, changes in carbon and nutrient cycles, permafrost

  • Hans Linderholm – climate variability, effect of climate change on terrestrial and marine ecosystems, role of large-scale circulation in oceans and atmosphere on climate, tree rings, reconstructing past climate changes
  • Heather Reese – remote sensing, alpine vegetation, mapping of land cover types, spectral data, spatial modelling
  • Louise C. Andresen – plant growth, nutrient limitation, N and P availability, climate change, terrestrial ecosystems
  • Robert Björk – plant community dynamics, greenhouse gas fluxes, plant- soil interactions in rizosphere, tundra, responses to climate change
  • Tobias Rütting – biogeochemistry, dynamics of N cycle, stable isotope techniques, global change effects on N dynamics, nitrous oxide
  • Åsa Kasimir – climate research, forest, peatland, rewetting, IPCC, greenhouse gas exchange
  • Deliang Chen – impact of climate change, earth system science, climate dynamics and modeling, atmospheric circulation, synoptic climatology

  • Claes Ek - environmental economics, behavioural economics, applied econometrics, public economics
  • Fredrik Carlsson – environmental valuation, environmental regulation, environmental economics, social preferences and norms, cooperation and resource conservation
  • Gunnar Köhlin – environmental economics, non-market valuation techniques, domestic energy demand, sustainable resource management, soil conservation
  • Håkan Eggert – natural resource management, marine issues, behavioural and experimental economics, resource economics
  • Jessica Coria – design of environmental policies, modeling of environmental regulation, choice of policy instruments to comply with environmental regulations, developing countries, applied microeconomics
  • Olof Johansson Stenman – behavioural economics, environmental economics, public economics, welfare economics
  • Peter Martinsson – behavioural economics, environmental economics, experimental economics, development economics, health economics
  • Thomas Sterner – economic policy instruments, local and as global environmental problems, climate policy, resource management in developing countries, economics of energy use and climate change

  • Lars Gamfeldt – biodiversity, ecosystem multifunctionality, habitat diversity, experimental warming, marine
A red admiral butterfly sits on a plum with its wings spread out and drinks its juice.

Highlight BECC in affiliations or acknowledgements

BECC PIs are always expected to name BECC in affiliations or acknowledgements. Other members are also encouraged to highlight BECC. 

In the Communication support box below you will find detailed instructions on how to write affiliations and acknowledgements.