Background
My main interests are modeling complex adaptive systems, specifically on social-ecological interactions such as how climate change and human factors influence the biodiversity and adaptive capacity of species. To do this, I model the processes that occur across different time scales and spatial scales, focusing on mechanisms and feedbacks within the interface of ecology, evolution and economics, including also political science and sociology. In recent years I have become particularly interested in and focused on how processes and drivers are affecting financial markets, and how this is linked to climate change through impacts on renewable resources on which trade is relying. Additionally, I am interested in how can the complex adaptive systems framework be used for improving the tools and concepts within the scope of financial regulation. Why is biodiversity important for the financial market, and how does this relate to climate change? All around the world, renewable resources - such as marine ecosystems which many rely on as food commodities - are being exploited and traded. In my work I use and develop theoretical models, but I also use empirical analyses, like state-space models and time-series analysis. How do marine ecosystems and fish, from the individual level to a population level, adapt to communities, and what is affecting their risk of collapse and their potential for recovery? How do they interact with economics and society (the users)? To try to answer these questions, I develop models to study how eco-evolutionary dynamics and economics interact in a changing environment; for example under climate change, or under more abrupt perturbations, such as oil spills. I use these models to study multiple scenarios for (optimal) harvest rules under different objectives and regulations (for example harvest control rules in commercial fisheries). I am particularly curious about the risks following the uncertainty in how mechanisms and drivers of change interact, and how we can identify the different risks and probabilities for adaptation and regulation. Recently, I have worked a lot on issues on around the transition to green growth and blue growth: what are the possibilities and what are the adaptive constraints? What does a green shift really mean? How can we work to identify the challenges for management, and simultaneously realize options for regulations with the aim to achieve sustainable exploitation and adaptation for future generations in an era of climate change?
I have since 2012 been a member of the Levin Lab at Princeton University and is currently a Visiting Associate Research Scholar, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University.
Projects
- Green Growth based on Marine Resources: Ecological and Socio-Economic Constraints (GreenMar). PI. 2014-2018.
- A multidisciplinary approach to anticipate critical regime shifts in ecosystems (TerMARisk). PI. 2016-2017.
- Spatial shifts of marine stocks and the resilience of Polar resource management (Stockshift). Work-package leader. 2016-2019.
- The Nordic Centre for Research on Marine Ecosystems and Resources under Climate Change (NorMER). Supervisor. (Completed).
- Adaptive management of living marine resources by integrating different data sources and key ecological processes (ADMAR). WP leader and postdoc. (Completed).
- Long-term Effects of Oil accidents on the pelagic ecosystem of the Norwegian and Barents Seas. PhD-student. (Completed).
- Linking physics and biology – Structuring of cod-populations in the North Sea/Skagerrak water-system (webpage). Collaborator. (Completed).
Phd thesis
- The ecological and evolutionary effects of harvesting Northeast Arctic cod - Insights from economics and implications for management. University of Oslo. 2010. (DUO)
Students
- PhD-student Giovanni Romagnoni
- PhD-student Anna-Marie Winter
- Master student David Felipe Rivas Sánchez. Graduated June 2015.
Awards
- His Majesty the King's Gold Medal 2011 for PhD thesis. Recognized as an effective contribution to the research literature in its field (Read more: Norwegian).
News
- Appointed member of The Young Academy of Norway.
- Appointed member of strategic advisory group for UiO:Life Science Initiative, the largest priority area at UiO. http://www.uio.no/english/research/strategic-research-areas/life-science/
- Member of the working group for organizational and decision-making structure: Monitoring of UiO´s strategy 2020 based on the report of the Strategic Advisory Board (SAB). http://www.uio.no/for-ansatte/arbeidsstotte/prosjekter/strategic-advisory-board/
© Photo: Francesco Saggio/UiO