The unprecedented pace of technological progress is transforming our society, but is also driving an ever-growing demand for electrical energy. Meanwhile, The UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 pushes toward a future where everyone, everywhere, has access to clean, affordable, and reliable energy. This calls for cleaner production and conscious use of sustainable energy. Addressing this challenge of a sustainable energy transition is vital for the future of our society. A key factor in this regard is the efficiency of electrical networks. An efficient network, with minimal losses, enables innovations such as smart grids and the integration of renewable energy sources.
The unprecedented pace of technological progress is transforming our society, but is also driving an ever-growing demand for electrical energy. Meanwhile, The UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 pushes toward a future where everyone, everywhere, has access to clean, affordable, and reliable energy. This calls for cleaner production and conscious use of sustainable energy. Addressing this challenge of a sustainable energy transition is vital for the future of our society. A key factor in this regard is the efficiency of electrical networks. An efficient network, with minimal losses, enables innovations such as smart grids and the integration of renewable energy sources.
As the need for climate change mitigation intensifies, a crucial challenge emerges: how do we tackle the menace of carbon dioxide emissions? One promising solution is Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), a technology by which carbon dioxide emissions are captured and stored deep underground in rock formations or depleted oil wells. While CCS holds significant potential for curbing industrial contributions to climate change, it demands suitable underground storage space for the captured carbon dioxide, which is accompanied by two major hurdles. First, identifying these locations is challenging because storing carbon dioxide requires special geological conditions underground. Second, this may give rise to “Not-In-My-Backyard” protests in communities that host carbon dioxide storage projects due to public misperceptions of carbon dioxide as toxic for individuals.
As the need for climate change mitigation intensifies, a crucial challenge emerges: how do we tackle the menace of carbon dioxide emissions? One promising solution is Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), a technology by which carbon dioxide emissions are captured and stored deep underground in rock formations or depleted oil wells. While CCS holds significant potential for curbing industrial contributions to climate change, it demands suitable underground storage space for the captured carbon dioxide, which is accompanied by two major hurdles. First, identifying these locations is challenging because storing carbon dioxide requires special geological conditions underground. Second, this may give rise to “Not-In-My-Backyard” protests in communities that host carbon dioxide storage projects due to public misperceptions of carbon dioxide as toxic for individuals.
Since the domestication of wheat about 7,500 years ago, this important crop has undergone significant changes (de Sousa et al. 2021). Through targeted breeding, high-yielding wheat varieties have been developed to feed the growing global population, but this comes at the cost of reduced genetic diversity (Balfourier et al. 2019).
Since the domestication of wheat about 7,500 years ago, this important crop has undergone significant changes (de Sousa et al. 2021). Through targeted breeding, high-yielding wheat varieties have been developed to feed the growing global population, but this comes at the cost of reduced genetic diversity (Balfourier et al. 2019).
As climate change accelerates and CO2 emission reductions alone prove insufficient to meet climate targets, carbon removal has become essential for tackling hard-to-abate emissions. However, deploying carbon removal at scale presents a critical challenge for governments: How can they ensure it is both effective and affordable enough to secure public support? We show that this public support challenge can be overcome if carbon removal practices are deployed in combination with regulations that enhance the durability of CO2 removal , even if these regulations increase costs.
From the Burren in Ireland and the Erins in France to the Alps in Switzerland, grasslands are vital ecosystems that play a crucial role in supporting biodiversity, providing ecosystem services, and ensuring food security. These vast and diverse grasslands are just a few of the many that cover around 17% of the European Union’s total surface area, as of 2018 (EUROSTAT 2021). Grasslands are among the most species-rich habitats on Earth (Petermann and Buzhdygan), home to a wide variety of flora and fauna, and are essential breeding grounds for birds and invertebrates. In addition, they provide numerous ecosystem services such as water purification, soil erosion prevention and carbon sequestration. Grasslands contain various species of forage grasses, crucial for feeding livestock. Forage grasses, such as Lolium spp. and Festuca spp. are valuable, environment-friendly sources of livestock feed. However, frequent and unpredictable droughts have threatened forage grass yields, posing significant challenges to farmers and livestock managers.
From the Burren in Ireland and the Erins in France to the Alps in Switzerland, grasslands are vital ecosystems that play a crucial role in supporting biodiversity, providing ecosystem services, and ensuring food security. These vast and diverse grasslands are just a few of the many that cover around 17% of the European Union’s total surface area, as of 2018 (EUROSTAT 2021). Grasslands are among the most species-rich habitats on Earth (Petermann and Buzhdygan), home to a wide variety of flora and fauna, and are essential breeding grounds for birds and invertebrates. In addition, they provide numerous ecosystem services such as water purification, soil erosion prevention and carbon sequestration. Grasslands contain various species of forage grasses, crucial for feeding livestock. Forage grasses, such as Lolium spp. and Festuca spp. are valuable, environment-friendly sources of livestock feed. However, frequent and unpredictable droughts have threatened forage grass yields, posing significant challenges to farmers and livestock managers.
It is that range of biodiversity that we must care for – the whole thing – rather than just one or two stars. – David Attenborough
When we think about ecological diversity, our minds often jump to different species of plants and animals. But what if there is more to this story? Diversity extends beyond genes, plants, and animals—it is also about the variety of ecosystems in the landscapes around us (Fig. 1). Imagine a patchwork quilt of croplands, forests, grasslands, wetlands and meadows. Could this mosaic be the key to a healthier, more resilient environment? Do these diverse ecosystems, working together, contribute to the overall balance of our landscapes on a grander scale?
Figure 1: Suggested hierarchy of ecological systems as nested component units. Each level of ecological organization can feature diversity e.g. genetic diversity in individuals, species diversity in communities, community diversity in ecosystems and ecosystem type diversity in landscapes (Credits: Mayor et al., 2023)
Recently, researchers have started to explore the role that landscape diversity plays in the broader functioning of our environment. While the question is challenging, the answer is crucial for shaping policies that guide how we plan and manage landscapes in the long term. For example, think about zoning maps. These tools dictate how land is used, and they could greatly benefit from insights into how different ecosystems interact and support each other. To make a real impact, it is essential to connect academic research with political decision-making. By doing so, we can ensure that our understanding of landscape diversity goes beyond the theoretical, and has practical, real-world applications that benefit society as a whole.
Simon Landauer, is a PhD student in the Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of Zurich, as well as a RESPONSE fellow in the PhD program Science and Policy. He tackles this challenge by using satellite remote-sensed imagery of land covers derived every year for fifteen years for around 50’000 rectangular plots of 500m by 500m distributed on the North American continent. From this data, he calculates the number of different land covers in each plot, and correlates it with ecosystem functioning, which he operationalizes as the productivity of vegetation for each land cover type in a plot. Then, he determines positive and negative effects of diversity across all plots.
Figure 2: Graphical abstract of Simon’s research project. Study Area: Investigated region in North America, where different colors represent various biogeographic regions, where the superimposed rectangular grid further subdivides them into smaller units (so called “blocks”). Example: Shows a block in orange (bottom) with investigated plots therein, holding a different number of distinct land-cover types. Zoomed in on one plot, the different land-cover types (e.g. forest and cropland) are visible with the respective functioning of each land cover type area. The functioning is estimated greenness of vegetation (NDVI-normalized difference vegetation index) derived from satellite imagery. Insights: Simplified results of project, showing an average increase in landscape functioning with land cover type richness. (Credits: Simon Landauer)
Key research findings
Simon has identified that landscapes with mixed land cover type show higher vegetation productivity, compared to landscapes with a single land cover type. Analysis of the mechanistic underpinnings of these associations indicate that they are driven by two processes. On the one hand, positive complementarity is at play, whereby land cover types in a landscape complement each other and benefit on average from the mixture, bringing about enhanced vegetation productivity. And on the other hand, negative selection is a significant process, whereby those land covers that are generally less productive, for instance shrublands, benefit more from the presence of diverse land covers in the landscape. Interestingly, these patterns are comparable to results from traditional biodiversity research experiments at smaller spatial scales in grasslands. Simon further identified that productive land cover types supported local productivity, while the type thereof differed by location. These results further hint towards the presence of a so-called spatial insurance in diverse landscapes.
Stakeholder engagement at the science-policy interface
Simon acknowledges the importance of identifying and aligning interests of governmental and organizational entities to ensure that these findings of landscape diversity are contextualized for local policy in Switzerland. Therefore, he organized a stakeholder meeting of those engaged at the science-policy interface at the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT). This meeting in Bern was attended by the Head of Sustainability Research, the Head of the forum Landscapes, Alps, Parks, and Simon’s research partner organization at the Swiss Biodiversity Forum.
The stakeholders identified the Landscape Quality Assessment Unit of the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) as an essential entity for matters of landscape diversity in Switzerland. Similar to other European countries, Switzerland has witnessed a continuing trend in land consolidation with re-adjustment and industrialization of agricultural land parcels. Consequently, special interest is given to a time series analysis of landscape diversity and the effects of such a process of homogenization. This is also visible in the Areal Statistik – a re-occurring sampling approach-based land use map of Switzerland. Identifying and measuring effects of landscape diversity at a large scale is therefore, likely, of particular interest to landscape quality assessing institutions such as FOEN as well as the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL).
Insights from the stakeholder meeting
Stakeholders acknowledged an increasing awareness of the idea of landscape diversity (Table 1), although political action in this regard is deemed to be still lacking. The trend of landscapes with a single land cover, i.e. monetization, is still predominant and spreading, despite being contradictory to the growing desire for sustainable diversification of landscapes. Despite being a fundamental issue affecting society, there is little bottom-up interest for landscape diversity. This may be due to the difficulty to assess short-term, direct effects of diverse landscapes on everyday life. Simon also emphasizes that this stakeholder exchange indicated that science and politics are often more closely connected than it appears. Further, he highlighted the value in seeking dialogue to discuss and align interests that can create effective outcomes for society.
Table 1: Relevance of potential insights from landscape-diversity-functioning research for different stakeholders. The table represents interests of different actors from the domains: government (GOV), research (RES), organization (ORG).
Simon Landauer is a fellow of the RESPONSE Doctoral Program (DP) «RESPONSE – to society and policy needs through plant, food and energy sciences» funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No 847585.
This article is co-authored by Simon Landauer and Mary Ann George (University of Zurich, RESPONSE Program office assistant).
Featured Image credits: Hendrik Wulf (2024). The featured image titled “WunderTundra” won the 2nd prize under category “Locations and instruments” in the MNF Science Photo Contest 2024. Image description: “This false-color Landsat 8 image shows the North Siberian tundra along the Indigirka River. In addition to the meandering river, this landscape features several lakes (pink and yellow) next to grasslands and shrubs (green and blue). The vivid colors and patterns of the image reveal the beauty and diversity of the almost untouched tundra landscape in summer.”