Research Field 3.1

PLANETARY OPPORTUNITIES AND PLANETARY BOUNDARIES

Team: Dieter Gerten (head), Lilibeth Acosta-Michlik (Postdoc), Tim Beringer (Postdoc), Yvonne Brückmann (PhD), Marianela Fader (Postdoc), Jens Heinke (PhD), Ursula Heyder (PhD student, guest), Holger Hoff (PhD), Jonas Jägermeyr (PhD), Markus Konzmann (scientific assistant), Nils Lange (student), Wolfgang Lucht (Senior, RD I Chair), Sebastian Ostberg (PhD), Johann Rastgooy (student), Sibyll Schaphoff (PhD)

This flagship project will elaborate on the following research questions:

• What dimension do planetary boundaries (water, land use, nutrients) have if computed spatially explicitly?

• What metrics are suited to describe the societal relevance of exceeded boundaries?

• How do key boundaries interplay?
  
• Do global sustainability goals collide?
• Can we stay within planetary boundaries through more effective use of resources (water, land, nutrients)?
• How should an Earth system model be designed to capture the dynamic human–environment co-evolution?

• Gerten D, Bergmann S (Eds.) 2012: Religion in Environmental and Climate Change: Suffering, Values, Lifestyles. Continuum, 270 pp.
• Gerten D, Heinke J, Hoff H, Biemans H, Fader M, Waha, K. 2011: Global water availability and requirements for future food production. Journal of Hydrometeorology 12, 885-899.
• Heyder U, Schaphoff S, Gerten D, Lucht W 2011. Risk of severe climate change impact on the terrestrial biosphere. Environmental Research Letters 6, 034036.
• Acosta-Michlik L, Lucht W, Bondeau A, Beringer T 2011. Integrated assessment of sustainability trade-offs and pathways for global bioenergy production: framing a novel hybrid approach. Renew. Sust. Energy Rev. 15, 2791-2809.
• Beringer T, Lucht W, Schaphoff S 2011. Bioenergy production potential of global biomass plantations under environmental and agricultural constraints. Glob. Change Biol. Bioen. 3, 299-312.
• Fader M, Gerten D, Thammer M, Heinke J, Lotze-Campen H, Lucht W, Cramer W 2011. Internal and external green-blue agricultural water footprints of nations, and related water and land savings through trade. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 15, 1641–1660.
• Bergmann S, Gerten D (Eds.) 2010. Religion and Dangerous Environmental Change. LIT, 256 pp.
• Lucht W 2010. Earth system analysis and taking a crude look at the whole. In: Schellnhuber H-J et al. (Eds.), Global Sustainability: A Nobel Cause, Cambridge University Press, 19-32.

• Rost S, Gerten D, Hoff H, Lucht W, Falkenmark M, Rockström J 2009. Global potential to increase crop production through water management in rainfed agriculture. Environ. Res. Lett. 4, 044002.
• Hoff H 2009. Global water resources and their management. Curr. Opinion Environ. Sust. 1, 141–147.

International cooperation partners:

• Rita Adrian, Silke Schmidt, Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Dept. of Limnology of Shallow Lakes and Lowland Rivers
• Sigurd Bergmann, Norwegian University of Science & Technology, Department of Archaeology and Religious Studies
  
• Hester Biemans, Pavel Kabat, Fulco Ludwig, Wageningen University, Earth System Science and Climate Change Group
• Xuefeng Cui, Beijing Normal University, College of Global Change and Earth System Science
• Damasa B. Magcale-Macandog, University of the Philippines, Institute of Biological Sciences
• Neil Edwards, Open University, Milton Keynes
  
• Malin Falkenmark, Stockholm International Water Institute
• Rupert Ford, University of Manchester, School of Computer Science
• Carl Folke, Stockholm Resilience Center
• Global Water System Project (project endorsement)
• David Groenfeldt, Water Culture Institute
• Helmut Haberl, Karlheinz Erb, Alpen-Adria University Klagenfurt, Institute of Social Ecology
• Mario Herrero, International Livestock Research Institute
• Tobias Kümmerle, Patrick Hostert, Humboldt University of Berlin, Dept. of Geography
• Christian Leduc, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement
• Marcus Lindner, European Forest Institute
• Martin Kowarsch, Michael Reder, Munich School of Philosophy, Institute for Social and Development Studies
• Johan Rockström, Mats Lannerstad, Stockholm Environment Institute
• Tim Searchinger, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School
• Stefan Siebert, University of Bonn, Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation
• Vladimir Smakhtin, International Water Management Institute
• Riccardo Valentini, University of Tuscia, Laboratory of Forest Ecology
• Rachel Warren, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research