Jon

Norberg

Professor

Research fellow, Complex Adaptive Systems

jon.norberg@su.se

+46 736 005 569

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Jon Norberg works with conceptual development of the resilience and complex adaptive systems (CAS) frameworks

Norberg's work spans theoretical ecology, such as the interaction between different response processes such as evolution, species sorting and dispersal, as well as the role of human information networks in solving complex management tasks


Norberg holds a position as researcher financed by the Stockholm Resilience Centre and currently situated within the Dept. Systems Ecology at Stockholm University.
 
In his research, Norberg is working with transdisciplinary perspectives on sustainability issues. His work spans theoretical ecology, such as the interaction between different response processes such as evolution, species sorting and dispersal, as well as the role of human information networks in solving complex management tasks.
 
Studying interacting systems with self-organizing capabilities requires the use of new analytical and numerical tools. Norberg has made contributions for this both in the ecological and social fields. Particularly, a paper on the role of phenotypic (trait) diversity for ecosystem functioning in PNAS in 2001 was highlighted in a comment by Tilman (2001) and its implications for future research discussed by Levin (2002). Invited as keynote speaker for a NSF funded biocomplexity in aquatic systems conference, Norberg contributed with two papers to a special issue as a result of this conference. A transdiciplinary project funded by the Swedish Research Council during 2002-2004 and the Resilience Alliance has resulted in the book "Complexity theory for a sustainable future" co-edited by Norberg and published by Columbia University Press.

He has one graduate student enrolled in this project with whom he has developed methods to use social network theory to study natural resource problems (Bodin and Norberg 2005). This research is just the start of a rich field of combining social sciences with natural science that I will explore in future research.

Both natural, and social systems are to a large extent complex adaptive systems, in which their parts interact to form large scale patterns that feed back into the way the parts interact. Complexity theory is a promising new avenue for understanding social-ecological systems and the problems as well as the solutions are theoretically rich.

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Publications by Norberg, Jon

Analytically tractable climate–carbon cycle feedbacks under 21st century anthropogenic forcing

Lade, S. J., Donges, J. F., Fetzer, I., Anderies, J. M., Beer, C., Cornell, S. E., Gasser, T., Norberg, J., Richardson, K., Rockström, J., and Steffen, W.

2018 - Journal / article

Changes to climate–carbon cycle feedbacks may significantly affect the Earth system’s response to greenhouse gas emissions. These feedbacks are usually analysed from numerical output of complex and arguably opaque Earth system models. Here, we construct a stylised global climate–carbon cycle model, test its output against comprehensive Earth system models, and investigate the strengths of its climate–carbon cycle feedbacks ...

Strategies for sustainable management of renewable resources during environmental change

Lindkvist E., Ekeberg, Ö., Norberg, J.

2017 - Journal / article

As a consequence of global environmental change, management strategies that can deal with unexpected change in resource dynamics are becoming increasingly important. In this paper we undertake a novel approach to studying resource growth problems using a computational form of adaptive management to find optimal strategies for prevalent natural resource management dilemmas. We scrutinize adaptive management, or learning-by-doin...

Towards a trait-based ecology of wetland vegetation

Moor, H., Rydin, H., Hylander, K., Nilsson, M.B., Lindborg, R., Norberg, J.

2017 - Journal / article

1. Functional traits mechanistically capture plant responses to environmental gradients as well as plant effects on ecosystem functioning. Yet most trait-based theory stems from terrestrial systems and extension to other habitats can provide new insights. 2. Wetlands differ from terrestrial systems in conditions (e.g. soil water saturation, anoxia, pH extremes), plant adaptations (e.g. aerenchyma, clonality, ubiquity of bryo...

Predicting climate change effects on wetland ecosystem services using species distribution modeling and plant functional traits

Moor, H., K. Hylander, J. Norberg

2015 - Journal / article

Wetlands provide multiple ecosystem services, the sustainable use of which requires knowledge of the underlying ecological mechanisms. Functional traits, particularly the community-weighted mean trait (CWMT), provide a strong link between species communities and ecosystem functioning. We here combine species distribution modeling and plant functional traits to estimate the direction of change of ecosystem processes under cli...

See all publications with Norberg, Jon

Norberg, Jon

Stockholm Resilience Centre is a collaboration between Stockholm University and the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Stockholm Resilience Centre
Stockholm University, Kräftriket 2B
SE-10691
Phone: +46 8 674 70 70
info@stockholmresilience.su.se

Organisation number: 202100-3062
VAT No: SE202100306201