Jan

Kuiper

PhD

Researcher

jan.kuiper@su.se

+46 737 078 870

@jankuiper87

RSS-link

Profile summary

  • Ecosystem services
  • Scenarios
  • Resilience
  • Regime shifts
  • Participatory modelling
  • Biodiversity
  • Freshwater ecology

Jan Kuiper's research focuses on ecosystem service models and social-ecological scenarios

Kuiper is a postdoctoral fellow under the Wallenberg Foundation Research Exchange program on Natural Capital, Resilience and Biosphere Stewardship, which is jointly hosted by Stanford University and the Stockholm Resilience Centre. His research focus is on integrating scenario planning methods with ecosystem service models to foster informed decision making, building upon the interdisciplinary research of the Natural Capital Project and the Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS).

Kuiper completed his doctoral research at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology and Wageningen University, studying the resilience and regime shifts in aquatic ecosystems. In close collaboration with water quality managers and other stakeholders, he developed and applied dynamic modelling tools to quantify ecosystem resilience and predict the occurrence of abrupt regime shifts. Besides integrated modelling, Kuiper has a strong interest in biodiversity research. Previously he empirically studied the functional role of biodiversity in peatland ecosystems, contributed to the development of the Global Biodiversity model for policy support (GLOBIO), and worked as a consultant for the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).

Kuiper is a member of the Aquatic Ecosystem Modelling Network (AEMON) and part of the development team of the integrated ecosystem model PCLake.

Awards and achievements:

  • MCED Award for Innovative Contributions to Ecological Modelling (1st prize, 2016)
  • Publication Award Netherlands Ecological Research Network (2nd prize, 2016)
  • Publication Award Graduate School for Production Ecology and Resource Conservation (1st prize, 2015)

Publications by Kuiper, Jan

Learning from generations of sustainability concepts

Journal / article | 2020

Downing, A., S., Chang, M., Kuiper, J.,J., Campenni, M., Häyhä, T., Cornell, S., Svedin, U., Mooji, W. 2020. Learning from generations of sustainability concepts. Environmental Research Letters, Accepted Manuscript

Background: For decades, scientists have attempted to provide a sustainable development framework that integrates goals of environmental protection and human development. The Planetary Boundaries concept (PBc) – a framework to guide sustainable development – juxtaposes a 'safe operating space for humanity' and 'planetary boundaries', to achieve a goal that decades of research have yet to meet. We here investigate if PBc is suf...

A perspective on water quality in connected systems: modelling feedback between upstream and downstream transport and local ecological processes

Journal / article | 2019

Teurlincx, S., van Wijk, D., Mooij, W.M., Kuiper, J., et.al. 2019. A perspective on water quality in connected systems: modelling feedback between upstream and downstream transport and local ecological processes. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability Volume 40, October 2019, Pages 21-29

Food production for a growing world population relies on application of fertilisers and pesticides on agricultural lands. However, these substances threaten surface water quality and thereby endanger valued ecosystem services such as drinking water supply, food production and recreational water use. Such deleterious effects do not merely arise on the local scale, but also on the regional scale through transport of substances a...

Towards restoring urban waters: understanding the main pressures

Journal / article | 2018

Teurlincx, S., Kuiper, J. Hoevenaar, E.C.M. et. al. 2018. Towards restoring urban waters: understanding the main pressures. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability Volume 36, February 2019, Pages 49-58. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2018.10.011

Water bodies in the urban landscape are omnipresent, with many being small, lentic waters such as ponds and lakes. Because of high anthropogenic forcing, these systems have poor water quality, with large consequences for the provisioning of ecosystem services. Understanding of the main pressures on urban water quality is key to successful management. We identify six pressures that we hypothesize to have strong links to anthrop...

Modeling water quality in the Anthropocene: directions for the next-generation aquatic ecosystem models

Journal / article | 2018

Mooij, W.M., van Wijk, D., Beusen, A.H.W., et.al. 2018. Modeling water quality in the Anthropocene: directions for the next-generation aquatic ecosystem models. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability Volume 36, February 2019, Pages 85-95. DOI: 10.1016/j.cosust.2018.10.012

“Everything changes and nothing stands still” (Heraclitus). Here we review three major improvements to freshwater aquatic ecosystem models — and ecological models in general — as water quality scenario analysis tools towards a sustainable future. To tackle the rapid and deeply connected dynamics characteristic of the Anthropocene, we argue for the inclusion of eco-evolutionary, novel ecosystem and social-ecological dynamics. T...