Schon jetzt verbraucht die Menschheit in einem Jahr etwa so viele Ressourcen, wie die Biosphäre in 1,2 Jahren produzieren kann. Mit anderen Worten: Die Menschheit verbraucht etwa 20 % mehr Ressourcen, als global nachhaltig wäre. Für die nächsten Jahrzehnte wird aber weltweit ein erhebliches...

Global trade of biomass-related products is growing exponentially, resulting in increasing ‘teleconnections’ between producing and consuming regions. Sustainable management of the earth's lands requires indicators to monitor these connections across regions and scales. The ‘embodied human...

The future bioenergy crop potential depends on (1) changes in the food system (food demand, agricultural technology), (2) political stability and investment security, (3) biodiversity conservation, (4) avoidance of long carbon payback times from deforestation, and (5) energy crop yields. Using a...

India's economic growth in the last decade has raised several concerns in terms of its present and future resource demands for materials and energy. While per capita resource consumption is still extremely modest but on the rise, its sheer population qualifies India as a fast growing giant with...

Many international policies encourage a switch from fossil fuels to bioenergy based on the premise that its use would not result in carbon accumulation in the atmosphere. Frequently cited bioenergy goals would at least double the present global human use of plant material, the production of...

Most problems related to biodiversity management have an ecological as well as a socio-economic dimension. Consequently, there has been a growing recognition that adequate management recommendations directed at such problems can only be developed if knowledge from ecology, economics and various...

Over the last two million years, humans have colonized almost the entire biosphere on Earth, thereby creating socio-ecological systems in which fundamental patterns and processes are co‐regulated by socio‐economic and ecological processes. We postulate that the evolution of coupled...

type="main" xml:lang="en" <title type="main">Summary</title> <p>Human-induced changes in global stocks and flows of carbon are major drivers of global climate change. This article presents a comprehensive and systemic account of a nation's carbon budget, comprising socioeconomic as well as ecological carbon flows in a...</p>

The ‘human appropriation of net primary production’ (HANPP) is an integrated socio-ecological indicator measuring effects of land use on ecological biomass flows. Based on published data for Austria, Hungary, the Philippines, South Africa, Spain and the UK, this paper investigates long-term...