Perspectives for Biodiversity and Ecosystems

The novelty of the book is a strong focus on perception, perspectives and prediction by scientists with profound insight into the ecology of ecosystems or into human demands and activity. The challenge is to bridge from empirical data and the knowledge of the past to the possibilities of the performance in the future. We assume that there is scope for more cooperation between the fields of ecology and practical philosophy or other social sciences in organising ecosystems and shaping the cultural future of humankind, and that such collaboration should be accorded considerably more priority. 

This book deals with environmental processes seen within a framework of the nature of ecosystems and human cultures. The future of the environment, the development of ecosystems and effective nature conservation management are the essentials of this book. Human nature and culture, and in particular their interactions, are interpreted as a set of rules and as given. The aim is not only to assess the significance of human influence on species composition and biodiversity but also to weigh up the subsequent potentials for action. In this book we will analyze the problems independently of one another, even if they are interconnected. 

This book focuses on perspectives and prognoses for the impacts of anthropogenic activity on ecosystems and thus on species conservation. Its goal is to improve assessments of the impacts of human activity on the environment. We are aware that prognoses have very often proven to be false. It is difficult to impossible to be able to predict with precision how evolution and ecosystems will change in future under anthropogenic influence. This strengthens our resolve to attempt to retain the highest possible degree of scientific integrity and professionalism and not to shy away from expressing the uncertainty of our own ideas and prognoses. We venture prognoses in this book and we will fail. However, we hope that we will be wrong on the right side.

Carsten Hobohm, Prof. Dr. rer. nat. habil., is full professor at the University of Flensburg since 2006 and head of the Department of Ecology and Environmental Education (Ökologie und Umweltbildung).

Before he went to Flensburg, he worked at the universities of Bayreuth and Freiburg (1978-1985, Diploma in Biology), Hannover (doctoral research on plant communities and vegetation ecology of the waddensea island Norderney with subsidiary subject in Philosophy, 1987-1992), Lüneburg (postdoc position, 1992-2004, including postdoctoral lecturer qualification, Habilitation, in the field of Geobotany and Nature Conservation in 1997), Siegen (2005-2006, visiting professor in landscape and vegetation ecology).

During his community service and afterwards (1985-2004) he worked for a nature conservation NGO (Schutzstation Wattenmeer) in the Waddensea area on the islands Sylt and Föhr and on different ecological audit projects for the private sector.

He is interested in the relationship between nature and culture, in vegetation and landscape ecology, environmental sciences, international nature conservation policies, environmental education and environmental ethics. The nature-culture relationship can be seen as principal topic.

His research focuses on the biogeography and ecology of species compositions, diversity hotspots, rare and endemic vascular plants, their habitats and ecology in response to natural and cultural processes.

He published the first scientific book on Biodiversity - Biodiversität - in German language (2000). He edited a book on Endemism in Vascular Plants (2014; Plant and Vegetation 9) and on Perspectives for Biodiversity and Ecosystems (in general accepted in 2019 for publication in the series Environmental Challenges and Solutions, subm. 2020, publication expected in 2021 or 2022).

He and his research group are organising, updating and analysing the database onEndemic Vascular Plants in Europe (EvaplantE), the database on Plant Endemism Assessment of Red List habitats in Europe (PEARL), and a new database on hyperendemism (Hypedata). In 2016 a Red List of European terrestrial and freshwater habitats including a small contribution of the working group was published by the European Commission, Brussels (Janssen et al. 2016; fact sheets on the internet since 2017).

In 2014 and 2018 the quality of education in biology/ecology and didactics at the University of Flensburg was ranked on top in comparison with other universities in Germany (CHE ranking).

In 2020 Carsten Hobohm got the Research Award of the University of Flensburg. In the same year the whole university was ranked as one of the top five universities in Germany with respect to efficiency.