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Inger Elisabeth Måren

Inger Elisabeth Måren

Position

Professor, Unesco chair on sustainable heritage and environmental management

Affiliation

E-mail
inger.maaren@uib.no
Phone number
+47 55584903
+47 41285126
Visitor address
BIO - Thormøhlensgt. 53A 3rd floor
5007 Bergen
Postal address
P.O. Box 7803
NO-5020 Bergen
Norway

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Inger Elisabeth Måren

Position

Professor, Unesco chair on sustainable heritage and environmental management

Affiliation

Research groups

Research

I hold a PhD in Plant Ecology from the Department of Biology, University of Bergen (2009). I am currently professor in applied ecology at the Department of Biological Sciences. In 2017 I was appointed UNESCO Chair on Sustainable Heritage and Environmental Management - Nature and Culture.

My research focuses on the dynamics in coupled human and natural systems, including sustainable development, natural resource management, agro-biodiversity, sustainable land use, ecosystem services, agroecology, and food security. I work with colleagues across the social and natural sciences to elucidate links between anthropogenic activities and the environment, in Europe, as well as in Asia, North-America and Africa. I seek to gain multifaceted knowledge within ecology and associated disciplines to investigate social-ecological complexities. In addition to a PhD in ecology I have completed a minor in Social Anthropology, and the cross-disciplinary courses Ecology and Development and Resource Management and Environmental Conservation.

As the UNESCO Chair at UiB, I'm working with several projects focusing on UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere  (MAB) programme. This includes following the establishment of Norway's very first Biosphere Area - Nordhordland UNESCO Biosphere.

I work mostly in cross- and trans-disciplinary projects, and have taken part in several collaborative research and education activities:

  • Co-founder and deputy leader of CeSAM - Centre for Sustainable Area Management
  • Member of Norway's UNESCO Commission
  • Member of the Norwegian MAB comittee
  • Member of the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food and Environment (VKM) (2015 - p.d.)
  • UNESCO Chair on Sustainable Heritage and Environmental Management - Nature and Culture, appointed 2017
  • Scientific coordinator of Bergen Summer Research School 2013 (www.uib.no/rs/bsrs) – organizing PhD courses on Food as a Global Development Challenge for 70 students, UiB Global
  • Lecturer and supervisor on the NOMA (NOrad MAster) Programme 2010-2014, Regional Master Program in Biodiversity and Environmental Management, lectured three cohorts and supervised 6 Master students
  • Scientific coordinator for the Nile Basin Research Programme 2009 (www.nile.uib.no) - working group on Biodiversity and Land Use Change, Uni Research
Outreach
Teaching
  • MNF 115 - Natural Science Perspectives on Sustainable Development (10 SP)
  • MNF 110 - Climate, Environment and Human History (10 SP)
  • BIOLOGY BIO 347 - Global Change Ecology (5 SP)
  • GEOGRAPHY GEO 100 – Examen facultatum - Introduksjon til geografi: Globale utfordringer og lokale svar (10 SP)
  • GEOGRAPHY GEO 131 – Ressursforvaltning og utvikling i Den tredje verden (10 SP) GEOGRAPHY GEO 212 – Terrestriske klima- og miljøendringer (10 SP)
  • GEOGRAPHY GEO 281 – Miljøforvaltning og planlegging (10 SP)
  • GEOGRAPHY GEO 282 – Kulturlandskap (10 SP)
  • GEOGRAPHY GEO 292 – Regionalgeografi, feltkurs (10 SP)
  • GEOGRAPHY GEO 326 – Geographic perspectives on food (10 SP)
  • FOREST ECOLOGY (5 SP) 
  • BOTANY BIO 112 (10 SP)
  • FOREST ECOLOGY AND REDD+ (5 SP)
  • ECOLOGY B 300 (15 SP)
  • BOTANY B 100 (15 SP)

 

Publications
2025
2021
2020
2005
2016
2015
2019
2007
2011
2017
2018
2012
2009
2024
2023
2022
2014
2008

See a complete overview of publications in NVA.

Måren I.E. & Sharma L.N. Managing biodiversity: Impacts of Legal Protection in Mountain Forests of the Himalayas. In press. Forests.

Sharma L.N. & Måren I.E. 2018. Tree regeneration in gap-understorey mosaics in a subtropical Shorea robusta (Sal) forest. In press. Journal of Forestry Research.

DiCarlo J. Epstein K., Marsh R. & Måren I.E. 2018. Post-disaster agricultural transitions in Nepal. AMBIO.

Romm J., Conrad E. & Måren I.E. 2018. Resilient governance of water regimes in variable climates: Lessons from California’s hydro-ecological zones. Water, 10, 196, doi: 10.3390/w10020196.

Epstein K., DiCarlo J., Marsh R., Adhikari B., Paudel D., Ray I. & Måren I.E. 2018. Adaptation and recovery after the 2015 Nepal earthquakes: a smallholder household perspective. Ecology & Society.

Måren I.E., Kapfer J., Grytnes J.A., Vandvik V. & Aarrestad P.A. 2018. Changing species co-occurrences over a post-fire succession. Ecology. 99(1):148-157. doi: 10.1002/ecy.2052

Epstein K., DiCarlo J., Marsh R., Ray I. & Måren I.E. 2017. Coping Strategies of Smallholder Farming Communities after the 2015 Nepal Earthquake: Insights into Post-Disaster Resilience and Social–Ecological Change. Case Studies in the Environment, University of California Press. doi: 10.1525/cse.2017.000612

Adhikari B., Pendry C.A., Måren I.E., Bhattarai K.R. & Chaudhary R.C. 2017. Distribution and preliminary conservation assessments of commonly used forest species in the Nepalese Himalayas. Banko Janakari - Journal for Forestry Information of Nepal. 27(1): 43-54.

Lundberg A., Kapfer J. & Måren I.E.* 2017. Reintroduced mowing can counteract biodiversity loss in abandoned meadows. Erdkunde 71(2): 127-142. doi: 10.3112/erdkunde.2017.02.03

Hudson L.N. et al. 2016. The database of the PREDICTS 1 (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems) Project. Ecology & Evolution. 7(11): 145-188. doi: 10.1002/ece3.2579

Sharma L.N., Grytnes J.A., Måren I.E. & Vetaas O.R. 2016. Does canopy disturbance matter for diversity in a subtropical forest? Comparing woody species composition and richness in gaps and intact canopy. Journal of Vegetation Science. 27: 1129-1139. doi: 10.1111/jvs.12445

Behera R.N., Nayak D.K, Andersen H.P. & Måren I.E.* 2016. From jhum to broom: Agricultural land use change and food security implications on the Meghalaya Plateau, India. AMBIO. 45(1): 63-77. doi: 10.1007/s13280-015-0691-3

Vandvik V., Klanderud K., Meineri E.P.F., Måren I.E., Töpper J.P. 2016. Seed banks are biodiversity reservoirs: species–area relationships above versus below ground. OIKOS. 125: 218-228. doi: 10.1111/oik.02022

Måren I.E., Karki S., Prajapati C., Shrestha B.B. & Yadav R.K. 2015. In semiarid environments, does slope aspect matter to woody species composition, carbon stocks and soil properties? An example from a trans-Himalayan valley. Journal of Arid Environments. 121: 12-123. doi: 10.1016/j.jaridenv.2015.06.004

Suwal A.L., Bhuju D. & Måren I.E.* 2015. Assessment of forest carbon stocks in the Himalayas: Does legal protection matter? Small-scale Forestry. 14(1): 103-120. doi: 10.1007/s11842-014-9276-4

Vandvik V., Måren I.E., Ndangalasi H.J., Talpin J. & Lovett J.C. 2014. Back to Africa: Post hydropower-project mitigation effects on wetland vegetation in relation to the conservation of an endemic amphibian. Ecosphere. 5(8): 95. doi: 10.1890/ES14-00093.1

Sharma L.N., Vetaas O.R., Chaudhary R.P. & Måren I.E. 2014. Ecological consequences of land use change: forest structure and regeneration across the forest-grassland ecotone in mountain pastures in Nepal. Journal of Mountain Science, 11(4): 838-849. doi: 10.1007/s11629-013-2849-4

Bargmann T.B., Måren I.E. & Vandvik V. 2014. Life after fire: smoke and ash as germination cues in ericads, herbs and graminoids of northern heathlands. Applied Vegetation Science, 17(4): 670-679. doi: 10.1111/avsc.12106

Bhattarai K.R., Måren I.E. & Subedi S.C. 2014. Biodiversity and invasibility: distribution patterns of invasive alien plant species in the Himalayas, Nepal. Journal of Mountain Science 11(3): 688-696.

Vandvik V., Spindelböck J.P., Cook Z., Daws M.I., Heegaard E., Måren I.E. & Velle L.G. 2014. Management-driven evolution in a domesticated ecosystem. Biology Letters 10: 20131082, doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2013.1082

Sharma L.N., Vetaas O.R., Chaudhary R.P. & Måren I.E. 2014. Pastoral abandonment, shrub proliferation and landscape changes: a case study from Gorkha, Nepal. Landscape Research 39(1): 53-69.

Måren I.E., Bhattarai K.R. & Chaudhary R.P. 2013. Forest ecosystem services and biodiversity in contrasting Himalayan forest management systems. Environmental Conservation 41: 73-83.

Spindelböck J.P., Cook Z., Daws M.I., Heegaard E., Måren I. E. & Vandvik V. 2013. Conditional cold avoidance drives between-population variation in germination behaviour of Calluna vulgaris. Annals of Botany 112: 801-810. Doi: 10.1093/aob/mct142

Shrestha K.B., Måren I.E., Arneberg E., Sah J.P. & Vetaas O.R. 2013. Effect of anthropogenic disturbance on plant species diversity in oak forests in Nepal, Central Himalaya. International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management 2: 21–29. Doi: 10.1080/21513732.2012.749303

Bhattarai K.R., Måren I.E. & Chaudhary R.P. 2011. Medicinal plant knowledge of the Panchase region in the Middle Hills of the Nepalese Himalayas Banko Janakari - Journal for Forestry Information of Nepal 21: 31-39. Doi: 10.3126/banko.v21i2.9127

Måren I.E., Janovský Z., Spindelbock J., Daws M.I., Kaland P.E. & Vandvik V. 2010. Prescribed burning of northern heathlands: Calluna vulgaris germination cues and seed-bank dynamics. Plant Ecology 207: 245-256. Doi: 10.1007/s11258-009-9669-1

Måren I.E. & Vandvik V. 2009. Fire and regeneration: the role of seed banks in the dynamics of northern heathlands. Journal of Vegetation Science 20: 871-888. Doi: 10.1111/j.1654-1103.2009.01091.x

Måren I.E. & Vandvik V. 2009. Prescribed burning and the role of seed banks in post-fire succession of northern heathlands, Lygra and Lurekalven islands, Hordaland, Norway. Conservation Evidence 6: 48-56.

Måren I.E., Vandvik V. & Ekelund K. 2008. Restoration of bracken-invaded Calluna vulgaris heathlands: Effects on vegetation dynamics and non-target species. Biological Conservation 141: 1034-1044. Doi: 10.1016/j.biocon.2008.01.012

Måren I.E., Vandvik V. & Ekelund K. 2008. Effectiveness of chemical and mechanical bracken Pteridium aquilinum control treatments in northern coastal heathlands on the island of Lygra, Hordaland, Norway. Conservation Evidence 5: 12-17.

Måren I.E. & Vetaas O.R. 2007. Does regulated land use allow regeneration of keystone forest species in the Annapurna Conservation Area, Central Himalaya? Mountain Research and Development Journal 27: 345-351. Doi: 10.1659/mrd.0893

Vandvik V., Heegaard E., Måren I.E. & Aarrestad P.A. 2005. Managing heterogeneity: the importance of grazing and environmental variation on post-fire succession in heathlands. Journal of Applied Ecology 42:139-149. Doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2664.2005.00982.x