Karl Zimmerer est au CEFE de septembre 2022 à juin 2023. He was funded by the Make’It program Montpellier Advanced Knowledge Institute on Transitions.

Short biography

Karl Zimmerer is Professor of Environment and Society Geography and is in the Ecology and Rural Sociology programs. He directs the GeoSyntheSES lab. His research, teaching, and broader activities center on global food geographies. Karl combines social and political ecology to focus on the human-environment geography of biodiversity in land use and food systems (agrobiodiversity). His work advances theoretical and analytical models, selectively using regional case studies and community participation to strengthen sustainability and social justice.

Research interests

Karl’s recent collaborative works concentrate on the human-environment analysis of agrobiodiversity in land use and food systems amid globalization and climate change (Frontiers Sust. Food Systems 2022, J. Latin American Geography 2021, Nature Plants 2017), the knowledge-policy integration of environmental geography and interdisciplinary approaches (Ency. Human Geography 2022, Agrobiodiversity: Integrating Knowledge for Sustainability 2019), and the inter-landscape spatial connectivities of urbanization (ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America 2024; Agricultural Systems 2022, Nature Food 2022, Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene 2023, One Earth 2021, Frontiers Sust. Food Systems 2020). His interests interweave mobility and migration (Geoforum 2022; Food Security 2020, Land 2021, 2020, Anthropocene 2019), COVID survival and seed-system strategies (SEPIA XX: Perú, El Problema Agrario en Debate 2024-forthcoming, Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene 2023), and diverse subaltern food spaces and biodiversity in relation to large-scale agriculture (Elementa 2024; The Journal of Peasant Studies 2023; Annals AAG 2017, Landscape and Urban Planning 2015, Resilience: International Policies/Practices/Discourses 2015). Karl is the founding and chief editor of Urban Agriculture.

Websites

https://www.geog.psu.edu/directory/karl-zimmerer

https://zimmerergeosyntheses.psu.edu/

https://makit.edu.umontpellier.fr/residents/residents-scientifiques-invites/karl-zimmer/

Postdoc aim/theme/name

Deciphering the role of agrobiodiversity at multiple scales to support resilience in the face of climate change

Under de supervision of Delphine Renard 

CEFE/CNRS
Campus du CNRS
1919, route de Mende
34293 Montpellier 5
France

Bureau 211A et (+33)6 98 94 30 87

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Funding

This postdoc is funded and part of he AgrobiodiverSity for a food-Secure planET (ASSET) project that is funded by the French program Make Our Planet Great Again.

Background and goals 

Maintaining food security of a growing global population in a changing climate stays one ofthe greatest societal challenge. Technological solutions (including greater use of fertilizers and modern crop varieties) have not shown clear success in reducing the sensitivity of crops to climate extremes, especially in smallholder farming systems dominant in the global South.

The mail goal of this project is to evaluate the role(s) of agrobiodiversity to increase or of food production in the face of increasing year-to-year weather variability through the estimation of the contributions of various components of agrobiodiversity (specific, functional, phylogenetic) to the functioning of agroecosystems through time and at embedded spatial scales in East Africa.

Keywords

Agrobiodiversity, crop stability, climate change, alpha and beta diversity, crop synchrony.

à venir

2014 (6 mois)

Titre : Agrobiodiversité et réseaux sociaux. Une méthode interdisciplinaire pour analyser comment les systèmes semenciers locaux affectent la diversité des plantes domestiques.

Responsables : Doyle McKey, Sophie Caillon et François Massol.

Financement : Centre de Synthèse et d'Analyse de la Biodiversité (CESAB) de la Fondation pour la Recherche sur la Biodiversité (FRB).

 Publications :

1. Thomas M. & Caillon S. (2016). Effects of social status of farmers and biocultural value of plants on seed circulation networks in Vanuatu. Ecology and Society 21(2): art13.
2. Thomas M., Verzelen N., Barbillon P., Coomes O.T., Caillon S., McKey D., Elias M., Garine E., Raimond C., Dounias E., Jarvis D., Wencélius J., Leclerc C., Labeyrie V., Cuong P.H., Hue N.T.N., Sthapit B., Rana R.B., Barnaud A., Violon C., Reyes L.M.A., Moreno L.L., De Santis P. & Massol F. (2015). Chapter Six - A network-based method to detect patterns of local crop biodiversity: validation at the species and infra-species levels. In: Guy, W., David, A.B. (Eds.), Advances in Ecological Research. Academic Press, 53: 259-320.

Mathieu Thomas est désormais chercheur permanent au CIRAD, UMR AGAP, Montpellier.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mathieu-Thomas-2