Planetary Boundaries Working Group

project

Planetary Boundaries and Safe Operating Spaces is a working group within Past Global Changes - PAGES, aiming to link palaeoecology with planetary boundaries to define variability and changes over decades to millennia.

Project Description

To guide us towards sustainable futures, this working group explores how past ecological data can help define safe operating spaces for critical Earth system processes. By studying long-term data on land use, biosphere integrity, freshwater, and biochemical flows, we aim to model changes and identify potential tipping points.

This approach provides insights into stabilising Earth system processes by aiming for “Holocene-like” conditions, essential in mitigating ongoing environmental crises.

For more information, visit the project website.

My Role

As a committee member, I contribute expertise in palaeoecology and long-term data analysis, helping to develop and coordinate the project.

Figure for the planetary boundaries framework is Licenced under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. Credit: J. Lokrantz/Azote based on Steffen et al. 2015.