Co-author: Julia Dorn

Mentor: Undine Giseke

Location: Berlin-Brandenburg

The project investigates different intersections of operational, productive and protective landscapes. Productive and operational landscapes are defined as those which have the function of economic production, in this case mainly agricultural landscapes, whereas protective landscapes are defined as natural or semi-natural systems that regulate and influence vital processes within the ecosystem. In the process of understanding and analysing these landscapes and their synergies we started developing an intellectual framework for taking the perspective of Critical Zones and Symbiotic Earth. Here we understand the Critical Zone both as a physical layer of the Earth, where chemical reactions make all life manifest, but also as a socio-political construct which aims to mediate between different actors and instigate new relations towards the life-sustaining envelope. The concept of Symbiotic Earth moves away from the notions of Darwinian theories towards an understanding of mutual connectedness between life forms and non-organic matter. We use the concept of a holobiont, the symbiotic unit of mutually supportive organisms as a starting point in deriving principles of synergies that can be detected and established between different types of landscapes and systems in order to conceive them as a whole and cope with their complexities.

Visit: https://bb2040.de/wp/project/productive-landscapes

Diagram of Theoretical Aspects Applied to Pausin area Landscape
Swamp Land recreated as a Carbon Sink
Transformation of Pausin Area near Berlin
Transformation processes of forests and peat soil
Diagram of Deep Time Carbon Cycles and Carbon Sinks
Transformation of the Landscape by Reforestation and the establishment of Peats
Monitoring Systems of Satellites and Sensors